by WB McKay
As it turned out, the next room didn't have the pirates, but it did have lava. Lots of lava. We stood far away from the edge, none of us wanting to step closer to the heat.
"I guess they didn't think we got enough of the lava with the snake," said Art, looking across the room, his eyes wide.
"Lava… snake?" asked Ava, sounding as timid as I'd ever heard her.
"Yeah, it was a thing we had to deal with in the first trial," I said. "We kicked its ass. This is entirely different." This was a giant room that looked like a swimming pool filled with lava. Suspended above it was an obstacle course. The whole setup screamed American Ninja Warrior, except instead of falling on cushions or into water, we would fall into a pool of lava. Tiny difference, that. "I'm going to shift and check this out. I'll see if there's some trick to it that we can exploit." I started shucking my wet suit.
"Wouldn't it be wiser for Owen to do that?" asked Art. I gave him a glare. He'd just won a lot of goodwill and then tossed it out with a casually sexist remark. Before I could open my affronted mouth, he continued. "He's a fire dragon. Lava is fire."
My anger melted away. "Huh. I never thought of that. Owen?"
Owen was already shaking his head. "Lava isn't fire, it's molten rock. It's death. It is well beyond dragonfire. I'd roast just as surely as the rest of you. Speaking of which, Sophie, make sure you stay close to the ceiling. They must have some sort of enchantment in here to keep the room from turning into an oven, but there's no telling how close you can get without burning."
"I will," I promised, setting the wet suit aside. I mentally tagged in my crow side; my second form was always there waiting. Nothing happened. Everything felt fine. I could feel my crow half, but I couldn't shift. "Um, something's weird." I closed my eyes and willed my body to change, concentrating on the feel of my wings and wind ruffling my feathers. Nothing. I tried for a while longer, but all I managed was to break out in a sweat. "I can't shift."
I opened my eyes to see all of my companions except Ava frowning in concentration. One by one they all let out a gusty breath and shook their heads.
"There's magic here stopping us from shifting," said Owen. He always liked to state the obvious. "Guess they don't want us cheating on their obstacle course."
Now that I thought about it, that made sense. I could just make out the door on the other side of the room. If we could all fly, it would be a piece of cake. "I guess we climb up here." I indicated the raised platform to my left, where the obstacle course began.
The others climbed while I put my wet suit back on. As soon as both my feet were on the ladder, the loud grating of stone on stone reached my ears. My eyes darted to the large door on the other side of the room. From my new vantage point, I could see it clearly. There was a big stone slowly lowering from the ceiling. Eventually, it would block the exit entirely. "We've got to move. If we take too long, we're going to be trapped in here."
"Fuck!" said Enid.
"Seconded," added Owen.
"All right, we don't have time to debate how this is going to go done." I stepped to the edge of the platform and looked at the first obstacle. It was a pretty straightforward rolling log. On TV, the log would be covered in padding to prevent injuries if a contestant fell. No need for that here. If I fell, I was dead. Instead, it was made of metal with grooves etched into the surface to prevent slipping. At least they weren't trying to sabotage us. "I'm going first because this is my team. If I die, this whole thing is over and maybe they'll let the rest of you go."
I turned to meet the eyes of the others and found grim agreement. Owen looked like he wanted to argue, but he knew better than that. He wouldn't want to undermine my authority, especially not so soon after we'd made up.
"Be careful," said Owen, instead. "Take large steps and get across as quickly as you can."
"I will," I said, and gave him a quick kiss. It wasn't very professional, but it felt right, and I'd heard that a lot of leadership was going with your gut. That worked for me, since it was already my policy. Judging by the smiles all around, it was the right thing to do. Owen's smile was the best. "See you on the other side."
Before I could overthink it, I spun around and darted across the obstacle. On my first step it started to roll to my right and got faster as I crossed it. The metal log dug into my bare feet, but I much preferred it to slipping. It was only about a foot wide and about twenty feet long. My second to last step landed too far to the left of the center and my ankle rolled. I thought for sure I was going down, but instinct took over and I lunged forward. My right foot connected with the log and I tumbled onto the platform at the other end.
