The Crown's Entrapment

Immediately, Xenia looked down, only to notice that Helena was now missing. Even from her ridiculously high vantage point, she couldn’t see a hide or hair of the Fairy Queen. Instead, the only thing she saw was the empty clearing she came from. No animals. No other fairies. Nothing.

“And here I thought there were no tricks involved…”

Xenia sighed to herself in resignation. Clearly, there was more to this trial than Helena let on. Sure, it still wasn’t as dangerous as the other trials, but there was still a real danger of her falling off to her death if she wasn’t careful… That was, of course, unless she used her wings.

‘But I’m being watched right now,’ she inwardly grimaced. ‘I can risk exposing myself right when I’m about to be finished with these trials.’

Despite these worries, however, she pressed on. Jump after jump, Xenia made decent progress, her right leg still doing wonders as she made her way through the course. Unfortunately, she came to a grinding halt as she noticed something peculiar right in front of her.

“That’s so far!”

Xenia couldn’t help but voice out her concerns as she spotted the next platform she had to jump to. It was barely visible through the clouds with how small it was, and that was on top of it being so far that she could’ve fit five carriages in between it and her current position.

“There’s definitely a trick to this now…” she grumbled.

Crouching on one leg, Xenia decided to try and rest as she went through her options. Currently, the wind was blowing from behind her. The clouds were moving east at a decent enough pace that they’ll be through in a few minutes, and she could easily swap to her left leg should her right one prove to be too tired to try and attempt this jump.

“Actually… let me test that right now…”

Pumping her right leg, Xenia felt for her poor limb, wincing as she balanced on the sole of her right foot.

“Yeah… I’m going to have to switch…”

Doing just that, Xenia returned to ruminating about what her next course of action would be.

Obviously, she was going to have to jump it. Of course, that didn’t mean she was sure that she’d even make it. Even using both her legs for added force, she was uncertain if she could even clear half of the distance she needed to survive.

“There’s got to be something I can use here…”

Feeling the wind blowing on her back, she let her eyes roam the skies once more. Sure enough, there was a whole lot of nothing up in the sky. Except for her, the clouds, and the wooden platforms she had to stand on, there was absolutely nothing that she could use to her advantage. All except…

pa(nd)a no vel “So I really have to use it then…”

Feeling the strong winds blowing against her back, Xenia had an inkling that it would be the one thing that would somehow carry her forward. Granted, she wasn’t really sure if it would be enough to carry her across the gap, but what else was there for her to use?

Resigning herself to the attempt, Xenia primed her left leg for the inevitable jump. Likewise, she felt for the wind blowing behind her, timing the intervals that it would ebb and flow so that she could use it to her advantage.

With each interval, Xenia calibrated her timings. Soon enough, she could tell just when exactly it would blow and when it would stop. When it was the strongest, and when it was at its weakest. And just when she thought that the certain gust of wind was what she needed, she jumped.

“Here goes!”

Timing her attempt with the wind she desired, Xenia felt the usual weightlessness that she was feeling throughout the trial, only this time, it was elongated tenfold as she hoped and prayed that the wind would push her far enough to reach the next platform.

‘Please work! Please work!’

Her eyes scanned the clouds in front of her, her gaze trained solely on the platform that she was supposed to land on. To her joy, she actually managed to reach the damn thing.

To her despair, she had overshot it by just a hair’s breadth.

“Oh fvck!”

Twisting her body, Xenia turned around and reached out to the floating platform using her right hand. Thankfully, she managed to grab on. Unfortunately, it was so small that her grip was threatening to slip.

“No no no!”

Forcing her right hand to tighten its grip, Xenia took a deep breath before she tensed her entire upper body. Through her right arm and a bit of momentum, she managed to launch herself back into the air.

“Okay! For real, this time!”

Having another shot at safety, Xenia twisted her body through the air, and this time, she actually managed to land on the platform with her right leg.

“Hah… Thank goodness…”

Xenia couldn’t help but chuckle at the close call. To her surprise, the rest of the obstacle course didn’t look as unfair as that one jump she just did. In fact, it was back to being as easy as when she first started.

Although, she was pretty sure that wasn’t the case the last time she saw ahead.

‘She really is a bleeding heart,’ she inwardly chuckled.

Not taking this boon for granted, Xenia went ahead and finished the course without much issue. Beyond the occasional gusts of wind, nothing had matched the death-defying stunt she had to do right in the middle of that damn course.

“M-Made it…” she sighed in relief as she felt her feet land on solid ground.

“Congratulations, Princess,” Helena beamed, having seemingly waited for her in the end this whole time. “I’ve been expecting you.”

“Sure, you are,” Xenia gratefully smirked. “Don’t think I didn’t notice.”

“Whatever do you mean?” the Fairy Queen cheekily questioned. “I’ve been waiting here for you this whole time.”

Knowing that the guardian wouldn’t budge on the issue, Xenia simply shrugged before giving the Fairy Queen a grateful nod. What Helena did to help her will always be in her heart. This gesture of hers might go unsaid, but Xenia would make sure that it would always be remembered.

After all, hearing that the Fairy Queen moved the platforms around and provided the winds she needed while being hidden within the clouds would obviously never be widely accepted by her detractors.