The Eyes of Fate (Currently in Rewrite)

Shifting Competition

Sentinel

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Washington State, USA

October 5th, 2019

Sentinel really wished he hadn't set an alarm when it woke him up. After the day with Ranger and all the excitement with Chesyr the night before, he wanted nothing more than to go back to sleep. He was tired all the way into his bones, and he somehow felt even more sore than the past few days, but he ignored it and climbed out of bed anyway. 

He did his morning stretches, showered, and was out the door before anyone came and knocked on his door. When he went outside to run, almost everyone was there; Chesyr was nowhere to be seen.

"She's sleeping in today," Fang said, seeming to read Sentinel's mind, as per usual. "Since your running buddy for today isn't here, and we were all up pretty early, we figured we'd have a little race."

"Oh god." Sentinel groaned. He knew there was no way he could keep up with any of them.

"Don't worry, kid." Ranger said, slapping him on the back. "We're not expecting you to win the mile or anything."

"We're all going to be running a 5K to your mile though," Vyper said. "So you better be able to beat at least a couple of us."

"I'll do my best." Sentinel said, bouncing on his feet and shaking his arms to loosen them up a little more. The others lined up and he joined them, looking at each of them. They all seemed focused, and Sentinel realized how seriously they were taking it. He made a promise to himself that he would run the entire mile, to try and take it as seriously as they were.

"GO!" Shouted Oracle, and they all took off running. 

It took all of about twenty steps for them to leave him in the dust, but Sentinel just kept his head down and kept running. The last of the soreness in his muscles from the past few days faded away as he warmed up, and he started pushing himself even harder.

By the time he was halfway around the clearing, everyone had passed him once, and Sentinel could see how spread out everyone was. Vyper was in front by a long shot, actually coming up to lap him again. Fang and Ranger seemed to be about even, neck and neck and about halfway across the clearing from him. Oracle was behind them, about midway between him and them, but still steadily pulling away from him again.

"Come on, Sentinel!" Vyper shouted as he passed him again. "Push!"

If Sentinel had any breath to spare, he'd have told Vyper to go fuck himself. As it was, it took everything he had to keep running at the pace he was at. The other three were also gaining on him to pass him again, but he couldn't speed up any more. 

He reached the finish line at the same time as Vyper did. Fang and Ranger had hit the line at the same time as they did, on their final lap now, and Oracle was only a hundred or so meters behind them. 

"Twelve minutes and thirty-seven seconds!" Vyper announced, pulling a stopwatch out of his pocket. He put his arm around Sentinel and led him into the grass. "Not bad! Don't sit down yet, though, or we'll have a bitch of a time getting you up and inside for breakfast." 

Sentinel just nodded, straightening up and watching the others run. When he finally caught his breath, he looked over at Vyper.

"Did you seriously run a 5K in the time it took me to run a mile?" 

"Yeah, I did." Vyper just grinned at him. "Pretty fast, right?"

"But even the others aren't done yet." Sentinel gestured at Fang and Ranger, who were pouring on the speed at the home stretch. "How are you that fast?"