--- Kat ---


    The days continued like that. Kat and Lily would both train, with Lily normally training nearby and Kat training with Burnice in the morning. There were some small deviations. Mealtimes were asionally chances to chat with others, and Lily did spend some time in the afternoons chatting with Thyme…


    But the only truly interesting encounter was when Blue decided to talk about how her team got back into the tournament. The subject hade up while Kat and Lily were eating lunch with the fae… and then suddenly they had an afternoon task locked in. Blue decided the story was best told in the pool room.


    Lily and Kat had to question when exactly this room had been added to the inn, but they decided collectively that it was better not to ask. Blue had chosen the venue so that she could train a bit more while telling the story, and of course use the still water as a medium to provide some visuals to the story.


    Nothing at Thyme''s level of course, but she didn''t use illusions so Kat could see it all with her eyes.


    "Right so… I guess I''ll just jump into it then?" asked Blue.


    "Yeah I don''t see why not?" said Kat. Her and Lily had picked up a bunch of pillows from all thewn chairs and then piled up a bunch of nkets to give them a pillow fort. Lily was in her Memphis form to ensure she could fit in, and in truth Kat was supportingrge parts of the structure with her body… but it was very cosy.


    "Ok… I''m not even going to question the setup you''ve got going so… I''ll get started I guess? Um… save your questions for the end because I feel like it will flow better that way. Though if I get too far off topic interrupt me… and I guess don''t take my silence as a queue to jump in and ask questions because I''ll be trying to provide some visuals for the story, and that might take me a bit.


    Um… so first off…"


    Blue trailed off as the water was sucked up into a giant triangle. "First off, the mountain," as Blue spoke a bunch of clear grooves were made in the water, "I know it had a proper name, but Thyme only said it once and after that it was always ''the mountain'' and I guess I''ve forgotten it already. Anyway, we were all called to the mountain and Thyme gave a big speech.


    "There were quite a few rules, you know how Thyme can be, but the important ones where these two: ''First five to get your entire team to the top of the mountain wins'' and ''No touching your original team members''. Which isn''t necessarily too restrictive… until Thyme sent us all to different starting points.


    Honestly, we were lucky because my team already decided that if we were separated the best n would be to try andplete the task as quick as possible, and to encourage teamups.


    "That''s mostly because we know Thyme… maybe not super well, but we''d gotten at least somewhat used to their antics. Which meant working with your enemies was a good n, and that if you were separated it''s because it''s going to be a pain to meet back up, or that''s going to be the goal.


    "Obviously in this case it''s both. Sort of. More annoyingly, there wasn''t five paths up the mountain… but twenty-five, and the groups we were randomly assigned didn''t necessarily have the same number of people in them.


    "I ended up with seven people, though four of them will swiftly be irrelevant. The first two decided to just… sit there and wait. I don''t know if they had tracking abilities, ormunication talismans or what but they chose to stick at the bottom of the mountain… and I never saw them again.


    "The next two got themselves knocked out not too long after we started moving, but they were around for a bit… um they were an elephant beastkin and a green-haired fae. I don''t really remember their names… I think the fae did introduce himself, but I keep thinking his name is ''Green'' when I''m all but certain it wasn''t. The elephant didn''t even bother.


    So let''s call them Mr E and Mr G just for simplicities sake.


    "Then the two actually useful team members… who were sadly both healers. Skye and Estelle," Kat''s eyes went wide and she put her hand straight up, knocking aside the pillows directly above her hand. Blue let out a long sigh. "Ok I see you really want to say something? I mean, I know I said not to interrupt but this isn''t a ssroom…"


    "We know those guys!" said Kat with a grin. "Well, it''s more urate to say I know them and Lily knows OF them. They were both part of my very first tournament round! Estelle is on a team that was cursed to be elves… and Skye tried to do a sneaky betrayal in the final round… and it failed. No disrespect to her though, she was a strong contender and clearly wanted to win… but well.


    Me and Grace, Estelle''s team member, held her off,"


    "Ah yes, I''m sure fighting YOU was particrly hard for her," said Blue with a grin.


    "Hey! This was back when I just started doing contracts so it was actually a pretty close fight if I remember correctly… and I was able to say it out loud so it must be true!" said Kat with a smile.


    "Right, well, interesting as that might be… I suppose that just means I can cut down on their descriptions…" started Blue.


    "Hang on, I''ve just heard their descriptions but I never saw them… can you show them off with the water?" asked Lily.


    Blue ran a hand down her face and sighed. "Fine I can give it my best shot. The elves are easy because they all look about the same… wait didn''t you say they were twins? I thought they were a set of five…"


    "Remember? Elf curse. Two of the elves however, Estelle and Lynn were already identical twins," exined Kat.


    "Ah right. So… Estelle looks like this…" Blue summoned up a very rough figure of an elven maiden, with a ponytail situated off to the right side of Estelle''s head. The water Estelle even had a staff in its hand. Well the hand was more of a blob, but Blue was trying her best. "She had blue eyes, shoulder length white hair and yeah looked like the others.


    She was pretty soft spoken especiallypared to Skye…"


    Blue let the water drop back into the pool for a moment before she summoned up a vague depiction of a stern looking woman in a robe with a sash that hadcked the details Kat knew should be there. "Skye had a really fancy runic sash I can''t replicate, and a couple of symbols in other ces… oh and like proper boots.


    Not that I don''t have good boots for adventuring but Skye looked a lot more ready to climb the mountain then the rest of the group anyway…"


    Blue let the figure drop before summoning up the mountain again. "So the goal was to get to the top, and with a few people staying behind we started our climb. There was a very obviously marked path and we followed that for… I want to say ten minutes before we ran into a door with a riddle on it.


    "Now at this point, it''s where Mr G decided he was too smart for riddles. He went to walk around it… and fell into a pit of spikes. We got to hear him scream a bit before vanishing. Sure we had two healers… but apparently Thyme decided that was enough for Mr G to be eliminated.


    "So we answered the riddle and walked a bit more, discussing our options as we went… until we found ourselves at another obstacle. This one was a bunch of spears inside a rock wall and they''d extend and retract in a wave. The Mr E thought he was too big to make it past, and dered that he''d find his own way through the forest…


    "Skye was pretty sure that he intended to go straight up the mountain and just ignore the rest of the tests that way… so didn''tin when he went to leave. Estelle didn''tin either though I''m not sure why… and I didn''t say anything because nobody else was and I didn''t want to draw attention to myself.


    "Once he was gone though… Skye definitely took charge. Not that I''d say it was a bad thing… but she can be a bit bossy. At least it got us through the spears without trouble. On her orders we went one at a time. She went first, I went next, and then Estelle wentst. It was no problem.


    Honestly Mr E could''ve made it… but nope, off into the forest he went.