I never got to bargain with Wren to get her to forfeit in exchange for Chirp’s release. Instead, the little bird began to struggle vehemently as soon as he heard Wren’s voice, as if he could break through the thick fabric with sheer force of will. I had to cling to the cloak to make sure he didn’t get lucky and jerk a corner free and form a perfect little escape opening. I was so focused on Chirp and Wren’s crunching steps that I didn’t know what happened next until after fact.

Suddenly, I was face down in the snow with a heavy weight leaning down on top of me and Chirp was fluttering free with loud calls to his mistress. Twisting my head to one side I spat out a mouthful of snow and glared at the girl pinning me down.

Loclen shrugged one shoulder but was careful to keep her knee dug into my back and and her grip tight on the arm she was pulling behind me. “Should’ve looked up.”

I rolled away from her and into the direction of the arm she was pinning, wrenching it from her grasp. She cursed and scrambled after me as I shot to my feet and ran. Ran like the Ghost Winds themselves were chasing after me. The pain in my wrenched shoulder didn’t matter nor did the shivers coursing through my body or my abandoned cloak. The only thing that mattered was my refusal to be captured less than an hour into the game. Loclen had the advantage of a longer stride but I wasn’t about to run in a straight line and let her catch up to me. I darted through the trees and each time I felt her hand brush against my arm or back I managed to put on a spurt of energy before she could get a true hold on me.

The air tasted frigid and clear as I forced myself to keep going. I knew I couldn’t run forever, but I also didn’t have any other decent plans. Unless…unless I took a gamble and did a variation on my original one. Chancing a glance over my shoulder, I saw Loclen was a handful of steps behind me and Wren a good distance behind her. Well, better one than two.

I sped back toward the edge of the forest before weaving among the trees closest to the undisturbed snow beyond. As I rounded a particularly wide tree I saw my chance and took it. Skidding to a halt, I positioned my shoulder before ramming into Loclen as she rounded the tree a bare couple seconds later. She stumbled to the side, gasping for breath at the unexpected hit, and I pressed my newfound advantage, shoving her further to the side until she stumbled over her own feet and landed on her butt in the snow beyond the trees.

She sniffed proudly. “You’ll pay for this.”

Then the foliage between us exploded into rapid growth until I couldn’t see her through the press of pine branches and tall bushes. I blinked at the unexpected boon as I struggled to bring my own breath back under control. Knowing I didn’t have the time to stand and stare, I made my way to the lowest hanging branch, purposefully scuffing my feet and taking random extra steps, before using it to clamber up higher into the dense new growth.

Wren burst into the space I had surprised Loclen before I had climbed four branches. She slowed to a halt, clearly recognizing that the footprints in the snow stopped. Then she twisted and turned about as she tried to figure out what had happened. I was surprised to see that Chirp wasn’t with her. After he told her about his capture I had been sure the other girl wouldn’t let him out of her sight. Then her hair shifted as she kept investigating and I saw the little bird snuggled up against her neck. I relaxed slightly. I didn’t like that his sharp eyes were so close, but he seemed focus on getting comfort after his trial in the cloak and knowing where he was, was better than worrying about him popping up out of nowhere again.

As I watched, Wren didn’t seem able to make sense of the footprints under the thick undergrowth. She made several circuits around where the footprints stopped before she stopped where she had begun with crossed arms and a frown. Then her gaze caught on the numerous branches above before sliding down to the lowest hanging branch. Wren strode purposefully for it.

I froze. Of course she would go for that branch. None of the rest were easily reachable. Cursing Jin for what was obviously a simple trap in hindsight, my mind raced through my options. I didn’t think Wren knew where I was yet, but she would find out soon enough once she climbed a branch or two. If I moved she’d find out sooner than that, but if I didn’t she would be blocking the easiest way to leave the tree. Sure, I could try to drop out of some other part of the tree and risk a twisted ankle, I just wasn’t keen about accidentally throwing the rest of the challenge in the attempt to escape one girl. Besides, I had already fallen out of a tree once today; I didn’t need to do it again.

