by Kelly A Nix
“Of course, the faster you complete the challenge, the more points you’ll earn. And, we all know how useful those points will be when preparing for the Gridiron,” Skiska says.
“By now, I shouldn’t have to warn you that just because it’s simple, it doesn’t mean it’s easy. Beware of surprises.”
“Oh, I’m certain they know that by now, Frack.” Skiska flashes a brilliant smile. “Anyway, that’s all the rules we have for you. I think it’s time to move on.”
“Yeah, time for the final round and to see who’s truly the best that Sula Academy has to offer.”
“Good luck, everyone!”
Wrapping her tail around her waist, Jeqi doesn’t wait for the giant floating heads and the map to disappear before she bellows orders. She points to the ground several steps ahead of the small pack.
“Marqee and Sloan, you take the tunnels there to the big cave inside the hill. Find your keys, meet us at the top of the hill below the gate.”
“How do you know there’s a big cave inside?” Atae asks. Jeqi huffs and waves her hand.
“I saw it on the map. You and I will climb the hill from the outside, enter through a tunnel I saw about mid-way up, and grab the two keys on the way to the rendezvous point.”
“Got it.” Marqee nods, then the domes drop.
Eighty younglings surge from the outskirts of the arena toward the center hill. Marqee and Sloan cut to the left, push their way through the throng of competitors, and disappear. Atae and Jeqi weave through the bulk of the students, dodging a few stray punches and several energy blade swings. Neither hybrid sticks around long enough to engage the attackers, much to Beast’s aggravation.
Calm down. Our goal is to reach the gate first. We can’t get distracted, Atae says, to which Beast grumbles.
Atae follows behind Jeqi as she leads them through the stampede of competitors. One purebred that rushes across their path stumbles and disappears into the ground. Startled, Jeqi adjusts course around their fallen classmate. As she passes, Atae notices a smooth energy door closing shut on the trap, and she wonders how many of these surprises await them. Jeqi and Atae scan the ground as they run, hoping to avoid the pitfalls, which slows their progress. Neither hybrid spots any, but two more younglings disappear around them with surprised yelps.
Beast unleashes a flurry of orange particles, and Atae glances around to see Debil, in battle beast form, charge straight for her. Atae curses and unsheathes her blade but doesn’t slow her pace toward the hill as the purebred chases her down. They’ve almost reached the base of the small mountain when Debil closes in enough to pounce on the hybrid. She takes one last step to gather herself for liftoff and slips through a camouflaged trap door. She flails about and squeals in panic as she plummets into the unknown.
Atae laughs out loud at the clumsy battle beast, and Jeqi glimpses back at the sound of her packmate’s voice. She spots Atae just in time to see her fall into another invisible trap. Neither Beast nor Atae sees the trap door due to its perfect camouflage among the mud and dirt of the arena floor. The ground just gives way beneath her, and she falls. The petite youngling throws her hands out to find a ledge, but the trap is too big for her short reach. The momentum from her run pushes her into the darkness below faster than she expects, and Beast howls in concern at their helpless descent.
Atae slams hard into the ground at the bottom of a great pit. Stunned, she lies in the crumbling dirt, listening to Jeqi bash her fists against the door and call her name. Atae lifts her head to survey the dark cavern and comes face-to-face with a large mouth of drool and teeth. Beast flashes an orange warning to move, pumping massive amounts of adrenaline into Atae’s system, and with a high-pitched squeal, she responds. She scrambles backward in a crustacean-like stance, and the creature does the same. Several clods of dirt tumble across her shoulders from the soft, dirt wall at her back, but she ignores them.
The darkness is thick enough that Atae loses sight of the creature’s retreating form, although the moving shadows and the sounds of scraping claws hint at its position. Atae frowns as she realizes that it’s retreating toward the only light source in the dark cave. A dim glow emanates from a small tunnel across from Atae, and the creature scuttles toward it until its body eclipses the light. When the rodent shuffles through the tunnel, Atae studies its backside. The hairless mammal pulls its serpentine-like body along the perfectly sized burrow with a dozen tiny, clawed arms and legs, and a large tail shuffles behind it. The front of the creature is buried under the tunnel, but Atae remembers the large teeth and rancid drool. Her eyes widen in surprise when she spots a yellow reflective band wrapped around the creature’s slithering tail.
