Chapter 17 The Herald’s Challenge
The Herald’s Challenge
Brok
If there was anything I hated about this plan, it was the knowledge of how betrayed Barnaby would feel.
I’d known it would happen. I’d been prepared for it.
Hazel had even warned me about it. “Are you sure this is the right thing to do?” she’d asked when I’d floated the idea. “Barnaby won’t take it well.”
“He’ll understand, eventually,” I’d told her, “once I win.”
No one but Hazel and me seemed to believe I could accomplish that. Santa appeared on the fence, though he hadn’t laughed when I’d asked him to put up the entry on my behalf. But everyone else would probably think I’d make a laughingstock of myself.
Nobody knew what I had done. That I was more prepared than Barnaby and Hazel could ever be.
To give him credit, King Oberon took my entry in stride. After the surprising announcement, he just moved forward with the competition as if nothing out of the ordinary had happened. “Our pacesetters,” he announced.
On his cue, three reindeer trotted forward from the tree line.
The first was cream and gold, with soft brown eyes and a patient gait that practically radiated therapeutic energy.
It stopped in front of Barnaby and lowered its head in greeting.
The tension in Barnaby’s small frame dissolved, and I couldn’t help appreciating the pairing.
Gentle pacer for a gentle soul. Whoever had designed these assignments understood the work.
The second was rust-colored and lean, built entirely for speed. It trotted up to Vixen with a self-aware elegance that would’ve impressed even Hazel’s grandmother. Vixen’s tail swished once in acknowledgment, one professional recognizing another. I half expected them to exchange business cards.
Then the third reindeer stepped forward.
He was the color of a thunderstorm. Dark brown verging on black, with legs that could probably kick through stone without noticing.
He stopped in front of me and snorted once, hard enough to move my hair.
The stare that followed communicated a single, unmistakable message.
You are going to lose, and I am going to enjoy it.
I’d trained apex predators that had friendlier dispositions. Well, I hadn’t expected this to be easy.
“Each competitor will race against their designated pacesetter,” Oberon continued.
“Five miles through the Spring Realm. Your time against the reindeer’s time will determine your speed ranking.
You will simultaneously document your journey on CrystalGram for the engagement ranking.
The Herald’s Title will weigh both metrics alongside the Joy Coefficient to determine the victor. ”
A young kobold materialized at my elbow.
She was maybe three feet tall, drowning in an oversized press vest. The three devices she carried resembled the ones the crews had been using in Grix’s mine.
They were phones in the same way Barnaby was a rabbit.
The basic idea was the same. The actual substance? Quite different.
“Enchanted capture devices,” the young kobold explained.
She held one up with the reverence of a priestess presenting a sacred artifact.
“Point and tap the crystal to capture the image. Swipe left to add a caption. Swipe right to post. Your content goes live on CrystalGram in real time, and the audience is already watching.”
I took the device and turned it over in my hands.
Grix had spent months trying to iron social media literacy into my skull.
I understood how accounts worked, what engagement meant, and how hashtags functioned.
I had CrystalGram and FaeBook profiles, both of which Grix managed.
My patience for content strategy ranked somewhere below my patience for clients who skipped leg day.
The kobold’s ears twitched with enthusiasm.
“Now, for maximum engagement, you’ll want to consider your content strategy.
Hashtags are critical. I’d recommend #HeraldsChallenge, #SpringVibes, and #ReindeerRace as your foundation tags.
Then you’ll want to layer in audience-specific callouts, maybe some interactive polls during rest segments—”
“I’ll take photos of things that matter to me.”
She blinked at me with the stunned expression of someone who’d just watched a client refuse a spotter on a max-effort bench press. “But your engagement metrics—”
“Will be whatever they’ll be.” I tucked the device into the pocket of my training shorts. “I appreciate the briefing.”
She stared at me for another three seconds. Then she shrugged and scurried off to deliver Vixen’s device. I could hear Vixen asking about filter options before the kobold even reached them, which surprised absolutely no one.
The starting positions were marked with glowing flowers set into the grass. Barnaby bounced on his toes at his mark. Three months ago, that bouncing would have exhausted him in thirty seconds. Now he was warming up. I felt so proud of him that it hurt.
Vixen crouched low beside their reindeer with the coiled energy of a predator about to spring. Their amber eyes were already scanning the course entrance.
My reindeer positioned himself beside me with the focused intensity of an athlete who considered this beneath him. If he had been physically capable of sneering, he probably would have.
Around the meadow, the crowd had the energy of spectators who already knew what they were about to watch. Most of them were tracking Vixen. A few were watching Barnaby. Those looking at me did so with a vague air of either sick fascination or benevolent pity.
