Chapter 16 #2
Everyone was too busy to notice that they had found the item. Stone and Rune raced to the finish line and crossed it, but nothing happened. Had they done something wrong?
They sat down with the prize at their feet. They couldn't see the other wolves from their vantage point because they were beyond so many of the haystacks. Stone couldn’t help but feel anxious, and he smelled Rune’s anxiousness also.
Rune shifted. "Did we do something wrong? Maybe this was a decoy, and we didn't get the right object."
Stone shifted. "I don't know. I could go and search some more while you stay here with our prize."
Then the Game Master came out to speak with them. "Sorry for the delay. I got held up. You both won. But we'll let the others look for a while longer."
Now that was the fae way.
Lolita finally headed for another stack of hay, and between the bales, she saw Rune and Stone sitting with their treasure beyond the finish line and the Game Master watching over things.
Stone waved the item in the air so that Lolita would see they had it. She ran through the bales of hay to reach them, then jumped all over them in an exuberant way.
They hugged her, and then they all sat together while they waited for the Game Master to signal an end to the game. She finally called it after another hour.
While Rune, Stone, and Lolita had rested, the others had worked hard and walked toward the finish line, looking worn out and disgruntled to see Rune, Stone, and Lolita sitting there with the prize.
The game master smiled. "Rune and Stone won the competition. You may return to your quarters. We'll post the next game on the board for tomorrow."
"I swear they cheat," Xena said.
Vesper agreed.
Then they all headed for the bus that would take them back to their home away from home.
The next day, Game Master said to the competitors in the commons, "We have two more challenges to accomplish before we’re done here and decide who the winner or winners are that will decide the pack leadership.
The next challenge will feature agility, mental acuity, and relay obstacle courses.
You'll be under intense time pressure for each of them.
You'll work in teams. You'll have four on one team and five on another. "
Rune and Stone glanced at each other. Stone wondered how they would split it up this time. He wanted to be on the same team as Rune. It would be the second-to-last challenge while they were here.
"Xena, Vesper, Lolita, Caspian, and Iris will be on one team. Stone, Rune, Silas, and Elon will be on the other team."
Stone was glad that he and Rune were together, and that they didn't have to deal with Xena and Vesper. Any of the other participants would have been welcome.
"The first challenge is rebuilding a geometric pattern with custom wooden blocks.
The first team that accomplishes the mission wins the challenge.
But to get there, you must do a relay race.
You'll take turns crawling under a tarp, jumping over logs, grabbing the puzzle bag, and returning it to your teammate, who will do the same exercise. "
"But we have more team members," Xena whined.
"Some challenges, you may have the advantage. Some, the disadvantage. It just depends on the challenge. It all evens out. We don't want anyone to have to sit out of the game, unless one of you wants to go home to even the teams up," the Game Master said.
No one volunteered to go home!
"Plan to pick who goes first through last on the relay challenge.
Once you finish that, the winning team gets as many minutes as they beat the other team by, starting the next challenge early.
In other words, if the first team comes in within ten minutes of the other team, the first team has a head start on the puzzle challenge of ten minutes. "
"Who is good at relay races?" Stone asked.
"We've never done them before," Rune said.
"We've done them," Silas and Elon said.
"Okay, Silas, you go first," Stone said. "Elon next. Rune?"
"Yeah, I'll go next."
Elon and Silas were fast, which was great.
When Rune grabbed the bag of wooden puzzle pieces, she wasn't as fast as the longer-legged guys, but she gave it her all.
Vesper's team had an extra player, so they would finish last. What Stone hadn't expected was for Caspian and Iris to run so slowly.
Caspian even managed to do a face plant on the return trip, and Vesper and Xena were screaming their heads off at him.
Lolita was last to run the relay on their team, and she ran more slowly, but Stone and his team were already at the puzzle site, working with the wooden blocks.
Neither Rune nor Stone had ever done puzzles, though he figured they could make their way through it. Silas and Elon had placed the blocks in most of the right spots, turned one around, and they were done!
They raced off to the next trial, eager to get started, but they still had the time advantage once they could do it. Meanwhile, it took Vesper's team twenty minutes longer to complete their puzzle.
Between teammates grabbing blocks, putting them in the wrong places, and fighting over where they went, Stone saw Lolita give him and his team a small smile.
He wondered then if Vesper and Xena's team were sabotaging them so they would lose this challenge. If so, Silas had spoken the truth: they didn't want Vesper or Xena to win and rule the packs.
He was glad for that. They hadn’t treated any of the other competitors well, so it was really payback.