Wren reached the bottom of the tree.

I needed to move. Up or down? If I went up perhaps she would follow and I could circle back around to the low hanging branch. Wren climbed up onto the low branch and I climbed up onto the one above my head. Barking chirps and the sound of fast fluttering wings exploded from behind me. Then something soft and warm plopped onto my head. I glared up at Chirp as he landed on a branch just out of reach and bobbed triumphantly with chortling calls. Guffawing laughter burst out from below and I looked down to find Wren clutching a branch, occasionally slapping it in mirth as she laughed, warm and rich.

I scowled down at her, any intent to flee forgotten for a moment. “This isn’t funny.”

She glanced up as some of the warm mass dribbled down the side of my head before bending back over the branch, laughter redoubled. Finally, she calmed enough to gasp out, “He…he hasn’t done that since Simmon ruined the nest he made when I was ten.”

I didn’t have a good answer to that, so instead I kept quiet and tried to hide the uncertainty wriggling around in my chest. Did I still need to run? She didn’t seem as angry as I had assumed she would be over Chirp’s capture, but she was also on an opposing team who would win a lot of points if I was captured. I still didn’t like the thought of dropping out of another tree, however.

Chirp fluttered back down to Wren, talking at her the whole way. She absently stroked his head a few times when he landed on her shoulders and quieted the last of her laughter. Wren flashed me a slyly amused grin. “You shouldn’t have captured him or promised him a reward. He holds grudges better than I do. He’ll be demanding treats and pets from you without reservation for years now.”

The genuine version of this novel can be found on another site. Support the author by reading it there.

“I didn’t promise to give him treats!”

Wren snorted as Chirp took up a long winded rant. Wren bopped him on the head several times with a finger before he settled back into a disgruntled silence. “Unless you can put up with that for hours I think this little glutton will get his treats. Sleet beetles are his favorite.” Her gaze shifted back to the way we had come. “Why’d you even capture him?”

I drew in a breath and let it out slowly. “Are you stalling?”

She flinched and that was all the answer I needed. Uncomfortable fall or no, I refused to be caught. I scrambled down away from her even as Wren cursed and tried to hurry after me. It would have been smarter for her to jump down off the low branch and circle around, but instinct isn’t always logical and I didn’t feel like ruining luck’s small favors by pointing out the mistake to her.

I hung down from the lowest branch I could reach just as Chirp fluttered about in front of my face and Wren landed on the branch next to mine. I dropped. Brush scraped against my hands and face as I rolled, but nothing pinched painfully. I stumbled as I rose, the cold slowing my movements, and in that moment I knew I shouldn’t forgo wearing a cloak much longer. I might not die, but I could lose without it.

I dashed back to where I remembered my cloak lay fallen in the snowy brush. Someone leaped out from behind a taller bush, but I was past before they had a chance to touch me.

Then the wooden end of a spear whacked me across the chest. I went down. Ulo looked her nose at me as she flipped the spear around and held its point an inch from my throat. She never went anywhere without the thing it seemed like.

Ulo didn’t look up when she spoke, “Got her.”

Dera softly walked around to my other side after I heard her pick herself up off the ground. She had my cloak held in her arms. I held still as she knelt and clasped it back around my throat, mindful of the spear even though I knew Ulo wasn’t allowed to make in truly terrible blows. I wouldn’t put it past her to just bash me over the head with it, given the amount of scornful looks she’d directed my way over the past few weeks. I really wished I had a secret pocket with a weapon sewed into the cloak I could use at that point, as Dera hesitantly untied my sling, pouch of stones, and eating knife from my belt before tucking them away into the pouches on her belt. I did try to stop her then but Ulo kicked me in the side and I couldn’t do much more than gasp for breath and curl around the pain.

Wren called out, “Careful!” before she reached us with puffing breath a few moments later. Then, to Dera, “Can you use your bone shaping to hold her?”

Dera tucked some hair behind her ear that was already mostly in place. “Sure.”