A key. Atae gasps. She almost marches after the creature, but Jeqi’s voice calls down to her.
“Atae, can you hear me?”
“Yeah, I’m still alive.”
“What was that squealing noise? Did you kill something?”
“No, it was nothing,” Atae says. She’ll never admit to screaming. No one will ever know, except Atae and the tunnel creature.
And everyone in the universe watching. Atae frowns when she remembers the camera buzzing around the dark cave. The camera not only caught her embarrassing squeal, but it will broadcast any shifting mishaps as well. Beast heaves with annoyance, and Atae agrees. She swats at the camera, and it dodges her flailing hand only to scrape against the cave wall. Atae can hear dirt crumbling, but the darkness is too thick to see the extent of the damage.
“Can you get to the hill?” Jeqi calls down. The cave is a few steps wide and a couple of stories deep. Atae shuffles around the dark cavern, searching for more tunnels. Finding only the lit tunnel, Atae tries to scale the wall, but the dirt crumbles with the slightest provocation.
“Uh, maybe,” Atae says. “There’s a tunnel, but I don’t know where it goes. There’s also a giant…thing…a tunnel rodent. It has a key.”
Atae listens to the sounds of scuffling then a loud bang against the trap door before Jeqi responds.
“Go after it. Find a way to the hill.”
“What was that?”
“Wesk bit off more than she could chew. Now she won’t be able to swallow without a visit to the med-wing first.”
Atae cringes at the damage she imagines Jeqi inflicted upon the purebred youngling. Wesk isn’t the brightest student, nor the most skilled fighter. Frankly, Atae’s surprised she made it this far. Perhaps her packmates helped her along during the first three rounds. Left to her own devices, Wesk picked a fight with the wrong hybrid. Beast beams within a proud, green mist at her packmate’s skill.
“You’re vulnerable up there, Jeqi. You need to move,” Atae says.
“So do you. We don’t have time to waste.”
“So stop talking and go.”
“Fine, I’m going,” Jeqi says. “Just try not to scream anymore. It’s embarrassing.”
Atae’s entire face burns bright red as she realizes that Jeqi recognized her scream earlier. No self-respecting warrior would release such a meek sound, and both hybrids knew it. Of course, Jeqi wouldn’t pass up the chance to tease her packmate before she dashes off.
Beast rubs against Atae’s mind with yellow anticipation, ready to move forward in their challenge, and Atae’s excitement grows in response. She shuffles toward the tunnel then climbs inside. The shaft is big enough for Atae to stand on her knees, but only if she sits on her feet and bends her head at an odd angle. Her face scrapes across the tunnel ceiling, which glows with a green hue. Her skin touches something soft and wet, and she cringes. Looking down, Atae notices that only the top half of the crawl space is glowing. She shifts onto her back to better investigate and realizes that moss clings to the ceiling. She touches the phosphorescent plant, and her hand comes away covered in glowing, green spores that stain her skin. Atae wipes her hand and finds that the luminescent quality disperses with the spores, but her hands remain stained light green.
It might be cool if I glowed in the dark, Atae muse
s. Beast is quick to remind her of the first round of the tournament when glowing energy swords were targets in the night and easy pickings. Atae cringes at the memory and acknowledges that, for once, Beast is right. Refocusing on the task at hand, Atae shuffles back to her hands and knees and peers down the tunnel for a sign of life. Her camera uses the opportunity to buzz past her and down the shaft a bit then returns. The luminescent moss continues onward throughout the tiny passageway.
There has to be a way out somewhere. Atae just hopes she and Beast can reach it before time runs out. She sighs but soldiers onward, hoping that it’s at least in the right direction. She crawls through the subterranean path and tries to ignore the shifting dirt under her weight. Every time she scrapes the side or ceiling of the tunnel, soil gives way. She wonders at the best way to collapse the burrow, and Beast paces inside an orangish-yellow ball of anxious particles.
