The Champion's Exam promises riches, adventure and the title that creates legends.
Only on problem; it is known for killing its applicants.
Eko Malone, a twelve-year-old boy stuck on an island his entire life, has only known one thing about his pa...
Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.
Four years later...
Nira laid on her stomach staring down at the water, the milky green water, while Eko sat beside her staring at the sky. "What do you want to do?" Eko asked.
Nira shrugged, "I dunno."
"Well... what can we do?" Eko asked.
Nira rolled on her back, "I know what we can't do."
Eko looked to her as she sat up. "We can't scream, we can't swim, we can't climb, and, more importantly," she pointed to hive of sleeping Nectar Bees resting on the walls of the cave, "We can't wake them."
The cave was filled with echoes of buzzing. "Well why can't we swim?" Eko asked.
Nira rolled back on her stomach and flicked another stone in the water, watching it fizzle and dissolve into small bubbles. "Unless you wanna end up like that I wouldn't risk it," she replied, she looked up, "Besides, we're aiming for up there." She pointed to the small hole in the ceiling of the cave which was the only means of light and escape. It was a situation of the escape hole being one hundred meters away from the water and in the centre of the ceiling.
Eko frowned as he stood up.
"Another thing to add to the can't do list," Nira said standing, "To quote Rita; 'You can't go play near the Nectar Bee Hive you two, I don't want to hear any excuses.'" Eko smirked. Nira then went on to mimic the entire conversation of Eko arguing and objecting, until he eventually agreed to follow her rules. "And how strange that is that we ended up here of all places."
Eko chuckled, "I'm sorry, but we've gotten honey from here tonnes of times. How was I supposed to know they had moved their stash beyond reach?"
Nira shrugged, "We need to just get out of here." Nira looked back up to the man hole. "Waiting is so tedious," she complained sinking back to the ground.
Eko looked to her, "Why do we wait?"
"Well we can't wake them; therefore, we have to let them wake on their own. That way they won't attack us and maybe we can just fly out with them." Nira sighed as she laid back down on the dirt, picking at some of the stones on the ground. "If we wake them they'll just attack us, and that would only prove Rita right."
The two sighed in sync with one another. "That could take forever though." Nectar Bees only woke up when the light touches their honey, the honey was underneath where they slept. The light needed to be strong enough to reflect off the water and onto the walls to disturb one Nectar Bee, once one was awake, they would all be awake and go out into the world to collect the best nectar at the prime time of the day.
Nira looked to some of the already disturbed bees on the walls, twitching to start flying, but a premature flight would lead them to death by toxic pool. "It'll only be another hour at the most," she informed yawning, "Nevertheless, that's still tedious."
