The forest wasn’t large. I probably could have walked from one side to the other in ten minutes and it made an abnormally perfect square. Hiding wouldn’t be a particularly helpful option for long unless I was thorough about it.

Which was how I wasted my first five minutes before scrambling up one of the trees on the very outskirts of the forest. Breck had peeled away from me as soon as we entered the forest, charging like a boar into its depths, and I hoped she would prove to be an apt distraction. As it was, I had hesitated over the concern that illusion trees might not hold my weight before I decided the brush on the ground wouldn’t be nearly enough to hide me. It was odd to see the occasional bush that didn’t look like it was quite touching the snowy ground while at the same time it impeded my steps and caught on my cloak. Knowing that it was an illusion didn’t change anything except make the whole experience more annoying.

That cost me my first minute, getting to the northern edge of the forest and climbing a slim tree took the other four. I tucked myself up as close as I could to the tree’s peak with the thought that the others’ might think the tree didn’t look sturdy enough to support anyone. It wasn’t a perfect solution, but it was the best I could come up with when I was short on both time and resources.

I wanted time to think. Time to assess what I had, what I needed to do, what I knew of the others, and how to turn the situation in my favor. Instinct never boded well for me, especially not in the short term. And if I was going to face off against several groups who had the advantage in numbers and combined skill, then knowledge could only help me.

Team Blue, such as it was, was more than likely to have trouble all its own. Loclen and Andhi seemed to have some dislike for each other that came from before we were brought to the Seedling Palace; not to mention the feud Nii and Idra had been brewing ever since we shared our blessings. Juniper could likely force them past those issues, for a time at least, but she was younger than the others and I didn’t get the sense she was close to Idra despite them spending nearly all their time together. She didn’t have a rock to base her authority on. Unless, perhaps, she revealed why Idra and Ento deferred to her, but that had the potential to be a very tribe specific thing and not have the power to pull the others into doing the same. There was also the fact that, undoubtedly, Idra and Ento were accustomed to working as a team and now they had been ripped apart from each other and placed on opposing sides. It wouldn’t surprise me if Team Blue fell into bickering and became fractured by the number of strong personalities on their team.

Team Purple, on the other hand, had the opposite problem. Rather than fighting over a handful of options strongly backed by each individual, they would likely struggle with a lack of leadership and clear options. Wren was well liked but she didn’t seem well versed in making quick tactical decisions or enforcing discipline like Juniper was. Ulo, Ento, and Prevna would likely have some clear opinions on what actions they should take, but I wasn’t sure they would voice them. Ulo and Ento seemed on the reticent side of things and Prevna had a habit of complicating matters rather than simplifying them. Dera was an unknown quantity, as far as I was concerned. I knew that she was quick with numbers from lessons, that Wren liked her, and that she had a submissive quality about her. Her bone shaping blessing was powerful, but it wasn’t immediately clear how it could be helpful in this challenge unless she used it to help bind captured Sprouts.

Breck was powerful in her own right, especially when it came to weapons and fighting, but that also didn’t necessarily translate well into succeeding in this game. She could go solely after the Sprouts, but that would be an uphill battle in the best circumstances. She did have the advantage of not wasting time discussing plans with teammates, and perhaps she was better at finding things than I thought, but overall she and I were stuck in the same bad position. She could have also gone after me as soon as we entered the forest, but from her actions she had either not considered that option or thought her odds were better if she came after me later into the game. After all, if I was to capture her, I’d rather have to hold her against the others for ten minutes than three hours.

The clear favorites and biggest unknowns of the game were the Sprouts. I had little opportunity to learn about Team Green, but by definition of their station I knew they hadn’t learned all of the whisper women’s boons yet. Also, from the looks of it, none of them had the precision with shadow walking that Hana had displayed in Flickermark. Taking into account what I knew of Jin’s lessons and Clara’s disregard for anything but Shawsh and her scrolls, it didn’t take such a leap of logic to conclude that these were Sprouts who also needed a lesson in discipline or teamwork or some other thing Jin thought whisper women were supposed to excel at. It would be interesting to see how much command Clara held over her cohort.

As for myself—

I softened my breath and did my best not to scuff the tree and send a telltale sprinkling of needles and bark down onto the Sprout crunching through the undergrowth. She was muttering to herself and didn’t seem to care enough to even spit in the direction of stealth. Perhaps she had earned the right for that disregard, however, given the swarm of sparks slowly swirling around her. They didn’t set the trees and brush on fire, which was odd, but I put it down to her control over her blessing or the illusion. She paused a few trees down from where I perched and fished a token out from a dense thicket of brush before continuing on without any sign of noticing me. The illusion brush seemed to spring back into place after you passed by rather than show an easily identifiable sign of passage of broken twigs and disturbed snow.

I cursed the easy missed points even as I breathed a sigh of relief. I was in no position to go up against someone who could summon a swarm of flame. I had the items on my belt, my clothes, and my knowledge. And I doubted that the water in my waterskin would be enough to douse a few, if any, of her flames.

