Mute Girl The Series : Rose Thorns

Mia felt a dazzling light shadow behind her closed eyes. The movement of the light woke her up and she found herself in a dugout canoe slowly moving following the water flow. The river was quite deep and long. It was full of many canoes with other students on them too. Each canoe could fit around six to seven people. Mia was lucky that Jane and Carolyn were on the same canoe as she.

The canoes moves slowly and steadily at first but then the current changed unpredictably. At some parts, they were speedy but at some point, they had to paddle to get the canoes moved as the river was shallow. Their surrounding was the wild jungle. They could heard the animals' sounds even from far. It showed how vast the jungle was as the sounds multiply echoed .

Suddenly, their canoes got shaken up hence they were gripping the edge of the canoes to stabilise themselves as to not falling into the water.

"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA" Someone was screaming in fear.

Ahead, some of canoes got hit and caused others to be unbalanced as well. It was unclear to the three musketeers of what was happening at the front. They were clueless.

"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA" Another person loudly shouted. Immediately three of them got scared but their canoe was at the middle of the river. Others had to move if they wanted to get by the river shore. They continued paddling but then the nearest canoe to them got attacked. A black caiman, about 14 feet long suddenly came out of the water and sneaked on that unlucky canoe.

The students there jumped into the river to run and some even grabbed on their canoe, begging to let them in. In that moment of chaotic, the black caiman got itself one of the girls. Its teeth then pierced onto the girl's flesh on the leg and dragged her into the water. The victim kept shouting, asking others to save her.

The three musketeers quickly came into action and tried to rescue her. They tried to pull the girl out by stretching their hands to her but she was too far. Carolyn noticed a long broken tree branch nearby and hurriedly took it to extend it to the girl. The girl managed to grab it but the caiman started to twirl its head viciously however the three girls' combined strength couldn't defeat that top predator. That unfortunate girl ended up drowning and the blood started to appear as well.

Everyone who watched that scene, got taken aback and speechless at the same time. They froze like a statue as didn't know what and how to react. One of their comrades just lost her life as they witnessed it with their own eyes. The three musketeers looked at each other with disbelieved expression. In that traumatic moment, their canoe finally reached the river shore. The atmosphere also quieted down.

One by one, they stepped on the land, leaving the canoes unoccupied. Everyone became very alert to their surrounding. All of them were scattered around and were no longer in one big group. Someone had to step up as the leader in this situation but to shoulder the leader's burden, it was too heavy. No one was brave enough including the highest rank among them. A realisation hit them as they knew that they were abandoned in this deadly jungle with no help and supervision from the masters and even the elites. They had survived to make it till the end or else, they would . This was the real test, to determine which one among them got the qualification to get themselves a higher rank than the current one.

Carolyn pulled Jane and Mia closer and whispered into their ears, "We have to get moving. There must be a way out of this place."

"This is not the way the school wants to dispose us right? Are we really getting expelled by the school?" Mia doubted the purpose of the school sent them here.

"No... no... they definitely won't abandon us just like this. It's too extreme." rebuked Jane as she shook her head hard.

"Above all, we must survive. That's all we need to do." convinced Carolyn.

"But can we really survive in this deserted place?"

"First, just walk along the river. There must people live nearby at the bank of this stream." Carolyn, the most sensible person, naturally shouldered the leader's weight among three of them and suggested the best option they had now. Trusted in Carolyn's knowledge and skill, Jane and Mia took the advice.

Ironically, there were other students followed behind three of them too. Undisturbed by these uninvited followers, the musketeers carefully stepped on the muddy soil and headed to the direction of the river flow. They were also being cautious to their surrounding. Hopefully, they won't get attacked again by those unwanted predators.

A they walked along the river shore, the river became wider and its current also increased. On the waters, the canoes were moving without the riders, following the stream flow.

"Should we get into the canoe? It's faster to get to the nearby village by it." asked Jane.

Carolyn gave some thought on it but she replied hesitantly, "But we don't know if got other dangerous predators in the waters. We might get attacked again."

"They could be on the land too. We can't avoid them. At least if we use the canoe, we can save our energy for the long run and keep it as our transportation."

Jane and Carolyn actively discussed the matter between two of them with Mia only listened to them. She had never been into the jungle before so she didn't know how to survive. Luckily, she got these two knowledgeable roommates that chose to bring her along. If not, she would probably lose her life by now.

In the end, Carolyn agreed with Jane's suggestion. Jane went into the water cautiously and pulled one of the canoes nearer to the shore. Three of them got into the canoe and started paddling. However, their journey didn't go smoothly as their plan, not because of those predators but some selfish humans. Out of blue, Mia was pushed out abruptly and fell into the deep river. Both Jane and Carolyn got panicked seeing this happened and before they could reach out to Mia, she disappeared into the waters so fast and quick. Again, they were left bewildered by this scene.