Twins of the Cursed Moon (wolf shifter werewolf romance)

3. Trial of the Midnight Sun

Rose
It was July twenty-first at eleven pm. The full moon glowed silver while thin clouds drifted across the sky and starlight twinkled down on my head. It would have been a lovely night for a stroll if it had been any other night.

I put on my backpack, carrying a few small necessities and a couple of sentimental things that I didn't want to give up. If everything went well tonight, I wouldn't be coming back. If everything went wrong, I still wouldn't come back, because I'd be dead.

I took a deep breath. "Crazy, this is crazy. Are you going to do this?"
I had been slowly sneaking through the woods of the Lupis Clan, which was already something that they could tear me apart for if they caught me. I was wearing all-black clothing, had my hair tied in a bun, and was covered in mud, sweat, and natural pine scent, which I had purposely covered myself in. I passed by a few guards but they didn't detect me. The closest one got to getting me happened when a particularly strong gust of wind blew my scent towards him and he sneezed. At that time, he became annoyed and kicked the base of the pine tree that he was standing next to.
I traveled low through the fog that hugged the bottom of the woods, following the river that traveled through it. I came to a large silver octagon platform which was ten feet up. There were tall torches on every side of it, lit with cold blue fire. Stairs led up to the platform, but no one appeared to me around.
I looked around my surroundings once more, before quickly rushing to the stairs. As I put my foot on the first step, that step lit up with a dull light, but in the dark of the woods, the light felt blinding. I quickly scurried up the rest of the steps while nervously looking around to make sure that I didn't get anyone's attention. It was just as I cleared the last step and put both feet on the spirit platform, that a wall of light flashed around the parameter of the platform. When I reached out and touched the light it disappeared, but there was an invisible wall in its stead. I pushed harder against the invisible wall, but it still didn't give way.
I looked back when I saw another light flash behind me and saw the center of the platform glowing. Then where there was nothing, a manticore appeared. The creature was the size of an elephant, had the body and head of a lion, had wings like a bat, the tail of a scorpion, and teeth as long as a forearm. It was golden and shone with an inner light, its gray eyes swirled and shifted as if there was smoke trapped within. It stared at me, stared through me, stared into me. I wanted to escape, but I was utterly transfixed, as if every secret of the universe could be answered by looking into his eyes.
"You are not of the protected blood, but the platform has acknowledged you as a challenger. No one has challenged this platform for many years," said the manticore in a deep and rumbling voice.
"There is a pain in you, but also courage, determination, and loyalty; as a guardian of the spirit beast realm, I have also deemed you a worthy challenger. The 'Trial of the Midnight Sun' has been selected for you. Enter the center of the platform, Rose."
"How do you know my name and what is the 'Trial of the Midnight Sun'?"
"I have looked into you and have deemed you worthy, knowing your name is the least of these. You will soon find out, your wolf is waiting for you at the end of your trials."
I felt a dragging force towards the center of the platform. Then a brighter light than I had ever seen blasted into the sky and surrounded me, cold air filled my lungs, and my heart beat wildly. Then there was darkness and silence, except for the sound of my breathing. The silence was deafening, no bugs, no wind, nothing around me. I was in complete darkness, appearing to be in wide open space with nothing, except whatever I was standing on. I felt for my backpack, but it was gone; it hadn't come with me.
I reached out while blinking, hoping that my eyes would adjust to the light around me, but everything was still completely black, and there was nothing but air. I crouched down and lowered my hand onto the ground, feeling a cold and incredibly smooth surface, like a highly polished marble floor. I knocked off the floor below me and saw the echo of sound, as flashes of green light briefly traveled over black objects before disappearing.
I tapped again and saw that I was crouching on a raised square platform, like an island suspended over nothing. Fear of the abyss gripped me and I found that I couldn't stand up. I tapped again and saw the flashes of sound travel down a staircase. I crawled across the platform, feeling out ahead and tapping before I moved, constantly tapping. It was cold and hurt my knees, but I continued, refusing to stand up. My hands contacted the top of the first stair and I lowered down on my belly. Reaching out I caressed the stair, getting a feel for how steep it was, and how wide the stairs were. As I rubbed my hands across the top stairs, both of my hands came to the edges and easily curved around the other side. There was nothing on the other side of the stairs, it was connected to nothing, suspended in midair, and the stairs were only slightly wider than my body. They went downward, but there was no way for me to tell how far, since I couldn't see the sound travel down further than fifty feet. Whenever I stopped tapping, I was in total darkness again.
My hands shook and I wanted to cry, but I took a deep breath to calm my nerves and slowly turned my body around. I felt the corner of the stairs scrape my knee and I gripped my hands as tightly around the edges of the stairs as I could. Then I lowered one leg down, stretching it out, until I made sure that I was aligned on the stairs perfectly. Bracing the toes of my foot on a lower stair, I lowered myself to the next stair. I never released my grip on the edge of the stairs, I slid my hands along them. I was slow and meticulous, but it was painful to crawl down cold hard stairs. My muscles were tense and my skin was scraped and bruised.
It felt like hours, days, maybe an eternity. Each time I lowered myself, I was filled with fear. I was terrified that maybe this time I would slip or perhaps there would be nothing at the bottom and I would fall off the edge. Then I felt a floor, I slid out further, feeling for the edge with my foot, but the platform continued. So I lowered myself down further until I was sitting on the platform. I tapped again and saw that this new platform was twice as large as the first one and was floating in midair. I laid down on the platform while frustrated tears trickled down the sides of my face and the cold of the platform seeped through my clothing and chilled me.
Then there was a flash of light that stung my eyes and then the manticore was there with me. "Will you continue or do you choose to forfeit?"
I remained lying on my back, while I powered through a lag cramp, and caught my breath. "What will happen if I forfeit?"
"You will never be allowed to challenge the platform again, but you'll live."
"Will Brooke be lost to me?" I said.
"Yes, where she is, you can't follow as you are now," he said.
"Then I will continue."
"I can't offer you an escape during a stage of the trial, only between them. If the next stage overwhelms you, I can't save you."
"How many stages are there?"
"Three, if you decide to continue you will exit here, but the next stage of the trial will resume without notice," he said.
"I will continue," I said.
"So be it."