This wasn’t how he was expecting this test to end. He walked over to the fat disciple again. All of them moved closer to him, in case he decided to toss in anything else.

“It’s not enough.” Not stating the obvious wasn’t going to help his case especially when the wards fell down. He scanned their faces, most of them were relieved and remotivated. They still had a horse in the race. The fat man had a grim expression on his face. It was an opportunity for him as well.

He could see his beady eyes moving back and forth, thinking of a way. Musnuf had one.

“Treasure’s going to win.” All of them were quiet and he had their attention. “If the wards fall down, she's going to win. She outmaneuvered you once and she’ll do it again.”

He made eye-contact with Tranquil, Dragon and Tiger. “I’ll split my half of the prize with whoever loans me the rest of the rings. If not, you can take up your chances.” He did a wide sweep with his sleeves.

He felt calm and focused. The only thing he could do was focus on their expressions. It was odd. How did I end up here? He knew everything he’d done but it still felt surreal.

Tiger and Dragon were standing around, conversing in a hushed tone. The fat man was moving as well, his throat full of that voice moving. His adam's apple was bobbing up and down, trying to keep up with his words.

“Are you forgetting me here!?” It was Treasure. Musnuf was hoping for her to stay quiet but she didn’t. “If any of you throw in a ring, I’ll throw you off this mountain.”

Thing was, Musnuf didn’t care and a lot of the other participants didn’t either. She’d made too many enemies in no time at all. On top of that, was she going to take all of them on?

Musnuf made eye-contact with Tranquil. Her eyes flitted away and she bit her lips. He walked over to her. “How are you going to split the prize?”

“That’s simple. I’m splitting half with him.” He pointed at the fat disciple. “The other I’ll split into half as well. A minute gets you a quarter of the spirit stones. For the potion, I’m sure we can get the Elder to split it into a few more bottles. I’m being honest.”

“Nope, I can’t.” She said it louder but her eyes told a different story. She nodded at him and turned her back.

He wandered away from her. Treasure was staring at Tranquil. Her eyes were honed in like a hawk.

The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.

“Dragon!” He called out to her. This reminded him of a summer job he’d held down a long time ago. A door-to-door salesman. The company sold cleaning products. It was a dusty old memory filed away not to be used or retrieved but it’d bubbled up now.

Both of them were angry with him but there was a little tug of war going on in there somewhere. Dragon would be a bit more pragmatic about this compared to her sister since she didn’t want the number one spot. “What do you think? I’ll split the prize. This can still be a win for all of us.”

That’s when he started thinking. Is this a win? It was odd, he was at the finish line but something was tugging onto him. He could get the number one spot. He would win. But.

Is this a win? The question floated around in his mind. It was like a little rock in his shoes. It just wouldn’t go away.

There were a few shouts of protest and he turned to find the disciples crowding around Tranquil. She’d tossed in a few more rings. He picked them up and counted them out. That was two more minutes. He was getting closer, he knew that. The fact that she’d thrown in a few rings was meant that other people would as well.

He walked over to the wards and placed his hands on them. The rings jangled on his arm. “Treasure. Do you want to be number one?”

She didn’t reply but he plowed on. “I’ll give all of these back.” He raised his arm and that got her attention. “On one condition. You give me the ruby ring.”

She snorted. “You’re still off by two minutes.”

A few more rings jangled into the wards. They were from Dragon. Her sister wasn’t happy but she hadn’t stopped her sister.

“How about now?” He couldn’t tell what she was thinking but the defeat had to sting.

“Why would I do that?”

“I’ll give you another go at it.”

“What?” All of them were staring daggers at him, their mouths agape.

“In one month, I will spar with you. If you win, you can have the whole prize. All of the stones and potions. Except for the talisman, you can have all of it.”

Tranquil spoke out against it first. “Get her!” Tiger, Dragon, Tranquil and the fat man moved at once but it was too late.

A crazy smile beamed on Treasure’s face and the ruby ring was launched into Musnuf’s chest. Musnuf clutched it in triumph.

…

..

.

Up above in the clouds, Clever was focused on the drama taking place below him. He had no idea it would turn out like this! He didn’t even notice his sister come in and tower over him.

At Musnuf and Treasure’s deal he started laughing and opened his eyes. Elder Flower was sitting across him. Seeing her, he tried to tone down his laughter. It was just too hard for someone like him.

He felt a hand on his shoulder and jumped up in shock. “Sister! You need to stop doing that!” Seeing that, he wouldn’t get through just like every other time. He pointed down.

“So, what do you think about her? Interesting, isn’t she? Dare I say, worthy of a few pointers?”

“You’re not wrong but she’s a fool.”