The light coming in to Randall’s room was excruciatingly bright.  It also felt like there was someone shoving fingers in to his skull and eyes.  He couldn’t describe the taste in his mouth and he wouldn’t soon forget it.  First he needed some water, then he needed to scrub his mouth out with anything that would get the taste out. Randall was pretty sure that it was because of the drinks he had last night.  He had a great time last night, but right now he was wondering if it was worth feeling like he did now; he wasn’t so sure.
After tiding up the room he stayed in and several minutes of vigorous brushing of teeth, tongue and anything he could scrub without making himself gag.  Finally he got that awful taste out of his mouth, but he’d need to get more paste for his teeth.
He was eager to keep going.  Getting through the Maze meant he would now be recognized as an Adult, but there was still the remainder of the Trial to face.  Each of the children had an idea of how they wanted to contribute to the village, but this part of the Trial would determine what options were available.
If this year was like any of the years before, some of the new Adults may decide to leave the village.  After a trek to the nearest trading town, it was up to these newly forged Adults to go and find out what life was like outside of the village.  It was then that most found out how difficult life outside the Canyon could be.
At the top of the Canyon, death came in many forms that seemed impossible if you had grown up in Sanity.  Up here, there were a number of creatures that were large enough to swallow a person whole.  There were plant’s and animals that if they manage to pierce your skin are able to paralyze you.  Once paralyzed, they would consume you at their leisure.  Some plants would put it’s prey into a hibernation state, allowing it to consume it’s meals over a period of months… or, if the legends are true, years.  Most of the animals haven’t been seen, just signs of what they are capable of doing, what they eat and possibly the types of places they nest.  Chances were, that if you saw one of these animals, it was the last thing you would see.  No one actually knew that the animals were large, it was an assumption based on the fact that people that disappear never left any blood or parts behind.  It was if they vanished into thin air, sometimes there were tracks like a huge snake came out of the dirt, swallowed them and went back into the dirt without making a noise.
Even though it seemed the world up here was far more dangerous than his village, none of this crossed his mind at this moment.  He knew that there was some sort of protective dome over the entire Canyon, and he knew he wouldn’t be able to see that, but he heard that it interfered with the view at the top.  He was awestruck with the view in front of him now, if the dome interfered, he couldn’t see it.  He found himself near one of the overlooks.  He couldn’t make out the people in his village, but that’s not what he was looking at, he was looking at the horizon past the village and in the Canyon.  The sunlight made the colors in the dirt of the Canyon walls incredibly vibrant.  It looked almost like the colors he had once seen in an “artist kit” that one of the adults traded for a while back.  He found it hard to pull himself away from the view, but knew that he needed to eat something before the day really got started.
As he turned away from the view, he realized that the Canyon was Grand in more ways than he knew now.  Even though the only difference between today and yesterday was really just a long walk uphill (a really long walk) and what had to be a hangover, he felt like he had really grown up; no longer a child and no longer afraid of the dark. It was the first day he woke that he was truly an adult and he knew his father would be proud and dreamed that he would also be treated as a legend when he was dust in the ground.  If it weren’t for the pounding in his head, this would have easily been the best day in his life.

A number of adults congratulated him on finally making it this far.  He began to feel a bit guilty about using the light he found instead of handing it over like any “child” should have done.  He also noticed that quite a few adults took the time to make comments that sounded initially like a compliment, but barely hid the bit of contempt they felt.  The ones that were upset had either been embarrassed to know him or, more likely, lost a decent amount at the betting boards when they bet on him to fail.  He was hoping to see his friends again, but they had to get back to their duties and he was about to find out more about the day.

