"It's cold," a girl's voice complained. "Why are we doing this again?"

Another, different girl's voice. "We're encouraging romance. Couples who get together now will be customers when Valentine's Day rolls around. It's perfectly logical."

"No, it isn't."

"Shush. You'll blow our cover!"

"You just-"

"Shhh!" After a few moments, they heard a voice. "Told you we should wait out here."

"Now who's making noise?"

"SHHH!"

As the first-years drew closer, the one girl blew the mist outwards toward them, engulfing them. The ground beneath them lurched, throwing both the black-haired boy and his girl into the branches reaching out over the path. Drawing the mist up higher, so it hid the two girls completely, they began to chant in a sing-song tone;

"First years, first years,
Stuck in the tree.
K-I-S-S
To get free.
Dirty boys like
dirty girls who give
So be dirty and
you get to live!

The air elementalist girl had warped the air, so while the words were recognisable, the voices certainly weren't. Though they couldn't help themselves from breaking out in laughter at trapping the pair, their laughter sounded rather more eerie above than they intended.

@Zelosse@Old Amsterdam

Silas breathed a sigh of relief as the girl pointed the bright flashlight away from his eyes, blinking a few time to get rid of the stinging sensation that the beam had left. Unfortunately for him, any adjustments his eyes had previously made to deal with the dark were gone, hindering his vision further. It was only an inconvenience, but an annoying one for sure.

Keep moving, it'll re-adjust. Don't get put behind because of this. Seeing as that girl was headed down the same path, Silas saw no reason to not follow. It would be nice to walk with someone else for a bit, even if he was only going to stick around until his vision was restored. Someone else's company could only serve to disperse the tense and looming atmosphere of the night, and before he knew it Silas found himself talking with this girl.

"Ugh, this is ridiculous, - As if the dark isn't bad enough, but the mist has to be this thick? Like, how did you even get this far without a light?"

"It wasn't exactly easy but moonlight was working well enough, until this damn fog rolled in anyway. If it were just darkness it wouldn't be that bad, but once you put fog into the mix..."

For a while the forest was quiet, not ominous or creepy, merely quiet and peaceful. Was it because he was travelling with another student? Was his imagination the only thing that made the forest creepy in the first place? Silas didn't know the answer but at least the eerie tension had disappeared.

At least it had, until the girl he'd been following for some time screamed yet again. Silas couldn't help but flinch at the sudden scream, and his flinching allowed him to just barely dodge the backsplash of water that had impacted the girl in front of him. "I guess they got tired of messing with us subtly." The attack had not only alerted Silas, it was also a sobering slap in the face to be aware, the bastard seniors could be waiting behind any tree to strike. He would not let himself be an easy mark.

A call from ahead broke through the fog, the voice was familiar but it's message was bitter.

"Bad news darling, we've hit a dead end. We're going to have to turn back."

The message was met with an involuntary sigh. So we've just successfully put ourselves way behind... great The trek back to the crossroads would doubtlessly be much more difficult with the addition of the thick fog, but it would be better than giving up here and now due to taking a wrong turn. "Hopefully we're not the only ones who ran into a dead end. You think some unlucky kid woke the teachers up by now?"

@Raptra

Dia jumped at a likely imaginary sound. "Can we get moving, please, Felix? I think I'm going to die from fright if we stand here any longer."

Felix held out his arm for her to take and merely smiled. In truth the dark forest was a tad bit overwhelming since he had never gotten a chance to go out late at night. It had been long nights in silence stuck in that damn room. Every inch of the place could be recalled perfectly he had been in there so long.. An eternity it felt like. In truth only just over a year but that only made the boredom more profound.

"We'll be ok. Something shows up, we take it down or we take off." Flashing a smile of confidence her way, the two continued.

The ground beneath them lurched, throwing both the black-haired boy and his girl into the branches reaching out over the path. Drawing the mist up higher, so it hid the two girls completely, they began to chant in a sing-song tone;

"First years, first years,
Stuck in the tree.
K-I-S-S
To get free.
Dirty boys like
dirty girls who give
So be dirty and
you get to live!

@Zelosse@Old Amsterdam

Reflexively grabbing hold of Dia, the two stumbled but they were otherwise unharmed, Just the branches brushing against him. Just the wind playing tricks. The voices were real though. On high most likely but the mist had gotten thick around them now, so if his guess was right or not wasn't something he could confirm.

