The tournament

800: Canoe

I woke up wincing to a minor pain in my head, but immediately my eyes pop open, they stayed blown out at the beauty of nature in front of them, I push back the noise of swords and tumultuous sound of spells when I allow myself to relish the comfort of the flowing waves trudging carelessly to the shore, drenching the sand with even tide.

This is the most incredible view I've seen, it provides the solace nothing can give in a time of hardships like the present situation I'm trying to avoid.

Even with my man-made oxygen, I can smell the repose of the sea, the depth, and its width, it feels refreshing but safe is what I have no idea of yet.

"You're awake, stay low."

That's when I finally turn to face Cuthbert, and that's how I found out we're hiding by a rock closest to the shoreline.

"What happened?" I asked him when everything came playing back in my head. Yes, I saw my mother, or at least a woman who claims to be my mother, she offered home just when everything fades.

"I had to..." He stuttered.

His reaction made meaning to everything I'm doubting and so I accuse: "You hit me, did you?"

"You froze, you were retreating, I had to help you."

I shove him just like the first time I meet him only this time I wasn't running, no I am hitting him hard on the cheat for taking away the only vision I had of my mother.

"I didn't ask you for help," I growl, tears immediately falling down my face.

Cuthbert is quick to hold my wrists in his palms, he leans closest and claims: "Stop, they're going to find us."

My head tilts to my side where what seems like a rainstorm is happening in the woods. On the shore is participants battling for survival where else are only limited boats for escape, there is blood everywhere, dead bodies lying helplessly on the sand, all of a sudden I lose interest in earth, I feel disappointed in mankind, how human beings take satisfaction of killing each other in an empty world waiting to be recreated again.

Until then it dawned in me, Harper isn't hiding with us. No is just Cuthbert and I and our backpacks.

"Where is Harper?" I asked immediately.

He points towards the land that's turned into a battlefield and says: "Somewhere around there..."

But he is interrupted. "Somewhere around here." Harper finishes, appearing before us with a canoe behind her and a malicious smile on her face.

"Where did you go?" I retorted.

"To steal a boat from those murderers fools." She smirks and begins loading our things on board.

"Are you kidding me?" I gasped a nervous or maybe more accurate, an angry laugh. "Do you have any idea how much trouble you've called upon us? Or do I have to narrate to you how all that bloodshed is happening because of these probable canoes to cross over?"

"Chill.." Cuthbert begins to bit I am quick to interrupt him. "Don't tell me to chill, I wouldn't let this happen if I was conscious."

"First, no one notices a canoe is missing and even if they do, no one can see us, so I suggest you get packing so we get out of this hell of a place before someone can find us," Harper announced.

With knitted brows, I turn to Cuthbert who's smiling at me. "That's what I was going to tell you."

"They are going to know you took it?" I asked her, quietly.

"Sure, who else can vanish and do anything they desire without being noticed? Me my friend. Now let's get going." Harper wink, holding out her hand for me.

I look back to the catastrophe behind us, to Rees's rainstorm taking over the forest wildfire, teenagers killing one another for a canoe.

Is this realm worth all this?

I grab onto Harper's hand and join her into the decayed canoe without another look back.

We all settled in without oxygen tanks and a successful; intact suit. Harper sat by the stern and begin paddling. Granted, just like that, we began moving away from the chaos.

"How many hours do you have?" Cuthbert asked. He is sitting behind me, I have to twirl back to respond, but I look down at my timer first though. "Forty-one."

"I have fifty-nine left." He told me before he exhales a deep breath and adds: "You lost so much air."

Instead, he smiles and brings his hand upon mine. I can feel his warmth even through the gloves between our skins, it's the main reason I didn't withdraw from the decent gesture.

"But why? We cross almost the same paths." I ask Cuthbert, yes I'm aware he walked back his post to mine when I was saving my oxygen and sleeping on the parched ground. Apart from that everything that's happened, occurs alongside us, we ran together, escape together and hide together. I don't understand how his oxygen timer still read fifty-nine.

"Fear, you have too much fear in you," Cuthbert says.

Although Harper seems interesting and so she asked:

"What did you see back in the woods?"

"What?" I blurted, knowing what she's implying but not ready to say it put out.

"When you stopped and turned back. You must have seen something." Harper pressed.

I look down to my timer and mumble: "It doesn't matter."

"It does, is important we know." She insisted.

My eyes start to twitch, I have to incline my head and swallow if that woman I saw we mother, wool she come back for me? She felt too substantial and reliable.

"A woman. A woman just like my mother."

Cuthbert exclaimed, his tone filled with shock: "You saw your mother?"

"It's illusion, it's mind games, you can't let it get to you, someone among the witches has illusionary chant." Harper's appears thoughtful while she explains,

But Cuthbert is quick to retort: "Is not real."

Harper's prying eyes fall on him even before the words roll out of her tongue when she repeated: "Yes, nothing is real."