Axe [Discontinued]

Elvish Code (Part One)

The next day I woke to a girl looking over me. If it hadn't been for the fact that she was smiling so widely, I would have thrown my fur blanket at her face.

"Why are you staring at me?!" I said as I stood up in my hammock. Fawn laughed at my question, her cheeks turning slightly pink with embarrassment.

"Oh—well—you just looked so peaceful..." I heaved myself onto the floor, my legs feeling like jelly. Fawn's hair was still matted from sleep and she only looked half-awake. Circles faintly surrounded her eyes like she hadn't slept well.

"How do you feel after, you know, last night?" Fawn's smile faded into a more serious expression.

"Better, could feel worse,"—she grinned again lightly—"Just remind me tonight to make my own food, or else Twigs might poison me this time." She walked over to her hammock.

"Well," I began, "Today's the first challenge, so I don't want the only person I know to miss it,"

"Okay then...get yourself ready, I'll meet you in the dining room for breakfast and we can sort things out." Fawn strode towards the door and left, leaving me in the room alone.

A clean pair of clothes lay near my hammock made of fine silk fabric. I changed out of my ragged farm clothes and fixed my hair.

One of Fawn's house servants must have set them there for me, I thought gratefully. 

After finishing getting ready for the day, I walked over to the door Fawn had gone through and made my way to the dining room. At first, I got lost; the Chief's house was much larger than it looked from the outside. It wasn't until finally, I gathered the courage to ask a servant for directions that I found it.

Fawn was sitting at a slender wooden table eating a salad. When she saw me, she smiled and beckoned me to her. I sat down beside her where I was immediately bombarded by servers who laid a salad similar to Fawns in front of me. She set down her fork.

"You know, ever since I got in here, I can hear a lot of my father's people rushing excitedly towards our Trial Field," Fawn said, "I keep forgetting how long it's been since the last one, that's a likely explanation for it all,"

"Mmph?" I had started to stuff handfuls of salad into my mouth. I added, swallowing the rest, "Hopefully that doesn't make things more difficult than it already is., I don't even know what the first trial challenge will be." Fawn sighed, beginning to stare down at her own food.

"Nothing too major; just more eyes to give feedback to the judges, meaning more people see the good in you...and the bad too."

I looked out a nearby window and saw exactly what Fawn meant. It seemed that practically the entire tribe had lined up to get seats in a wide green field. It was the wide green field that I had only just seen yesterday filled with children and had thought was a grassy courtyard. However, this time there was a large, wooden box-like structure standing in the exact middle. 

Strange, I thought, gazing with curiosity at the structure, Whatever I have to do, that has to have something to do with it

"Oh, yes, I saw that earlier too, not sure what my father or the judges are planning to do with that," Fawn observed, having noticed me being keen on the structure, "Maybe we can figure it out before the challenge star—ARGH! Where did this headache come from!"

Fawn shoved her chair out from under her and stood up.

"Erm, Fawn, do you know when the challenge starts? The last of the elves in line are wrapping up." Fawn looked back at me with her hands rubbing her forehead.

"It's in less than twenty minutes! Just go in the way the rest of them did and I'll get there in time to see you before it starts. First, I just need a word with last night's cook..." She ran out of the dining room.