"Is it bad for me to say I'm a little nervous?" I turned to Hunter, who was fixing his fingerless gloves. He finished strapping them on before coming up to me and placing his hands on my cheeks.
"We will be fine. I'm rather confident we'll pass this, no problem." He grinned.
I giggled. "You're just excited you got to be partnered up with me first," I hummed and he chuckled.
"Yes, that too. You okay now? You looked really exhausted this morning," Hunter pointed out.
"Ya, I feel a lot better. Caio whipped me up a nice bath with some aromatherapy things and it was SO relaxing. Maybe I'm sleeping too much?" I pondered.
We were currently standing on the platform of our first trial. It was in a remote area and the platform was 500 feet from a body of water. Neither of us knew what the purpose of the trial was or how it was related to Forsaken. The only hint we were given was “Stop The Cycle.”
We were given special uniforms to wear for our exams, so I was currently wearing gold shorts with pink trim, a pink t-shirt, and pink combat boots. We were still required to wear our long cloak vests. My hair was in one of Orion's hair ties after I'd complained I didn't want to deal with it getting in the way.
Hunter was in gold shorts that reached his knees, an orange shirt, his gold vest, and a pair of black boots. His hair was also up in a ponytail. Both of us wore gloves, his being orange while mine were pink.
We waited patiently for the siren that would signal the beginning of the trial. This was the first out of five and would last fifteen minutes or stop if the team passed or failed before that time.
No one would be able to see the challenge and it would be reviewed by the professors and headmaster in private. The professor in charge was given the rights to pass or fail a student right away, but it would still be reviewed by the panel of professors to ensure the win or loss was fair and accurate. This eliminated any potential of favoritism or professors being biased.
The others were at home, waiting for us to text them the results when we were finished. Though, it all depended on if we finished unharmed or not. I would at least do my best to stay positive.
I was still a bundle of nerves, not because I didn't believe myself, but because of the pressure of screwing up. Of course, we'd worked together during the entrance exam, but this was an official test that if I didn't meet the requirement in time, would affect everyone on the team. The pressure of disappointing the guys was what scared me the most. We'd been through so much together and I didn't want to let them down.
Hunter's hand lifted my chin up and I stared into his eyes, which were filled with determination.
"We will do just fine. I have confidence in you, Cutie Pie. Stop thinking you're not enough. You're strong, a quick thinker, and are more than capable of completing a trial. You're here because of all those amazing qualities and more, and I am very proud to stand next to you right now. We'll represent Team Misfit and prove that being different has benefits that no one can beat,” he encouraged, then leaned in to whisper in my ear. "And we have a lot more fun." He quickly kissed my neck.
"Hey?! There are cameras. What if Father sees?" I pointed out.
Hunter grinned, shrugging. "Don't care. Now that you mention it, though, I'm gonna make this a tradition. We have to kiss you before each trial starts,” he declared proudly.
"Oh c'mon. You wouldn't da-"
He grinned and I immediately put my hands up in a cross to ward him off. "No."
He chuckled and sighed. "Ah, Celestia. You aren't being any fun right now."
"Finn's rubbing off on you too much. He's rubbing off on Orion too," I pointed out.
Hunter chuckled. "Finn rubs off on everyone. Helps make situations that are intense like these calmer. I agree, he is rubbing off on Orion. I approve of that, though." He winked.
I grinned, nodding my head. "Me too. Thanks, Hunter.” I took a step closer to give him a hug. He hugged me back, taking a deep inhale, as if memorizing the lingering scent of my lily and lavender scented shampoo that the twins had gotten for me this weekend when they went into town.
"You’re welcome, Celestia. We'll do just fine,” he reassured me, which helped me shake off the last bits of anxiety, replacing them with the motivation to do well in this trial.
