Chosen.

Chosen. Chapter 16

Autumn

Friday 01/09, 06:55 PM.

Well, it's the first big elimination night and *Fingers Crossed* we did enough to stay in this thing. It has definitely been the longest five days of my life, and this is only the first trial! As we all wait for the rankings to post in the congregation room, I think back on everything my family and I have had to endure so far.......

That first day retrieving the first scavenger hunt item, the 'sacred fruit' from the top of those huge sky trees, was grueling. We didn't really tell the boys much since we were so exhausted, but, believe me, there were some close calls with Hannah and I. I'm pretty terrified of heights, but I thought if I just didn't look down that everything would be okay. Uhhh, not the case, however. Halfway up I had a mini (or major) panic attack and Hannah had to calm me down before I catapulted us both to our tragic, tumbling deaths. And poor Mom down below, she was only trying to help. But once I saw how far she actually was below, that only made things that much worse. Somehow, though, I was able to eventually pry my fingers loose from the bark and inch towards the top. In the end, we got through it, but it was the start of a very loooong week.

We decided not to go out at night during the scavenger hunt and we worked double-time during the day to retrieve all the items. I guess the boys had some close encounter with one of the forest beasts that first day and didn't want to take the risk unless absolutely necessary. They were pretty vague, so I'm not sure if they were exaggerating, or trying to scare us. Fortunately, since we were working with the Walker family, between us were able to decipher the clues and figure out the remaining items we needed to retrieve. Also, I chose to spend my time at night studying the 'Mibharian Bible', as I started calling it, and that was a big help once I started to understand the translations with Terra's knowledge of languages.

The second item on the scavenger hunt list, 2): Find the ponya kimbilio--the Mibharians used this to treat infection and small wounds. (Hint: tafuta maji pango's). It turns out the reason the Walkers didn't find any water on the South Isle that first day was because they didn't know the full clue yet, which turned out to mean underground water caves. Once we were able to figure that part out, it wasn't long before we found out that 'ponya kimbilio' was a special type of healing moss that grew in the dark depths of the underground water caves there on the island and that was the item we needed to retrieve.

That was a big day of discoveries, because that morning Heath also overheard a family at breakfast talking amongst themselves, and he was able to give us all the info needed for the third item as well. I have no idea how he does it, but Heath and his "special op" tactics figured out that Number 3): Find the azizi maua--the Mibharians used this to connect with their spirit guides (Hint: pah jamaa mwitu) meant find the 'dear flower'. And the hint of wild desert ancestors meant it was located on the furthest SW isle which was desert-like and devoted to their ancestors. This is where they held special ceremonies to connect with their spirit guides by crushing this flower and drinking it in a tea. Pretty interesting, right?

To say the least, it was so exciting! It was only Day 2, and we knew four out of five of the items and set to work on retrieving them. We split up again and went our separate ways to find the scavenger items, and by the end of the day we felt confident that this first challenge of the trials was in the bag....... Or maybe not!!! We soon came to realize some of these families were ruthless!

The scientists, of course, didn't give any of the families anything lethal to avoid harm between the competitors, but that didn't mean that violence didn't happen. It started off humane enough; however, around halfway in that first week the pressure must have been building because things started to get much more brutal. For example, we figured out that the stun-guns were for wild animal encounters, especially if you went out after dark. You could use the stun-gun, and, hopefully, it would be enough to scare it off, at least until your family could get back into the safe zone. Well, let me tell you, as things progressed we heard about families using them on each other to steal an item from another family (which I personally think should have been against the rules). There were also rumors about families using the special lenses, which were like night vision goggles, to spy on other families and sabotage each other. I mean, things were really heating up. We did hear that the public has been eating it up, though, and I'm curious how it looks from the outside.