But that didn't interest him at that moment. The taunting did. It wasn't until he tried to disentangle himself from the branches that he realized what had gone down. Like angry snakes they had crawled along his arms and over the pair, now locked in a crude embrace against their will.

Gritting his teeth, Felix looked up into the trees as the familiar anger welled up in his chest. No more prisons. NO MORE CAGES.

"Who are you to force anything upon us?!" Shouting into the trees wouldn't solve anything but with Dia so close he couldn't risk letting the fire out. Anything but that.

"Oh, is that..." It was rather difficult to look past the fog, but yes, the two people up on the tree seemed to big to be students. Teachers, then, and, well, one of them was flying, so who else could it be but, "Ms. Hargreaves?"

Lyra registered the rest of the scene a moment later. "Oh, oh! Are you two having a moment?" she half-whispered. "And is that Mr... err-" He looked familiar. Must be one of those she saw during the speech? The name, inexplicably, came to her. "Mr. Manilow? Ooh."

You wouldn't be able to tell just by looking at her that Lyra was into scandal, and she wasn't, really. She was, however, excessively curious. Her interest was more of an academic nature, sure, but the questions forming in her mind were worthy of a blackmailer. Are you two really a thing? Is the principal okay with this? Does anyone else know about you two?

"Do you think the other teachers know about this?" she whispered, quiet enough that only ShiZen could hear her. "Do you think... hey wait!"

They were here to find whoever had been shooting water at them, right? Okay, but it can't be either of these teachers! Ms. Hargreaves' a wind elementalist. Mr. Manilow's an earth elementalist. And there's no water gun anywhere! No, it can't be them.

She told ShiZhen this reasoning. "And I'm not letting those water squirters go. Come on, let's look for them." Before she walked off further into the fog, she called out to the pair of teachers up in the tree, like an afterthought, "Sorry for the interruption, Ma'am! Sir!"

The blackmail materials had already wobbled off her mind.

@Zelosse@Regitnui

Dia tried to focus on her breathing. Her terror had escalated in mere moments, and that song... It creeped her out. Not that she didn't exactly mind the thought of kissing Felix again.

She was broken from her thoughts by Felix shouting.

He does have a point, Dia thought to herself.

An idea came to her. "Felix...I might be able to break us out. Well, start that anyways. I don't think I'll be able to get us out of the branches, but I think you could once I'm done," she whispered, much louder than she had intended. Nerves were running rampant. "But I could try and freeze the branches from the inside. All plants have water, right? And if there's water I can make ice. Though, water expands when frozen, so it night just break us out anyways. I'm not sure. I'm just worried that I might hurt you..."

She closed her eyes. "Just... Tell me to stop if something goes wrong, please..."

Synchronizing her breathing, Dia felt for the water that would be in the branches trapping them. I'm sorry, trees.

The cold intensified around her, seeping deep into the branches.

"Well, if all this fog was a set up for that, I'd appreciate it if it was removed now."

The voice of the boy replying Vera through the fog offered her some comfort. It was a reminder that she wasn't alone in that part of the forest that seemed like it was becoming more intimidating by the minute. Right at that moment, as if to back up her sentiments, shrill, creepy laughter echoed from another direction, giving her another mini-fright. She immediately reached out as she dashed back to where she had heard his voice come from, before managing to catch hold of his arm.

"Ah, there you are love," she said, before letting out a half-chuckle, half-sigh. She then tugged lightly on his wrist while moving forward towards the crossroads before letting go of him. "Hopefully the next path we choose will get us to the right place."

Vera's flashlight was directed back at the ground to ensure that they stayed on the path. This time however, part of her attention was also on the surroundings, should anything else like that water surprise attempt to catch them off guard again. There was also another part of it focused on staying close to her new companion. In such a situation, having a friendly face around was always a perk. Well, not literally, since she couldn't actually see his face in all the mist, but still...

"I doubt we're the only ones. Like, did you see how many paths that main one split into? There are probably a whole bunch of fake ones," she answered him. "And well, I don't really know if things in other parts of this place are as exciting as what happened back there, but if I wasn't loud enough to wake them, I've no idea how loud anyone would have to be."

Vera wondered how far back they'd have to go before they had a chance of successfully cutting across to another path. Then again, attempting to do that at any point would put them at a high risk of getting totally lost, especially in this mist. Perhaps it wouldn't be so bad if she was with someone else, but the both of them wanted to at least finish the course, didn't they? The important thing was to stick together, and they wouldn't lose each other if they kept talking.

