Birungi was allowed to tell only his siblings that he had been chosen as Gaia’s Champion. He had signed a non-disclosure agreement, and then they had each signed one of their own. They had been excited for him, flinging their arms around him as they told him how amazing that was.

But the looks on their faces when they had realized that he would have to leave them behind had made his chest ache and tighten, but he had signed all of the paperwork, which had promised that they would always have enough money to feed themselves—and others—and build themselves a better way of life. He had to leave them or else Mr. Fahkry’s search for the Champion in Afaria would have been for nothing, and his siblings would not receive the financial aid they deserved.

Birungi felt that ache in his chest as they went from airport to airport to get to wherever the mysterious “Compound” was located, and it worsened when he realized he was forbidden from speaking to them while he was at the Compound. When one of his escorts, a rather intimidating man who wore dark sunglasses to hide what must have been an intense glare, told him that he had received a report that his siblings were doing well, that ache eased. He was going to hear about how they were doing, even if he was far away from them.

The excitement came when Birungi was sitting in the car wearing the blindfold. It was like being in an action movie, and he was going to see a part of the world that no one else was allowed to see—at least not until they succeeded in defeating all of the Gods and bringing the Lunar Huntress back to her rightful place in the night sky.

It was growing dark by the time they made it to the Compound. Birungi was guided into the place, and once he took off the blindfold, he saw that the sky had turned orange. If they had been just a few minutes later, he might have had a close encounter with Hellbeasts—something he was lucky enough to have only seen up close when there were skilled soldiers around to make sure no one was hurt.

Any anxiety he had felt at the thought went away as soon as he took in the vast garden and the large buildings.

Mr. Fahkry, which Mr. Fahkry had told him not to call him over and over again, and men in suits escorted him to the place where they would be living. A pack of dogs, “therapy dogs,” greeted him at the door. He had heard pets, but he had always found a strange concept to have animals that served purposes beyond giving food.

A tired Mr. Fahkry retired to his room in the floor above his, and then the guards showed him to his room. It was empty of personal items, except for a few good luck drawings from his siblings and the other children of the village and the clothes they had chosen for him—he would never admit to crying over these things as soon as he had been left alone—and then he was allowed to explore the rest of the Compound on his own.

Birungi knew of the kitchen and the recreational room on the ground floor, so he went there—hoping his eyes showed no signs of how emotional he had gotten—to look for other people. There were a few security guards in the recreational room trying to set up an entertainment system for Makani, a name he recognized from documentaries, and Charlotte, a name he recognized from the documents he had been given, and while they were nice enough, he left them alone because they were not the people he was looking forward to meeting.

There were two older Champions in the kitchen. Both of them were wearing plain T-shirts and matching pants. They introduced themselves as Alinta and Dylan Owain, even though an introduction had not been necessary. He knew that Mrs. Alinta was a Native Cognitian who had been Gaia’s Champion as well, and Mr. Owain had been the Lunar Huntress’s. The two offered him some coffee—Birungi wondered if it had come from the farm he had worked at but had not asked—and “coffee cakes,” which were icing covered triangles that were entirely too sweet when he tried them.

“There are two other Champions here, aren’t there?” Birungi asked the two older people.

“Yeah, Charley got here not too long before you did,” Mr. Owain answered. “It was only about a week ago. Dawn was the first, so she’s been here for a couple of months. Have you met them yet?”

“No, I haven’t seen either of them.”

Mrs. Alinta and Mr. Owain looked at each other, frowning.

“That’s strange,” Mrs. Alinta said. “Dawn wanted to greet all of you as soon as you got here.”

“Maybe she fell asleep,” Mr. Owain suggested.

“Or she’s with Charley. I’ve heard the security team have seen her walking around at night. She has trouble getting to sleep.”

“Dawn might actually be with her. They’ve been spending a lot of time together. You might find them both out there.”

With that, Birungi thanks them, and then he left them to their “snack break” and went in search of the people he wanted to meet.

Birungi recalled that there was no curfew, which had surprised him, and there was little explanation why. Outside of the Compound, the Hellbeasts were a real problem, and even though there were soldiers and walls that helped keep people safe, there was always a chance of one getting past those protections.

The people watching over the Compound must have had enough manpower to stop any threat from breaching the walls.

The other two Champions had been at the Compound for a couple of days now, and Birungi wondered if they would be just as intrigued as him at the idea of exploring their new surroundings under the moonless night.

Birungi stepped outside the sleepless night. The gardens had lights along the paths, but it was still so dark. He walked down the steps so he could look up at the sky. There were little dots in the sky. Most of them were white, but there were a few red and even blue dots, too. They were stars, and he had seen enough pictures of the moon to know that the night sky would be so much more beautiful if it was still there, sitting amongst those stars.

There was a loud, piercing wail in the distance; it was like that of a distressed cat, but then there was the familiar popping of automatic weaponry. He shivered. His instincts were to run back inside and away from the Hell, but he had been assured they were safe.

