Maidens & Killers

Gauntlet

     Garrick is right, I barely make it through my evening meal before I head up to my room and pass out on my bed. I own it up to a mix of lack of sleep the night before and sheer exhaustion from the sprints. One minute I am slipping on my nightgown and the next the sun is peeking up over the horizon through my window. It’s Gauntlet Day.

     I force myself out of bed and dress in the slight chill of the morning, making sure to lace my boots extra tightly. There is a heaviness to the air when I head down to breakfast, every first year looking more nervous then I have ever seen them. Even though I know that I am prepared, there are still nerves bubbling low in my belly. I sit down at the long table next to Rhiannon and Sawyer without any breakfast, there’s nothing that looks even remotely enticing to me to eat.  We settle into a light conversation about Presentation and what dragons will be looking to bond this year, when everyone suddenly stops talking and looks behind me. l turn to look behind me to see Garrick standing there.
“You’re not eating?” He asks me, his own breakfast tray in his hand.
“Uhhhh no. I’m not hungry,” I explain.
Garrick just grumbles and tosses a hard sweet roll at me, “Best to eat something.”
I catch the roll and Garrick turns and walks off, like him making sure that I ate breakfast was the most normal thing in the world.

     When I turn back to my friends at the table they are all staring at me, and Rhiannon and Violet are both wiggling their eyebrows which causes me to laugh.
“Cool it. He’s just looking out for the good of the wing.”  I scold them.
Rhiannon rolls her eyes, “ Sure, the good of the wing.”
I glare at her, ‘I am with Soren, so anything other than that doesn't matter.”
“And how is dear Soren?” Rhiannon asks me with a knowing smile.
‘You know I don’t know, we can’t communicate until next year. You now what,  I don’t need this today.” I jump up from the table and toss the roll into a nearby bin. I make a point of not even glancing in the direction of the leadership table as I storm out of the dining area to await my fate.

     Lining up all of the first year cadets is generally chaos, but the impending doom keeps us all inline. I end up near the front of the line of cadets, due to my early departure from breakfast. I wish Soren were here, or even watching somehow. Just having that one comfort from home would be such a big help. I wonder if Violet feels that way about her mother being in attendance today. I haven’t seen very many interactions between them but I get the feeling she’d rather that she wasn’t here.

    I try not to watch the riders in front of me, I am focused purely on my own performance. Before long it is my turn, and I set my feet in the dirt waiting for the third year to tell me to go. I’m glad that I braided my hair back extra tight this morning because the wind threatens to whip at my curls. I tell myself not to concern myself with my time, I  just need to safely make it to the top.
‘Name?”  I am asked.
“Maeve Holsten,” I tell her.
The rider at the start gives me a firm nod, letting me know that I can begin and I take a deep breath before sprinting to the first obstacle.

    Balance is one of my strong suits that I plan to use to my advantage today. I have run across logs on the lake by my house for as long as I can remember. So, I make quick work of the first few obstacles, balancing and swinging from ball to ball like I do it every day. The climbing challenges are the most difficult for me, but I have been preparing extra hard since I have been at Basgaith. All of the extra time in the gym helps me to pull myself with more ease than I would have when I got here.

     As I pull myself over the cliff at the top, ending my Gauntlet run,  I try to keep the tears from falling down my cheeks. I don’t even care about my time, though I see Xaden clock it and write it down. My eyes find Garrick’s, who is standing beside him running another one of the time keeping devices.
You did good, he mouths to me, then turns his attention back to the cliffside waiting for the next rider to pull themselves up over the cliff.
There’s a part of me that wants to stand around and watch to see who makes it over the cliff, but think better of it. Many of my fellow riders will die today, or at Presentation. We will be a much smaller group within the next 24 hours, and I have to compartmentalize that somewhere in my brain.

      I take a water skin from a pile and begin to  head back towards the formidable building in the distance. Tomorrow is Presentation Day and I will come face to face with my future dragon.  I wonder to myself if I will know which dragon belongs to me when I see it. Will they reach out to me even then? How will the connection feel? I have more questions than answers bouncing around my head when I hear a commotion back at the Gauntlet’s edge. Amber Mavis is yelling at Xaden about something and drawing a crowd. Apparently she thinks that Violet cheated in completing the last few obstacles, and I can’t help the way that my heart swells when I see Vi standing there. She made it after all.  Xaden listens to Violet’s explanation that her daggers are an extension of her being, and I smile. My wing mate makes up for physical limitations with a cunning mind and that makes me prouder than it should. Xaden takes Violet’s explanation to thought for only a moment before dismissing Amber, Violet will be allowed to continue, and it makes me wish I had someone in my corner like that.