A frantic chorus of shouts called to me from the other side while I lay there panting. "I'm fine," I wheezed. It hadn't been a long or difficult run, but my body was so keyed up, I thought I might have a heart attack. "Just a little slip." I pulled myself back up and waved at them.
They gave me a round of applause, complete with a mouth whistle from Owen. I turned my head to hide my blush and caught sight of the closing door. We didn't have time for celebration. Apparently, Art thought the same thing because he was backing up like he was ready to take the run for himself.
"Wait!" I shouted. My eyes searched the platform, eventually landing on the pedestal to my right. There was a glowing blue button begging to be pushed. I looked back at Art, who'd returned to a more casual stance. "Ten points for patience!" I hollered at him, and pressed the button. A series of black tiles floated from beneath my platform to make a three foot wide bridge for the others to cross.
"Only one person per obstacle needs to cross," said Enid. "That's better. Not great, but better."
Owen gave me another kiss when he reached my side. It made me smile until I turned around to look at the next obstacle. It was a series of randomly spaced vertical poles. Each pole was only a few inches in diameter, ideal for grabbing with a hand. The bottoms of the poles hovered about five feet above the lava with nothing there to stop a plunge to your death. It would take amazing dexterity to move from one pole to the next without sliding off or losing your grip. I was pretty strong, but this would take more than I had to offer.
"Anyone feel like this is their obstacle?" I asked, already mentally running through how I'd handle it.
Ava stepped forward without hesitation. "I can do this," she said simply.
It was hard to hide my skepticism. "Some of those poles are as far apart as you are tall."
"Does anyone else here have experience swinging from a pole?" she asked, irritation clear in her tone.
My eyebrows raised involuntarily. Experience swinging from a pole? I looked Ava up and down like I'd never seen her before. She was tiny, but muscular. She liked to show off her belly button and with it, a well-toned stomach. "Pole dancing?"
"It's a hobby. The girls are very supportive, and it keeps me in shape." Ava walked past me and took hold of the first pole. "See you on the other side," she said, mimicking my line, her nose giving the slightest bunny twitch.
Watching Ava swing over a pool of lava was the hardest thing I'd ever done. I couldn't do anything to help her, and she was there because of me. Her fate, and ours, was entirely in her small hands. And legs. And feet. She used her whole body to grip the poles and move from one to the next. For the first six poles, she made it look easy. Then, whether it was the strain of keeping her muscles engaged or the sweat coating her body, she slipped.
"No!" shouted Owen over the rest of our gasps. He lunged to the edge of the platform before I could move to stop him.
With a squeal of sweaty skin sliding over metal, Ava caught herself six inches before her feet slipped off the bottom of the pole. She didn't so much as let out a squeak of surprise. She climbed back up the pole, mostly using her legs to push herself up a few inches at a time.
"You've got this, Ava," I called, remembering what she'd said about the girls at her pole classes being supportive. I wasn't sure, but it looked like her shoulders squared after my words.
Av
a cleared the next three poles with slow precision. Her long reaches blew my mind. She put her feet against the pole like she was standing on a balance beam and reached the next pole with little more than her fingers. Somehow, she got a grip and pulled herself across the open air and wrapped her limbs around the next piece of metal.
The last pole was the longest gap. It was easily five feet. I had no idea how she was going to make it. Why had I let her take this obstacle? Owen and Art had a good amount of upper body strength and they had over a foot of height on Ava. What the hell was I thinking?
While I watched, and my breaths came so fast I thought I might hyperventilate, Ava crept to the top of the pole. Her feet bunched up beneath her while she held onto the pole, supporting most of her weight with her hands. She'd used this same method on some of the longer reaches before, but there was no way she could stretch that far with one hand this time. My breath hitched in my throat. No!