An intercom sound went off, followed by a voice. "Good morning and welcome to the trials. All new recruits have been accounted for and placed in their designated stations throughout Aslan. We will only relay this message once, so please listen closely. The trials are to put you and your skills to the test. It will challenge your quick thinking, knowledge, combat and magic skills, and in some scenarios, your emotional balance. You may shift into your animal forms if needed. For this trial, no weapons or familiars are allowed. Other trials will state if they will be allowed ahead of time. When the siren goes off, the trial will begin. The remaining time will be magically displayed on the back of your hands. If in a scenario you lose your hand in battle, the timer will be moved towards your feet, or to other body parts that are easily visible. If you lose your eyesight, the remaining time will be announced verbally each minute," the voice declared.
Lose...body parts?! I glanced at Hunter who wasn’t able to hide his surprise.
We shared a look before the voice continued. "The goal of these trials is not to break you, but to make you stronger. What lies ahead in a hunter or huntress' career is not butterflies and rainbows. It consists of hard work, determination, and perseverance. Some of you will break, others will fall, and some may even lose their life. We want to find those that, no matter what is put in their path, will fight to conquer the obstacle, whether it was planned or not. I wish you all the best, and if you do die during the trials, we reassure you that your families will be notified and your bodies will be returned to your designated realms with funeral costs covered. Best of luck, new recruits. The trials will begin momentarily." The voice finished and the intercom clicked off.
We were both silent for a long moment. I had to take a second to process all the information the neutral voice had just spilled. A part of me was afraid, but the stronger part was ready for the challenge. I'd worked so hard to stand here, and I bet the others had too. I wasn’t afraid of death. What I was scared of was failure and didn’t want to experience it.
"Celestia," Hunter whispered. I looked up to him in time for a quick kiss on the lips. I was momentarily stunned, a bit surprised by the sudden move.
He pulled back and smiled. "Whatever happens, we can do this. Don't be scared and let's show them that we deserve to be here."
I smiled and nodded. "Okay," I replied, blushing slightly. "And you kissed me, silly."
He smirked, clearly pleased that he’d ignored my original statement to not kiss me on camera. "I'll give you another one when we win." He winked, lifting his hand up and presenting it to me. I smirked, placing my hand in his. Then we stood straight, waiting for the trial to begin.
After about ten seconds, the siren sounded off, signaling that the trial had started. Hunter and I lifted our free hands and noticed the magic digital clock appear on the back of each of them. 15:00 glared at us in gold numbers, then began to countdown.
We waited, my eyes scanning around the little platform. White clouds passed by above us and the blue sky was beautiful as ever, and the sea below was calm. We continued to wait till a full minute passed, at which point we were both confused.
"Isn't something supposed to happen?" I asked Hunter, who grimaced.
"Ya. It should. I asked my mom about it this weekend and she said the trials change so often she couldn't even give me a scenario to help explain it better. You basically just have to expect that anything can happen at any point," he warned.
We continued to wait, still holding hands as we began to walk around the square platform. "Um. There has to be something we're missing," I mumbled, trying to figure it out.
"I don't sense anything here. Not even any animals right now. It's just nature. What are we supposed to do?" Hunter muttered, looking deep in thought.
I slipped my hand out of his and lifted my hands up to fix my ponytail. "Maybe there's a trig-"
My eyes went wide as the section of the platform beneath my feet vanished and I began to fall, prompting a shriek to escape me.
"CELESTIA!" Hunter called out, his figure getting smaller and smaller as I descended towards the water. SHIT!!!!
I noticed Hunter jump off the platform, and I decided to try to slow my fall with magic. I lifted my hands, quickly envisioning a whirlpool of wind to catch me. "WINDWHIRLA!" I declared, feeling the magic at my fingertips, but nothing happened. What the flying fuck?!
I could hear Hunter shouting while his hands were in front of him, like he too, was trying to conduct a spell but it wasn't working. No magic?! Dammit, I can't fucking fly.
This was one of those moments when I really wished I could be an alicorn, so I had wings too. I quickly looked over my shoulder, realizing in seconds I would crash into the water. I took a deep breath, looking back up a Hunter, who appeared like he was about to take a deep breath.
I crashed into the blue sea, the impact almost forcing the air from my lungs, but I managed to hold it in. My body didn't slow down as it submerged deeper and deeper into the dark ocean. I quickly scanned my surroundings, realizing there was nothing but water to be seen. No fish or plants, just clear water that grew darker and darker as I plunged deeper into the depths of the cold ocean.