"So... I'm Vera, by the way, and who might you be?"

@CriticalHit

"Ooh, fuss and bother!" One of the girls taunted from below. "It's just a kiss, big boy!"

"Hey, um..."

"Or are you embarrassed?"

"Hey."

"What?" The first girl hissed, dropping her voice.

"Is she allowed to break the tree branches?"

"No, of course not. They're supposed to kiss, fall in love and buy Valentine's stuff."

The second girl points. "Because she's breaking the branches." Frost spread across the wood until their own weight broke them. The two jumped back as the biggest branch supporting the couple in the tree dropped to the ground.

"That's not right! You're supposed to kiss!" The first girl stomped her foot and a wall of earth appeared around the couple. "That's not difficult, is it? You're already holding each other."

@Old Amsterdam@Zelosse

@Regitnui@Zelosse

Dia looked around in confusion. They'd been in the air, the trees. Then they'd been falling. And now... Trapped by earth walls? And had she squealed when they fell? She couldn't rightly remember at the moment.

She felt claustrophobic almost. And that ugly feeling she'd felt earlier was coming back as the voice spoke.

All she wanted was to have enjoyed the walk. Avoid the trouble of the... Whatever all this was.

Instead they were being tormented by someone. Well, two at least. She'd heard two voices.

And they didn't seem like they'd stop anytime soon.

Why couldn't they just leave them alone?

Dia realized she was shaking. Partially from the fright of being tossed up and held by trees, and then by falling and being trapped by earthen walls. And partially because that ugly feeling was growing with each passing minute. Felix was obviously highly agitated.

"Leave him alone!" She yelled, a blast of permafrost exploding from around her and Felix as her anger finally boiled over.

I guess we have no choice but to turn back... Letting out a sigh Silas reluctantly followed the girl and began the journey back to the crossroads. Though having someone to make the trip with made the backtracking bearable, Silas was still pretty annoyed that they had wasted all that time on a dead end. His own self-annoyance was enough to make him lag slightly behind, and before he knew it his companion had suddenly disappeared into the all-consuming smog.

What the- She was just here! How the hell did she manage to slip away so quickly?

His thought process was then swiftly interrupted by laughter of all things, something he would almost expect in a creepy forest. This laughter however, was not creepy or eerie but instead it was the kind of laugh that almost sounded forced and overly happy. Perhaps it was one of the seniors trying to freak the first-years out, but instead of scaring him they had successfully destroyed the ominous night's atmosphere, at least for the moment. If that's your attempt at scaring us, you're doing a pretty shitty job! As if on cue someone grabbed his arm, causing Silas to freeze, but his instinctual fear fell away as the someone in question turned out to be the girl with the flashlight. In response he let out a half-relieved, half-annoyed sigh as he wiped the scared expression from his face.

"Ah, there you are love,"

"You've scared me than anyone else tonight." He said while letting out a slight chuckle.

"Hopefully the next path we choose will get us to the right place."

"I sure hope so, I'm not exactly keen on being the last one to finish this run."

As the reunited pair made their way through the mess of gnarled branches and fog, Silas was focused on remaining alert. The seniors had already announced their presence by blasting the girl with water earlier, so Silas was determined to not be an easy target for them. He'd win this run, no matter what they decided to throw at him! The two talked as they made the seemingly arduous journey back to the crossroads with only the light from the girl's phone to dispel the fog.

"And well, I don't really know if things in other parts of this place are as exciting as what happened back there, but if I wasn't loud enough to wake them, I've no idea how loud anyone would have to be."

"We get eliminated from the run if we get caught by the teachers... I don't want to lose! So let's not get caught, okay?"

"So... I'm Vera, by the way, and who might you be?"

"My name's Silas, I'm a water elementalist. How about you Vera?"

@Raptra

@Kalleth

Lyra registered the rest of the scene a moment later. "Oh, oh! Are you two having a moment?" she half-whispered. "And is that Mr... err-" He looked familiar. Must be one of those she saw during the speech? The name, inexplicably, came to her. "Mr. Manilow? Ooh."

"Do you think the other teachers know about this?" she whispered, quiet enough that only ShiZen could hear her. "Do you think... hey wait!"