All at once, she pushed off the pole with both feet and let go with both hands. She dropped at least three feet before her hands connected with the final pole. I heard a clunk that had to be her head connecting with metal. Somehow, she held on. A cheer erupted from my throat. It was so raw that I wasn't surprised to feel tears trailing down my face. I wiped them away and clapped. "That's my girl!"
Ava stepped gingerly off the last pole and onto the next platform. On wobbly feet, she walked over and pushed the button to extend the bridge. My steps were just as wobbly as Ava's when I made it to the other side and wrapped her in a hug. "That was absolutely amazing, you crazy lady!" I pulled back and looked her over. "Are you all right? I thought I heard your head hit."
"Are we friends who hug now?" asked Ava, rubbing her forehead.
I laughed and met Owen's eyes. "She sounds like herself. I think she's fine." My gaze turned toward the closing door. "Let's take a look at the next obstacle. We're running out of time."
"I've been looking at it," replied Art. "It appears to be the last one, but I think it might be broken. I don't see how it's supposed to work."
What I saw when I stepped up next to Art was a forty foot open space. There was absolutely nothing between us and the next platform. I could see why Art thought it was broken, but nothing in the other obstacles had seemed in disrepair; there wasn't so much as a broken support on the end of either platform.
"I think we're missing something," I said. "Everyone take a look. See if you notice anything that could be a clue."
Their heads swiveled around, scanning the area like nervous birds looking for predators. I noticed that each of us continued glancing toward the closing door. It was almost halfway down. If we finished the obstacle quickly, we could still make it. If only we could figure out the trick. No matter how I tilted my head or strained with my second sight, I saw nothing in the open space over the lava. Our platform had the button Ava had pushed to get to this side, and a low pedestal made of the same stone as the platform. Each of us had gone over to examine it a few times already, but there was nothing magical about it. Possibly it was a seat to rest on while we waited to die of dehydration once the door closed.
It was infuriating how my mind wandered toward unhelpful thoughts when I needed it to focus the most.
Time passed with nothing to show for it. I tried to shift again, just in case, but no luck.
"All right," said Art. "I have an idea. If I get a running start and use my water magic to give me a boost, I might be able to make it across the gap."
"That's suicide," said Ava flatly.
"It's the best I've got," said Art. He crossed his arms, his mouth set in a firm line. It was the most grim I'd ever seen him.
There was an awkward round of meaningful glances where we all conveyed that we didn't have any other ideas.
"That's our last resort," I said. The door continued to inch closed while I thought of every means possible to game the obstacle. "Ava, do you have any contacts in here?"
Ava shook her head. "Patricia has been exploring the other end for us, but doesn't see anything that could help, and we're otherwise alone. I don't think anyone's ever made it here before."
"Huh," was all I could manage. I wanted to feel proud about that, but our impending demise was putting a damper on my celebration.
"I'm pretty light," said Ava, providing no further explanation.
"No," said Owen, his voice flat. "I won't consider it, and neither will anyone else."
"You used to launch me so far out of the water when you were a teenager," said Ava, her expression grim but kind. Like a woman saying goodbye. "If you and Art each took a foot, I could make it."
"Make it?" I asked. Then it finally sunk in. Ava wanted Art and Owen to try and launch her over the forty foot gap. "That's not happening. If one of them pushed a bit harder than the other, you'd end up in the lava. Not to mention the broken bones you'd have if they were successful. That's assuming you didn't land on your head and die outright."
"I told you that I can take care of myself," said Ava, her voice barely above a hiss.
"That's not taking care of yourself," I said with a growl. "To use your own words, 'that's suicide'."
Ava took a step forward, raising her chin, her teeth grinding.
Art stepped between us, facing Ava. "You two fighting isn't going to fix this. Let's all be quiet for a few seconds and think."
"Fine," she said, "I'll be over here." She walked over and plopped down on the low pedestal like a petulant child.
I turned back to Art, took a few deep breaths, and struggled to not show him how hopeless I felt. "I appreciate that, but we're running out of time."
