Ten minutes later I am straightening out the silver trimmed black uniform that Marion sent over earlier in the week as a blushing Dark Elf is following me.

“I kn-knew they were big,” Aya mutters, “B-but I didn’t expect them to be th-that big, even though they are bound.”

“Well I didn’t tell you to take off my shirt along with the chain shirt,” I laugh at her as we reach the crowd in front of the course.

“The top twenty fastest times will be rewarded with an early break, the rest will be required to run the course again for the next set of twenty and so on and so forth, before being released,” a Dwarven man calls out from the front of the crowd, “There will be a small break before we begin so that everyone has a chance to examine the course.”

“It seems that we missed most of the rules,” I shrug as I turn to look at the course.

“It also seems like the worse you do in the start the worse you will do in the later rotations,” Shiva whispers and I can feel her plucking at strings of Magik around us.

“Indeed. Fatigue will set in as well as knowledge of the first loss and it will be compounded by every one after that as well, and this isn’t even the last thing we will be doing today. What exactly are you doing?”

“Knitting,” She laughs and just goes back to it.

“You just have to get to the end of today's course in any way that you see fit,” A voice says as arms wrap around my shoulders pressing breasts into my back. I jump while reflexively reaching for daggers that are not there. After a moment I calm down and I recognize the woman is Marion who giggles and rests her chin between my ears, “Excluding flying and skipping any of the obstacles that is.”

“You are too familiar,” I sigh, doubting that it does any good to tell her, and I wiggle out of her grip and straighten up my shirt.

“You are my lovely lytlying after all,” She says looking me up and down, before saying, “I’m glad to see it fits well.”

“Well it should since I gave you the exact measurements,” I roll my eyes and turn to Aya, “So you have run this course before?”

“P-possibly,” She says, “T-they built it in such a way that certain obstacles can be interchanged to si-simulate different conditions, and we generally are not allowed to see the course before running it. Al-so we are only running a section of it today and not the full course.”

“That’s quite clever isn’t it?” Shiva asks in amazement.

“I have other matters that I must attend to,” Marion interjects between us as she puts a scroll of paper into her belt, “I will send for the two of you for lunch after you finish up.” She then turns and leaves towards a small tent.

“And now she has decided on her own how we will spend our break,” I sigh while rubbing my temple slightly. “Shall we?” I ask turning towards Aya indicating the course in front of us. As the crowd clears out from in front of the course I notice a large set of benches in front of us. “So they have everyone wait here out front?” I ask.

“Mm-hmm,” She nods, “It provides a place to rest as well as making it i-impossible to see the rest of the course beyond the wall.”

…

…

…

“You’re up next,” Aya reminds me, and I nod my head to her as I stand up, “G-good luck.”

I begin to walk towards the beginning of the course and across the sitting area I see Stephanie stand up and begin to move forward as well.

“If there is no point to having us compete with each other why are they so insistent that we do so?” I grumble.

“To build character,” Shiva impersonates Master.

“I have plenty of character.”

“That of a flirt,” She shoots back giggling.

As I take my place on the left I take a look at the staked rope that everyone has thrown themselves under and I wonder how many more people will do the same.

“Remember,” The Dwarven man brings my attention back to the matters at hand. “Every obstacle must be completed,” he pauses for a moment rubbing his chin. “Failure of an obstacle will mean that you have to retry that obstacle. There is also to be no use of flight. Though if either of you managed to fly I might be so impressed that I would overlook it,” He laughs deeply at this, “And one last thing you are not racing each other, you are racing everybody, so it is best to just ignore your partner and move those asses.”

He moves off to the table on the side where multiple sand glasses are set up in front of a small group of people with scrolls and quills in their hands.

“I wonder how they will actually keep track of the time,” I begin to question-

“Begin,” The Dwarf calls out and I see Stephanie dive under the first rope and begin to crawl.

“Damn it,” I swear under my breath and I start to run.

As I approach the ropes I step towards the middle set of stakes and leap up onto the first and take the barest of moments to catch my balance before I start to move. I hear shouting from the crowd behind me, some cheers and some insults.

“Do you think this will be considered cheating?” Shiva asks.

