The next morning I wake up to someone gently shaking my shoulders.

"Time to wake up Blitz." I hear Neve's voice whisper.

"Five more minutes...." I mutter, rolling over sleepily

Suddenly the weight of a human being lands on me. I feel all the air go out of my lungs in a whoosh as Nero shouts,

"BLITZ WAKE UP!!!"

I start smacking him, my lungs burning, "GET OFF YOU FAT LARD!!! I CAN'T BREATH!!!" I gasp, seriously thinking I'm about to die.

Gee, survived the crocodiles for nothing.

And my ribs are crushed.

Poor ribs. What did they ever do to Nero?

He beams at me before getting off, perching on the edge of my bed, "It worked, didn't it?"

I don't answer, just gasp for air. Sweet, luxurious air.

Kin laughs and I push Nero off my bed once my oxygen level is intact and my strength and anger both return. He hits the floor with a loud thunk and I laugh as his grumpy face appears in front of me, rubbing his head.

"That was mean!" He whines, sticking his bottom lip out.

"So is jumping on someone while they sleep!" I retort, sticking my tongue out at him. He pouts at me for a minute before getting up to go get ready for the day. I follow and soon we're all up and ready for the man to take us to the result room.

There really is no point to getting the results for this round. Obviously the teams that are continuing on are the Black Serpents and us, but I guess they just felt it was needed.

We say goodbye to the Iron Wasps formally and I see Pointy Nose walking morosely along. I feel kind of bad. What if he has a dad in the hospital or something?

Once the defeated team leaves, Ms. Banyu congratulates us happily, her long blue hair bouncing behind her, before telling us the results.

"Coming in first is the Black Serpents, the Snow Ferrets a close second!" She announces.

I wrinkle my nose at the stupid snakes smug smiles (that's a tongue twister). Why did they have to say the results? They don't matter! The only reason they're there is so we can tell who needs to go home, but they say who comes in all the other places also. I don't know why, probably just to tell us where we're at, but seriously?!? Way to make us feel bad!

"Come on Blitz."

I snap out of my thoughts and turn to see Ignis holding my arm, her glaring eyes facing elsewhere. I follow them and see she is glaring hard at a smug Fotia again.

Geez, they must have had a backround back in Kasai City!

She pulls me along and I stumble after her without comment, deciding it wasn't my business.

We get back to our room and the minute the door closes the fire girl turns to us, her face serious, "Guys, we need to practice our elements."

Terro frowns, "Why?"

"It could be helpful." Ignis responds.

"Oooo!" Kin says excitedly, "We could do that thing we were going to do back on the fire path! The element battle with the little element people!"

"Yeah!" Nero exclaims.

"What are you talking about?" Ignis asks, puzzled. While Anemos explains, Kin makes the mini stadium thing again and we make our little element people.

"Ohhh! Okay, that's cool!" Ignis says, getting down on the ground beside us and making a fire person. Anemos does the same with a wind person and Kin counts down.

"Ready?" She asks. We all nod.

"Three."

We all get ready.

"Two."

I smile. This is going to be so crazy.

"One!"

We make our element people launch forward and chaos breaks out.

. . .

"Why are three of the beds burnt, two soaked and one frozen?!?!"

Kin chuckles nervously as we squirm under the angry eyes of the city leaders.

"Well....we were just playing a game....." Kin starts, but Mr. Geni cuts her off.

"A game?! You ruined this room for a game?!?!" He shouts, throwing his hands in the air, his eyes burning.

I wince. Isn't this a little dramatic?

After all, one of them is fine. Terro's bed was the lucky survivor.

Kin doesn't answer Mr. Geni and the angry man storms out of the room.

We all wince as the door slams shut.

Ms. Salju sighs and shakes her head at us, "Whatever. You can take the Iron Wasp's room."

And with that all the leaders leave. We all just stand there guiltily for a bit until the door opens again and the man who leads us to the rounds appears.

"Come on." He says before leaving. We follow him down the hall until we come across a room. The man opens the door and we file in.

The room looks exactly like ours. Well, without the ice and stuff.

For some reason the man gives us a grumpy look before slamming the door behind him.

"Someone woke up on the wrong side of the bed." Terro mutters, flopping onto his bed.

"You would know." I say, walking into the bathroom to get into my PJ's.

I close the door before I can hear the surprised boy's retort.

Ten minutes later and we're all in bed, once again contemplating what the next day could hold.