Birungi went into the vast gardens. The flowers were not so impressive to look at while they were closed, but as he walked along the paths, he did find some white flowers that had bloomed in the darkness. They were around a statue of a woman holding a bow, pointing it toward the sky, and he did not need the plaque below it to tell him that it was the Lunar Huntress.

The paths were windy, and even with the little lights, Birungi had some difficulty reading little signs that told him which path to take to go where. He had no interest in a specific place, but as he found himself drawing closer to one of the buildings, the “topsy-turvy” house that had been built as extra housing for the staff, he heard squealing and some splashing. There were signs that told of a pond, and he followed them.

“How can you just pick it up like that?” one person, a girl, said.

“Well, they’re not poisonous or anything,” another said.

“Yeah, but—ick! They’re still so gross.”

Birungi came across an enormous pond—or rather a large collection of ponds. There was a large fountain in the centermost pond, and it was of a huge, bulbous frog spitting water into a different pond further away. Each pond had a little waterfall on one or more sides that fed into another pond. Lights around the pond illuminated it enough to show frogs larger than his feet leaping in and out the ponds. In the dim lighting, their backs looked black, but their bellies were a bright color

Two girls were sitting at the edge of one the ponds, and the one with shorter hair was holding one of the enormous frogs. Its legs were dangling beneath it. She was grinning as she held it out to the other girl, who shrank away from it in fear.

Birungi made sure to make his shoes—his brand new tennis shoes, might he add—scuffed against the ground so he did not scare them too much. They both looked to him. The girl without the frog grinned, and she stood from her spot.

“Oh, you must be Birungi!” she said, and she held out her hand toward him. “I haven’t been playing with any gross frogs, I promise.”

Birungi chuckled, and he shook her hand.

“I’m Dawn, by the way, and that weirdo over there is Charley.”

“Charley” as in Charlotte. Birungi was fine being on a first name basis with the Champions of his generation because they would all be around the same age, but calling her such a nickname felt too friendly for people who had just met.

“Hello,” Charlotte said as she placed the frog on a rock next to the pond. “I’d shake your hand, too, but I think I’d rather wash my hands first.”

Birungi supposed that would be a good idea, even if he had shaken hands with far filthier people. He only chuckled.

“So, should we head back inside?” Dawn asked. “I’m sure you're tired, Birungi, and I can't stand hearing those monsters.”

Dawn shuddered.

“We’ll have to fight them, you know,” Charlotte said. “You may as well get used to hearing them.”

“No, thanks. I’d rather worry about that when I have to,” Dawn said, waving a dismissive hand. “Were you looking for anything in particular, Birungi?”

“Ah, no, I just wanted to introduce myself to the two of you. I came out here because someone said you two would probably be out here.”

“Yeah, sorry about not greeting you when you got here. I was told you would not be here until the morning, but you got here early.”

“Which is funny because I am never on time for anything, let alone early.”

Both of the girls gifted him with a chuckle—and undeserved one, he thought, but he was glad for it, nonetheless.

“I was going to head back to the house and grab a snack before I go to sleep,” Dawn said. “Did you want to come with me?”

“Is Miss Charlotte not coming along?” Birungi asked.

“Miss Weirdo likes to climb on top of that building—” Dawn pointed at the employee housing building. “— and watch for any Hellbeasts flying above the wall.”

“I’m still unclear how that makes me weird,” Charlotte said, planting her frog-germ-covered hands on her hips.

“Because most people have nightmares of those things, and you’re seeking them out, like a weirdo.”

Dawn’s tone was more teasing than derisive to Birungi, but he noticed that Charlotte had stiffened at Dawn’s comments. Her eyebrows came together.

“I’m not seeking them out,” Charlotte defended. “I’m just curious about them. I had never seen one before I had gotten here.”

“Well,” Dawn said with another dismissive wave of her hand, “at least we’re safe in here. Good night, Charlotte.”

Dawn walked past Birungi on the path, and he looked at the other girl, who had turned to walk down a different path.

“Good night, guys!” Charlotte called to them.

A part of Birungi was curious about what could be seen while standing on top of that building, but there was another, much louder part of himself that recalled that soft bed waiting for him in his new room.

“Good night, Charlotte!” Birungi called to the girl who had been catching frogs, and he caught up to the girl who was apparently afraid of many things. “Will she be all right?”

“Yeah, she’ll be fine. She’s not really supposed to go up there, but no one seems to care that she does it. She probably likes that no one bothers her up there. Although she probably wouldn’t mind if you joined her up there. I mean, she puts up with me barging into her room during the day, so she might do the same for you.”

“I have seen my fair share of monsters. I would rather go to sleep.”

“I’m sure you’re tired after all of the traveling you’ve been doing. Jet-lag and all that.”

The two went back to the house. Once inside, Dawn went to the kitchen to grab herself something to eat, and Birungi went to his room to get some sleep.