Playing Fate

Chapter 2: Fated Aptitude Test Part I

This is it, I thought while taking a deep breath. I slowly grabbed the handle and turned the knob, opening the door. I stood at the opening of the door for a while taking in my surroundings. The room was exceedingly wide. Fancied towards the right stood an area with a student desk and multiple papers scattered on it. On the left, were numerous musical instruments, sports equipment, art supplies, gymnast equipment, and many other items for testing talent. Directly in the front sat a single chair suited with a great deal of wires connected to it. I was in a daze from observing the area when I heard a noise behind me; it was the man that had lead me here clearing his throat.

"Are you going to go in, Miss Archer?" his deep voice questioned me.

That got me to snap back in to the real world and I quickly scrambled inside. "Sorry about that," I apologized, smiling shyly. He nodded and closed the door, leaving me alone with only one other person. The lady was standing near the chair in the center of the room and quickly went to work.

She smiled and motioned me to her, "Miss, I need you to sit in this chair and I will hook you up to the wires."

I eyed the contraption suspiciously and inquired, "What is this and what is it going to do to me?" Even while questioning, I still went to sit down.

She laughed as if it was a joke and replied, "This is what we will be using to test your physical ability and your strategy deductibility. I'm going took hook you up to the wires and inject you with sleeping medicine. You will go into a dream-like state and appear in an arena. Don't freak out once you get there because you will be fully aware of what's happening and I have already warned you about it."

I processed what she had told me and pressed on, "So it's like a virtual reality type of place?"

She nodded her head and told me to lie back as she was about to inject me. She took out a rather large needle with a green liquid. "Don't worry with what I'm about to do; it will not hurt for long, just relax and stay still." I nodded and let her take hold of my arm as she started to put the liquid in me. As soon as all the liquid left the needle, I started to feel drowsy. The lady started to tell me something, but I was already nodding off and losing my concentration. The last thing I saw was the lady turning towards a computer near the wall.

--------------------------------------------------------------

I awoke lying down facing a bright, spotless blue sky. I sat up in the middle of a clearing around three acres large with a lush forest growing around everywhere. I rose to my feet trying to make sense of where I was and what was happening. I was panicking and breathing hard, looking around for something familiar, when I spotted a table holding weapons. I cautiously strode over to the stand and examined the items. There were all possible weapons you could think of, ranging from bow and arrows to swords to a handgun. I carefully picked up the bow and studied the item, when I remembered why I was here. The lady told me about this. It's a fitness and skill test, I recalled. But what does this have to do about fitness?

I peered around the area until I noticed a holographic warrior charging toward me waving an ax in the air. I spun around to face the table when I noticed it had disappeared leaving me with just the bow and a quiver of arrows on the ground. I revolved back around to spot that the man was quickly closing in on me. I backed up slowly and bent down to grab the arrows and thought of what to do. I only knew the basics of how to use a bow from a class in school that taught about different kinds of weapons.

I processed what I was going to do right as the man swung the object towards me. I quickly side-stepped the image and knocked the arrow and pulled back, ready to shoot. The holograph swiftly pivoted around and made another attempt to strike me. I tried again to step out of the way but not fast enough, as he managed to make a deep cut on my arm. Searing pain shot up my arm, but I chose to ignore it in order to keep from getting anymore injuries.