I didn’t need either.
Oberon raised his hand. The horn sounded. “The Challenge begins!”
All three reindeer fired in the same instant.
Within seconds, the gap between us and Santa’s beasts was already enormous and growing.
Barnaby sprinted after his pacer with exactly the stride mechanics we’d built together, the chocolates doing their job.
He and Vixen were soon racing for the first spot.
And then there was me, driving my legs into soft spring grass one stride at a time, watching my reindeer become a dark smudge near the forest edge.
Everyone probably thought I was an embarrassment, but I knew for a fact that someone out there didn’t. I pulled the device from my pocket without breaking stride and kept running. This was for Hazel, and that was why I would win.
The supernatural world had tuned in expecting a showdown between two top-tier magical entities.
A graceful fox against a gentle rabbit. It was a clean narrative with obvious stakes, exactly the kind of content that crashed CrystalGram’s well-maintained kobold servers.
The orc had registered as a curiosity. A footnote.
The kind of entry that gets a sympathy follow before everyone goes back to watching the real competition.
Then the horn sounded, and the feeds went live.
@Osterfuchs4ever: The hunt begins. #HeraldsChallenge #SpringVibes #NewEraOfJoy
@FaerieDailyNews: This shot alone. I am not okay.
@CrimsonAntler: They launched before the horn finished sounding. That is not legal in any realm I know of.
@OberonsBiggestFan: IT IS LEGAL! IT IS LEGAL! VIXEN IS JUST FAST!
@enchanted_lurker: The composition. The motion. The fur. Vixen ate and left no crumbs.
@HollowOakHag: The Osterfuchs is going to win this in a landslide. I’m calling it now.
@BarnabySprings: We’re doing this together. #HeraldsChallenge #SpringJoy
@TulipFaerie: I am going to cry. I am already crying. Barnaby FTW!
@sylviaofthemeadow: Barnaby and his reindeer are literally holding eye contact while running. I cannot.
@just_a_sprite: Barnaby, you sweet thing.
@deepwoodsdad: The rabbit has heart. I’ll give him that. Won’t be enough, but he has heart.
@OberonsBiggestFan: Okay, this might actually be a contest.
@BrokOptimizes: Good tensile strength. Grows back under pressure.
@FaerieDailyNews: Is he okay?
@DustSprite: he posted GRASS. Is this real life?
@TulipFaerie: I mean. It is good grass. I feel like… I smoked it. A century ago.
@NettleNix: Never mind the grass. Look at those abs. I am looking respectfully.
@OberonsBiggestFan: The orc posted a structural assessment of the ground he is running on. I respect it. I don’t understand it. But I respect it.
@Osterfuchs4ever: The forest remembers the old ways. So do I. #HeraldsChallenge #AncientJoy
@enchanted_lurker: I need this framed. On my wall. In my home. In my dreams.
@IridescentImpling: Osterfuchs nation, rise up! Vixen is eating EVERYONE alive.
@HollowOakHag: I have watched twelve of these, and I have never seen content this clean. Never.
@OberonsBiggestFan: If Vixen doesn’t win, I will riot!
@BarnabySprings: I forgot how beautiful it is out here. I have been doing this for centuries, and I forgot.
@sylviaofthemeadow: He forgot. He has been the Easter Bunny for centuries, and the joy of it still surprises him. I am going to lie down.
@just_a_sprite: Stop it. Stop it right now.
@SilverSerpentine: The fox has the better content, but this rabbit is going to make me ugly-cry in public.
@deepwoodsdad: I’m not emotional. Something is in my eye. Both of them.
@BrokOptimizes: Not the mushroom. The color. Correct temperature. Correct depth. There’s only one person who gets this right every time.
@DustSprite: WHO IS THIS PERSON? WHO GETS IT RIGHT? ANSWER ME.
@MushroomMerchant: As a professional mushroom supplier, I can confirm those are excellent specimens, and I have no idea what he is talking about.
@NettleNix: He is reviewing a mushroom like it submitted a quarterly report. It shouldn’t be hot! But it is!
@OberonsBiggestFan: I cannot tell if this is a content strategy or a nature documentary, and I am genuinely losing my mind.
@Osterfuchs4ever: Even the water knows which way to go. #HeraldsChallenge #SpringVibes
@IridescentImpling: Vixen cleared the upward river in one leap. ONE LEAP.
@enchanted_lurker: The aesthetic. The caption. The effortlessness. They are not even trying, and they are winning.
@FaerieDailyNews: Their engagement numbers are astronomical. There is no universe in which Vixen loses this.
