(2021-06-25) Day 25

Details

Author:	Jessa
Summary:	A fun, relaxing training day. Ivri figures it out too late; Judah wins.
Rating:	T for Teen

Chain: The Re-education of Miss Ivrianna Barlowe

The obstacle course was, to say the least, rigorous. To say the most, it was brutal. In stealth, out of stealth, back into stealth. Sprinting sometimes, climbing other times, covering ground in time to silence a mage, then unlocking a cell and vanishing again before the mage recovered. Avoiding terrain where their footsteps would show, running across a simulated roof. All while being timed, the goal to snatch a flag off a pole before the clock could run out.

This was their only activity for the day. Comparing notes was encouraged, though the nature of the course meant those waiting couldn't see the runner the entire time they attempted the course.

Ivri paced, walking off the hard knot of a bruise on her left calf, courtesy of the sneak attack that had taken her out of her last run. The instructors may not have been permitted to punish her for her little rebellion, but they found ways to make certain she knew their displeasure. "There's got to be a trick to this," she muttered. "Some way to do this. It's impossible, the way they've got it set up."

Judah lay on the sand, arms sprawled. The hot sun was making him smell none too pleasant and she shifted her pacing path to move herself upwind of him. "iT's prOBaBlY beCAUsE We aRE terRiBle at THis," he said. "MaSTeR AuRElIus coUld dO IT wiTH oNE haNd."

"Blindfolded," Tragg grumbled.

Ivri huffed a laugh and looked to see if she could spot Llastra's progress.

A bell rang, and they all sighed. Llastra had failed again. "Anyone see how far she got?" Ivri asked.

"The poles," Llastra called, limping out of the constructed walls. "The parallel ones over the mud pit."

"You fell?"

"One broke."

Ivri sighed. "Of course it did. So one will break, we have to cross on just one pole, then. And doubtless we won't know which one is going to break."

Llastra dropped onto the hot sand, flicking drying mud off her legs. "It was the left one, for the curious, in my case."

Frustrated, Ivri stared at the course as assistants scurried around, resetting it for the next run. "We have to be missing something," she insisted. "Let's look at it again. Our job is to get through the course to the flag before time is up, going through and around obstacles and dodging attackers, right?"

Two agreements.

She looked over to Judah who was staring at the course with the oddest expression. "Right, Judah?"

"wrOnG," he said, rising to his feet. He clacked his teeth together, a sound that usually meant he was anticipating something but it frankly creeped Ivri out a little.

She frowned and went over the instructions in her head again, everything they had learned on their repeated attempts. She was pretty sure she was right.

"Next!" called Aurelius. "Someone get this right, I'm getting bored. Judah, you're up."

Judah grinned, snapping his teeth again.

The whistle sounded.

He vanished.

Time crept by, time unbroken by any cries from the course, any movement of the obstacles.

"I don't get it," Ivri murmured. "What'd he see, what'd we miss?"

Tragg rose and came to stand beside her. "I do not see him."

"Give me a lift," she said.

Tragg's hands spanned her waist as he lifted her, her bare feet finding easy purchase on his shoulder. The added height let her view most of the course, but she couldn't see Judah anywhere, or even signs of his passage. "Llastra?" she asked, shading her eyes. "Any idea what he's doing?"

"I am sure he will avoid the mud pit," the Night Elf said with a sigh.

"Avoid th—" Ivri cut herself off in mid-sentence, smacked in the back of the head with an epiphany.

She hopped down from Tragg's shoulder just as the flag was snatched from the pole. Teeth bared, Judah waved it at them. "I wEnt aRoUNd!" he yelled, gesturing with one arm to indicate the sides of the sand pit that enclosed them and the course both.

Aurelius stood up. "Never let your enemy dictate the battleground," he said. "You're assassins, for fuck's sake. Why go straight through the line of battle when you can go around it, kill your target, and get out?"

Judah jogged back around on the edge of the pit, leaped down into the sand, and handed the flag to Aurelius who snorted. "About time. My ass was getting sore from sitting half the day. Judah, have a seat. The rest of you, you have until dinner to pack up the entire course."

With Judah's help, they were done in time.