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Just like it was doubtful that I could win this game within its boundaries. It was clear that Jin planned for Breck and I to lose and learn the benefits of humility and teamwork, and I wouldn’t put it past her to nudge things even more in that direction with her illusion if she could do it in a way that wouldn’t undercut her message. Who was to say that all the tokens weren’t just appearing near the Sprouts? Besides, one person against eleven seedlings and six Sprouts? Nothing about that premise was designed to allow me or Breck to win, especially with the points being so skewed. The others were supposed to be drawn after us before pummeling us into submission. Scavenging tokens would become more difficult as the game wore on and wouldn’t likely give me the edge I needed to win all on its own. Not with the amount of people I was set up against.

Fine.

That simplified things. If I couldn’t win within the limits of the game then I would simply work around them. I glanced over at the bare snow outside of the illusion forest as a thoughtful smirk curled my lips. If the fact that there was too many people against me was one of the main problems, then the obvious solution was to whittle down the opponent’s numbers.

It would be nice if I could make some of the traps Rawley had taught me but I didn’t have any rope or twine or a good two pronged stick that was helpful for setting most of them. That was something I’d have to rectify in the future. Perhaps I could—

Chirp zipped by.

That’s when I realized stopping to think was an instinct all its own. My legs twitched, caught between the desire to run after being discovered and acting on the plan that was beginning to form at the sight of the little bird. Chirp let out a warble and turned back, presumably to get a better look at me. I undid the tie on my cloak.

Chirp let out a happy trill when he recognized me and made for my shoulder before he seemed to remember that we weren’t on the same side. The little bird didn’t remember in time. I swept my cloak from my shoulders and into the air over him. Quick, angry chirps emitted from the cloak as I jerked the ends together into a makeshift bag. He aimed for a gap in the ends I hadn’t got to yet and I felt a brief moment of victory as I yanked it closed.

Branches rushed by as I fell from overbalancing. I yelped before I curled protectively around my cloak while sticking out my free hand to try to slow my fall or catch hold of a passing branch. I couldn’t let Chirp go just so he could zip back to Wren and tell her of my whereabouts and I what had done. But I was also very aware that hurting the bird would have no good outcomes.

I hit the ground with a dull thump, arms covered in thin scratches. The snow covered ground and illusion brush had broken my fall. I lay on my back, stunned and trying to regain my breath for a handful of aching moments, before I had the presence of mind to notice to ominous quiet and stillness coming from inside my cloak. I closed my eyes and desperately prayed to nothing in particular that Chirp wasn’t dead. When I opened them again I carefully sat up with a soft groan before peeking inside the cloak.

An explosion of feathers and berating chirps greeted me as Chirp tried to force himself through the small hole. I quickly clasped it shut again, but I could still hear muffled chirps through the thick fabric. I sighed.

I never thought I would take a bird hostage. Or feel the oil slick feeling of guilt sliding around my ribs because I had done so. Nor did it help with how happy he had been to see me just before I captured him. Well, there was no one to see and despite his chirps being muffled they could bring unwanted attention. Better to be…cautious.

“Sorry, Chirp. You shouldn’t have to be in there long. Wren’ll notice you didn’t return soon.” I remembered how keen he was about keeping his feathers straight and perfectly puffed. “I’ll…I’ll preen you later or something if you settle down, alright?”

I felt a bit idiotic bargaining with a bird, especially when I wasn’t sure he could understand me. He didn’t settle down right away. He chattered for a bit longer, though the angry tone seemed to have diminished, before letting out a final warble and hopping around inside the cloak. Then he stilled and I settled behind the wide trunk of a tree, shivering in the cold. I hoped Wren noticed his absence soon like I said. Climbing up a tree was impossible while I had to hold the cloak closed and the brush was too brittle to use as makeshift twine, even if I wanted to test using an illusion to hold an actual object closed. For all I knew, as soon as I tried to change the brush from the original illusion it could break or stop being solid or do something else odd and unpredictable.

So, instead, I huddled at the base of a tree and tried to decide what I would do when Wren came for her bird. I didn’t want to hurt him or think about her reaction if I threatened to do so, but it was difficult to come up with any other threats that would get her to do what I wanted. Perhaps threatening to withhold Chirp and keep him in the cloak would be enough? It wasn’t exactly the best environment for a bird and I could say that he would blame her for keeping him in there longer and maybe play up the question of teamwork since that was what this whole stupid competition was about. Either way, there was little doubt this would put me on Wren’s bad side.

I held in a sigh and shivered from the cold.

Her smile was a lot more appealing than her scowl. Maybe I could soften my delivery? Let her know it was nothing personal? I just needed to show that just because I was on my own, I wasn’t helpless. I wasn’t stupid. I knew that teamwork had its benefits—everyone in the tribe had to work together to survive, after all—but I didn’t appreciate someone trying to forcefully shove me into it. Better to show that I could do my part without needing to get caught up in all the extra bits. That way everyone could benefit and I didn’t have to worry about taking anyone down with me if, to use Jin’s metaphor, my tree was toppled in a storm. So perhaps I could use this situation to encourage Wren to keep her distance from me without irrevocably hurting her.

After a while I got up to stealthily look for tokens in the area. Better to use movement to stay warm and possibly make some progress at the same time then waste more time fumbling over the same thing in my mind. I found two tokens by the time Wren came calling for Chirp.