Hidden Beast

24. The Trick

Jasper

Frantically I tried to come up with a plan to lure the three guards away from the chest that supposedly contained the heart shaped ruby.

Suddenly at twig snapped behind me and the leaves rustled making me whirl around. I came face to face with a girl, one of the competitors.

She looked to be disgusted by the forest but I just worriedly looked at the guards to see if they had noticed us, they hadn't. An idea popped into my head.

Could I manipulate her? It wasn't against the rules right? I could hypnotise a rival but not a game-leader or what they were called?

As I didn't have any other idea I decided to take the risk and hypnotize her.

She stared wide eyed at me but I just walked to her and fixed my face into one of worry.

"You okay?" I whispered to her and laid one hand on her shoulder, touching her bare skin on her neck. Skin contact was needed for my powers to work.

She nodded "I need to-" she said but stopped mid-sentence as I gazed into her eyes to strengthen my power and take control.

When I were sure she was under my control I leaned to her and whispered "Hide in the bushes, make the guards notice you but not see you" I said. "Make sure they are chasing you and run away, try not to get caught" I whispered to her.

She nodded slowly as she were caught in the trance and I snapped my fingers in front of her making her dull eyes focus when she returned to reality.

"What are you-" she began angrily but I just shook my head and pushed her away. "Just do it" I said and returned to my hiding place and waited.

I heard her various steps on the forest floor as she obeyed my command, she couldn't struggle and she probably didn't knew why she were doing this. She probably just felt like she needed to do it, like someone had told her it was important to do.

After some time I looked up from my place just in time for the three guards to turn their heads to the other side of the glade.

One guard broke from his position and began walking to the place the girl probably were with various steps.

Suddenly twigs snap and leaves rustled as she began running, the guard began chasing after her and one of the other guards followed him into the forest after the girl.

The third guard stayed posted by the wooden chest but his eyes strayed to the place were the other guards had disappeared.

Clearly he wanted to follow them and take up the hunt, he probably thought it was boring to guard a chest waiting for a tingling to try and take a little ruby from him.

Well I couldn't trick all the guards but it would be easier to take down one guard alone than take down more.

I looked around me to find something that maybe could help, the guard had a sword at his waist and I had nothing.

It would be stupid to go out there and fight empty handed against a highly trained guard with a sword.

My eyes stuck to a stone and I picked it up. Maybe I could get in a perfect hit and knock him down in one blow before he could react?

I weighed the stone in my hand and threw it up in the air and catching it again. My hand closed around the slightly rounded stone small enough to fit into my hand.

I stepped forward from behind the tree but the trees in front held my figure shadowed. If he liked in this direction he would probably discover me but his gaze didn't stray in this direction thankfully.

Bringing my hand back I aimed at a special spot at his head and took a deep breath before I threw the stone.

It sailed in the air and hit the unknowing guard right in the head. As the guard sailed to the ground in an unconscious heap I shoot from my place by the treeline and almost tripped over my own feet in the rush to the chest.

I took a step over the still guard and opened the chest, I winced as it creaked open and hoped no one had heard it.

How long did I have before the other guards returned? My hand closed around the only object in the box, the heart shaped ruby and I turned and ran.

The chest slammed close behind me and I winced again by the loud sound it made but I didn't stop running.

Now I only ran in a random direction not really bothering about running to the castle but focusing on leaving as much pace between me and the glade as possible.

After what seemed as hours of running for my life I slowed down and looked at my surroundings. The forest looked exactly like it had before and I had no idea where the castle were.

I continued forward and hoped I hadn't been running in circles. After some time I saw something moving and saw another competitor.

This time it was a boy and he were ducked behind a small Bush with his eyes locked on something in from of him.

I knocked on his shoulder and he almost jumped out of his skin. He stared at me in a quiet scream and he almost looked accusingly at me making me blush deep red. I can't believe I'm doing this.

"What?" he asked clearly annoyed with me. "Umm.." I said blushing beet red and swithed on my feet as I averted my gaze to the forest floor.

"You know where the castle is?" I asked and he sighed. When I looked up at him again he stared at me like I was an idiot "That way, now leave" he said as he pointed in a completely different direction I were heading.

I nodded and hurried away, at least inherent going back so that meant haven't been going in circles. Thankfully he had helped me instead of refused as we were competing against each other.

Then I realized something that made me stop in my tracks, what if he pointed out the wrong way so I would loose? Maybe he hadn't been helping me at all.

I sighed and continued in that direction anyway, I didn't have any other way to go anyway.

After what felt like an eternity the trees began clearing up and the forest seemed to end. When I left the treeline I found the enormous castle wall of stone and countless of guards stood posted around.

The king and other important people stood there and waited for me, it seemed like the boy hadn't lead me wrong after all.

My eyes locked with the captains and she looked at me with her eyebrows furrowed. Beside her stood some other people, other competitors that were already done.

To my surprise it was less than ten of them, that meant my place was secured. I had been in top ten of almost forty competitors.

I felt proud of myself and held up the heart shaped ruby with a big smile without even feeling embarrassed and uncertain by all the attention I got.

The captains lips pulled into a bright smile as I stopped in front of her and placed the ruby in her out stretched arm.

She looked down at me and then met my ayes again with her brown tinkling ones.

"The heart shaped ruby" she said. "You found it, god job. You can be proud of yourself to be the seventh to return out of thirtynine" she said and my smirk didn't fade on a long time after that.