They were here to find whoever had been shooting water at them, right? Okay, but it can't be either of these teachers! Ms. Hargreaves' a wind elementalist. Mr. Manilow's an earth elementalist. And there's no water gun anywhere! No, it can't be them.

She told ShiZhen this reasoning. "And I'm not letting those water squirters go. Come on, let's look for them." Before she walked off further into the fog, she called out to the pair of teachers up in the tree, like an afterthought, "Sorry for the interruption, Ma'am! Sir!"

The blackmail materials had already wobbled off her mind.

When Jordan winced, Catherine looked back at him with sudden concern in her eyes. He had told her once, in a moment of vulnerable intimacy, of his pains. She wondered if she went too far when giving him 'CPR' earlier in the day. She wanted to say something, but the words couldn't come. They always took things too far, they had gotten too close, too quickly, exposed their weaknesses and ugliness, like they were trying to make up for lost time, like they were both running from something. If love was a choice, then is it no longer 'love' when it became a 'need'? Before she could say anything, Jordan stalked off into the darkness. Hearing a familiar voice call out and begin asking questions, Catherine balled up her fist in regret, and turned to address the student. Though Lyra's question seemed biting and pointed, having met her previously, Catherine had a hunch that the girl with the violin was merely harmlessly curious. "Just a pleasant, late night stroll between two colleaugues, think nothing of it," Catherine pleasantly reassured Lyra, who seemed to be lost in thought anyways. "Good luck," she wished the pair of students as they continued through the forest. As they disappeared among the trees, Catherine tugged absently at the noose around her neck and closed her eyes tightly. Weightlessly, she lifted off the ground and flew towards the main building; she had had enough 'fun' for one night.

---

"Uh...eh...umm..." ShiZhen was still trying to process Lyra's question, when Catherine answered. "Y-yeah, i-it's probably not...that..." ShiZhen said, blushing in the dark. Suddenly Lyra went searching for the source of the water, so ShiZhen automatically followed, though she offered Catherine a respectful bow. "W-wait for me!" ShiZhen called, "I-I don't think we should go looking for trouble!"

"Hmm, I don't know if I should be proud of that," Vera replied in amusement to her companion's statement about him finding what she had been doing scarier than anything else that had happened.

"Well unfortunately, our chances of winning this thing heavily depend on luck, perhaps even more so than skill," she then pointed out when he spoke about not wanting to finish last. Personally though, she did consider that she might have to be thankful for the fact she had stated, seeing as how she didn't have the slightest experience with something like this and that there was a chance that she might have an advantage if other participants' paths were even more difficult than her own.

This boy had made it clear that he wanted to win. Despite that, he still seemed rather pleasant and not overly competitive. It was nice to know that he appreciated her company as much as she did his. "Oh yes, of course. It'll be great to win this. We'll do our very best!"

'Silas' then replied to her asking for his name, also telling her his element and asking for hers. "My element is light, though, it probably wouldn't help even if there wasn't a rule about not using our powers. If you actually saw me using my light abilities as I can right now, you probably wouldn't be seeing anything after."

Vera let out a small laugh at her own humorous implication. She was actually quite eager to do some research about her element the next afternoon after classes, and perhaps even look for this 'venerable lord of light' that had been mentioned to her by Hargreaves. She brought her mind back to the run, figuring that she and Silas should be back at the crossroads soon, considering how long they had been walking. It is said that the journey of coming back from somewhere was always shorter than going to it. Obvious this didn't apply when the introduction of fog was a factor.

"Oh darn, picking another path will be be so much harder now with this mist."

@CriticalHit

Jideh wheezed, and watched as the wind blew chunks of dirt from the spider, but...

The breeze did nothing to stop its inexorable advance. He rolled over and managed to put his arms underneath himself to sit up. The spider was at the base of the wall, and he could spot the base of the spider, roots dangling between its legs and running through the whole of the soil. It was as though the spider were a possessed tree. The earth was being wielded undoubtedly by the elementalists controlling the tree, but the tree itself couldn't be moving on its own, could it?

But if they were moving the tree, then that must mean that the tree itself was being enhanced and if it could be enhanced then couldn't Jideh-

No, he'd never done that! Couldn't do that, as far as he knew. Jideh stuffed his hands in his pockets, but none of the familiar seed shapes could help him here. He didn't even have any food to eat. The spider was crawling up the wall now, and Jideh realized he'd have to act now, and think later.

