Elias walked into camp with his head held high. Destan tried to do the same, but his chin kept finding its way to his chest. He felt too embarrassed. Too afraid of what was to come. His eyes were on the ground, avoiding contact with anyone.

It was late enough in the day by now that most tribers were up and already hard at work. They passed people foraging for food, hauling stone and logs, filling up the water-tower, tending to the crops. Every single head turned their way as they walked by.

A life of being an outcast had taught Destan to hear the whispers behind his back. At first, the voices were excited, happy. But when people started seeing the shame on their faces, the whispers changed. They became more urgent.

Blood burned in his neck and cheeks. His nails dugs into his palms as he swallowed the upcoming tears back down. He knew his teammates felt exactly the same; Elias almost had to force Keara to come into camp with him, his arm wrapped tightly around hers.

Without a single word, their tail between their legs, they walked through camp until they reached Aruna's hut. All three of them stared up at the door, none of them eager to knock. Before they'd had the chance to pluck up the courage, the door opened. Aruna stared down at them, her face showing no emotion. Does she already know? Destan wondered. Her eyes flicked between the three of them.

"Welcome back," she said, stepping aside to let them in. She shut the door behind them and gestured for them to sit down. Destan took his spot on the old brown sofa, sinking away in it like it was quicksand. Then she said: "I can't help but notice you don't have any food with you."

Destan stayed quiet, staring at his bitten, dirt-stained nails. He was determined not to speak unless spoken to. He didn't want to draw any attention to himself, not now. Unfortunately, the others stayed quiet as well.

"Keara?" said Aruna eventually.

"I'm sorry," Keara whispered. "We failed."

"What happened?" Aruna pushed on.

Destan could hear Keara swallow from the other end of the room, before she explained: "We were getting the food out of the lorry, when the driver came back. He pulled out a gun and I was trapped in the vehicle. We had to attack him in order to get away."

"Attack him?" Aruna asked in alarm. "Is he...?"

"No, he's fine. We just knocked him out of the way, that's all. From behind; he never saw our powers." She glanced at her teammates to check the accuracy of her words and they both nodded.

A few moments of perfect silence followed. Holding his breath, Destan wondered what was going on in the old woman's head. Not only did they fail the mission, but they also broke the rules. They were seen.

Of course she'd be disappointed, but she also knew what the consequences of their failure might be. Would they send someone else to do what they couldn't, thereby sentencing them to lives as second-rate tribers? Destan was used to that. Or perhaps Elias and Keara would become outcasts, just like him? If that was the case, they must have an even worse punishment planned for him...

Whatever happened, his one chance of ever becoming more than an outcast had evaporated in front of his eyes. The thought put so much weight on Destan that he felt as if someone with the ability to control gravity was testing out the limits of their powers. Still, Destan didn't dare to meet his trainer's eyes.

Aruna broke the silence when she stood up. "Wait here," she said flatly, before leaving the house. Destan had never heard her voice sound so cold.

As the new, probably short-lived team waited for her to return, each of them stared at the floor, too embarrassed to even meet each other's eyes. From the corner of his eye, Destan saw Keara dab at her cheeks with her sleeve.

It felt like hours until Aruna came back, and at the same time it felt like only seconds. When she entered, Destan snuck a look up and found their tribe Chief right behind her.

Remus Kardos stood in front of them with his back straight and his lips pressed into a thin line. Even without looking up, Destan could feel his piercing gaze looking down on them. His head pushed between his shoulders and he wished he could just disappear. Just fade into nothingness. Poof. Not existing would be better than this.

"You failed your task," he said gravely. "Explain."

For a few moments, his words lingered in the air like a thick, suffocating fog.

Then, Elias spoke up. "It was him, sir. He led the driver right back to his lorry, while me and Keara were taking the food. If he hadn't gone over and talked to him, the driver would never have seen us there. It's all his fault, sir!"

By the time Elias stopped talking, Destan's jaw had dropped to the floor and his eyes were popping out of their sockets. "That's a lie!" he said, a little louder than he meant to. "I tried to keep him out of the way, because they didn't realise he was coming back. He was already on his way back when I stopped him! It's not my fault you didn't pay attention! All I did was try to save the mission."

Elias was about to retort, but Remus put his hand up to silence him and turned to their last team member.

"Keara, I want the truth. Is Destan the one to blame for this failure?"

Destan's heart raced as he waited for Keara to answer. Would she tell Remus the truth? Or would she side with Elias, because Destan was nothing more than an outcast?

Keara took so long to answer that Destan almost thought she wasn't going to answer at all.

But then, slowly, she nodded. It was a punch in the face to Destan. A last kick when he was already down.

Remus closed his eyes and sighed heavily before turning to Destan looking older than he ever had before.

"We gave you three this task because we thought you could handle it. Aruna spent weeks of her time training you, to make sure you were ready. We depended on you, and you let us down."

His words weighed heavy as lead. Silence suffocated them as they awaited their verdict. Destan flinched when he finally spoke again.

"I will grant you one more chance, one chance, for the three of you to set this right. If this mistake is not fixed..."

No. No, please, don't say it! Not that, anything but that, NO!

"I won't have a choice, Destan. You will be banned from the tribe."