Their wicked Game

Let the challeneges begin

 *humming*

Mia dangled from the tree with her feet wrapped around it, hanging upside down.

The breeze ruffled her hair as vines from the trees wrapped around her body. She glanced up at the sky as vines from the trees climbed up on her body, slithering around her skin as they gently tightened around her.

"Mia-

"Shhh."

Her vines wrapped through the forest and straight into the town nearby. If Mia concentrated enough and felt everything the vines felt, she could hear what others were saying.

The vines slithered up the town wall; using them as her eyes, she was able to see what was posted on it.

The town hall news:

King Charles has passed away, and we have decided to elect candidates for the opening position of king or Queen.

There will be only one chosen winner.

We open the submission tomorrow morning here at the town hall, so everyone who comes should be prepared for what we will ask of you.

Good luck, and may the strongest and most successful ruler win.

Mia smirked as she opened her eyes, gracefully landing on the floor. "The king is dead."

Luke approached. "Obviously, that's what I was coming to tell you."

Mia squealed as leaves swarmed around her, whisking through the air. "Oh, to be Queen."

Luke chuckled. "Uh huh, you do understand that you're going to have to beat me to become it?"

"Ugh, you're going to participate, aren't you?"

"Don't worry, you know I won't go easy. You know what, maybe you should worry."

Mia grunted as she rolled her eyes.

"You won't even make the cut."

"I highly doubt it. But whatever makes you feel better."

Mia whisked some leaves in Luke's face, feeling annoyed as she walked away.

"Don't worry if you do cut out for it. I'm sure it's just because they don't want to embarrass you-"

Vines wrapped around Luke's leg, knocking him to the ground.

"Hey! What was that for!"

Mia giggled. "We'll see."

Later that evening, Mia returned to her small cottage near the village, which was built from vines near the river's edge.

She went inside to find her grandfather sitting at the kitchen table, spinning a knife in his hands.

"Have you heard the news?"

Mia approached cautiously, "The king's death? I have.. I'm actually going to show up for the trials tomorrow morning to try out."

"Good. What about that friend of yours?"

"Luke? Yeah, he's also-"

Cole, her grandfather, threw the knife, scrapping Mia's arm as it hit the wall behind her.

"Do not let him take this from you! Do you hear me?! He may have the element of fire, but you have nature at your disposal. If you both ever have to go head to head, do not let him win."

All night long, Mia couldn't shake those words from her mind. It seemed like Luke had the upper hand in becoming king, but Cole's advice really hit home. I realized that I have to bring my A-game and apply everything I've learned to make sure I can become queen.

The following morning, Mia showed up bright and early for the tryouts to find the line already halfway down the town. Some must have camped the night out.

"Mia!"

She glanced up ahead of the line to find Luke waving at her. She quickly went over. "Did you really camp it out?"

"By the tone of your voice, it seems like you're slightly judging me."

"Me judging you? Always." Mia smiled.

"Welcome! Welcome! Seeing all of your faces today, it seems like it's going to be an interesting first day! Let me not hold you all any longer; today, we will be having our first trial, and many of you will not pass. And let me get this in, in case any of you are wondering: there are no rules. If you are in a duel with someone, the rules do not state that they can not kill you."

*whispering*

It made sense since this was to test your strength as a king or Queen.

"There's also ranking from 1-400," he said as he approached a billboard covered with a sheet. He quickly pulled down the cover to reveal the numbers. "By the end of the week, if you are in the top 150, you will advance to the next league. Every week, the qualifying rank will decrease depending on the number of deaths, of course. There will also be surprise challenges. Additionally, you will be given wristbands that track if you've been killed or what rank you fall into. These wristbands will provide us with information about your skills and strengths. Now, enough talking; let the games begin."

He explained that we would be dueling right off the bat at the start of the season. They went around and handed every one of us a band showing an error.

Once we start, it will show us our rank and how strong they think we are based on our element.

"For the first challenge, we're going to go ahead and do 1 v 1s. On your watch, it's going to randomly select who you'll be going against and when your duel will happen."

Luke and I look down at our watch, spinning between the contestants. Mine stops on a girl named Stephanie; her element is water. We were #34 in line.

And Luke stopped on a girl whose name was Melanie. Her element was nature. His was #4 in line.

Luke chuckled. "this will be fairly easy."

Mia glanced down at her watch and looked around to see the girl from her watch glaring at her.

"It doesn't seem like she'll go easy, so make sure to show her what you got."

Mia nodded. "I don't need motivation from you."

"I wasn't giving you motivation; I'm just saying don't die because I want a duel with you in the end."

She glanced at Luke and back at the ring. "Okay."