“They haven’t stopped me yet,” I laugh as I step from one stake to the next, “and only another twelve to go.” I catch a glimpse of brown hair underneath the other side as I move by.

I gently adjust my balance on the run and soon I hop back down to the ground and continue to run towards the eighteen-ish foot wall in front of me.

“No rope to use,” Shiva observes.

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“Hand and foot holds,” I point out. As I reach the bottom of the wall I spring up and grab a knob that is sticking out of the wall a ways above my head, and I pull myself while pushing my toes into the wall. I reach for the next hold and quickly find them to be set at quite comfortable positions, making it rather easy to scale.

I quickly reach the top of the wall and I look back for a moment and see Stephanie approaching the bottom of the wall. I stand up on top of the wall, take a breath and leap for the netting without looking down. I catch it near the top and I pull myself up and over, instead of climbing down, and curl up into a ball and roll. After a few moments of the world spinning around me I slow to a halt and step over onto the ground and start to run again.

“Reminds me of that time on that shipwreck,” Shiva reminisces as she continues to pluck at Magik, “Although I suppose that wasn’t netting.”

“Never again,” I shudder at the memory of the mad decent from the crow’s nest. Ahead of me is a log balance with a rope swing at the end of it. I quickly step onto the log and begin to move across it. “Far easier than balancing on pegs,” I laugh and look down at the mud pit. As I approach the end of the log a young woman holds out the rope for me to grab and I take it and leap while pulling my feet up.

I easily reach the other side and drop down onto the wooden platform beneath me. I see Stephanie at the bottom of the underside of the net, and I turn and keep moving. I run towards the ditch, reach up to grab the rope, then pull my legs up over the rope, tuck my tails down around my hips and thighs, and begin to pull myself to the other side.

“Shouldn’t have worn the skirt,” I gasp and do my best to ignore the burn in my legs from the rope.

“Should have worn the stockings,” Shiva argues her point once again. I drop back down to the ground at the other side and without looking back I keep running, leaping over the hurdles and dropping to go through the final tunnel. As I emerge from the wall I stand up and a young boy passes me a cup with water and I nod my head to him.

“You may go back to your seat,” A Dargoth man with blue scales and red hair says to me.

“Are you going to inform me of my time?” I tilt my head to the side and take a sip.

He shakes his head, “After the first set is finished the fastest people will be called and released.”

As I turn and begin to walk around the course I catch a glimpse of Stephanie jumping the last hurdle and heading towards the tunnel.

“Would you say twenty to thirty seconds behind?” Shiva asks and I just shrug my shoulders as I head back towards my seat.

“How are your le-legs?” Aya asks me as I sit down next to her and her gaze goes to my bare legs.

“Slightly scrapped from the rope but nothing of any major issue,” I tell her while rubbing the inside of my knee.

“I bet you think you’re clever,” someone behind me calls out, and I turn to see an angry looking Dargoth man, “Just completely ignoring the standard course. What you couldn’t get your dress dirty by crawling on the ground?”

Before I can say anything an Elfin woman with silver hair speaks up, “I for one do think that she was indeed quite clever. Just because we have a way that we run it during standard training doesn’t mean that it is the only way to run it. Especially since we were not given a set drill today. And it is a very pretty uniform; I am actually quite jealous.”

“So now you are defending some little assassin that’s too good to run a course like the rest of the rank and file,” the Dargoth shoots back.

“Firstly you don’t even know how she ran the rest of the course beyond the wall, and why shouldn’t I defend her?” the Elf argues while tapping on her cheek, “We are all on the same side here, or have you forgotten that?”

The Dargoth stands up and storms off and I shake my head at his retreating figure, “Well he seems pleasant.”

The Elf giggles, “He isn’t usually that bad, he just thinks you insulted his abilities by running across the stakes.” I fell something press up against me and the woman smiles and says, “You don’t have to worry I’m not going to run you off, as I said we are all on the same side here and therefore in my eyes we are equal.”

“W-would be nice if the rest of the world thought that way,” Aya mumbles.

The woman moves down to the bench next to me and introduces herself, “I am Sarah Rheingold.” She has deep green eyes with flecks of gold though out them.