"I know that," he replied, his brow drawing down into a perplexed scowl. I turned to see that he was still looking at Ava. I was about to turn away to give her the illusion of space, when I noticed she was bouncing on her seat on the pedestal. "What's going on there?" Art asked her.
"Ava, what have you got?" I asked.
"I don't know, but this thing is moving up and down when I sit on it." She waved me over. "Sit with me."
It was barely wide enough for the two of us to sit back to back, but when we did, there was a good amount of movement. It dropped a few inches into the floor. "It's a switch!"
"Everybody get over here," called Ava.
That was my line, but whatever. I was trying not to be a micro-manager. "I think we need to get everybody up on this small hunk of stone here," I said, to the group.
"There's no way we can all stand on that little square," said Owen, but I could already see the cogs in his mind turning the problem over. "Not without a lot of strange bending."
"No time to stand around and analyze." I pointed to the pedestal. "Owen, you're the biggest, so get up there." Owen complied immediately. He took up almost the whole space by himself. "Scoot forward, let your feet stick off the edge. That's good. Now you get up behind him Art." Art did his best, standing back to back with Owen, but they were extremely wobbly. "Link arms."
"That's not bad," said Enid, noting how steady the men were now. "But I don't see where all three of us will fit on there with them."
"I'm the next largest," I replied, "so I have to get up there somehow." I looked over the men and came to a decision. "It's not going to happen unless I climb on top of you. Can you squat down?"
After a few almost-disasters, I managed to climb on Owen's shoulders and the two men made it back to a standing position.
"The stone is definitely sinking into the platform," observed Ava. "Now it's our turn," she said to Enid. "I don't think we'll need to stay up for long." She stepped up to the space where Owen and Art's arms linked and put her foot on the edge of the pedestal. "Let's try this."
"Gotcha. I'll do the same on the other side." Enid raced around and grabbed the linked arms of the two guys. "One, two, three."
On three, Ava and Enid raised themselves up on one leg, using the guys for balance. The small pedestal lowered until it was level with the rest of the platform. A series of musical notes played and lights flash
ed behind me.
"What's going on?" I said, looking down to Enid. Hers was the only face I could easily see, but her eyes were locked on whatever the lights were. The series of notes repeated, causing her features to be lit with various pastel shades. When the music stopped, so did the lights. Both Enid and Ava lowered themselves and wandered toward the platform's edge. "What was that?" I asked.
Art disengaged himself from Owen and stepped away, giving me room to slide down Owen's back.
"The musical notes lit up something over the lava," said Ava.
I was about to ask if anyone could match any of the notes when Enid began to sing. Her entrancing voice rang through the room. She hit five notes, lingering on each one for a couple of seconds, just like had happened when we pressed the pedestal down. In response to each note, a translucent platform several feet wide materialized over the lava, a two foot wide bridge leading to it. They were all connected together, and took a second or so to fade away after the note that triggered it stopped.
Enid let the last note die and turned to me. "We have to sing those notes if we want to cross. I can hold a note for quite a while, but I have to breath at some point."
"Which means we are going to have to help," I said, finishing the thought. "And I have no doubt that when those platforms disappear, there won't be anything to hold us up."
"That means there isn't any room for error," said Owen. "And we have to do this fast or we won't make it through the door."
I was usually more of a fly by the seat of my pants kind of person, but we needed a plan and it was up to me to figure it out. I swallowed hard and cleared my throat. "Anyone have Enid beat in the singing department?" I asked. A chorus of "No" followed. "All right Enid, you are the leader of this little expedition. You're going to be our pitch pipe. You'll lead the group and I'll bring up the rear. I want two people singing each note at a time."
"Why two?" asked Owen. "Wouldn't it be safer to have more of us singing at once?"
"I've done a fair amount of singing," I replied. Fun fact: banshees love to sing. My sisters were relentless. "You get tired, especially holding one note. Everybody on my cue, sing out for as long as you can, holding one note." I held up a hand and dropped it. "Go."
