Helping the Wolves (Madison Joshi and the Wolves series- Book 2)

|28| Madison

One faerie flew towards Maddy and placed three cups on the table. A second later Tatiana announced that they could start.

Maddy leaned forward to see inside the cup. Inside the first cup was a transparent liquid. It looked exactly like water but it had a sweet fragrance. Below the faerie wine, there was an inscription carved on the bottom of the cup. It had several lines and was intricately carved. At first, Maddy couldn't make out what it was but after leaning back a bit, she realized that it was a picture of a rose. It was beautifully carved. Whoever made it was insanely talented.

Maddy moved on to the next cup. Maddy had to take one glance at the cup to figure out what the inscription was. Maddy was extremely familiar with that picture. It was the picture of a book. Simple and easily recognizable. Maddy thought of drinking the wine of that cup without looking at the third cup but decided against it. This was not the time to make reckless decisions.

Maddy looked at the third cup. It had a picture of a bow and arrow. At least that's what it looked like. Maddy understood what the purpose of the three pictures were. The rose depicted beauty; the book represented brains; and the bow and arrow represented brawn. It was clever and beautifully depicted.

Maddy wasn't sure which to pick. She knew that Xander wouldn't pick the rose. It was either going to be the book or the bow and arrow. While Maddy was more brains, Xander was more brawn. Which one should she choose? She remembered what Xander whispered to her just before the illusions was placed. 'If you don't know what to choose, pick the one that you relate to the most.'

Making up her mind, Maddy took the second cup with the inscription of the book. She checked it once to make sure that it was the right cup and then she tipped her head back and swallowed the contents of the cup in one shot.

At first the wine seemed like a normal drink. It didn't burn like how drinks were described in books. It felt cool and tasted sweet just like its fragrance. When Maddy finished, she licked her lips. It tasted amazing. Maddy was a sucker for sweet things like chocolate and she knew that this drink could easily be addicting.

And then, the effects kicked in. Slowly Maddy's eyesight became blurry. Things were moving slowly and the light seemed to be too bright. Maddy squeezed her eyes shut for two seconds and then opened them. Her eyesight became better but it still wasn't as clear as it had been before.

Two minutes later, after everyone finished making their choices, the illusion hiding the other participants was removed.

"For the first round of the second challenge, there were three options- a rose, a book and a bow and arrow," Tatiana announced as she flew over to where Maddy, Xander and the two faeries were sitting. "Let us see what each participant has picked."

Tatiana went to the faeries first. Maddy took this opportunity to examine Xander and try to figure out if too picked the second cup. Maddy couldn't figure out which cup he had chosen but he too was squinting to look at things. The faerie wine was having effects on him as well.

"Bow and arrow," Tatiana exclaimed as she bent over Axel's cups. She then turned to Nick. "Bow and arrow once again! The faeries have chosen the same cups! Now let's look at the werewolves' cups."

Damn. Maddy had been hoping that the faeries lost in the first itself. The faerie wine was making her woozy and it would more difficult to choose correctly in the next round because of her blurry vision. Maddy now understood why the cups were filled with faeries wine and not water.

Tatiana went over to Xander. "The book!" Tatiana exclaimed, looking a little surprised.

She probably expected a werewolf to choose the bow and arrow as well. Maddy leaned back with relief on hearing that Xander too had chosen the book. They weren't going to be killed yet. Tatiana then came over to Maddy. On seeing Maddy's choice, the faerie seemed even more surprised. "The book once again! Looks like both the teams have chosen correctly."

Maddy glanced at Alexa and Jeremy who were sitting in the crowd. At least, she glanced at where she thought Alexa and Jeremy were sitting. She couldn't see clearly so she had no idea if she was even looking in the right direction or not. Once again, a faerie came and placed three cups and the illusion was back in front of Maddy and the second round started.

In a similar way the challenge continued, and by the time Maddy had to choose a cup for the fourth time, Maddy couldn't see anything. The drink had a weird effect of making everything bleary. It didn't affect the mind; it only affected the eyes. Maddy could think clearly but unfortunately, eyes were necessary for this challenge. When Maddy looked down at the three cups, all she could see was many squiggly lines.

Maddy closed her eyes for a minute and breathed in and out. She needed to concentrate. She just needed to figure out what the pictures were. Opening her eyes, she looked inside the first cup. Maddy couldn't make out what it was. There were several lines randomly drawn. It looked familiar but Maddy couldn't figure out what it was.

The same thing happened for the second cup. She could see what random lines but she couldn't identify any shape. Without much hope, Maddy looked into the third cup. The picture was relatively simple looking as compared to the other two pictures. There were only a few lines. Maddy blinked three times and when she saw the picture once again, she gasped as she recognized the picture. It distinctly looked like Wattpad's logo. Maddy blinked once again just to make sure that she was seeing it correctly.

Maddy's hand hovered over the third cup. Should she pick it? It wasn't like she had an option. She still didn't know the other two pictures. Maddy picked up the third cup and swallowed the drink in one gulp and immediately shut her eyes.

Maddy still had her eyes closed when Tatiana started speaking. "Judging by the look on the participants' faces, I am assuming that this round did not go well. The three options were a werewolf, a faerie and a ribbon put in there just to confuse you."

Maddy groaned and buried her head in her hands. She had chosen the third option which had been a ribbon. At that point of time, it looked like the Wattpad logo and so she had chosen it. In her half blind state, Maddy couldn't decipher the werewolf and faerie drawing. They were too complicated all Maddy had seen were random lines. Xander would have chosen the werewolf cup and because of her stupid mistake, they would all die.

"Axel has chosen the second cup with the faerie inscription! But what do we have here? Nick has chosen the ribbon!"

The crowd went wild. Maddy nearly started crying with relief. The faeries had gotten it wrong too! Now if Maddy could manage to not mess up in the next round, they might even win the competition.

Tatiana moved towards Xander. "From the werewolves' side, Xander too, like Nick, chose the ribbon"

Wait, what?