I’m starting to think you’re claustrophobic, Atae teases, and Beast bares her teeth. The hybrid chuckles out loud then gasps when the walls rumble. With the dirt shifting and falling, Atae stops in her tracks while the tunnel shakes all around her. Atae doesn’t move again until the ground falls silent and still. Beast clings to her mind, pumping Atae full of adrenaline and pushing her closer to the edge of panic. Neither wants to be buried alive, but Atae knows that losing it will only make matters worse. So she takes a deep breath and continues onward at a slow and cautious pace, trying not to shake under pressure.
Atae shuffles through the tunnel until she reaches a fork in the path. She pauses, uncertain which to take, and Beast reminds her of the tunnel rodent. Atae glances around for a trail to follow, but both shafts are identical. This realization bothers Atae because every animal leaves a trail, and the tunnel rodent most certainly traveled this way. Yet even the path she’s already traversed shows no signs of the odd creature, only Atae’s clumsy movement.
Eager to find freedom from the tight space, Beast urges her to decide, so Atae complies and opts for the left path. She crawls down the tunnel, listening for signs of another quake, but nothing happens. As soon as she relaxes, the camera buzzes by her left ear, and Atae growls at it. Once again, the ground rumbles all around her, this time harder, and the tunnel deteriorates from the violence of it. Beast rages at Atae from within an explosion of red and gold, demanding escape. Atae tries to comply by rushing ahead, but the rumbling follows her.
A tunnel rodent explodes from the right wall of the path. It snaps its large, threatening jaws and lashes out with two clawed paws while the lower half of its body remains hidden by the crumbling tunnel wall. Atae shifts backward and shuffles away from the chomping bites. Beast searches for vulnerable attack points such as the eyes and nose and relays her findings to Atae. The hybrid pauses at a safe distance from the threatening teeth to process Beast’s input. The giant rodent doesn’t have any eyes; instead, a large bone protrudes above the nose and jaw.
“What the…” Atae says. Then she gasps in surprise when the rodent lurches toward her. “You can hear me, but you can’t see me.”
Atae shuffles back from another threatening lunge. She kicks at the tunnel rodent, tiring of its behavior, but that only angers it more. It thrashes back and forth, causing the tunnel to collapse on top of it. Atae manages to scurry out of the way and deeper into an intact part of the tube, but the rodent follows. It’s unfazed by the dirt and burrows free using its multiple arms and legs.
Atae curses in frustration and uses her feet to keep the snapping creature at bay. It wasn’t this aggressive in the cave. It had scurried from Atae as fast as she had retreated from it. This time, she’s at a disadvantage in the tunnel where the rodent thrives. Atae kicks again, this time, landing a blow on the bone protruding above its nose in place of eyes. The creature flinches away, and Beast grins from within a yellow flurry. Atae mimics Beast’s smile and kicks at the rodent again until it yelps. The tunnel rodent reels away from the hybrid then arches its slithering body upward to claw into the ceiling. Atae watches in amazement as the creature digs through the dirt above, leaving behind a perfect tunnel as it crawls away.
This thing made the tunnels, Atae says.
They made the tunnels, Beast clarifies.
Before Atae can consider what that means, she catches sight of the key band around the creature’s tail and lunges for it. She grabs the wiggling rodent before it can disappear, and it squeals. Atae jumps at the ear-splitting noise but doesn’t let go. She unlatches the band and yanks it off the creature. An instant before Atae decides to release the rodent, it expels a foul-smelling secretion into her face. She drops the awful animal and falls back against the opposite tunnel wall, while Beast screams in agony.
Ignoring the camera that buzzes close by, Atae gags as she wipes away the nasty substance from her face. She’d be concerned about what her father must think of this unpleasant situation, but Beast’s flailing and painful squeals prevent Atae from concentrating on anything else. She sits in the green tunnel in a stunned stupor as she tries to figure out the problem.
What’s wrong?
I can’t see. I can’t feel. I can’t hear. Make it stop, Beast says.
It’s okay. Everything is okay. We’re fine.
But Beast wails, panic-stricken, and refuses to listen. Atae cringes and rubs her temples to help soothe the headache from Beast’s fear, then she sighs and lifts the key band still clenched in one hand. The youngling straps it to one wrist and shuffles onward. After a while, Beast stops screaming but continues to fret.
