Page 71 of Faerie Trials

We were tasked with fashioning a weapon of choice, and once we did, it was on to the tournament. Headmaster Cyrus had given no details about the tasks ahead outside of saying we’d be forced to use every bit of knowledge we’d acquired at school. His words were no help. I felt less and less prepared with each announcement.

I trailed behind Coral at a respectable distance. Her attention was so focused on the goal, I had a feeling she wouldn’t have acknowledged me even if I rode her piggyback-style.

The moment I was relatively sure there was no one around to see it, I transformed. There were no judges here to put a magnifying glass over me, no camera orbs overhead, at least for the moment. I transfigured into something small and unnoticeable but fast.

A fox.

There were plenty of foxes in the forest. I’d seen them from my bedroom window in the castle. I could use the stealth, the eyesight, the senses of the fox body.

The black vixen knew her way around the underbrush. Although Coral was speedy, running faster than the average Fae, I was able to keep up with her. I was the spectator here, not the competition. I was the one waiting and watching and wondering.

The vixen would definitely be able to sense the shifter before he came into view. Although my nerves were on edge, I knew what I had to do, and I kept it in mind.

Save Coral.

She got into plenty of scrapes along the way, I was pleased to note. At one point, she ran too fast and tripped over an exposed tree root, flying forward and landing on her hands and knees. She tripped, she fell, she cursed. I’d say she was just like a regular person but she’d made too much of a point of being pure-blood for the comment to mean anything.

It took her a long time to find the element we’d been tasked with retrieving. Most of the spells she used to locate the material didn’t work, and more often than not Coral was fuming and pulling at her braids as though she wanted to rip out her hair.

Inside the body of the fox, my subconscious gloated. A little. It made me feel a little better seeing her struggle. Not everything came easily to her.Almosteverything, but not all.

The more I watched, the stronger my conviction became. Bitch or not, Coral was skilled, totally adept at magic. She wielded it easily and naturally and with a confidence I wasn’t sure I would ever match. To her it was as easy as breathing. She didn’t worry whether or not she’d pass the Trial. Sheknew.

My gloating subsided.

The element Cyrus and the judges wanted us to find turned out to be a gemstone with a metallic glint on its surface. Coral finally used the right spell and after several hours of searching I watched the small stone jettison out of the earth’s surface and into her open palm.

Oh,wow.

She clutched the stone to her chest, raising her face to the sky with a slight whoop of excitement. Then, she looked much younger than her years. There was a lightheartedness to her I’d never seen before.

It was hard not to admire her right then. I hated admitting it, especially when her smile turned smug as she stared at the stone, but Coral had the skills to back up her claims of being the best. Despite falling on her face and nearly breaking her arm at one point, she’d done it, and quickly. A few hours seemed like nothing now that she’d found the stone.

She tucked it into the pocket of her leggings, and then took a moment to stretch her arms overhead and do a little celebratory dance, her excitement clear. I glanced down at the moss-covered area where she’d called up the mineral. Did I have time to try a spell and grab a piece for myself, too?

I’d better, or else I’d have no hope of making it through today.

I lost sight of Coral for two minutes. Two minutes after she left the clearing while I transformed and called up my magic. Another minute trying to get the spell to work and faltering when it didn’t produce immediate results.

Yeah, this was why everyone else made fun of me. As a halfling, they already thought me less-than, and when I began to fail my classes, it only cemented their view of me.

I struggled to block out those negative thoughts, closing my eyes and centering myself as I tried the spell again.

No time to waste.

The spell worked the second time around. A second stone flew out of the ground and smacked me on the cheek.

“Ouch!”

I blinked against the sting. It was much smaller than the stone Coral managed to gather. With luck, I’d be able to fashion a small dagger at best. What kind of damage could I hope to do with a little needle?

Hopefully it would be enough.

I bagged the stone, tucking it into my backpack before shifting into fox form again. The magical toll it took was much smaller than the first few times I’d tried to transform. Living, breathing organisms were much easier to hold and maintain than wood or stone or steel. Then again, I’d been trying to become one with the walls of a castle. Turns out I should have died.

At least, according to Onyx I should have died.

It made becoming the fox a small win for me. I trotted off after Coral with a yip, ignoring everything else in my surroundings to focus on her.

---