@OberonsBiggestFan: Vixen in three. Calling it.
@BarnabySprings: The water is going the wrong way, and I have never related to anything more.
@TulipFaerie: This is the content I came here for.
@just_a_sprite: Barnaby versus physics, and physics is losing in my heart.
@SilverSerpentine: I came here for the fox, and I am staying for the rabbit. He has completely won me over.
@OberonsBiggestFan: Okay, I lied. Barnaby has a real shot. The authenticity is unmatched.
@BrokOptimizes: Documented.
@FaerieDailyNews: Documented for what purpose?
@springseason_fan: He crossed a reality-defying river, stopped to photograph one flower, and wrote one word.
@CrimsonAntler: I need everyone to understand he is in last place by a significant margin and seems completely unbothered.
@PeatBogPuck: Documented. There is something almost philosophical about it. He is bearing witness. To a flower. During a footrace.
@OberonsBiggestFan: Vixen posted a masterpiece. The rabbit made me tear up. The orc posted one flower. All three of them are somehow still in this competition.
@Osterfuchs4ever: The maze doesn’t choose you. You choose the maze. #HeraldsChallenge #AlmostThere
@IridescentImpling: Vixen cleared it in four minutes. I timed it. Four minutes.
@enchanted_lurker: Put that on a wall. Put that in a museum. Only the Osterfuchs can pull this off!
@FaerieDailyNews: This is over. This has been over since the starting horn.
@OberonsBiggestFan: Respectfully, everyone else should go home.
@BarnabySprings: The trees are moving, but I think I figured out the pattern?
@sylviaofthemeadow: The question mark at the end of that sentence is doing so much work.
@just_a_sprite: Barnaby, you sweet, determined creature, I believe in you.
@deepwoodsdad: He’s still in it. I genuinely did not expect him to still be in it. Good rabbit.
@BrokOptimizes: Poor awareness of its own achievements. Common problem.
@DustSprite: the FISH. he stopped to critique the FISH.
@springseason_fan: The orc is giving performance notes to a fish that is swimming through open air. I need to sit down.
@MushroomMerchant: First the mushroom review, and now fish feedback. What does this orc do for a living?
@CrimsonAntler: He is a personal trainer.
@NettleNix: Whatever he does, I’m into it. I want him to give me lessons.
@just_a_sprite: I came here for the challenge, and I am leaving having witnessed something I cannot explain.
@PeatBogPuck: There is a consistency to his posts that I am beginning to find deeply compelling. He has a worldview. I don’t understand it. But he has one.
@HollowOakHag: At this point, I am watching two competitions: The actual challenge and whatever this orc is doing.
@SilverSerpentine: I followed him after the mushroom post as a joke, and I have not looked away since.
@Osterfuchs4ever: Almost there. #HeraldsChallenge #NewEraOfJoy #ThisIsMyTitle
@IridescentImpling: Vixen is already at the finish line. THE TITLE HAS A WINNER.
@FaerieDailyNews: I have covered so many Oberon-organized events. This is the most commanding performance I have ever seen.
@enchanted_lurker: Osterfuchs nation, we won. We actually won.
@OberonsBiggestFan: Well run, Barnaby. Well run, inexplicable orc. The fox wins.
@BrokOptimizes: Flat. Smooth. The right height. Does the job without drawing attention to itself.
@DustSprite: he is posting about a ROCK.
@MushroomMerchant: Mushroom review. Fish feedback. Rock reference. This account is a journey.
@CrimsonAntler: Vixen is at the finish line, and this orc is somewhere on the course composing character references for geological formations.
@sylviaofthemeadow: I don’t know what any of his posts mean. I have followed this account for five miles, and I am going to follow it for the rest of my life.
@springseason_fan: Whatever the Title decides, this orc is the winner in my heart.
@HollowOakHag: Something is happening with the Joy Coefficient readings. I can’t explain it. Something is very wrong or very right.
@HeraldsChallengeOfficial: The Title has declared its choice.
@IridescentImpling: Congratulations to Osterfuchs, the most deserving—
@IridescentImpling: Wait.
@FaerieDailyNews: What?
@OberonsBiggestFan: What do you mean, the orc?
@DustSprite: THE ORC??
@TulipFaerie: He was last. He posted four photos of things that cannot move and one photo of a fish he criticized.
@sylviaofthemeadow: I knew. I don’t know how I knew, but I knew.
@HollowOakHag: I told you something was happening with the readings. I told you.
@SilverSerpentine: I followed him as a joke. I followed him as a joke.
@deepwoodsdad: Why did a mushroom win the Herald’s Challenge?