Jideh stood up, head dizzy and light. He reached down with his elemental energy, and with all the effort it would take to practically lift and throw the spider several metres, Jideh induced a surge of growth energy into the spider-tree-earth elemental, hopefully causing the roots of the tree to shoot outward, immobilizing the construct as its roots dug deep into earth and stone, preventing its legs from moving it any closer to catching them.

Of course, Jideh wouldn't see any of this happen, and it might not matter at all if it had worked, since after using that burst of energy, he felt himself falling backward, tumbling through open air. And as he fell, Jideh remembered the gym teacher and laughed inwardly.

That teacher should give me some pointers on how to deal with this sort of thing. He seems like an expert at it.

---

Jordan locked his shed, having put away the equipment he hadn't decided to crush and erase from his memory. He made his way back to the gym at the student dorms, just to lock up his office and retrieve his finished prep papers. He found a note taped to the door and read it, nodding as he finished the paper. He'd need a lot of rest if he was going to give this kid a run for his money. After all, Jordan thought as he winced, rubbing his shoulder, An old pro like me has got a lot to live up to, facing a rising star like Felix.

"Fuck the whole lot of us indeed..."

As he ducked a low-hanging branch, Silas sped up just so he could catch up to Vera before she could be swallowed by the great grey void once more. Since visibility was almost zero at this point, he didn't want to lose sight of his newfound friend. Vera seemed pretty nice, and she could take a joke unlike a certain wind elementalist Silas had met earlier. Just thinking about her earlier abrasive reaction made Silas appreciate the fact that he'd run into the much more easygoing Vera during the run.

"Well unfortunately, our chances of winning this thing heavily depend on luck, perhaps even more so than skill,"

Unfortunately, she was right, and Silas knew it. Any idiot could've picked the right path and arrived at the fountain with little to no difficulty. Their chance of victory was slim, but were they just going to lay down and accept defeat like that? HELL NO! We'll still win this thing, even if it takes hours! Silas thought to himself as the duo walked onward. It seemed that the enthusiasm wasn't restricted to just Silas, because soon after Vera responded in a way that made Silas doubt if his thoughts were just spoken aloud or not.

"Oh yes, of course. It'll be great to win this. We'll do our very best!"

Damn right we'll win this, I really like the way you think Vera! Or maybe you just really like he- NO. Stop it.

"My element is light, though, it probably wouldn't help even if there wasn't a rule about not using our powers. If you actually saw me using my light abilities as I can right now, you probably wouldn't be seeing anything after."

" A light elementalist has to bring a flashlight to see? Heh- that's pretty ironic."

The pair soon reached the crossroads, the journey certainly seemed a lot shorter whilst returning. Maybe it was because he'd made the trek with Vera? Maybe he was just exaggerating the length of the trip there in his head? Silas didn't know, and honestly he didn't care, so long as the backtracking was over.

"Oh darn, picking another path will be be so much harder now with this mist."

"Not really, you yourself said this thing was more based on luck than skill in the first place. So why not just pick a path and see where we end up? Who knows, Maybe we'll get real lucky." he said as he looked to Vera.

@Raptra

Seeing how her attack had barely any effect on the spider, Kanako turned into panic mode once more, especially seeing how it was now climbing the wall they were standing on. She had nothing else other than just blowing wind towards the creature. It wasn't like she was a high level wind elementalist that could do more than that, like, for example, grabbing Jideh and flying the hell out of here.

...Wait, Jideh! Maybe he could do something with his element! It should be Earth so maybe he could make a hole for it to fall to or something!

But Jideh didn't wait for her to ask, as he already gathered his energy and unleashed it upon the spider creature. And when Kanako looked behind her, she looked just in time to see him falling backwards off the wall towards the ground below.

Reflextively, she leaped towards him, her right hand reaching towards him. But it was too late. She couldn't reach him in time.

There was no choice. She had to go after him.

With a second leap, she dived towards him, conjuring a burst of wind behind her to make her fall faster. She managed to hold Jideh in her arms as the two fell to the ground. Without thinking, Kanako conjured another burst of wind beneath them to soften the blow. And noticing how her arms who were holding the boy would be squished by the impact first hand, she conjured yet another burst to make them spin 180 degrees, hoping that they would land on her back.

And it actually succeeded. When they landed, Kanako could feel her shoulders hitting the ground first hand, sending a jolt of terrible pain that coursed through her entire body. The effect of her wind however made them roll togethere for a few feet before they stopped, with Jideh on top of Kanako, his face landing right atop her breasts.