Chirp twittered as Wren and Ulo kept me in place while Dera shifted my cloak out of the way before bringing my arms behind my back. I suffered the indignity with a sullen expression while I furiously tried to make plans to break out of it. Force seemed liked my best bet, but Wren had a hold of my braid and a good grip one shoulder while Ulo looked like she was just waiting for an excuse to use her spear again. I don’t know why she had such a grudge against me, we had never really spoken to each other, but perhaps it had to do with the fact that she always gave me dark looks when she thought I wasn’t putting enough effort into training.

Something cool and dry grew around my wrists as Dera used her blessing to shape a few bone pieces she pressed against my skin. Just to be contrary, I tried to pull my wrists free of the bone shackle but it didn’t budge.

Wren told Chirp to get Ento and Prevna to return to “base”. I never got to learn what their base was. A few minutes into a forced march the Sprout with a fire swarm found us. She quickly overwhelmed the other three with painful sparks that weren’t hot enough to scar, forcing them the ground. She had me by the elbow when Idra and Nii struck. They must have been arguing nearby and heard the shouts.

The fire swarm couldn’t come in a ten foot radius around Idra. An invisible barrier seemed to hold them at bay. Nii stayed close to Idra and used the odd cover to ignore the sparks while throwing her needles. One dug into the meat between the Sprout’s thumb and forefinger on the hand that was holding me, forcing her to let me go. Another struck her just above the knee but didn’t seem to sink in as much as Nii wanted. I didn’t notice more about the attack after that other than the fact that Wren and her group seemed to join back into the fray.

I ran.

Now that my hands were bound with bone I couldn’t ignore the impossible odds of the contest. I wouldn’t even be able to pick up a token if I found one, though the more likely possibility of being captured again loomed in my mind.

I wouldn’t stand for it.

Better to be disqualified than be torn from hand to hand like an ill used pouch of fermented sweet grass.

I stumbled out from the illusion forest and fell to my knees in the undisturbed snow. My face and throat burned at the failure, at the indignity and embarrassment of it. I was supposed to be better than this. I was supposed to be proving myself. Instead in this last failure, in a whole string of them, all I had managed to do was get scratched up and chased around like a pathetic rabbit.

When I looked up, I realized I had left the forest on the same side I had entered it. Jin didn’t make any movement of acknowledgment to show she noticed me. Instead, she stood with her eyes closed, bare feet pressed into the snow and her light robe slipping off her shoulder again. She didn’t shiver from the cold and I felt a pang of envy stab through me. My arms still weren’t completely warmed up from their time in the cold air.

Loclen glared at me from her spot sitting next to Breck and…Clara. I blinked. Wasn’t she supposed to be the leader of the Sprout team? Somehow, now that I had abandoned the game, all the truly big point earners could no longer be caught.

I was about to sit on Jin’s other side when Breck muttered, “Took you long enough.”

Unable to ignore that comment I shifted and moved to sit slightly apart from the group but now in a spot where my view of the three wouldn’t be impeded by our mentor’s legs.

I narrowed my eyes at the other girl. “What was that supposed to mean?”

She drew out her eating knife, flipped it in the air, and then used it to point at my bone shackle. “Thought you were smart enough not to fight battles you can’t win.”

Clara snorted and glanced over from the small slate she was sketching on. “Smart enough, maybe, but smarts barely ever holds a fire to stubbornness.”

That was scarily insightful for a girl who didn’t seem to notice me when we were in the library together. I made a mental note to pay better attention to her.

Loclen cut in, “You didn’t have to push me out if you were going to run out yourself.”

“You didn’t have to—”

Jin interrupted me with a click of her tongue as one hand flicked sideways in dismissal. “Squabble elsewhere.”

Loclen rose with an annoyed huff and Breck stood after her, a bored expression already settling over her features. I rose as well but with some awkwardness as I couldn’t use my hands to help push up off the ground or keep my balance. Clara didn’t move.

When we eyed her, she looked only looked up from her drawing briefly to state, “I’m not squabbling.”

And that was the end of that.