The Wicked Trial | Wickeds Vs. Morals Short Story

Chapter 4

Chapter 4

       The other three were starting to get worried about the trial. I wasn't. It was easy for me to spot and avoid the traps hidden in the forest because I was told that I was very perceptive, so it was a good thing I came along.

       That, and I was the only sorcerer in my generation, so I was going to able to do things on the trial nobody else could.

       "How long is it going to take to get back to the fort?" Opal asked.

       "I'd say about thirty hours, without stopping," I said. 

       "And how long have we walked?" Lance asked.

       "Two hours."

       "Only two hours?!" Lance asked. "There's no way I can walk....how many more hours just to return home and be finished with this stupid trial."

       "Twenty eight. A bit less because of the tiny bit of time we walked before we got to that cabin."

       "I'm really not appreciating your smart comments right now."

       "What smart comments? I'm literally answering your questions, indirect or not."

       "Arcadia, please tell your brother to shut up and stop giving me sass."

       "Uh, he's not giving you sass," Arcadia said. "He was literally answering your questions. And even if he was giving you sass, there's no telling him to cut the sass out."

       She was right there, though I didn't even think of it as sass. I told it how it was, and if they couldn't handle it, that was their problem.

       We continued walking for a few more minutes, keeping an eye out for anymore traps before we came to a fork in the path. It was the first one we came across, oddly enough. The rest of the path so far has just been going in one direction with a few twists and turns.

       "Now which way do we go?" Opal asked as I leaned against a tree. It wasn't going to be easy deciding which way to go.

       "Left, obviously," Lance said. "We want to stay close to the train tracks, and right is going to lead us in the opposite direction. Unless....that's what they want us to think. And how the right path will just crossover and end up being close to the tracks, and the left track could lead us over an edge."

       Opal sighed. "Way to make me worried. I really don't think paths will crossover and head in another direction though."

       "Uh, this is The Wicked Trial, though," Lance said. "You can't be too sure with anything. I was almost killed by a bear earlier."

       I chuckled. "Bears are something you could be sure about. They're normal."

       "And you're not, sorcerer," Lance said.

      I raised an eyebrow. "Is that supposed to be an insult? Because all I'm hearing is I can do things you can't."

       "Why am I even friends with you?" Lance asked. "Your attitude is really annoying me. Can't you do anything to figure out what path to take?"

       "You really have a misunderstanding on what sorcerers can do, don't we?" I asked. "We can't just do anything we want."

       "Then do something, Mr. Hot Shot," Lance said. "What path should we take?"

       "How should I know?" I asked. "It's a fifty-fifty shot of leading us in the right direction, but chances are they both have traps on them. I say we just choose a path, walk down it, and see where it leads."

       "Okay, but how do we choose what path to go down, nimrod?" Lance asked.

       I looked around before picking up two small rocks that were easily distinguishable by its colour. One was a very light grey, and the other was a darker grey with a more square-like shape compared to the other. "This is left," I said, holding up the darker one before switching to the light one. "This is right." 

       I then tossed both of them lightly towards Lance and because it was without warning, his reflection was off and he was only able to catch one; the darker one.

       "Left it is," I said before starting to head down the path.

       "I don't trust this," Lance said. "Something's off."

       "Everything has been off the whole time we've been on the trial," Opal pointed out. "Grimm, do you feel like anything is off?"

       "Not really, no," I said. "And I don't see anything."

       "Do you hear anything off?" Lance asked. "Because I do. My ears are ringing a bit."

       "Doesn't everyone's ears ring at random times for a few seconds?" I asked.

       "Yeah, you're right," Lance said.

       A bit further down the path, and Lance told me the ringing wasn't going away. Not only that, but Arcadia and Opal's ears were ringing too.

       "You're not hearing this?" Lance asked, plugging one of his ears. "It's getting louder."

       "Maybe it will start to fade the further we go along the path," I said. 

       It did't. 

       It got worse.

       Lance suddenly called out in pain, and I turned around to see him plugging both of his ears. Opal was doing the same thing, but Arcadia was the one I rushed over to because she slumped to the ground.

       "Ar," I said, trying to get her to look at me but the pain was clearly too much for her. "Just hang in there, okay?"

       I looked around, trying to find something I could do or something that was causing this. And why was it only impacting them and not me?

       All three of them were still in a lot of pain, so I did my go-to spell that would hopefully work for now. 

        I hit all three with a spell that would knock them out cold for a few hours. That would give me some time to either find what was making their ears ring, or take them all to a place where they would be out of range.

       The trial was starting to get a lot harder than I thought it would be.

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Yay, I was finally able to update. cx I miss Grimm, and I need to get into his attitude because I'll most likely be writing a short story for him in my creative writing class.

Speaking of my presentation is on Wednesday and I'm freaking out. I'm trying not to, and I'm going to try to act like I'm just talking to my friend. It's totally not going to work lol.