9 Not the second part yet, have some tall men

Before Fyren could move to the dressing room, he felt a familiar tap on his right shoulder.

"What is it, Melfis?"

Melfis actually looked somewhat serious, "Do you see that?"

"See what?"

She pointed at someone dressed in a long white cloak, complete with a hood, walking behind the now empty reception desk and through a door marked: Employees Only.

That's not at all suspicious.

"What about that incredibly suspicious character in an incredibly suspicious cloak going behind an incredibly suspiciously empty desk into an incredibly suspicious room and probably going to do some incredibly suspicious thing?"

"Don't you want to know what he's doing?"

"I think the crippling fear of being late to the next part of the exam and possibly being publicly humiliated is stronger than my curiosity to find out what some random person is doing at this moment."

"You're no fun, Fy-guy!"

Fyren sighed, he moved his eyes away from the room to Melfis' face. Uh oh, I recognize that glint.

Melfis' ice blue eyes were indeed glittering, signifying to Fyren that he was going to regret it if he agreed to what Melfis was going to propose next.

"Say, Fy-guy, why don't we do a little poking around while we wait for the next part?"

"What's in it for me?"

Melfis made a face akin to a puppy's when begging for a treat, "Aw, c'mon, won't you find it in your heart to do a small favor for your best friend?"

Fyren was unmoved, "Best friend? That's pushing it a little, how about… acquaintance? Or class mate?"

Melfis groaned, "fine, fine, I'll owe you one."

"Ok, but I'm bailing on you if I'm in danger of being late."

"You got yourself a deal! And don't worry your pretty little head, we'll be in and out in a jiffy! Hm, now I'm craving hamburgers… and peanut butter."

Fyren sighed again.

They crept inconspicuously behind the big black receptionist's desk and into the back room.

The room was reasonably sized with a single desk next to the doorway they entered from. Bookshelves and file cabinets lined the walls.

Melfis shot a look at Fyren, the file cabinets looked like they had been rifled through quite vigorously, leaving some papers strewn on the floor and others stuffed back into the drawers.

Melfis picked up one of the papers on the floor, "take a look at this."

Fyren moved next to her to see the paper, it was a magic exam preliminaries form.

Why would some random person want these forms? And why only some of them? Scouts can get this information basically for free.

"Woah, Fy-guy, you got to see this."

Melfis had gathered all of the forms that were haphazardly thrown on the ground and stuffed back in.

"First, look at all the forms in the cabinet."

Of course, Fyren looked where his form should have been… it was there. Then he looked where Melfis' should have been… it wasn't there.

Knowing what Fyren was thinking, Melfis shook her head, "Mine's not any of these either," she held up the papers.

Fyren crossed his arms and wondered why Melfis' was gone, obviously that white-cloaked figure took it, he must've known somehow about Melfis' incredibly outstanding screening score and wanted to check out her form. But again, if he was a scout for an order then he would already know all of her information. He was back at square one.

Melfis had a smug look on her face, "What's with the silence? Are you a little jealous that my form was taken and yours wasn't?"

"Yeah, I'm totally jealous that some creep is stalking me."

"You don't have to say anything, I can tell what you're really feeling," Melfis clutched her chest and looked dramatically skyward.

Why am I stressing about this? I shouldn't care, this is Melfis' problem.

"Wait, where did that guy go? There's only one way in and out of here," Melfis wondered aloud.

"Never mind that, let's get out of here, we only have three minutes left."

They crept back the way they crept in, and just in time. As Fyren walked to the male locker room, he looked back and saw the reception desk lady return to behind the desk. The moment Fyren entered the locker room, he heard a faint "Are you serious?" from the lady as she saw the mess in the back room.

Putting the incident out of his mind, Fyren hurried to get ready in time. Like Ephekt had instructed, everyone dressed in preparation for physical activity in the next part of the exam. Fyren was still slightly surprised that he had passed the first part. He didn't think he did particularly well on any of the critical thinking kind of questions or the fact he thought most of the written test was easy didn't do anything to quell that surprise.

