Wolf at Heart

Chapter Forty Two: Another Perspective

Sora sent me another look. Calm down.

"The prize for winning the competition is a meeting with the Serpentine leader with your choice to whom you invite. The maximum number who can attend with the winner is five, so that's clear. One of us has to win the competition and invite the others. Then we ask if the Serpentine know where the Earth's Chosen is," Ash explained.

"It won't be as easy as it looks," Sora added. "I've seen the competitions. It's intense and they change the goal each year. No one knows how the competition will be carried out until the day of."

"So basically," Melody said, "We need to prepare as much as possible until the competition while looking for the thief and Chosen if possible."

I nodded, eager to be out of here. To carry out my plan. "Alright, it's settled. We can train on our own and win the competition. When is it?"

Ash dug a slip of paper out of his pocket. "It starts in three days. That gives us about less than half a month until the Predators attack again. The competition is due to last for about two to four days."

"Close, but we'll make it in time," Sora said, flipping her hair over her shoulder with a smug smile. "Easy."

Yeah. Easy.

Except I wasn't going to be training.

No, I was going to be laying out my plan. Leave training to the others, they can do the hard work.

I had more important things to be doing than training for a lousy competition.

I had revenge to carry out.

. : Melody : .

Running a frustrated hand through my messy braid, I sighed and leaned against the inn wall.

It was my fault. Again.

I glanced up into the sky, forming a training plan in my head.

It's always my fault that something messes up.

It wouldn't happen again on my watch, not if I could help it.

I was going to fix the problems I had caused. If I couldn't win the competition, then I'd help one of my teammates to win. I'd even help Dakota or Sora if either of them had a chance of winning.

For a second I considered searching the town instead of training, but I had almost no chance of finding the thief or Chosen. The tournament would be a more reliable way of finding information.

So how was I going to train? I had three days to kill.

I ticked off the things I was best at: fighting, surviving in general, hand-to-hand combat, endurance...? Definitely not cooking. Yeah, not on my life.

So what should I do?

Something crazy and reckless and likely to get me endangered?

Why not? Sounds like something I'd do.

I mused aloud. "Hmm, so what can I do in three days time that'll probably nearly kill me? Without actually killing me..."

"I never thought you'd be the type to do something that stupid."

Jerking my head up, I saw Ash leaning against the opposite wall with a small smirk on his face. My face flamed when I remembered how he'd saved me from the bandits. Ash must've been thinking something along the same lines because he coughed awkwardly and glanced to the side.

"So what're you doing for training?" He asked, sounding completely normal even though he looked a bit uncomfortable.

I shrugged, embarrassed that he'd overheard me talking to myself. "I was planning on finding the hardest task possible to complete in three days."