Page 64 of The Chosen Fae

Elon howled. "We did it! Great job guiding me, Silas."

"You had the hard part," Silas said. "You're almost there, Rune and Lolita!"

Stone called out four more commands, and then he pulled off Rune's blindfold while Silas pulled off Lolita's.

It felt great to have the blindfolds off and see the maze. Rune couldn't believe Stone could guide them so well. She was glad she had been the one blindfolded, and Stone had been the one to call out directions.

Then Xena made it out of the maze, looking grouchy, giving Caspian a dagger of a look for “making” her trip over a rope and fall.

"Elon and Silas won that challenge. You should be proud of yourselves. That's one of the most difficult challenges we have," the Game Master said. "It's time to retire to the gaming facility where you can wash up and go to dinner."

Rune was so glad the challenges were over. She was so tired. Right after dinner, she was going to bed.

Then they returned to the facility, took showers, dressed, and went to the dining hall.

There, they had a sit-down dinner, and everyone got to choose their meal from a menu.

Rune thought that was really nice after all that they had been through. "We did really well," she said to Stone.

Lolita was sitting with them, which was fine with Rune. The others were all sitting together, as if they weren't really trying to help Rune and Stone out, which worked well if it was all a ploy to keep Vesper and Xena from knowing the truth.

They wouldn't be able to talk to them about anything without Vesper and Xena hearing them, Rune figured.

Lolita was all smiles, as if she hadn't had to be on Vesper and Xena's team all day until the end.

They all ordered steaks, and then Lolita whispered, "We were having a lot of fun on the first challenge."

"Caspian fell," Rune whispered back.

"Yeah, on purpose. We already had an extra player, but we were all moving slower than necessary, even me, and then Caspian decided to fall, aggravating them, you know."

"Yeah, I could see it on their faces before I took my turn."

"What happened on the blocks?" Stone asked.

"Caspian fumbled them."

Stone laughed. "I love it."

"I loved the part where they couldn't keep the balls on their plates. Both had terrible balance, and they were trying so hard to make up the time by going too fast," Lolita said. "I thought we would be there all night."

Stone said, "That's what we all thought. I'm glad we were able to finish the rest of the challenges and return to the facility so we could have a great meal."

"I'm glad we got whatever we wanted to eat," Lolita said. For being the smallest wolf, she ate as much as everyone else.

"I wonder what tomorrow's challenge will be," Rune said.

"I can't imagine it will be as hard as today's. Well, some weren't that hard, but it was just a long mission of individual challenges," Stone said.

"I hope they don't make us do teamwork where I'm with Xena and Vesper. It's bad enough to be stuck with Xena as a roommate," Lolita said.

"I agree," Rune said, glad she wasn't stuck with her.

When they finally finished their dinner, they all said good night and headed to bed. Iris soon joined Rune in the bedroom. "Hey, you all did a great job. And I loved how you and Lolita did the last challenge together, blindfolded. That was real teamwork."

"You and the others did great on the challenges." Rune climbed under her covers.

"Oh, I have to say Caspian was hilarious on the relay challenge."