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

|33| Madison

Maddy managed to get sufficient amount of sleep after coming back. She spent her entire morning sleeping and woke up only after Xander woke her up for lunch.

"Just saying," Xander said as he grinned at her. "I got a picture of you sleeping. It's hilarious."

Maddy scowled and shoved Xander. It didn't impact him much because of his huge body frame, but it did make him stumble a bit.

Although it seemed as though everything was normal, there was an underlying layer of tension. The tension was so thick that you could cut it with a knife. And yes, that was a Shawn Mendes reference.

About half an hour after Maddy finished her lunch, there was a knock on the door. Maddy was surprised to say the least. Literally no one came in here except one guard during the evening to summon them for the games. It definitely wouldn't be Ella. She couldn't risk being seeing talking with the werewolves. Then who was it at the door?

Alexa ran and opened the door. Xander, Jeremy and Maddy stood near the door to see who it was. If it was someone who posed a threat, Alexa might need help. Standing there was the same guard who used to escort them to the castle and then to the arena.

"You have two minutes to get ready," the guard said.

"Now?" Alexa asked confused. It definitely wasn't evening.

"Yeah now. Why would I come all the way here if I wasn't sent to call you four?"

"Jeez, don't need to get so aggressive," Alexa muttered as she turned towards Maddy, Xander and Jeremy.

"I think today's challenge might be related to combat," Maddy whispered in a low voice so that the faerie outside couldn't hear them. When Maddy had flipped Ella that night, Ella had told that she was excited to see how the last challenge played out. It sounded like the last challenge might need her to move about.

The others nodded without questioning her and went off to their own rooms. Maddy and Alexa made their way to their room. Although they were technically prisoners in the Faerie Realm, their rooms were lavishly decorated. It seemed as though the faeries didn't expect to have prisoners and only had guest rooms to spare.

Their room had two queen sized beds, two huge closets and one table, one for Maddy and one for Alexa. The ceiling of the room was made of glass. Like the castle, their room was white and golden in color. Seemed as though the faeries had an obsession with white and golden.

Maddy went to her closet. Most of the dresses in the closet were long, flowy dresses that would be completely useless unless the challenge was about who could walk in the longest gown. After a minute of rummaging, Maddy managed to find a yoga pant and a top. Maddy tied her hair into a high pony and wore some shoes. She met the others in front of the door.

Maddy felt her body buzzing with nervousness. They needed to win the game. Her stomach was swarming with butterflies, the kind you get when you are about to step on the stage to perform and you don't whether your performance will be a success or failure.

The guard took them to the castle. Maddy didn't need the guard to show her where the arena was. She knew the path byheart. The guard was probably there just to make sure that they don't make a run for it. Maddy had suspicions that there were many more faeries lurking about, but she couldn't see them because of an illusion.

Just like last time the colosseum was packed with faeries. This time, there were more people than the last two rounds combined. Maddy had no idea how so many people could be hidden under a commercial place like the Cubbon Park. The faeries had some serious illusionary powers.

"I am sure the participants are eager to know what this round is about. The crowd, of course, knows what the challenge is," Tatiana said when both the teams took their respective places in the center of the arena.

With a clap of hand, a table was brought in. The table had a huge golden egg placed in the center. The egg looked like the golden egg from Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire except the fact that it was smooth. Maddy wondered if the queen had an obsession with the Harry Potter movies. First the goblet, and now the egg. On the bright side, if they did need to find a secret message from the egg then all they probably needed to do was open it underwater.

The moment the crowd saw the egg, everyone quietened. They all seemed to have their eyes on the egg. Maddy couldn't figure out what was so special about the egg but judging by the expression of her four opponents, Maddy assumed that the egg was important.

"I am sure all of you know what this egg is. Today's challenge is simple. There will be a powerful illusion placed in this area. To the contestants it will feel like a simulation. This egg will be hidden in the arena and will be heavily guarded. The two teams need to try and get the egg. If the egg breaks, whichever team caused the egg to break will lose. The competition will go on for an hour. At the end of the hour, whichever team is holding the egg, will be the winner. All supernatural powers are allowed."

Maddy tightened her hands into fists to prevent them from shaking with nervousness. The only time she had been this nervous was when she was about to receive the results for a test that she had forgotten to prepare for. Thinking about it now, Maddy felt that her problems at that point of time had been so trivial.

Maddy and the other participants were taken to a separate room while the egg was being hidden. They were led to a room with a lot of weapons. Standing in the room was Tatiana. The moment she saw them, she got down to business.

"Since this is the Realm of the faeries, the faeries' team will get to choose what kind of environment you want the simulation to project while the werewolves can decide what weapons the two teams will be provided during the games."

The faeries promptly replied. "A mountainous region."

Maddy nodded her head absentmindedly. The faeries had chosen wisely. They had wings and could easily fly high up in the air while she and the werewolves would have difficulty in climbing. It was smart of them to choose such a place.

"We should choose some weapon with iron in it," Xander suggested. "It will hurt them."

Maddy chewed her lip as she thought hard. "We don't know for sure that faeries are affected by iron. How about this, we choose a very weak weapon. You guys can shift into wolves. You don't need a weapon to tear the faeries apart. The faeries can only create illusions which won't help in causing any harm. They will be powerless."

Jeremy nodded as his eyes gleamed. "We'll choose something that is heavy and weak. That way, if they choose to carry the weapon as they fly, they will be slowed down and if they leave the weapon, they are defenseless and we will be able to get their weapon."

Alexa whipped out her phone and started searching something in google. After two minutes she replied, "We could ask for a M2 Browning machine gun with one bullet. The gun itself weighs practically 58 kgs and they will have only one chance to hit us."

Everyone agreed that it was the best weapon to choose. They told Tatiana and she nodded with a confused expression. Soon, all the participants were lead outside. The last round was about to begin.