The Trial

Chapter 6

As we entered the room, a bright light on the ceiling flickered on. soon after, an image began to appear all around us. mason and I glanced nervously at each other.

Ares seemed to appear out of nowhere in the middle of the room. "do not be alarmed. what you will encounter in this room is nothing more than a hologram, projected from the light above you." as he made his way toward us, he held out his hand to mason. he was holding his blade from when we were sizing each other up outside. "you'll need this." as mason took the blade and tucked it back into his waistband, Ares added "any damage you cause to the projections will reflect in here, and any damage they cause will appear real. you won't feel it, but your mind will believe it to be real and treat it as real. any harm you cause to each will be real. good luck. your testing starts now."

his words were still echoing through the room, even after it seemed to morph into an outdoor scene. there were trees all around us. I glanced at mason and murmured "keep your eyes open. if you figure out what turning point this is, before I do, let me know. I'll do the same. it'll help us work out what we're up against and what we need to do."

we cautiously started slipping through the trees, listening and watching for any threats. a strange smell began to fill my senses. "what is that?" mason asked. 

"I don't know." I quietly replied. 

"it smells like something cooking."

"or burning." I offered. 

"there better not be any more chemical fires in here." he huffed, but the sound of fear was still in his tone. 

"I don't think it's a chemical fire. it smells different. like ... burnt flesh." I hesitated, not wanting to alarm him. "I think I know when we are. remember when they found the cave full of vampires, and they were cooking up one of the hunters."

both of us had stopped moving, glancing at each other with obvious worry. "how many camps were there?"

"it never said, but they changed the moment by killing all the vamps and saving the hunter." 

"how?" 

"they caved the roof in and let the sun do most of the work."

"how did they save the hunter?" 

"two hunters went inside to pull him out, before a group of humans caved the roof. in our original history, the three of them died, but we managed to change our fate. all three survived."

"so what do we do?"

"we need to find the cave and the group of humans and the two hunters, unless we're taking the hunters places." I said thoughtfully as we started moving forward, heading toward the smell of smoke and what I assumed was burning flesh. 

"how exactly did they change it?" 

"they sent two people back to help the hunters that had came to help the captured hunter."

"what did they do?"

"the revised version of the books say they kept the vampires distracted and far enough inside the cave that the hunters were able to pull out the other hunters."

"so they died?" he choked out. 

"yes."

he was about to say something, when a scream of pain ripped through the trees, stopping us in our tracks. "where did it come from?"

"straight ahead." I replied, staring at darker spot through the trees. "I think I can see the cave entrance." I pointed where I was looking, and he followed my gesture.