What happened? Atae asks. She edges down the tunnel in complete silence so as not to attract another tunnel rodent.
I don’t know. I can’t see. I can’t feel. I can’t hear, Beast says again. She flails inside a gold, frightened orb, and Atae pities her.
But I’m fine. I can see and hear everything. What does that mean? Is this permanent? Can we still shift? Atae asks.
I don’t know, Beast admits.
It must have been that gross fart. What the hell was that?
Disgusting creature, Beast says. Then she wails in despair. We will die.
It’s not going to kill us. We’ll be fine. If all the keys are on the back of those tunnel rodents, then everyone will get farted on at some point. I don’t think Sula Academy wants to kill us all.
You cannot protect us. We will die, Beast says.
And we’re back to this, Atae says. I thought we were getting somewhere. Haven’t I proven myself?
No.
Not even a little?
No.
You’re lying. I’m amazing, Atae says.
Beast digs into her mind with a growl, and the hybrid cringes under the pain but keeps crawling onward. She spies a corner ahead and wonders how much further she’ll need to crawl. When Beast rips at her again, Atae growls.
That doesn’t help either of us. Like it or not, I’m the only chance we have to get through this. The fact that you haven’t tried to take control or shift means that you can’t, so I’m all you’ve got.
Beast says nothing but sneers, so Atae continues.
Attacking me will only distract me and get us hurt or killed. So stop it.
I cannot see. I cannot hear. I cannot feel. Beast says again. She implores Atae to listen and understand the danger, and Atae nods.
I know you can’t help me…us, but I can do this.
With a growl, Beast recedes into a golden tornado at the back of her counterpart’s mind and, Atae sighs in relief. When she reaches the corner, Atae spots the end of the tunnel shining nearby. Excited, she rushes onward, damaging the burrow as she traverses through it.
“Yes!”
Atae celebrates as she steps out into a vast cavern, but a tunnel rodent explodes from the wall behind her and chomps into the right side of her back and abdomen. She yelps and slams her elbow into its protruding bone, and the creature reels back, releasing Atae in the process. Before the animal can retreat into the wall again, the injured hybrid unsheathes her hilt and slices the creature’s head of
f. She rushes away from the offending wall, holding her wound as blood pours from the carcass, and the head bounces down a nearby staircase. Atae curses as she probes the injury and groans from the pain of two bruised ribs. Blood oozes from the puncture wounds along the length of her chest and back, so she applies pressure until they clot.
Had the tunnel rodent had time to rip into its prey, it might have damaged Atae’s vital organs. Fortunately, Atae knew its vulnerability. Of course, the hybrid might have avoided the entire attack had Beast been able to warn her.
I’ll have to be much more careful.
I cannot see. I cannot… Beast tries to remind Atae, but she interrupts.
I know, I know. I think we have more pressing concerns.
Taking a deep breath, Atae surveys the surrounding chaos. Dozens of younglings fight with others, while some seem to battle the air around them. One huge student named Rakum huddles in a corner, rocking back in forth and mumbling to himself. Another purebred, Quin, pounds at the solid wall in rage and rips out chunks of rock and clay with his bare hands. Drawn to the noise, a tunnel rodent bursts from the rubble and tackles the loud youngling.
“That’s one way to get a key,” Atae says. She cringes when Quin bashes the rodent’s face into bits, then rather than grabbing the yellow band, he keeps wailing on the dead creature. “That’s a little odd.”
Several other students yell nonsense at each other as they scramble across the rough floor and rip at their uniforms. One screams about bugs crawling in her pants.
“That’s very odd.” Atae stares wide-eyed at the absurdity of it all until Beast growls. She glances around the cavern for an idea of where to go next.
The green moss glows on the high ceiling and damp walls, and it also lights several staircases leading in different directions. The ground under Atae feels solid like stone, unlike the unstable tunnels, and the walls feel like wet clay. The thicker mud doesn’t slow the tunnel rodents. Several carcasses lie strewn across the cave, but Atae notices that none of them have keys. She realizes why when a hybrid with brown eyes and hair, named Sepkie, leaps up from a lower stairwell and snatches the key from Quin’s dead rodent. Quin doesn’t mind since he’s too busy pounding against the wall again.