Intrigue

Chapter 19: Coke and Mentos

I get the feeling that from now on, I'm going to start updating every other week. I'm sorry for any inconvenience this gives anyone, and I know that sounded really stupid, and I know that it's also stupid for me to delay my updating time, but lately, I just haven't been updating once a week. I'll try to make the chapter relatively long to make up for the wait, but, well...

This chapter's dedication is to FayolaWilkinson, for all the votes and comments on this book! Absolutely love your comments, they light up my day!

Hope you guys enjoy, not my best quality chapter, but it's very important to the plot of the story in some ways not yet revealed...

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Everytime a child says, "I don't believe in fairies," there is a little fairy somewhere that falls down dead.

-James M. Barrie

Chapter 19: Coke and Mentos

Lana had escaped the waiting room as soon as the two teams burst out of there, swallowed up by the crowd and its incessant cheering and screams. She had no fond memories of loud, crowded places-in fact, she had spent most of her life within the secluded Des Moines grounds-she had been only gone out for a total of ten times in the sixteen years of her life.

It was exhilarating, being away from that place for the first time in years.

Exhaling softly, Lana turned left as the door closed behind her, not having any particular destination in mind. The first minute would be boring, since everyone would be focused on reaching his or her predetermined positions. No one would risk going all out the moment the tournament started, since that would be an easy way to get your own teammates out as well. You wouldn't be disqualified for friendly fire, but it was frowned upon, and also not at all beneficial, since the more people on your team, the more chance you have of winning.

Then again, there was an idiot out on that field right now.

Lana shook her hair out of her eyes as her steps slowed. She had found a place relatively secluded with a Screening Luce floating midair. No one else was around, as a cluster of shrubs and the putrid-smelling garbage nearby generally blocked it. Not at all bothered by the smell, Lana slowly slid down the wall and leaned her head back, staring up at the flickering screen with blank eyes.

There seemed to be only three different terrains this time, or rather, three distinctly different terrains this time. Lana was sure that from the perspective of the Elementals in that arena right now, hundreds of thousands of different possibilities would be spread out before them right at this moment.

The shots on the screen gave a ten-second interval for each terrain. The first one that Lana saw was an endless plain of green-a meadow dotted with pink and yellow buds. For miles, nothing but endless grass and flowers could be seen. Most Elementals would avoid this area, for fear of being spotted easily.

The next shot was of a great sea that was stopped by the second dome. It was roiling and frothing at the mouth, its crests slamming into the gravel that replaced what would usually be sand with enough force to reduce a boulder into rubble. It would be the host to quite a few interesting Dances, Lana knew.

The last view was of-a tree.

"Oh?" Lana raised an eyebrow, a small smile curving her lips at the sight of the fully bloomed sakura tree despite the fact that it was September. Though what was interesting wasn't the fact that there was a tree fully in bloom at the start of autumn but was, rather, the fact that the sakura tree itself had grown to the height and width of a redwood tree. There were levels, from what Lana could see, marked by platforms built around the trunk. Three of them, and each containing a single woman.