Where Fairies Dwell

The Ally

The sun rose on the on a trial grounds damaged and torn apart from the battles of the previous day. As the sun reached the cave Ren slept in the night before he started to stir in his sleep trying to hide from the sun. Eventually Noir woke up with a big yawn stretching himself out. Noir looked over and saw Ren was still asleep, so he flew over to his face poking it, "Ren come on we gotta keep moving." Ren didn't get up instead he groaned and curled even more into a ball. Noir let out a long sigh before flying over to Ren's ear, he took a deep breath and screamed, "WAAAAKE UUUUUP!" Ren immediately jumped up screaming out of shock. "Glad to see you're finally awake sleepyhead. Feel any better", Noir responded with an innocent grin. Ren had half a mind to go strangle him but decided to let it go, "Yeah I feel great. I'm surprised no one showed up in the middle of the night, there were still a lot of fights going on last night." "I wouldn't worry too much about it let's just get out of here before someone shows up." Ren heads towards the exit of the cave with Noir flying right behind him. When they reached the exit they were greeted by the sun shining as the sun rose higher and higher they knew battles would start up again, but it didn't. The chaos and explosions that filled the trial grounds the previous day was left silent, a silence that made Ren and Noir both uneasy. Ren took a deep breath and moved forward, "Let's go", he said to Noir.

Ren and Noir exited the cave to continue the trial but instead of heading down the mountain they climbed all the way to the top. "Hey what are you doing?", Noir asked. "We never got a chance to map out the trial grounds, now's the best time." They reached the top and true to the announcers word the entire grounds was divided into several different biomes as they scanned the area around them they saw deserts, beaches, swamps, volcanoes, oceans, and even an arctic. 'It was beautiful', Ren thought, he wanted to go see every biome, but he didn't have time. Taking a deep breath, he regained his focus and descended the mountain. "Any idea where we should go?", Ren asked. Noir thought for a moment then suggested the beach biome. With that they headed towards the beach.

Ren and Noir walked through the forest towards their destination for Ren who had never seen the beach he became excited. He picked up speed wanting to get there as fast as he could, this proved to be a costly mistake. As Ren ran through the forest running over leaves and branches he didn't even notice the trap waiting, as he stepped on a pile on leaves a wire sprang out wrapping around his leg carrying him away. When Ren got his bearings he found that he was upside down strung up by wires along with several other candidates alongside several other captives. Ren tried to break free but found the more he struggled the more the wires dug into his flesh. "I'd be careful if I were you.", a voice spoke. Ren looked to see who said it and saw a guy on the ground sitting on a rock eating some berries. "I spent months working on these wires any struggling no matter how tough you are will do you no good." Ren engulfed the wire in flames, but it wouldn't burn, "I also made sure they couldn't be burnt or frozen." "So, what's your plan exactly leave us here to die of boredom?" Ren tried to act tough, but he could feel the blood rushing to his head it would only be a matter of time before he passes out. The guy reached his hand out to and clutched a wire with two of his fingers, "No I was planning on getting some guitar practice in." He plucked the wire like a guitar string and all at once the wires holding up all the captives vibrated digging deeper into their flesh. Screams of pain rang out causing them to struggle more and more only for the wires to dig deeper. The pain became more and more unbearable until one by one candidates started screaming out "I give up!", just like that the candidates disappeared one by one. The pain was agonizing to Ren and the blood rushing to his head was making it worse he had to do something looking around desperately then saw the trees the wires were wrapped around and got an idea. Using what focus he had he engulfed the wires in flames, "I told you the wires won't burn." The fire spread down the wires until it reached the trees, the trees were quickly engulfed in flames causing the trees to grow weaker and weaker until the tension from the wires broke through the tree and Ren fell to the ground. The former captor was shook as he scrambled trying to get away, Ren readied another fire ball shouting, "You suck at guitar!", he chucked it at the captor engulfing him in flames. In the fire a white light formed at his feet and in an instant he disappeared.

