The Wishing Tree - Book Two [Completed]

Competition - Part 6

I crouch down, peek around the boulder to the entrance of a massive cave. The boulders are white and grey and they're bigger than houses. Most of them are smooth, but a few have pock marks, similar to what I saw in the trees. The quillore has defended this cave before. 

"I can't believe you thought we'd miss the entrance to the cave. That thing is so huge this is the only place it could possibly live," I say.

"We only get one shot at the sequence, Hannah. You fail one, you fail them all. There aren't three strikes or any second chances." His back is against a boulder, and he isn't looking at me or at the entrance.

"So, what's the plan? How do I kill it?" I ask.

Mason's silent for a while and when he looks at me, fear bubbles in my belly.

"You're scaring me a little bit here, Mason."

His smile is a ghost, but the intensity of his gaze doesn't shift. "I've killed these things before. It is possible."

"Did you live?"

He hesitates. "Yes."

"But, you haven't killed them in this version of you, right?" I ask.

"No," he admits.

"Because the other version, the one that did kill it, was badly burned, right?" I say, my voice trembling.

He doesn't say anything, just turns away from me and becomes lost in thought. "It was a long time ago." He looks grim. "We'll need to take shifts tonight to watch the entrance of the cave. I have to think about the smartest and safest way for you to do this. I'm sure Ryan would love you even if you came out of this looking like an ogre, but I don't think either of us is keen to chance that."

I sigh and think about why I had to draw this beast as one of my tasks. "I was too vain in a former life, wasn't I?"

He laughs. "Probably in all of them."

I slap his arm, trying to defuse the tension radiating off him and alleviate some of my own anxiety.

"You have to admit that you rely on your looks," Mason says.

I shrug. "I can't help how I look. Not really." I meet his eyes and try to pretend that it doesn't matter. "The looks thing, it's all smoke and mirrors. This body, another body, it's my soul that counts, isn't it?"

He maintains eye contact with me for a few moments, saying nothing, and I think I can see a slight softening in his eyes, the green less flinty before he looks way.

"Do you want the first shift or should I take it?" he asks.

Before I can answer, he frowns, stands up and looks over the boulder we crouched behind. I turn away from him but am caught off guard when he suddenly ducks. An arrow clangs on the boulder a few feet away.

"Shit. We have company. This can't be good," Mason says, snatching the arrow off the ground.

He grabs my hand and quickly leads me through a maze of boulders in the direction that the arrow was fired.

"You're leading us towards them?" I ask.

"We have to figure out who they are. We might be competing for the same prize or at least the same beast," Mason says.

A sinking feeling envelopes my fear. I didn't want to face the quillore, but I didn't want my journey to end here either. I push myself to keep in step with Mason. My mind searches for other reasons an arrow might be fired in our direction.

"Do you think whoever it is might work with us?" I ask.

He squeezes my hand a little and pulls me tight to his side. He sneaks a glance around the large boulder we pause behind. He watches for a few moments and then gestures for me to look. Two or three boulders down from us are two teenage boys dressed in a fur outfit similar to mine, but much better constructed. They're sharpening the tips of their arrows. It looks like they're pouring something onto them after they're done.