Chapter 28: Hermia’s Trial
“I’ve never understood all that silly exercise business,” said Korrigan, “It’s so totally overblown. If you look after your body you don’t need to prepare it for anything!”
“You’re. Just. Lucky.” Hermia grunted between push-ups.
Once she was finished the three girls gathered at the starting line. Ceres pulled an old pocket-watch and plastic whistle out of her patchwork jacket.
“Al’right, on the first whistle you get ready,” she said, “On the second, you go. Got it?”
Phantasia nodded. Hermia and Korrigan were hunched close the ground, like animals ready to pounce on unsuspecting prey, so she copied their stance as best she could. At the first whistle, the human girls lifted themselves up on their fingertips. On the second they bolted. Phantasia almost propelled herself forward with inhuman agility, but held her instincts back and stumbled into a simple jog.
The two girls were ahead from the start, feet gliding across the dirt with practised precision. It would be easy for Phantasia to run through the air, unobstructed by the roots and pits littering the path like intentional traps, but she knew Horatio was watching from above with eagle eyes focused on her alone. Ahead, both girls leapt in unison and grabbed their tags from a low-hanging branch – a simple obstacle that wouldn’t defeat even the laziest of students, though Phantasia had an image of Chris or Lance trying to show off and face-planting into the tree instead.
The second obstacle was a series of hurdles built from fallen branches. The uneven ground made timing the jumps difficult and Hermia had trouble navigating a short downward slope, giving Korrigan the lead. When Phantasia grabbed her second tag, the gap between her and Hermia stood at a few metres. After the next obstacle – a bold leap across a small stream, with the tag suspended above – the distance had closed further. Up ahead, however, Korrigan was struggling to climb one of the ladders leading to a platform high in the trees. Hermia passed her on the way up and bounded across hanging platforms with little concern for her own safety, claiming another tag and taking the lead. Phantasia and Korrigan approached the platforms together, but the blonde girl stepped back and allowed Phantasia to pass. In a few long strides, she cleared the trial and twisted around the tree-top platforms to reach her next target. As Hermia was writhing around as she tried to untangle herself from an oversized net, Phantasia grabbed a rope and swung herself into the entangling mesh. Korrigan was right behind her, but once again she had difficulty climbing. Phantasia was the first to grab the fifth tag, but her lead was short lived.
Tags six was at the end of a short zip line. Phantasia struggled with the crude instructions nailed to the tree on how to attach the required harness. In the end, she shrugged it off and improvised only for the harness to come loose the moment she propelled herself forwards. It took both luck and a little bit of faerie talent to make it appear to Horatio and her competitors that everything was fine, and she was so engrossed in putting on such a good display that she almost crashed into the ground at the far end of the line. She righted herself before the others reached land, then grabbed her tag and pushed onwards towards the next obstacle.
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