As Randall made his way closer to where the food was, he noticed that none of the food from the feast had been saved for morning.  It looked like breakfast wasn’t much that a heated up tunnel ration with some water mixed in to make it almost like a soup.  Most of the other children who had just become adults were sitting together.  They all had food in front of the and there was still plenty left at the serving area, so Randall went ahead and grabbed two servings for himself.  He hadn’t eaten much the day before and he know that he’d need to be sure to eat enough to try to make up for it; hopefully without leaving himself feeling bloated and sleepy.
None of the new adults were talking, they all seemed to look a little queasy and had barely touched their food.  Watching them you could swear that all the mixing was because they were still waiting for it to cool down. Randall new that breakfast had long since cooled down and was about close to cooled off as it was going to get unless it suddenly snowed.  It was the warm part of the year, so snow was pretty unlikely today.
Randall sitting down must have been what the adults overseeing the next stages of the Trial were waiting for.  He hadn’t even put the first bite into his mouth and there were at least a dozen folks standing close where he was sure they were just a moment ago.
“It looks like none of you are ready to work with scouting team,” a loud voice came from behind him.  It was both feminine and gave the sense that if she had bad intentions, no one sitting here would have known… not because she was lying, but because the dead pan delivery of her words sounded disappointed she wasn’t hunting them. Randall could tell he wasn’t the only one that noticed it, at least one of the other new adults visibly shook for a moment before regaining his composure; maybe they all did and some just hid it a little better.
“Don’t worry” she continued on, “we’re actually here to tell you a little about your next step in your journey.”  He smile was fiendish, but her words sounded sincere.  “If you keep to the known trails, then your journey should be boring and you won’t have anything to tell your ‘younger’ friends when you get back.”  Her smile grew dark, “But! … I don’t remember a time where everyone actually listened to my advice… maybe they listened to the fellow before me…” she paused, looking irritated.  “No one seems to listen or maybe they just think: ‘hey, I just want to grab that thing over here. It’s only a few steps off the trail, there couldn’t be any harm in that, right?’, then ‘BOOOM’, something come out of nowhere making an inhuman sound and now the rest of your group has a story to tell when they get back.” Those last few words sounded a bit sad.
“Let’s get you all sorted out and ready to take your first trip to another town,” her tone finally matching the words that came out of her mouth and not like the psychopath she sounded like just moments ago.  It lasted only a moment as the next words from her mouth sounded like a threat, “let me know if you need a hangover cure.”  She cackled as she walked away… or was that a crow?  “By the way, this trip takes a few days and it’s rather rough terrain, so I went ahead and took my best guess at what works for each of you,” pointing behind them.  “Let one of the boys know if you need any help or something doesn’t fit.”  She turned around headed to one of the larger buildings still standing up here.

Some of the new adults started to head toward the larger building, the rest had already turned around and approached the table that was packed with clothing and supplies. There were large brimmed hats, goggles and some medium size sheets that looked like miniature tablecloths. 
One of the first questions from a new adult, “why is everything long sleeved?” made sense to all of them.  Anyone that had spent time outside the lower Canyon knew that it only took a few minutes for your skin to blister if it was directly under the dual suns this time of year.  Something about a gravitational effect from the dimmer star caused the brighter star to give a near deadly amount of light even though the planet was actually further from it.
One of The Boys pulled a glove from hand and everyone saw what looked like terrible burns from a fire.  “This,” she said rather loudly, “is what happens when you’re lucky.”  She held her hand for everyone to look at, there were no longer fingernails on that hand and her pinky looked a little short.  “I took off my glove for a moment to see how bad it could be… just for a moment,” she drew in a deep breath, “I was able to get my glove back on quickly,” she pointed to another scout, “he wasn’t.”  Without saying anything, he took one hand and put it under his shirt, after a moment, the hand on his other arm dropped to the ground.
She continued talking while he picked up his false hand, “he couldn’t get his glove back on and he ended up loosing it.”  She looked around, “so trust us when we say that sunlight can be that bad for a short time and it’s not something to find out yourself.”  She visibly held back a grimace while she pulled the glove back on.  “Make sure you have yourselves completely covered.  We need to find out if you can handle loading everything up while fully geared up.  If you can’t, then we’ll see if there’s room for you to be a passenger.  If you want to be able to head out of the village, then you need to be able to move around in this gear.  Passengers must come back.” 
That last bit sounded more like she was saying it for herself. No one really thought about it, they were all too busy getting on thick boots, and gloves to go with the rest of the clothing that seemed like it would just make them sweat.  The over sized brims of their hats seemed ridiculous, but so did wearing goggles and a what might have been a cloth diaper at one point around your head.  There were also a fair amount of water bladders that each of them put under the outer layer of gear.  It felt wonderfully cool right now, but it would warm up over the day.  Putting it out at night should make it cold enough for the following day.

The Boys and Lizzy watched over the new adults as the loaded all of this weeks load for trade.  It was nice to have a bit of a break from loading it all up, but even though their muscles had a break, they had to be diligent over the next few days. It should be a simple trade run, but a mistake could mean someone losing a limb, an eye or at worst dying.  The new adults were doing a fine job so far.  No one said it, but they were all hoping for a rather uneventful trip.