Guitar Strings and Flower Petals

End of an Era

As the referee carried the Grudgby ball back to the launcher, Banshee fans all throughout the stadium found themselves on the edge of their seats. In most cases figuratively. In some overly excited cases, very literally.

What had started as a total, complete failure of a match that had looked utterly doomed, had morphed into a neck-and-neck game right before their eyes. Their abysmal score of absolutely nothing whatsoever in the first half had transformed into twelve points inside a quarter. A practically unprecedented recovery in a game like Grudgby.

Glandus were still winning with sixteen points, and there was only part of one quarter left. Not a lot of time at all. But throughout the entire last quarter, Glandus hadn't been able to score once. Caught off guard as they were now, all they could do was defend, and their defense wasn't as good as their offense.

Skara had been the crux of their original strategy - Take her out, split the team in two, and then just plow right through whatever measly defenses Hexside could put together. But now that she was fighting back, their plan was falling apart. Worse, Skara was using Bard Magic, something no one even really considered worthwhile when it came to Grudgby because of its variety of weaknesses in the sport. But now, Glandus was paying for that. She was forcing them onto the back foot, with no time to come up with a counter-strategy.

A tension filled the air as everyone started to realize that it was possible that if they kept playing like this, Hexside could win. It would be an immense comeback that no one could have foreseen, and there was still every chance that they could still lose. The odds were still against them.

Still, the hope was present.

And one of the most hopeful people in the crowd was WIllow.

Much to her own surprise.

Not all that long ago, she had tried to offer Skara some encouragement after their disastrous first half, to help her push through all the voices from the booing crowd. To offer her, well, something. Even if she didn't know exactly what she could offer.

Prove them wrong. That was what she'd told Skara to do in the end. Give her something to focus on. Prove that she wasn't just this frail thing that everyone seemed to think that she was. That even her own teammates seemed to think she was. That she wasn't this burden that weighed down on people.

It was the same thing Willow told herself now to keep herself going whenever the doubts started to sink in. To prove them wrong.

Since she had stepped back onto the stadium, Skara had done just that.

When she scored the first goal for Hexside, Willow had stood up and cheered alongside the rest of the supporters, and since then, the jeering and mocking had turned into raucous cheers and encouragement. Everyone saw what she was doing, how she was contributing, and how she had helped to stem the tide. No one was mocking her now.

"Dang!" Luz seemed to have changed her own tune on the game as well. Originally, the sheer brutal landslide that Hexside had suffered in the first half had broken even her warm cheer, but now that the game began to go Hexsides way and the Banshee's were fighting back, it had returned, full force. "Skara went from kinda bad to pretty rad fast! It's awesome!"

Amity nodded. The former Banshee captain seemed fairly impressed. "I'll say. Usually a team not scoring in the first half would be a death sentence."

"Unless you grab the rusty Smidge."

"There is a reason they don't use it in official matches."

Willow allowed herself a smirk at that comment.