Through the tree line Noir flew out reuniting with Ren, "Hey so this is where you ended up, did you enjoy your trip?" "Not really the scenery was boring and ... Oh god!", Ren quickly knelt to the ground putting his hand to head. "You ok?", Noir asked. "Yeah just a bit of a head rush, was kinda hanging upside down." Ren took a few deep breathes regaining his bearings before standing up. "Still wanna hit the beach?", Noir asked. "Of course!" Ren and Noir were about to head out when they suddenly heard a low rumble, "What was that Noir asked?" Ren's face started to look a little embarrassed, "Uh that was me.", Noir gave Ren a look of disappointment, "What I haven't eaten at all today!" Ren looked over to where his captor was sitting and saw the pile of berries he was eating, Ren put one in his mouth before eating the rest. "Hey, don't be greedy share with me." Ren offered Noir access, so he took two berries out of the pile. As they continued eating they suddenly heard foot steps behind them, turning around they saw another guy approaching them presumably the same age as them. Noir quickly fed Ren magic as Ren readied for another fight and as the guy got closer he collapsed to the ground. "Huh", Ren and Noir thought in unison. "You think he's dead Ren?", Ren got close to him poking him with a stick hearing him groan, "Nope not dead." Ren looked at the berries in his hand and offered them to this stranger. The stranger looked up at the berries and quickly grabbed and ate them. "Ren what are you doing? In case you forgot we're all enemies here." "Come on I'm not about to hit a man when they're down." "Are you kidding everyone else wouldn't think twice about eliminating you if you were in that position remember yesterday, that psycho chick was seconds away from killing you!"

Ren and Noir continued to argue going back and forth, as the stranger got back to his feet. "Sorry if I'm interrupting something but thank you.", he said weakly causing Ren and Noir's argument to cease. "Thanks for the food I feel a lot better now.", the stranger said but as he did he started to cough violently. "Are you sure about that?", Ren and Noir casting doubt on this man. "Yes (cough) yes I'm fine, the names Vincent by the way.", the man said as his coughing slowed down. "Ren and yeah don't mention it. I should head out now hopefully we'll both make it to the end. Come on Noir.", Ren turned around to head off when suddenly he saw another candidate in the tree line, she took a deep breath and in that moment Ren turned around ducking him and Vincent out of the way as an ear piercingly loud scream came towards them ripping through the ground and trees. Ren's ears were ringing like crazy as he looked around for the attacker, again he found her in the tree lines taking another deep breath. Scrambling to his feet Ren dodging the next blast. Grabbing a nearby stick he turned it into a knife and chucked it at the attacker only for them dodge out the way and send another blast of sound at Ren. Ren quickly got to his feet and putting magic into his legs ran at breakneck speeds at the attacker, only for them to fall back just as fast. No matter what Ren did he couldn't touch the attacker it seemed impossible to touch them. The attacker took another breath deeper than any before and readied a massive attack, but as they did Vincent appeared from behind them forming a fist and with one swift motion delivered a powerful punch the their head knocking them out. "Guess that makes us even now.", Ren said walking over to Vincent. "Nah I still owe you one.", Vincent thought for a moment in silence before saying, "How about we team up?" Ren and Noir were a little surprised by, "Really?", Ren asked. "Sure why not we both had plenty of chances to eliminate each other so we know we can trust each other." Ren knew he had a point, but he also knew Noir would be hesitant. Ren looked at Noir, letting out a sigh of defeat he nodded yes. "Sure, you can join us.", Ren said extending his arm for Vincent to shake. "Great", Vincent smiled shaking Ren's hand, "Oh and before I forgot, come on out Silph." Out of a pocket in his coat came a fairy glowing a very bright green. "This is my fairy Silph.", Silph was scared by these two newcomers and tried to hide back in Vincent's pocket, "She's a little shy around new people." "Well in any event it's nice to meet you.", Ren said smiling. Noir remained silent forcing Ren to nudge him along, "Yeah it's nice to meet you too I guess. Anyway, we should get going Ren don't know someone else will show." Ren and Noir started heading towards their destination but stopped when they heard Vincent coughing again. His coughing started sounding worse than before as he covered his mouth with his hand. "Are you ok?", Ren asked. "Yeah (cough) yeah I'm (cough) fine just need a second.", Vincent kept coughing and coughing but after a bit his coughing was able to subside. "Come on let's keep going.", Vincent lead the way with Ren and Noir following behind. Ren wanted to believe that it was just nothing but as Vincent kept walking Ren noticed that his hand was dripping blood.