The Crown's Entrapment

The sudden news of the visions’ return spread like wildfire, causing most of the audience inside the arena to stand up and walk away. Making their way to the nearest available shrine where they could watch the vision instead, it had been twelve days since she entered the Element Forest, and all were hoping to see what became of the human princess that decided to brave the Element Forest. So far there was only one trial left for her to do, and it was the Trial by Air…

***

Inside the Element Forest, ravens were all over the area to give the Cordonians the visions they were all waiting for.

“So it has finally come to this…”

“That, indeed, Princess Xenia,” Helena nodded as she gestured towards her next trial. “This will be the final obstacle you will have to face before you are finally free to return to Cordon.”

After what felt like days of training, the Fairy Queen had deemed her proficient enough to leave without jeopardizing her own identity. Sure, her control over her angel blood was still shaky, but at least she wasn’t going to accidentally expose herself just from sneezing.

p anda nOvel.cO,m “Welcome to the Trial by Air,” Helena once more introduced. “While it might seem easy at first glance, I assure you that it is anything but.”

Taking a deep breath, Xenia turned to face what was hopefully the last trial that she’ll ever have to face before returning home. Looking forward, the first thing she saw was… a grassy clearing and a collection of twigs, logs, and tree trunks. They were all scattered about haphazardly, looking as if they had been mindlessly littered across the clearing.

But that all changed when Helena flicked her right hand towards the clearing. All of a sudden, a gust of wind lifted all of the twigs and logs up into the sky, forming what looked to be an obstacle course made exclusively of wood and wind.

“As you can see, this is merely an obstacle course of my own making,” Helena smiled. “But just because I have a reputation for making easy trials doesn’t mean that I’ll be taking it easy on you. No, I know you’re better than that.”

Xenia gulped as she let her eyes roam the now empty clearing. Spotting what looked to be the beginning of a flight of stairs, she followed the steps up… up into the sky towards the haphazardly floating logs and tree trunks acting as makeshift platforms.

“I’m assuming that I just have to reach the end?” Xenia asked.

“That, indeed,” Helena beamed at her. “It’s fairly straightforward. No tricks. Just you, my platforms, and your own sense of balance.”

Xenia nodded at the Fairy Queen’s words. Just from looking at her supposed platforms from below, she could already tell that they were barely large enough to even let her use her two feet to jump. Looking down at her legs, she found herself sizing up the amount of space she would need versus the amount of space she actually had, inevitably ending up with an answer that she really didn’t think was as straightforward as the guardian told her.

“I’m going to have to hop on one foot across all of these platforms, aren’t I…”

“Alongside making sure you don’t fall off,” Helena helpfully added. “Being that high up, the wind speed will affect your every jump and trajectory. Don’t think I’d catch you if you fall, Princess. I know for a fact that you’ll live even if you fall.”

‘But that doesn’t mean I’ll walk away without any injuries,’ Xenia inwardly finished the guardian’s unsaid words. While Helena was merciful, she still had to keep up with appearances.

“Alright, Princess. Are you ready?”

Xenia nodded. “I’m ready.”

Helena nodded in turn. “If there are no more questions, then feel free to begin.”

Taking the Fairy Queen’s words to heart, Xenia jogged towards the first step up to the sky. With the wooden platforms being both narrow and curved, each step was a fight against falling off as she balanced herself on one foot. Jumping from platform to platform, It wasn’t until she reached the top of the stairs that she realized just how high up she currently was.

“Oh my…”

She couldn’t help but gasp as she found herself looking down on the tiny platform her one foot was delicately balancing on. Below her, the Fairy Queen looked absolutely infinitesimal as the trees around them looked no more than grass to her now. Leveling her gaze, the fact that there were clouds around her also clued her in on just how dangerous it was for her to fall from that height.

“Alright… Focus…”

Crouching down on one leg, Xenia instinctively made herself small, making sure that the gusts of wind hitting against her from random sides wouldn’t immediately make her fall. Balancing on her toes, she methodically jumped from one platform to the next, being careful to not jump at the same time as a gust of wind would possibly veer her off course.

“Steady… Steady…”

With each jump, her confidence grew as the goal became ever so closer. It wasn’t even that hard. The wind blowing against her didn’t really affect her that much, and the distance between each platform was manageable enough that being on one leg didn’t affect her that much.

“So far so good…” she smirked to herself. “Thank you, Helena…”

It was going so well, in fact, that Xenia started doing a few tricks with every jump. Looking out for what she knew where the birds responsible for showing her progress to Cordon, she gave out warm smiles and encouraging nods with each jump. It didn’t take too much of her time, and it would go a long way of making her more likable to her future subjects.

“Woah… Almost slipped there…”

Landing on yet another platform, Xenia found herself pausing as she looked out at how much more jumps she had left to clear. For some reason, it felt like she had been going at it for hours now, and it didn’t seem like she was making much progress. Also, the jumps were starting to get farther and farther in between, not to mention the intervals between each gust of wind was starting to become more erratic.

“Something’s wrong…”