Page 6 of The Chosen Fae

"They work in mysterious ways. We've never had lone wolves participate in the Fae Wolf Games. Everyone doubts you will succeed, but you are being given a great opportunity. You will compete with other fae wolves to beat several challenges. Whoever wins the most will rule the two quarreling packs who live near each other in their territories. You will do your best and prove us wrong."

"We don't need to prove anything to you or anyone else," Stone said, angry, wishing he could free Rune and return them both home.

"Join us to meet up with the other fae who are participating in this event. Fight us, and you can stay locked in the cages until the events are all completed."

Stone looked at Rune. She was scowling at the wizard, but then she nodded.

"We'll do this, but our way," Stone said.

"Which is just the way we expect you to take on the challenges. We wouldn't have it any other way. It will be much more entertaining this way." Then the wizard led the way out of the cells, the guards following Rune and Stone until they reached a large marble room, the walls adorned in gaudy gold, chairs and tables scattered about as if it were a place to eat or read books or something. Stone wasn't sure.

The gaming building sprawled wide and deep, its red-brown brick darkened near the base where moisture had worked its way in over the years, with narrow windows running in even rows across each floor and a roofline that disappeared behind a stand of planted trees.

From the outside, it looked institutional—moss-covered brick interrupted by heavy double doors and tons of windows—but inside, the corridors opened unexpectedly into planted alcoves and the soft blue-green shimmer of water cascading down stone walls. It definitely looked like a fae-world building.

Paintings of dragons, hawks, wolves, and the ocean and islands were the first thing that caught the eye, hung at precise intervals along corridors wide enough for three people to walk abreast, their colors vivid against the brick and the pale overhead light.

Then ten other fae walked into the room, all of them eyeing Rune and Stone with suspicion. Five of the fae looked like they knew each other and stayed together. Another five walked together in the same manner. One of the fae was tiny compared to the others, and Stone wondered if she was forced to come because she would be more "entertainment" like he and Rune would be. But for whom?

A game coordinator said to the gathered competitors, “We have twelve fae who are competing: Pari, Maeve, Fang, Vesper, Xena, Silas, Iris, Caspian, Elon, Lolita, Rune, and Stone. You will have room assignments, and you will be paired with a roommate. If your roommate goes home, you’ll have the room to yourself until we have an even number of competitors again.”

Another game coordinator said, “Each of you has separate skills. Maeve, Xena, and Pari are skilled with throwing stars. Vesper is skilled with the sword. Iris’s talent lies with the slingshot. Lolita carries a short sword.”

She was the smallest wolf there, and Stone noted the coordinator did not say she was skilled with the sword.

“Both Rune and Stone are also equipped with swords,” the coordinator continued, but again didn’t say they were good at sword fighting because neither of them had held a sword before.

He wondered why they weren’t given a chance to try different weapons and see what worked best for them. But he also wondered if they would have to use their weapons to fight the other fae.

“Silas is skilled with a throwing ax,” the coordinator said. “Elon, Fang, and Caspian are good with a bow and arrow. You will have twelve challenges to meet. May the best one win.”

Bentan, the wizard, explained to the gathered fae, "When there are issues between packs, as is going on right now in your woods and glens, we need to resolve them. Your leaders won't compromise. Each wants his and her own way. Nothing is resolved. We've lost several wolves to this fight. The war between packs can't go on. Not without decimating your kind."

Every word the wizard spoke didn't mean anything to Stone. Or Rune, he suspected. These weren't his people. He didn't run with a pack. And it didn't matter what they did to each other as long as they didn't encroach on his or Rune's territory.

"That being said, your leaders have agreed that the wolf who wins the most challenges—as determined by the majority of the viewers, all of whom are part of our world: dragon fae, scorpion fae, woodland fae, the dark fae, the hawk fae, the phantom fae, the golden fae, and all the rest—the final deciding vote will go to Star Gazer and Moon Gazer, the goddesses who watch over all the wolf fae."

"I'll win the challenges," one of the male wolves said, who was named Vesper, his arms folded across his chest, blond and muscular, a bully, very sure of himself, Stone thought. He was one of the ones who had attacked Stone in his glen.

"You won’t know what the challenges will be until the day of the event. You won’t know what will make it a winning challenge until everyone has played their part. You must think outside of the box. If you rule both packs, you'll have to use what you learn here and use your cunning, strength, and leadership."

Well, that left Stone and Rune out of the game. Cunning, strength, sure, but leadership? They had been living on their own, competing with only themselves; well, sometimes Rune tried to out-fish Stone, and sometimes she even won. And they did play tug-of-war with a sturdy vine or a stick sometimes, just to entertain themselves. Rune often used her cunning to try and outsmart him because she wasn't as strong as he was. And it worked!

"For those of you who don't know this," the Game Master said, "if you need to purchase any goods or services, your ability to control a human's mind to tell them you've paid for the item will still apply here."

Stone and Rune shared looks. They had never had to buy anything or interact with humans, so they didn't know that. That seemed like a really cool trick.

Xena said, "As if we didn't know that we could do that." She gave Stone and Rune a disdainful look, as if she knew they hadn't known that.

The Game Master continued, "Right, but your ability to fae transport, something else you know very well how to do, won't work during the gaming process unless you're in imminent danger. If you use that ability and we determine you weren't facing a life-or-death matter that you could get yourself out of with a little bit of ingenuity, you'll be eliminated from the game and sent home."

Stone knew Xena was going to be a problem for Rune and him.

"Also," the Game Master said, "there will be a challenge where you will not be able to persuade humans to do something you want them to do, but that's later in the contests. You must use your own natural charm and wits to do the persuasion."

Stone could see they had a clear disadvantage, as the other competitors had been to the human world with pack members and were taught by older members how to navigate it.

Stone and Rune hadn't even seen the rest of the fae world either, since they'd been isolated in their two glens.