I looked up and saw Hunter had plunged into the water; his face scrunched in pain from the impact but that didn’t seem to slow him down. He tried to kick his legs to get closer to me, but our surroundings became so dark I could no longer see him.
I closed my eyes, realizing I would need air soon, but tried to keep calm. Think, Celestia, think. How are we supposed to stop the cycle?
I tried to come up with something but was shocked out of my thoughts when I felt my body somehow fall out of the water. My eyes snapped open and I cried out when I landed on my back. I coughed, trying to take in air while scrambling to my feet. I quickly scanned the area, realizing I was back on the square platform. I crawled to the edge, looking over the lip of the platform, seeing the peaceful scenery of the calm sea below. I looked up at the sky above, seeing the clouds floating slowly in the bright blue sky.
"What. The. Fuck?" I breathed before I heard and felt the slam of something else hitting the platform. I whipped my head, looking over my shoulder. Hunter was at the other side of the platform, coughing and trying to recover from the rough landing.
"What the fuck?” he groaned, rolling on his stomach; his eyes quickly landed on me.
"That's what she said," I mumbled and he huffed.
"I love how we're dealing with some messed up trial thing and you’re still here making a joke,” he praised.
"You okay?" I asked, beginning to crawl towards him.
"Just barely. What just happened?"
"I have no clue," I replied, lifting my hand to see five minutes had already passed. "Shit! We only have ten minutes left!"
I tried to get up, but flinched; my back was killing me. "Ow.”
"Did you hurt your back?" Hunter asked, watching as I moved carefully.
"Maybe. I guess it wasn't smart to plunge 500 feet with your back facing the water," I huffed.
Hunter rose up, needing a second to steady himself to keep from losing his balance. Then he began walking towards me. I reached out my hand to him, but a second later, he was again looking down at me from the platform while my body began round two, plunging down to the sea below. OH C’MON!
I gritted my teeth, trying to see if there had been a change in the environment as I continued to plunge towards the water. I looked up to see Hunter had jumped after me, and was a lot closer to me than the first time, tucking his arms against the sides of his body to increase his speed. I realized quickly he still wouldn't make it in time before I plunged into the water and that my back wouldn't be able to handle another harsh impact. I quickly turned so my back faced Hunter and put my hands out into diver position.
I took a deep breath and BOOM! I was in the water, sinking deeper with every passing moment at the same pace as the last time, but my eyes caught something that made them grow wide in fear.
Sharks. Not ordinary sharks. Massive ones that looked like they could swallow a group of twenty people whole in one go. There wasn't just one or ten of them, but at least fifty watching us sink into the deep sea. Their red eyes made my heart practically stop.
We won't make it the third time. I was slowly putting the pieces together. The cycle started when I let go of Hunter's hand. Then the platform would disappear, we’d fall into the water, and boom, then back on the platform. We couldn’t use magic meaning we had to use our shifter animal somehow. Each fall took a full five minutes and we only had ten minutes before this last one, so now if I reached the platform, we'd have less than five minutes or one more cycle at that point. If we crashed into the water, the sharks would eat us and if we somehow survived that, we'll fail the moment we reached the platform...or whatever was left of us at that point.
I looked up to Hunter, whose eyes were wide, seeing all the sharks watch us as we sped past. His eyes met mine and I lifted my hand, pointing to the magical time display before gesturing that we needed to hold hands when we reached the top.
I did the hand gesture twice before the light bulb seemed to click. He quickly nodded, right before my surroundings went completely dark.
In seconds, my body slammed into the platform again. I coughed, the pain almost crippling. I tried to get up, but I was struggling. My body hurt so much it was seriously difficult for me to do anything but just lie there.
"Fuck.." I cursed, slowly trying again to scramble to my hands and knees. Another loud noise was heard on the other side of the platform and then I could hear Hunter coughing.
"Celestia! I have to hold your hand?" Hunter questioned, struggling to recover just as I was, but already crawling towards me despite his injuries.
