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Eleanor
I was fired up.I didn’t think things would always be perfect with Braz, but until this afternoon I hadn’t thought I would be so… mad or frustrated. I didn’t actually want to play this game, or be a part of it. I wanted to know what he thought, how he saw this opportunity he clearly knew nothing about. Maybe our time together was causing him to be too distracted from other things like notifications about trials.
Maxine was the one who wanted to try out for this. Her last name was starting to fit her more every day like one of those custom made outfits in her closet. Mayhem. Yeah, she was living up to that more and more as her… well, stalking efforts were starting to worry me.
This was a testosterone victory though, but the wizards and warlocks knew they couldn’t just go after a change in the game without including the females so the lady monsters and the rest of us were also invited. This was the trial. We would have to pass a series of tests to determine if we would or could survive the training.
The announcer came on and the field fell to silence as the voice said, “This is simply to see if those of you who want to play this game are actually equipped to do so. There are things you may not realize. Sacrifices you will have to make to play by the rules. Those rules ensure the warriors who display great abilities for our entertainment don’t die in the process of earning your cheers.”
Oof, no one seemed really happy about this, but I supposed it was much like in the human realm where people of a certain age only learn what my mother told me after giving me a ghost pepper at the age of twelve, you may get what you want, but you might not want what you get. I made sure if she did not recommend something from that point on to ask why rather than throw a temper tantrum and summon it from the garden.
“What the hell is that?” Maxine whispered and I opened my eyes. In my hand was a ghost pepper.
I gulped and held onto it. “A good luck charm.”
Of sorts. It was a reminder that I was on this field with her because I was throwing a different kind of tantrum. Was I really about to put myself through this just to spite Braz?
“Three laps. Begin.” The announcer either made that sound through magic or just fired a weapon. Either way, the crowd began running around the field on a track that, from where I stood, didn’t end.
Maxine grabbed my arm and said, “You coming or what?”
I looked at the pepper and said, “I’m not.”
“Suit yourself.” She took off behind the rest of the pack and while she was by no means a slouch in the physically fit department, she wasn’t much smaller than me, so I wasn’t sure how much endurance she actually had.
I moved to the bleachers, away from the players who had gathered to watch this preliminary screening. Including Braz. The screen popped up in front of me and I looked up, only then realizing we were all inside this dome and would be until this trial was over. The female monsters were in the lead by far. One exceptionally far ahead of the others.
Then a scattering of male and females endowed with magical powers. I held the ghost pepper and began to feel the tingle of burning sensation. I knew it was exceptionally hot. Most humans would only touch them when they had on gloves. Some wore protective eyewear as being near the things could cause irritation and touching could be enough to send someone to the hospital. This was the longest I had ever held one. Eating one had not severely harmed me, but the burn in my belly and accompanying indigestion was the first time anything like that had happened. I ate jalapenos and other spicy peppers on pizza and nachos all the time.
I sighed. I would really rather be holding a box of nachos right now. The kind we got at the movie theater back home. My mother and I would share…oh no.How?
I seemed to be doing magic in a place I was not supposed to be able to do magic in. As the group began to take a second lap and more than one person was being transported on the safety vehicles that were staged apparently along the course for this very reason, I tried to hide the fact that I had nachos. Best way to get rid of the evidence? Eat it.
Maxine was walking, hands over her head, as she rounded the corner, but she kept going. I had to give it to her. She was sticking to her convictions. I looked over at Braz and his crew and noticed my monster was doing his best to ignore me. Maxine’s monster was not being successful at ignoring her. Thurston couldn’t sit any closer to the edge of his seat without falling out of it.
By the end of the laps, Maxine looked ready to collapse. The hydration station was available and she went straight to it. Her face let me know it was not the preferred fancy water she liked to drink with fruit slices in it. I had become a bit of a hydration snob after too many rounds of fruit infused water, so I totally understood.
Of course, the next thing I had in my hand was the water bottle I had left on my desk. Inside of it, the fancy water. I took a sip and then hid the bottle next to me. I was going to get into trouble. No two ways about it, but what could I do? I couldn’t compete on that field. I didn’t want to fight anyone. I only liked to play fight with Braz. I also couldn’t leave this dome until it was lifted. I knew that and many more things my classmates had been unaware of because they were dropping like flies and realizing their wands, their spells, even their curses were not saving them. And this was just the run.
CHAPTER16
Brazrothan
How the helldid she do that?I looked at my little witch one set of bleachers over eating nachos and then drinking from a container she did not have in her hands before.How?
The dome was up, I could see no obvious cracks or issues with it. The coach certainly didn’t seem to think there was a problem as he began the next round of exercises. I got up and made my way over to my angry mate and took a seat next to her.
“Why uh. Why aren’t you on the field?” My gut twisted though I had been so relieved when she took a seat in the bleachers.
“Oh, now you want to talk about it.” She was still pissed at me and I understood why.
“I’m sorry. I knew that saying no was not the right thing to say.” She looked at me and I continued, “But it was how I felt and my feelings seem to… override logic where you are concerned. I would never want to see you get hurt and as you can see from just the run, they were not prepared for the mile beyond vision.”
“The what?” she asked and I looked at the screen and slid it over to show her the obstacles that were preventing most of them from getting to lap two or three.
“It changes. Sometimes the ground reaches up to get you. Like that poor guy. Sometimes it slips right out from under you knocking you on your ass, like that one.” I showed her a female who was crawling away from what looked like nothing more than pavement. “It’s unpredictable.”
“Wow.” She looked onto the field. “They aren’t all back yet.”