And what was with that scenario or whatever, kind of lame if you ask me. Not that it matters anyways, since there's no plausible way I'll pass this part.

"Ephekt will be here soon to give you all the rundown, if any of you need to use the bathroom, please take care of that now, we'll give you five minutes!" Some important-looking guy in a suit and sunglasses (even though they were inside) called.

Not a bad idea.

Fyren fell into a group of people walking out of the locker room to the bathroom. Suddenly, Fyren felt his vision blur, sort of like when your contact shifts in your eye and suddenly part of your vision gets blurry.

No one else was anywhere to be seen. No fellow examinees headed to get the nerves out.

What the-

Fyren looked to see if there was a clock anywhere. The first part ended at 10:00, then we had ten minutes.

Luckily, there was a clock and it told Fyren that he had nothing to worry about.

Cool, I don't know what happened, but at least I won't be late… hold on a minute, where's the bathroom?

While he was continuing in the general direction he was already headed, he almost crashed into someone after turning the corner.

The first thing that shocked Fyren was the stranger's height. He was nearly seven feet tall, if not exactly seven feet, although he was hunched over, of gauntness dressed in a shining silver suit. As Fyren's eyes finally arrived at his face (and his eyes had a lot of time, remember this guy is seven feet tall, did I mention that?) Fyren was shocked again. The stranger had dark circles under his shining red eyes set into his long, thin face; long silver hair that was the same color as his suit; and two black horns protruding from under his hair.

"Sorry about that," the stranger apologized in a tired voice.

"Nah, you're good," Fyren replied, "Do you know where the bathroom is?"

The stranger pointed his pointy chin down the hallway, "Turn left at the end of the hall, then it'll be the third door on your right."

"Alright, thanks."

"Wait, kid."

"Yeah?"

"What's your name?"

"Fyren Torr, that's with two R's."

"The Fyren or the Torr?"

"The Torr."

"Mmkay, I'll see you later, kid," the stranger put his hands in his pockets as he went away.

That was an… interesting character.

When Fyren rushed to the bathroom he saw the group exiting the lavatorium. He took care of business and joined them just as they reentered the locker room, Ephekt was waiting for them.

"Ok, I hope everyone is here because I'm not going to explain this twice. Simply put, the area is split into quadrants, each quadrant for a corresponding division, the map is right there," he pointed to a diagram on the wall, "so make sure you're in the right place."

Ephekt pulled a communication cube out of his pocket and turned his back to the examinees while he answered it. After a few seconds, he closed the cube and cleared his throat, "They're almost ready for us, so wait here for a few moments."

Ephekt left them standing in the room and went to where Fyren assumed the next part of the exam was going to be. As they were waiting, Fyren heard footsteps approaching him from behind. Upon turning around, his first thought was why are people here so tall?

The person looking at Fyren was about half a foot taller than him and probably fifty pounds lighter. He had cat-like features (the most cat-like a human's could get), short black hair and complementary stubble on his chin.

Without any introduction, he started talking, "I saw you and that girl sneaking behind the front desk."

"Yeah, it was her idea-"

"After she saw that white-cloaked figure."

"You saw it too?"

"Yes."

Awkward silence.

"Do you know who it was?" Fyren asked.

"No, but I'm assuming they're either part of the exam, or a terrorist."

Talk about polar opposites. "Um, a terrorist?"

"You've heard, right? Terrorists have been attacking orders and magic exams all over this realm."

Fyren could faintly recall hearing that the order of Britamak was attacked on the radio. Now that I think about it, my zipper was down that entire day.

"Anyway," the tall, cat man continued, "keep an eye out for anything suspicious."

"Will do, I'm Fyren by the way."

"Nice to meet you, Fyren."

Awkward silence.

"Who are you?"

"Oak."

"Alright Oak, good luck."

At that moment, Ephekt reentered the room, "Ok, everyone, follow me."