Rooming with the Wicked

26 | sneaky

The referee stood next to the two giants when we emerged from the tent. Their conversation ceased, and he bent down to pick a large black bag up and motioned for us to come over. The giants nodded a brief greeting at us before walking into the dense forest, spears lowered leisurely in one hand.

"Here," the ref said, holding out a short bright red pipe.

My hand closed around it and I realized what it was. A flare.

"This is your emergency signal," he explained after handing each of my teammates one too. "If you find yourself unable to continue playing, tear the top off. You don't need to hold it up or anything, these are bright enough to spot from a mile away, even through dense vegetation. We've got a dozen referees patrolling the skies, so expect someone at your location fairly soon."

Reassuring.

"Please," he sighed, "I can't stress this enough—please use it before you pass out. We've had to send out entire search parties for three days because some idiot didn't wanna forfeit. Don't be that idiot. Please." His hand disappeared inside the bag once more, and a moment later he was holding a bright blue glowing rectangular flag. He opened his mouth to speak, but I beat him to it.

"Are these made from lux crystals?" I asked.

"Lux crystal dust and energy crystal fragments," he said. "Each flag is slightly different in color and we're able to track their locations thanks to the energy crystal shards."

While that was, again, reassuring in a way, it also made keeping them away from the other teams just a tad more difficult.

"Remember, flags need to be visible and out in the open," he continued. "No burying them or hiding them underground."

That answered one of my questions.

"Who's taking—"

"I got it," Jaydis cut in, snatching the flag from the bemused referee.

The naiad checked a small device attached to a string around his neck and sighed, "You've got two minutes. Best of luck." With that, he retreated to an uncomfortable-looking camping chair outside the tent, retrieved a magazine, and started flipping through the pages.

"The giants," I started, "are they refs too?"

Kenas shook his head. "No, they're here to guard the border to make sure no one decides to go for a little trip around Ardua."

"Wait, has that happened in the past?"

"Let's just say, tensions are a little high right now..."

Right, of course. It hadn't even been two weeks since the mining incident. Maybe that had something to do with them suddenly deciding to change the location too.

Another horn sounded, much louder this time, and then we were off. Jaydis took the lead, closely followed by Kenas and Syn, and finally—with a little more distance—me. Haze insisted on taking the rear for now, saying he didn't want to be blamed in case I got left behind. Funny.

Thanks to Swiftness, I was able to keep up with the others at a steady jog without having to catch my breath. Sure, I could have done a little cardio training before this whole thing, but priorities.

I fell behind some when the climb up a rocky hill became a little too steep. Syn, not yet in panther form, kept me company while the others spread and scouted ahead. When Haze joined us, I couldn't help but notice his lack of equipment. I would have bet my last dew juice that the sword would be slung over his shoulder tonight, but he was empty-handed.

Admittedly, he could be quick when he wanted to be, and judging by how he'd balanced Jaydis' sticky moss jar, he seemed quite agile. Still...

"What are you looking at me for?" Haze asked, eyes narrowed in what could only be suspicion.