"A-are you alright?" Kanako asked him, her arms still hugging him, not noticing where his face had landed. "R-really, why did you fall off all of a sudden? You're lucky I'm a wind elementalist!"

@Kalleth

"Ugh..." Was Jideh still conscious? He blinked, trying to open his eyes and not seeing anything despite this. Was he blind? He groggily began assessing the position of his body, also recalling a faint sensation of falling and twisting and having landed. He heard Kanako, and nodded, his face coming up against slight resistance, which was odd. He pried his arms out from where they were stuck and pushed himself up.

Oh.

"That's what I was counting on, since I didn't exactly have this soft of a landing planned..."

Holy shit did I just say that out loud? Calm down Jideh, it'll look nowhere near as smooth if you freak out right after saying something like that...

Still, Jideh was too damned pleased with himself to avoid grinning like an idiot. Before he could screw this up any more than he already had, he decided to make an attempt at standing up. He lifted himself off of Kanako and began to stagger into a vaguely stable stance. Jideh felt dizzy again, and brought a hand up to his face.

"Oh... do not fall back into her chest," he murmured. The crisp air of the night, slightly damp with mist had an arousing quality to it, which was what he hoped was arousing him, at least. Though if he were honest with himself, wasn't entirely true.

"Do you have any food on you? I mean, I was just on you but-"

Jideh sighed, his head spinning. Utterly ill-equipped to deal with situations like this, much less the still very real threat of elementalists at their heels.

"I need food, or else I'm not much use to you. And sorry, for the rough landing."

---

Manilow snored, stuffed bear tucked under his arm, a little drool crawling down towards his chin. He was wearing the boxers with the pink hearts on them. If anybody had been stalking the gym teacher, they'd have noticed that his eyes were red-rimmed and puffy, and the side of his pillow was still damp, but I highly doubt that any of our present students and/or faculty are lurking in the recesses of Jordan Manilow's bedroom. At least, I hope not. That'd be gods-damned terrifying.

@Hammerman

With the way her eyes look, which is always far away, and the way she walks, which is always like she'll stumble into a pit without realising it, it's hard to tell whether Lyra is going somehwhere or just aimlessly ambling around. But be assured, this time she had a goal: finding the water squirters. to... you know what, she hadn't thought this through. To tell them off for their lame trick, she supposed.

"I-I don't think we should go looking for trouble!" ShiZen wa saying. Lyra brushed it off.

"My Dad always told me to leave no puzzle unsolved. I'm not leaving this one until I had it."

But with this fog and the dark and because the forest was unfamiliar, she couldn't manage more than running around on instinct, avoiding trees and sounds of trouble (was that a crashing sound? It's like someone---maybeee two students with the help of some wind magic?---fell off a tree).

"Hmm, it's a bit hard to find our way around, isn't it?" A thought occured to her. "Hey you're water elemental aren't you? Can you, mmm, sense something in the fog? Fog's made of water."

Then her ears perked up. Something was blowing in the wind too: sounds. There were chatters, footsteps, and, very faintly, the sound of running water. "I think I'm hearing something. Water? Hmm, the fountain?"

Was there something they were supposed to do at the fountain? Lyra couldn't really remember.

@Stern Algorithm

@Regitnui@Old Amsterdam

the very real issue of the branches was preventing any action on Felix' part but Dia solved it with a clever application of her element. The exact opposite of his own. Down to the ground they went, only to have

What had been a dull simmer of anger left on the stove had gone to full boil in an instant. Taunted, teased, trapped, and now forced to do such a personal and intimate action simply on the whim of an upperclassman? If either of them had been visible and within arms reach they would be missing teeth.

"Leave him alone!" She yelled, a blast of permafrost exploding from around her and Felix as her anger finally boiled over.

A blast of freezing cold stole the breath from his lungs for a moment as he inhaled the suddenly freezing air. Like before he did not feel the cold that no doubt would have clung to his body the same way it did to his clothing, blissfully still in one piece, but the dirt walls had been frozen over by Dias impressive display.

It was her selfless declaration that brought him over the edge.

Nobody seemed to have ever cared for him. Not one person that he could recall from memory.

