Chapter 17: Enter the Hill of Perils!

Do you guys hate early dinners?

Because that’s what happened to us, we were all told to have dinner at five in the evening. I know there will be a few of you folks that do have dinners at early times like at five or six. But you can do so much during those times instead of having dinner.

I remembered that Claude and I were also forced to eat early sometimes when I was at a really young age. My mother would mostly call us to be at the dinning area in the evening, which I would mostly play with balls with Claude at those times. “Come on! Just three more minutes!” I would usually shout these back at her, but they would still refuse to give us those precious three minutes and… boy, I do miss them very much, our whole kingdom does.

Again, I sat with Felix and Aisha, and we were discussing (quietly) about what the final game could be. “Yuck!” Aisha exclaimed as she turned to her right, there were a group of girls sitting together, chatting and laughing at jokes that they told each other. “We have the same meal! How is that…” “Is it wrong?” I asked, “Like, it’s illegal to order the same dish?” Aisha turned back to us, “It’s not wrong! It’s because that it’s so disgustingly weir…”

Her eyes widened as she saw what’s on Felix’s and my trays: a bowl of mushroom stew, two mashed potatoes, a plate full of salad, and a glass of watermelon smoothie; all these items were on both Felix’s and my tray. “So… it’s wrong?” I asked again, Aisha didn’t answer, she just sat there, staring at us as if we were cannibals or something. “Sorry Felix, guess we shouldn’t have ordered the same dishes.” I ‘apologized’ to Felix, “It’s okay dude, so one of us has to order another dish then.” Felix replied.

“Who’s going to do it?” I asked, Felix looked at his watermelon smoothie, and he replied. “Well, I’m not a huge fan of watermelons, and I rarely take mashed potatoes, so I guess I’ll have to go to the counter and order another dish, and we’ll have to find some homeless guy and g-” “Okay!” Aisha yelled, “Just forget it. Now stay on subject guys!”

I don’t understand women, why don’t they like it when another girl owns the same thing or does the same thing as they do? But that doesn’t matter for now. Right now, we will have to think of a plan for the next, a.k.a. the final game. “Wait,” Felix said, “Why do we have to eat our dinners this early?” I stopped slurping my watermelon smoothie, he’s got a point. “That’s strange…” I replied, “Maybe we need more energy for the next game?”

“Maybe, it does have something to do with the next game.” Aisha said, ‘What if, the next game will take one whole night?” Time seemed to stop around us, “One whole night?” Felix asked, “So, what you’re saying is, that we will be playing a game for one, fricking, night?” Aisha nodded nervously, Felix’s eyes started to twitch, “Seriously?! I have plans for the three of us for tonight! And there’s going to be a GAME that will take one night?!!?”

Felix’s ranting must had gotten everyone’s attention, because they were all staring at us. “Dude, you seriously need to calm down.” Aisha said, “I thought that you were hyped for this.” Felix stopped, and turned to Aisha. “I am, I’m just freaking out that we will have to cancel our plans for this!” Both of us stared at him, “What are your ‘plans’?” I asked. Felix sighed, “I have plans that we hang out after the games.” I stood up, and spoke, “Alright guys! Nothing to see here! Alright! Back to your normal businesses please!” The people around us had started to pretend that we didn’t exist, and Felix continued. “I, just had some ideas that we hang out at some café tonight, after the games, but if it takes one night, then we will be too exhausted after the games end, and we won’t get to see each other for another… like what? One and a half months?”

Aisha and I sat there in silence, and who knows what will happen if I didn’t break the silence… “Dude, you know that we can meet each other at any time right?” I said, “We can go to like cafes or anywhere else anytime.” “Yeah, but we can’t find any good topics to talk about there. I felt like we can have a good conversation about the Magician Games after we’re done… and it feels good to talk about it just right after it happened.”

Man, I do feel the same thing, and I bet that Aisha feels the same too. “Hey,” Aisha said, “I don’t think we can do this since it will be late into the night. However, we can still meet up a few days later, right? We’re going to be still fresh from the games and we can still feel excited about it!” Felix seemed to calm down, “Why didn’t I think about that? Gosh, I’m such a dimwit.” Felix said, I pated him on the shoulder. “Don’t worry about it, we can still find something cool to talk about!” Felix started to smile, “Sorry for be-”

The familiar ding rang again. The same man that brought us to the second game came to us again, “The remaining contestants, please follow me to the final game.” He told us.

The final game.

It’s happening, the last game… I don’t know whether I can pass this or not, guess I’ll have to try. We did the same thing: follow the guy, he’ll lead us to the next game, and boom, we’ll have to play the game. This time, the man brought us to a forest, with more huge trees looming over. The forest seemed to go upwards, about two hundred meters in the air. Is this some magic or… wait, this isn’t a forest… it’s a hill covered in a huge forest.

“Welcome.” We looked ahead, and Owen stepped out from the forest. “To your final game.” He sounds more serious this time, and I kind of liked his humorous voice instead of his stern one. “This hill, is a sanctuary for many threatened beasts, big and small.” Owen said, “And it’s called, the Hill of Perils.”

Great, another weird and creepy name. Will the next game be even more horrifying than before? “For your final game, all of you will have to reach the bottom of the hill by tomorrow morning.” Wait, did we hear him correctly? By tomorrow morning?! The sun is already setting now, and Owen said that we will have to reach the bottom by tomorrow? That will take us one entire night! “You will definitely encounter many creatures there, and yes, they will try to kill you.”

Everyone gasped. “Never fear, before the creatures attack, a barrier will appear between you and them, and that will also signify that you are eliminated.” Owen continued. “You can use your Elements to defend yourselves against them, and note this, you can only injure them, and if you were to fatally wound or kill one of these endangered beasts, you are eliminated.”

We all stood in our spots, speechless on what’s going to happen. “Well!” Owen said, in his ‘normal voice’ this time. “Good luck to all of you! And, there will be food and drinks while you’re in there!” Owen tapped his staff, and in a blink of an eye, I found myself in an area surrounded by trees, the same trees from the Hill of Perils.

The games had begun before it even started. Great, I thought. Let’s hope that these creatures aren’t that ferocious…