"It's a survival course. There really isn't much room for your imagination." Ignis says, rolling her eyes as Nero asks what the next round could be.

The water boy pouts at her, "Come on! It could have so many things!"

She raises an eyebrow at him, her arms crossed, "Oh really? Give me two ideas."

Nero looks startled, "Well....erm.....we could have to....um..."

"See," Ignis says smugly.

Nero 'humf's' and turns on his side, burying his face in the pillow.

Me and Kin laugh as Ignis shakes her head at him before doing the same.

I lay back also and just let my mind wander. What could tomorrow hold? I agree with Ignis, there really isn't much, but....I have a weird feeling.

I shake it off.

I'm just nervous, that's all. Tomorrow it ends. We'll all split and go home. I'll get to see Purna, win or lose, and maybe get a job.

I look over the sleeping bodies of my teammates, feeling a sadness pass over me. I'm going to miss them. Nero's infectious happiness, Ignis' smart remarks, even Terro and his 'too cool' personality.

I sigh and roll over so I face Anemos' sleeping back, half of my face squished in the pillow.

I don't get why the seven different types of elementalists have to be kept in different cities. I remember one time asking Dad about it, but all he said was something about order.

As I watch Anemos' back rise and fall with his steady breathing, I wonder about that. Why do we have to be separate to have order? Why couldn't we stay together?

I shake my head slightly as my dreariness takes over. I can't control how things are run. That's for the leaders to decide.

. . .

The next morning when the man leads us across the field to the stadium, the atmosphere is buzzing. So many feelings....nervousness, excitement, worry....it is almost too much!

The camera's are everywhere, swarming and drowning us in questions.

How do you feel? Do you think you're going to win? What will you do if you lose? How will you spend your money if you win?

I don't answer any of them, just keep walking straight ahead.

Once we finally are lead into the gray room, we are blessed with silence.

Terro sighs, "Finally! I thought the reporters were going to follow us in here!"

Kin chuckles and I pick up the familiar note, reading it aloud.

"Snow Ferrets,
Welcome to the survival round. You will have to spend fifteen full days out in the wild. Build a shelter, collect food, and protect yourself. The doors will open in three minutes. Good luck."

The minute I finish reading the bell rings and the doors swing open. Fresh air and animal sounds reach us as we glance at each other before walking out into the forest.

Huge trees covered in leaves surround us. I hear a loud caw and look up to see birds crowding on the tree branches, their beady eyes peering down at us curiously.

A loud grinding sound reaches our ears from behind us and I whip around in time to see the room we just left disappearing into the ground, revealing miles and miles of field behind it.

Grass covers where the room just disappeared and I run over, feeling hopelessly around on the ground for the room.

I sense four more people beside me, also feeling around on their knees. I give a huff of annoyance and fall back on my knees.

"So that's it? They're just leaving us here?" I say with a hint of anger.

Ignis rolls her eyes, her arms crossed, "Duh! What did you think they were going to do?"

I glare at her and she glares back.

"Ladies ladies please!" Anemos exclaims, coming in between us.

I huff again, blowing a strand of hair out of my face, "Whatever."

"What do we do now?" Terro asks.

Kin shrugs, "We should probably find a water source, right?"

Nero waves his hands in front of her face, "Hello? Right here!"

She rolls her eyes, slapping his hands away, "No stupid! An endless one, like a stream or something."

"Want me to scope out?" I offer.

Anemos shakes his head before she can speak, "No, we should go together so we don't get lost. It's helped in the past, remember?"

We nod, grinning sheepishly, and start moving away from where the room got buried, deciding that it's probably more likely we'll find a stream in the forest than the plains.

We walk for a long time, straight forward. The day slowly gets cooler until we're all shivering, goosebumps popping up on our bare skin.

Well, everyone except Neve and Ignis.

We eventually stop in a clearing, deciding we'll just sleep here and keep walking tomorrow. I settle myself underneath a tree, swatting at the stupid mosquitoes that bombard me.

Terro and Neve join me at the tree while the others find there own.

I sigh, leaning my back against the tree and watching the stars, feeling sleep drag at my body.

One day down, fifteen to go.

I wonder what the Black Serpents are up to.....

Soon I fall asleep, my dreams swirling with all sorts of possibilities for tomorrow.
*****************
Hmm, I think that's long enough. Thanks for sticking with me though!

QUESTION TIME
1.) What do you think is going to happen?
2.) What would you do if you were in the Snow Ferret's position?
3.) What do you think the Black Serpents are doing?
There you go! Enjoy!