"There are three cycles. We just went through two of them. Either you grab my hand or you’re going to have to shift, Hunter. I can't move and I can't fly. If we hit the water, we're shark food and if we survive somehow, we’ll fail due to running out of time," I explained quickly, my desperate eyes meeting his. I saw the conflict in his orange orbs, the thought of him shifting and having to deal with those anxieties pained me, but if he didn't crawl faster and I couldn't move my body, we were going to fall soon and be doomed for failure.
I pressed my lips together to muffle the whimper that tried to escape. I slowly began to drag myself towards Hunter, who had made it to the halfway point of the platform. I quickly glance at the digital clock: 4:55 and counting down. My gut was telling me we only had five seconds before we fell, so I pushed faster to try to reach Hunter who was so close. He held out his hand to me while supporting himself on his knees and free arm. I reached out, our fingertips brushing when the platform beneath me vanished.
I shrieked, closing my eyes and waiting for the falling sensation to begin once again, but a hand held mine and my body hung off what was left of the platform. I opened my eyes to see Hunter's frightened expression.
"I got you, Cutie Pie,” he said through gritted teeth. I breathed a sigh of relief, blinking back tears as he slowly pulled me up and into his arms. He held me tightly and I trembled in his hold, both of us making sure we were still holding hands.
"Did we win?" I asked.
"I think s-" Hunter began, but we both screamed as the platform disappeared. We plummeted towards the sea full of sharks. FUCK, FUCK, FUCK!
"HUNTER!" I screamed, realizing he'd have to shift. My voice was filled with fear as we began to drift apart. Hunter reached out and gripped my other hand. We tried to slow our descent, but it was no use.
I looked around us as the wind picked up. The clouds shifted to grey, thunder and lightning appearing out of nowhere as rain and high winds hit us with shocking force.
"CELESTIA...I..." Hunter shouted over the wind. I met his wide eyes, fear lacing their beautiful orange depths. He's scared to shift. He doesn't want to relive those memories.
I swallowed hard, realizing that I didn't have the heart to force him to shift, even if our lives depended on it. Maybe there was another way to save ourselves.
"It's okay," I replied with a small smile. The regret that blossomed on his face made me so sad. The winds got stronger and more fierce to the point that it was hard to keep our hold on each other. I swallowed, using all my strength to pull myself close enough to give Hunter one last kiss.
If we died right now, I wanted him to know I loved him.
I loved all of the guys, but I hoped the simple kiss would make it so he didn’t regret this moment.
I didn't want him to die blaming himself. It wasn't his fault that life left scars and wounds after knocking us down with challenge after challenge.
Whether it was the death of a friend or family member, or the scars left by bullies who wanted nothing but to shame us till we slit our wrists and begged for death, the wounds that lingered and bruised our lives weren’t because we were weak.
It was because we were strong enough to fight and move forward. We were willing to take our pain and let it motivate us to try again, even if it meant we were no longer at 100% like we used to be. That was something I was okay with, even in this moment when we were at the brink of death. I wouldn't die hating him.
I'd die loving the man who survived the war this life had forced on him.
A gust of wind hit us, strong enough to break us apart.
"CELESTIA!" Hunter screamed and I tried to respond, but the wind was whipping my body left and right, like a rag doll fluttering aimlessly to the sea below. I opened my eyes to try and figure out how close I was to the sea's surface and saw the sharks wide jaws filled with sharp rows of teeth, waiting for my body to crash either into the ocean or directly into one of their mouths.
I closed my tear-filled eyes, bracing myself for my painful death. I thought about my mom and dad, wishing things had been different and we could have spent more time together as a family. I thought about Magnor and all he'd done for me, saving me from my own demons and raising me like his own daughter.
I thought about Arielle and that fateful night when I found her in the pouring rain. I wondered if she'd be able to live without me. I hoped if she couldn't sustain herself after my passing, she'd find a new Mistress to support her. I thought about all the guys and how they had changed my world for the better in such a short period of time.
They had made me realize how amazing life could be with the right people in your life and Team Misfit had helped me learn to love the person I'd grown up into. I'd found a group of people who loved me, professors who wanted the best for us, and had at least tried my best to become a huntress.