The fire in his chest took form across his bruised hand as Felix struck the frozen wall with everything he could muster, ignoring the pain and the fear, demanding the passionate burst of flames to strike outward instead of around him lest Dia suffer the consequences. A mixture of frozen dirt, sudden heat, and a fair amount of force punched a clean opening in the ring of dirt that had trapped them.

At the top of his lunges he shouted into the darkness.

"OUR CHOICES AREN'T SOMETHING YOU CAN DICTATE THROUGH STRENGTH!"

Freedom was theirs to take..

Felix chose to follow his heart and end the madness before he burned the whole forest down. Turning to Dia, he took a step towards her and blushed. This was something he wanted but feared she would not.

"I choose to kiss you. Not for them, but for me. For us. Does your heart speak the same?"

------------------------

@Kalleth@Hammerman

Location: Halfwaypoint, #2 (This is the zone number where the Walker is found)

The three students crept closer for a better look. The mist was just as obscuring to them as it was for the runners but at least they had practice, so keeping up wasn't difficult. From branch to branch they maneuvered with ease thanks to the altering of the strength of the limbs and the width in the upper reaches of the treeline that created a sturdy walkway of sorts for a great distance.
Both the handler and the Obscurer were impressed by their resourcefulness in the challenge.

When they came to a stop somewhere above the two exhausted and fumbling students, all three of the trappers getting a full view of what was transpiring thanks to a friendly gust of inconspicuous wind that hand blown away the fog ever so slightly. Maxwell all but bit his hand to stop himself from laughing at the sight, causing the walker to halt its slow but steady advance.
Following the command of its handler it ceased the slow climb and merely stood where it had stopped.

Max and Alex giggled quietly in the treetops as their third and final companion gracefully touched down beside them with a bemused grin practically taking in her ears.
Accidents like this always happened. In fact, Max and Alisha had met a wildly similar experience when in a blind sprint Alisha had tripped over a root and cushioned her fall with a bed of air only to have Max fall face first into her rump. It had ended with a very large hand shaped bruise that refused to fade even after nearly a week.. The two wisely never spoke of it to Alex but they were positive he had found out anyways.
As the two boys giggled, Alisha was the first to speak up.

"The kid is tired. I say pull back and let them continue."

Max was still grinning as he gave his agreement, Alex just flashed a thumbs up as he called down to the group.

"Try not to get too physical down there. You got a few free minute before it comes at you again, so don't just lay there enjoying the sights."

Alex flashed a knowing grin at the two beside him before Max promptly smacked him, all three still laughing at the good spirited fun.

---------------------------

@CriticalHit@Raptra

Location: Crossroads

The pair promptly returned to the crossroads where over a dozen various paths snaked off into the distant forest likes the writhing heads of the mythological hydra, each one had the potential to lead them to the fountain or back to another part of woodlands. Chaotic and disorientating to be sure.

Two students, dressed all in black but not wearing anything to obscure their faces any longer, sat at the middle point of the crossroads. Helen and Troy, fifth years of Water. Troy was an average looking student with long black hair while Helen had rich blond locks falling just past her shoulders, tears rimmed her eyes as she whispered reassurances to her partner.

Troy was all smiles as the two approached, whispering for Helen to be calm. When he caught sight of the two he waved them over.

"O~i!"

The front end of Troys black hoodie and the shirt below it had been cut, a quick slash from something that had been very sharp that he had explained off as a 'nasty thornbush' of some sort but Helen had feared real injury and simply gave up on the event. Thus the two now sat at the crossroads as guides.

"Hey you two. Look I hate to break the moment but my girlfriends having a bit of a breakdown." Gesturing to his shirt dismissively to add emphasis. "Pretend you didn't see us. If you find the headmaster, can you tell him to send a runner? The main path should be one of these three," Troy pointed to the nearest three pathways, "We'd go ourselves but well.."

At this point she had had enough. In a half-cry half-yell, Helen blurted out, "I'M AFRAID OF THE DAAAAARK" before clinging back to Troy.

Hands wrapped around her, Troy looked at the two pleadingly. "Sorry folks."

-----------------------

@Pseudo Stygian@Stern Algorithm

Location: The river, #1

The river flowed down through the forest in complete serenity. A natural flowing body of water that trailed into the forested area just a few minutes from where the fountain was located and ended up looping back down and out just a few minutes away from where it had started. Not a particularly long way to follow.

Such comforts could be deceiving..

