Page 32 of The Chosen Fae

"Only by dragon. I haven't had any real need to go over there. When we have dragons staying here, we can go. I hope you can make it all the way without having to be rescued. I see you have a fine sword. That should help against the sandworms."

"Thanks. Me too. Even though the challenge requires us to do it as fast as we can, especially since the faster we get out of there, the faster we're safe."

"Too bad you can't use magic to stop them from biting."

She thought about her sword and its ability to numb a body part. She hoped she could cut through the sandworm and make it numb enough that it returned to its sand home.

She looked around to see where Stone was seated. He was sitting between two female fae who were smiling at him and talking away as if they were best of friends or wanted to be.

She was glad the Phantom Fae were so friendly toward them.

Once they finished their meals, they were escorted to their guest quarters. The bed looked super fine, and Rune was eager to get a good night's sleep before the trial tomorrow.

She was ready to climb into bed when a knock sounded on the door. Now what? She hoped the guy who'd been interested in her at the meal hadn't decided to drop by.

She opened the door to see Stone standing there. She smiled, glad it was him. She pulled him into the room and shut the door. Knowing him, she knew he wanted to strategize further, but she figured once they began the journey tomorrow, they wouldn't be able to really plan it. They would have to see what happened.

"Okay, so there are eleven of us still. I know we said we would help each other, but if there's a problem, we need to deal with it."

"You mean someone might want to sabotage the other players?" Rune said. "Like I did when I cut the rope bridges for the other competitors."

"Exactly."

"Okay. Only this time someone could get hurt or killed." She hoped no one would be that petty, but she could see it happening.

"I just want you to watch your flanks as you're trying to make it across the desert. If someone is trying to hurt you, forget the idea that we need to get everyone across to safety."

She sighed. "I might have screwed up by sending all our competitors into the river on the rope bridge challenge then."

"No one said you did the wrong thing, but who knows? We might have to look at these challenges differently," Stone said.

"Well, we've never had a pack to be in charge of, so this is all new to us."

"That's right. Even though the others are in packs, they don't seem to know how to handle the challenges any better. We can figure it out as we go along. I'll let you go so you can get some sleep. We both need to be well-rested tomorrow."

"Night, Stone."

"Night, Rune." But he kissed her before he left. Now she would have pleasant dreams!

Then he left, and she returned to bed. Tomorrow would come way too early.

The next morning, the wolf fae competitors ate breakfast with the Phantom Fae, and then they headed to the border of No Man's Land.

Everyone's heart pounded, and they looked nervous. Stone tried not to feel that way, but the unknown was always a challenge.

Vesper was way down from Stone, Lolita closest to him by thirty feet on Stone’s right flank, then Silas, Fang, and Caspian. On Stone's left flank were Iris, Xena, Rune, Pari, and Elon.

Each of them was about thirty feet apart, and he figured it was because they needed to be far enough from each other so they wouldn't make as much noise together.

The Game Master motioned for them to begin, not saying a word as two men waved a flag to verify what she wanted them to do.

They started cautiously across the sand. The desert was an island between two rows of forest, the island stretching to the sea. And it continued to the west, but there was no telling where it ended; it stretched so far. Mountains towered in the distance.

His heart pounding, he continued to move across the sand without any trouble, being careful to move as quietly as he could. When he reached the halfway mark, he heard the rumbling of a sandworm off in Rune's direction, and he glanced that way.

Pari must have gathered a bunch of rocks to thwart Rune and was throwing them in her direction; some landed in front of her, and some hit her hard. Rune ran toward Pari, startling the woman. Rune unsheathed her sword and cut Pari in the leg.

Pari cried out and sank down on the sand. Everyone had stopped, afraid to disturb any more sandworms, worried about how things would end between Rune and Pari. Rune pushed the button on Pari's backpack shoulder strap, calling for a dragon to come get her.