With only seconds left before my death, my only regret was not having loved harder. I wished I'd been able to show the others more passion and work harder to learn more about all of my men. I just hoped with our approaching death, that they wouldn't let the grief of our passing kill them.
I took a final breath, letting my mind drift in hopes the darkness would take me before the pain of sharp teeth puncturing my body overtook me. But suddenly, something wrapped around my waist, stopping my downward movement immediately. I groaned at the whiplash effect of the sudden stalled movement. I opened my eyes to see large gold talons wrapped around my body. I was few feet away from the sharks, which began to chomp and some even tried to jump to reach me but I was still too far out.
A loud ear-piercing screech filled the air, slicing through the high winds and harsh rain that poured down on us. I lifted my head, using as much as my concentration as I could to try and ignore the pain; I saw a large phoenix.
"Hu...nter," I whispered in awe as tears rolled down my cheeks. He was absolutely stunning. His large flaming wings extended out, the vibrant colors of orange, reds, gold, and green burning furiously, even with the onslaught of rain that attempted to extinguish his flame.
His beak was gold and he screeched again, flapping his wings once, which sent an onslaught of wind to the sharks below. He lifted us up, avoiding the waves of wind coming left and right.
He took a deep breath, and magic circles began to appear up in the sky, one after another, until there was a row of large orange magic circles above us. With a loud screech, the magic circles activated, initiating beams of fire that shot out, straight into the sea of sharks. The combined eerie noise of their anguish hurt my ears. The sharks burned, the powerful beams of fire so strong that it looked like the water did nothing to stop its rage.
I felt too weak to keep my head looking up at the sky, but was strong enough to lift my hand to see the time: 59 seconds left.
Hunter soared through the air, the winds already beginning to diminish and the rain slowly came to a stop. By the time we reached 500 feet, the scenery was as it had been when we started and the platform was once again in the place it began, as if it had never vanished multiple times. Hunter lowered me to the ground, laying me on my front before slowly turning me so I rested on my back.
I opened my weak eyes, looking at his glorious form. His head lowered so I could stare into his mesmorizing orange eyes which held hints of gold, orange, and green. I lifted my hand which trembled, reaching up to touch his flaming cheek. I had no doubt in my mind that his flames wouldn't hurt me. I gave him a small smile as he lowered his head so I didn't need to stretch my hand all the way, brushing his warm cheek against my hand.
"Hunter."
"Bru," he replied and I giggled.
"You sound like Arielle."
"Bru-Raru,” he huffed, fluttering his feathers, which began to return to normal, his flames extinguishing in seconds. His feathers were lovely mixtures of golds, reds, and hints of green, and his size just amazed me, being at least three times as big as Arielle, which was a little scary but still super cool.
"You're really handsome,” I whispered, lowering my hand. He leaned his large head to rest against the side of mine, the warmth of his feathers rather comforting. I watched as his body was immersed in white light and shrank in size until only the glowing silhouette of Hunter’s human form remained.
The light faded and his naked self appeared, his head resting on my shoulder as he tried to catch his breath. He was already shivering. I frowned, hoping he wasn't cold. I snapped my fingers, mentally casting a spell, hoping it would work. Warmthana.
A cloak of thick wool appeared above his body, lowering slowly to cover him. He slowly lifted his head, his weak eyes meeting mine as tears pooled in them. I smiled, trying to ignore the stinging in my own eyes as I tried to give him the best smile I could muster.
"I guess magic works again," I whispered, hoping it would cheer him up. He smiled, a tear rolling down his face. The next fell down to land on my cheek. I lifted my hand once again to brush his cheek that was beginning to grow red as he choked out a sob.
"Don't cry, Hunter," I begged and he nodded, sliding his arms around me and holding me tightly.
He sobbed into my shoulder and I silently cried my own tears, sad that he was hurting. I knew our time was up, and was only waiting to hear the results.
The siren went off and I had no clue what it meant, but my consciousness wouldn't let me stay around to find out, already beginning to drift. The last thing I heard was the intercom turn on, the voice from before saying one word.
"Passed."