Belief Extraordinary

Better

Sarah turned and bolted towards the jungle, but she was far too slow to outrun Felix's much longer stride. He caught her easily by the arm, laughing over her protests. This day is not off to a good start. She thought grumpily. She struggled against Felix's grip, but quieted when he suggested she could be carried if she objected to being led by the arm so much. "I hate you so much." She told him sulkily, and he laughed. "Why even bother with the conversation if you were just going to grab me anyway?" He was pushing her out of camp now, to where she had no idea. For a free-for-all game, he walked with an astonishing lack of concern or urgency. Perhaps he knew the other boys feared him, and were unlikely to try and challenge him one-on-one. If that's the case, she mused idly, they might as well call the game for Felix now.

"Maybe I wanted to see if you could figure it out for yourself." He remarked. "But you were too slow, and I got bored waiting." She growled in response.

"You can't keep any eye on me the whole game." Felix glanced down at her, amused. "Not if you want to capture other flags." If he wanted to win, he'd have to leave her unguarded at some point. Otherwise he'd just be waiting for Lost Boys to come to him, and that seemed unlikely given his reputation.

"Who says I want to capture other flags?" He drawled. Sarah glared up at him.

"I'm pretty sure that's how you win the game." She told him irately. She added in a grumble, "Of course, I was pretty sure the game hadn't started yet, so what do I know?"

"Not a thing, little bird." Felix answered her lightly. "Not a thing about anything." Alright, that was it. She dropped her weight to the ground, bringing the both of them to a sudden stop with her arm swinging above her in Felix's grasp. He looked down, mildly annoyed, at his now seated captive and narrowed his eyes. "Do you really want to do this the hard way?" He threatened. She answered with narrowed eyes of her own, setting her jaw in a defiant stare. "Suit yourself."

If she had thought being carried through the jungle was unpleasant, being dragged through the jungle was even more so. It took several attempts, but before long she had scrambled and stumbled to her feet again, spitting out leaves and dirt. This is just embarrassing, she admonished herself. Yesterday you won the game, and now you're barely even putting up a fight. Yesterday, she'd known she was playing. And she'd at least started with a weapon, even if both of them had been taken from her by the end of the day. She wished now that she'd taken the time to imagine another knife for herself before she got up this morning. She blinked. Sarah, you idiot. A slow smile crept onto her face as she closed her eyes, trusting Felix's guidance for the moment while she pictured a long, straight dagger in the hand of her unheld arm. It was a simple thing, but strong and sharp, unadorned steel with a stout iron handle. She could feel its heft, and a sense of elation filled her as she opened her eyes.

The normally unflappable Felix was more than a little surprised when his previously unarmed captive whirled around and held a dagger to his throat. Sarah grinned to see his eyes go wide, feeling a surge of power at this small victory over her number two foe. "Where did – " he paused, seeing for the first time the flicker of something dark behind Sarah's eyes. That was unusual, though not as unusual as a dagger that appeared out of nowhere, without even a stick to transform itself from. Food was one thing, but believing functional objects into being was quite another – it normally took newcomers a long time to pick up the skill, if they ever did, and even then they ordinarily needed a tangible, similar object to help them along. Pan, however, could do it with ease. Pan, with shadows that swirled in his eyes, had never had any trouble believing.

Felix watched Sarah carefully over the dagger, his face retreating to its more typical calm demeanour. Perhaps there was something to Pan's latest obsession after all. A slow smile slid onto his face. "Flag to Team Sarah." He said lightly. Things had just gotten a great deal more interesting. Sarah looked surprised at first, but then nodded. Clearly she hadn't expected him to accede.