Perry pulled uncomfortably at the black bowtie. "Do I have to wear this?" he complained. "It's itchy."

"It's smart," Priya said from the bathroom.

"Besides, bowties are cool," grinned Peter, who was also wearing a bowtie.

"You have to stop watching so much TV, Pete," Pinky said, shaking his head.

Perry knew that both Pinky and Peter felt really bad about not coming to help him and Priya that night. Terry hadn't rubbed it in their faces after all, seeing how upset they were.

Priya stepped out the bathroom. She was wearing a fancy sapphire-blue dress that stopped just before it brushed the floor. Perry couldn't stop himself from staring in awe at her. "Does this look okay?"

"Okay doesn't even begin to describe it," Perry said.

Priya smiled bashfully.

"I hate bowties," Terry complained from the corner of the room. The orange turtle was adjusting the bowtie while looking in the mirror. "I am never wearing a bowtie again."

"Stop being so melodramatic," Peter grinned.

"I don't see what the fuss is about," stated Pinky. "Why do we need to wear these?"

"The awards evening is fairly prestigious," Priya replied. "We all need to look our best."

…

Perry came down off the stage, a golden trophy in his hands.

"I knew you'd win that one," Priya whispered as he slipped back into his seat. "You're the best at archery."

"And now," said Captain Colophon, who had actually shown up to give out the awards. "It's time for the winner of the race in the woods. The winning group is Poppy the Cat's group!"

Perry watched the winning group climb onstage. He turned to whisper something to Priya but the purple platypus was not there. It was only when he turned back to the stage and saw Florey the Flying Squirrel that he realised. When Priya sat back down, holding a golden trophy, Perry stared at her. "You kinda forgot to mention that your group won the race."

Priya grinned sheepishly. "Kinda slipped my mind."

Later, Terry won the prize for Fastest 100 Metre Swim.

"I think Terry might be a faster swimmer than even you," Priya whispered to Perry.

"I'll have to rectify that at some point," Perry grinned.

Perry ended up also winning the Fastest Rock-Wall Climb award. He was especially proud of that. Perry and Priya together won the prize for Longest Spar, which was a surprise for both platypuses.

Later, Perry's whole group won a prize for the Capture the Flag game, which they had won at the time. All of them got a medium sized trophy.

Terry only won the one individual award and Pinky and Peter didn't win anything individually, but that was apparently okay with them.

After the awards presentation, everyone headed upstairs to pack. Since Priya had moved all her stuff to Perry's room, they were all packing together.

Well, almost packing.

Peter threw everything in his suitcase and then lay on his bed. Pinky and Terry took a little longer to throw everything in, before they did the same. Perry and Priya, on the other hand, both liked suitcases neatly packed, so it was half an hour before they finished. Then they sat back on Perry's bed, holding hands.

"So this Thanatos guy," Pinky began. "Was that his real name?"

Priya shook her head. "We found out afterwards. His real name is Harry Foster. His mother's name was Lily Foster. They were both living in Danville five years ago. I guess they were just in the wrong place at the wrong time."

Priya's voice shook as she finished talking. Perry squeezed her hand reassuringly. "Let's not talk about that," he said. "So what was your favourite part of the retreat, guys?"

Just like at the beginning of the retreat, Peter was the first to answer: "Definitely not the skydiving."

That made everyone laugh. "I guess it was the food."

"Seriously?" Pinky asked.

"No, not really. My favourite part of the retreat by far was hanging out with you lot."

"Aww," grinned Terry. "Whereas mine was something simpler, like the game of Capture the Flag."

"Mine was the carnival," Priya said with a glance at Perry, who suspected he knew why.

"I liked the disco," Perry said. "That was fun."

"Well, we wouldn't know, would we?"

Peter's remark made everyone laugh again.

"No, that's true," Perry said. "The whole retreat was a lot of fun. But frankly, I'm glad it's over. At least in OWCA, we know exactly what dangers we're facing. But here…it was scary because the incidents seemed to be random and-I know this was a one-off thing," he added as his friends showed signs of interrupting. "But you can't tell me you guys weren't worried for yourselves too."

"I wasn't worried for myself," Pinky said.

"Me neither," chorused Terry and Peter.

Perry rolled his eyes. "Thanks, guys."

"I said I wasn't worried for myself," Pinky said. "I'm pretty sure I speak for all of us when I say that we were worried for you."

"Me?" Perry repeated, surprised.

"Yeah," replied Peter, now serious. "We personally thought that whoever was orchestrating the incidents was targeting you."

"Me?" Perry said again.

"Yeah, I mean, you were at the scene of all the incidents. Apart from the fire and the robots thing," Pinky added. "We talked amongst ourselves and decided you must have been the target."

"Wait, so let me get this straight…" Perry was trying to work things out in his head. "You guys discussed the incidents when I wasn't around?"

"When you and Priya weren't around, actually," corrected Terry. "You spent a lot of time together over the last three weeks."

Perry felt a little embarrassed.

"Anyway, let bygones be bygones," Pinky said. "So what was your least favourite part of the retreat?"

"The race in the woods," Perry replied immediately.

Everyone made noises of agreement.

"I feel embarrassed about that," Peter admitted sheepishly. "I'm just glad I don't remember what I was saying when I was delusional."

"I nearly drowned again," Pinky contributed.

"And I got a fever," added Terry.

"And I got thorns wrapped around my leg," Perry finished, with a look at his leg. The cuts had almost completely healed, leaving only a couple of practically-invisible scars.

"Although the skydiving incident came close," Peter said. "That was incredibly scary."

"My least favourite was the rock climbing," Priya said. "If we're excluding what happened on Monday morning."

Knowing she was referring to the Thanatos incident, Perry nodded. "We are excluding that," he said.

At that moment, the chimes signifying the end of curfew rang. Everybody in the room took that as their cue to settle down to go to sleep.

…

The next morning, the minibus was waiting for Perry and his friends. Carl helped them get their luggage into the bus. "I got your message, Agent P," he said. "Agent Priya can come home on the bus with us."

Perry felt happy. He tipped his fedora to the intern and climbed on the bus with Priya. The rest of his friends followed. Priya put the big-teddy-bear Theodore on the seat behind them.

Just like the trip there, Terry listened to music and read a book while Pinky and Peter had a chat. Perry still had the magazines but he didn't need to look at them.

He wasn't alone anymore.