“She is pretty,” Shiva says and I can’t help roll my eyes slightly, “Just look at that little nose, and those adorable cheeks.”

I ignore Shiva and nod my head to Sarah and respond, “I am Lily.”

“Just Lily?” She asks curiously, and I nod my head, she then looks around me and asks, “And you are?”

“A-Aya Naricsa,” she says shyly from behind me.

“It is a pleasure to meet the both of you,” Sarah tucksa strand of hair behind her ear. “Is it true that you and your gang beat Tom and Will?” She asks her eyes sparkling with curiosity.

“Well we didn’t actually fight,” I shrug, “and there was only me against them.”

“Not the way they tell it,” She laughs, “Apparently there were ten of you, and you attacked them from an alleyway as the sun was setting in their eyes.”

“That might keep people from causing problems in the future,” Shiva laughs.

“So they left out the part where they threw a rock from behind me I take it?” I yawn while enjoying the sun on my back.

“I’m up n-next,” Aya says standing up.

“Just relax and you will be fine,” Sarah tells her and she nods her head as she heads for the front of the course. “Poor girl looks like she will jump at her own shadow,” Sarah says sadly.

“She likely hasn’t had many good interactions with a lot of people,” I sigh.

“My people certainly haven’t helped much with the hunts during the last era,” she hugs her arm to her chest.

“Reach out and comfort her,” Shiva whispers in my ear.

“Stop pushing,” I grumble.

“You have a very chatty spirit don’t you?” Sarah giggles again smiling slightly.

“All the time,” I feel myself blush slightly and I look away.

“It’s not a bad thing; I think it is wonderful to have good relations with your spirits,” She looks at the wall where Aya is climbing over the top, “I wonder if there is any way I can make her help her feel more comfortable.”

“Just be kind,” I yawn, “She might eventually come around.”

“Only might eventually?”

“It depends on how deep the scars are.”

“You seem to be doing well enough though.”

“Most people would not consider picking fights in the market and at training sessions to be doing well.”

“I meant for interactions with other races,” she looks away slightly.

“Tell her about your muteness,” Shiva excitedly squeals and I shush her.

“I’m only hated by a large chunk of the Kitsune, and it helps that I was raised away from them,” I say and then laugh, “and the Seraphim are rather displeased with me, but that’s for entirely different reasons.”

“The Seraphim are displeased with anyone that isn’t a Seraphim,” She laughs as well, “And even then I sometimes wonder.”

…

Aya comes and sits back down and eventually Sarah stands up and heads towards the obstacle course.

“So what do you think of her?” I ask Aya.

“She seems s-strange,” she replies with doubt, “It isn’t often that an Elf a-approaches with kindness when t-they don’t want something from me.”

“Perhaps she is different,” I tilt my head to side watching Sarah start to climb the wall.

“Not bad to look at from behind either,” Shiva says.

“If you say so,” I sigh.

“I do and I can see you looking at her as well.”

“Perhaps,” Aya says quietly as she watches the crowd around us.

“Oh I know then how about that Dargoth then?” Shiva bursts out.

“The one that stomped off, not a chance even if I were interested in him,” I yawn.

“See this is why I stopped trying to convince you to find interest in a man, you just always shoot it down,” she pouts.

“And I don’t tell you no for the women that you’ve been throwing at me?”

“I will find a suitable mate for you,” She declares ignoring me and I sigh.

Aya giggles and I look over at her and she says, “It’s quite funny watching you, your ears and tails move quite a bit.”

“So I’ve been told,” I grumble slightly.

…

…

After a couple of minutes Sarah returns and takes her seat next to me and we watch the next set of runners get ready. As the Dwarven man gives the go one of the runners jumps up on the stakes like I did, but as he steps for the second he slips and falls. After a moment he starts to scream in pain and a large group of Nightingales rush over towards the field with a stretcher.

“Hmm, bad balance,” I yawn.

“Looks like a broken leg,” Sarah says as the Nightingales pick up the stretcher and begin to carry the person away and I catch a glimpse of white beneath his knee.

“Th-the Nightingales will t-take care of it,” Aya tilts her head towards the tents and we just nod in agreement.