With no other way to go but forward the students would have to use one of the many provided little wood bridges to cross the wide river and stay dry.
Anyone attuned to the call of the water would feel something watching them.

"I'll say," Vera replied to Silas pointing out the irony with another laugh. "Hopefully I can learn to control it a little better soon."

Waving her flashlight across the path, she realized that it had gotten much wider. Were they already back at the crossroads? What was her companion's response to her concern about the fog that wasn't there when she made her first choice? Was he letting her make the next one? How nice of him to have that much confidence in her decision, but oh the pressure... A long sigh escaped her lips. "I know, I just afraid of getting lost, that's all. I guess we can just try the next one we-"

Vera was cut off by a shout in their direction. Squinting through the mist, she could make out two figures sitting on the ground. One of them seemed to be beckoning her and Silas over. She glanced at Silas, a little unsure of whether or not it was a trap, before deciding to approach the figures with caution. She then relaxed when she had gotten close enough to see their faces. From the way the two teenagers were dressed, it looked like they were a couple of the seniors who were actively involved in the event, though probably not anymore, seeing as how the boy had taken some damage from a 'nasty thornbush', as he had put it, and the girl was tearing up.

Vera raised an eyebrow in slight surprise when the male senior explained the situation. "The headmaster? He's in on this too? I thought this was fully a student-run event."

The older blonde's outburst then made Vera jump and stumble back into Silas. She found herself instinctively catching hold of his arm with both of her hands, before looking at him and then quickly letting go while she turned away, slightly embarrassed. However, she was soon over it as she addressed the seniors.

"Oh dear, we definitely will," she told them in concern. "Thank you for telling us the way." Thank you for possibly helping us to win this thing too...

Vera did consider the possibility of this being one big prank to send them down another wrong path, though, as Silas had said, any path they pick would be a guess as good as any other. She then turned to Silas, gesturing to one of the paths the older boy had pointed to. "So... you want to try this one?"

@CriticalHit

@Zelosse@Regitnui

---

Dia could have feinted right there with how her heart was beating its way out of her chest.

Felix had just freed them, and had given her a choice. A decision. She'd never been asked that before.

She tried to answer, but it was just coming out as partial words and overall gibberish.

She gave up, huffing out a breath in frustration. Why did she always have to be like this?

Unlike last time, she knew he wanted it. That realization hit her suddenly, once his question fully sunk into her mind.

Slowly, ever so slowly, she moved closer to Felix and wrapped her arms around his neck. "Yes," Dia finally managed to mutter, the word getting half stuck in her throat on the way out. Standing on her toes, she kissed him for the second time. Their surroundings fell away, and there was only him.

Jideh was a lucky man that night, for Kanako did not notice at all where he had landed his head, even after his little slip of the tongue. It seemed her mind was, quite understandably, preoccupied with the mortal danger they were currently in from the spider.

That, and how close the two brushed off with death after falling down to the ground like that.

"Food? Ah, I get it. It seems you've exhausted all your energy manipulating your element so you fall off like that. So I assume you were the one that made the spider stop, since it should've climbed the wall by now. Really, you should've told me beforehand if you're going to go all out. That was terribly close, you know. If I had been late for a second, you would've been gravely injured from the fall for sure."

Kanako dusted herself before rising up as well.

"Hmm, as for food... I think I've dropped the snack they gave us when that blasted spider appeared. And I got nothing else, sorry," she replied to his question.

Suddenly, a voice that belonged to neither of them spoke up. Kanako quickly looked up towards the direction the voice was coming from. She couldn't find anyone though, seeing how dark and foggy the forest was.

"Try not to get too physical down there. You got a few free minutes before it comes at you again, so don't just lay there enjoying the sights." the voice said.

Kanako could immediately tell the amusement the voice had towards their predicament, followed by some laughter.

"You... you're the ones who's setting this up, aren't you?" she shouted at the voice, her expression terribly angry. "I knew I shouldn't have went along with this whole thing!"

Without any warning whatsoever, wind began gathering around her, slowly but surely growing in intensity. Of course, the wind also had an effect on her, lifting up her skirt and making it flutter freely, giving Jideh a clear view of her pantyhose-covered panties. But she didn't care once again, as her mind was entirely focused on the seniors that were having fun seeing them suffer.

And then, the wind all blew towards where the voices came from. Indeed, she intended to make them all fall from their ivory towers, so that she could get a good look on the ones that had been pranking them.

@Kalleth@Zelosse