Page 59 of The Chosen Fae

While Rune, Stone, and Lolita had rested, the others had worked hard and walked toward the finish line, looking worn out and disgruntled to see Rune, Stone, and Lolita sitting there with the prize.

The game master smiled. "Rune and Stone won the competition. You may return to your quarters. We'll post the next game on the board for tomorrow."

"I swear they cheat," Xena said.

Vesper agreed.

Then they all headed for the bus that would take them back to their home away from home.

The next day, Game Master said to the competitors in the commons, "We have two more challenges to accomplish before we’re done here and decide who the winner or winners are that will decide the pack leadership. The next challenge will feature agility, mental acuity, and relay obstacle courses. You'll be under intense time pressure for each of them. You'll work in teams. You'll have four on one team and five on another."

Rune and Stone glanced at each other. Stone wondered how they would split it up this time. He wanted to be on the same team as Rune. It would be the second-to-last challenge while they were here.

"Xena, Vesper, Lolita, Caspian, and Iris will be on one team. Stone, Rune, Silas, and Elon will be on the other team."

Stone was glad that he and Rune were together, and that they didn't have to deal with Xena and Vesper. Any of the other participants would have been welcome.

"The first challenge is rebuilding a geometric pattern with custom wooden blocks. The first team that accomplishes the mission wins the challenge. But to get there, you must do a relay race. You'll take turns crawling under a tarp, jumping over logs, grabbing the puzzle bag, and returning it to your teammate, who will do the same exercise."

"But we have more team members," Xena whined.

"Some challenges, you may have the advantage. Some, the disadvantage. It just depends on the challenge. It all evens out. We don't want anyone to have to sit out of the game, unless one of you wants to go home to even the teams up," the Game Master said.

No one volunteered to go home!

"Plan to pick who goes first through last on the relay challenge. Once you finish that, the winning team gets as many minutes as they beat the other team by, starting the next challenge early. In other words, if the first team comes in within ten minutes of the other team, the first team has a head start on the puzzle challenge of ten minutes."

"Who is good at relay races?" Stone asked.

"We've never done them before," Rune said.

"We've done them," Silas and Elon said.

"Okay, Silas, you go first," Stone said. "Elon next. Rune?"

"Yeah, I'll go next."

Elon and Silas were fast, which was great. When Rune grabbed the bag of wooden puzzle pieces, she wasn't as fast as the longer-legged guys, but she gave it her all. Vesper's team had an extra player, so they would finish last. What Stone hadn't expected was for Caspian and Iris to run so slowly. Caspian even managed to do a face plant on the return trip, and Vesper and Xena were screaming their heads off at him. Lolita was last to run the relay on their team, and she ran more slowly, but Stone and his team were already at the puzzle site, working with the wooden blocks.

Neither Rune nor Stone had ever done puzzles, though he figured they could make their way through it. Silas and Elon had placed the blocks in most of the right spots, turned one around, and they were done!

They raced off to the next trial, eager to get started, but they still had the time advantage once they could do it. Meanwhile, it took Vesper's team twenty minutes longer to complete their puzzle.

Between teammates grabbing blocks, putting them in the wrong places, and fighting over where they went, Stone saw Lolita give him and his team a small smile.

He wondered then if Vesper and Xena's team were sabotaging them so they would lose this challenge. If so, Silas had spoken the truth: they didn't want Vesper or Xena to win and rule the packs.

He was glad for that. They hadn’t treated any of the other competitors well, so it was really payback.

17

The Game Master explained the next mission after both teams finished the puzzle. Then they moved to the next mission: balancing a ball on a tin plate without dropping it on a rugged trail to the next challenge. If they dropped the ball, they had to start at the beginning again.

Rune and Stone's team had a head start, and for this challenge, they had the advantage again. Not only because of the head start, but they had fewer people who would have to get their ball to the end of the test.

Rune had the steadiest hand and hurried off, keeping the ball from falling off with perfect balance. Stone's ball was all over the plate, and he was having a terrible time keeping it from rolling off. Then he swore it just jumped off the plate.

He grabbed up the ball and raced to the beginning of the event again.