I enter in the obscurity. The slamming of the wooden door still resonates in the moist air. My eyes blink as they become accustomed to lack of light.

The smell that reigns here seems familiar to me. A light mist seems to invade the space. My hand stretches in front of me to avoid any obstacles that I would not see. The tip of my fingers touch a strange texture and I retract my hand.

It's soft and wet at the same time. What is it? Gently, timidly, I stretch out my hand again. It's soft and fluffy. Foam?

A light appears. The foam that i touch is lichen on a tree trunk. It is the lichen that glows and gently illuminates the place. Other trees illuminate in this strange and faint green glow, like if my caress had triggered a cascading reaction.

I hold my breath. I was expecting a stone room without decoration like the one I left, but it's another show unfolds in front of me. I'm in the middle of a dense forest.

Big tree trunk rise up to the sky to hide it. A little path where only one person can walk unfolds in front of me. Is that the rode I have to take?

When I turn around, I saw that the door that I pushed disappeared. I'm lost in the middle of the woods.

They told me the exam was adapted to everybody who do it. They told me that nobody can explain what happen to him because it's a secret. The only thing I know is that all the exams are different because all the aspirants are unique.

I started thinking about all the people who precede me a few hours ago. These young students of my class who enter by this door but who didn't come back.

I guess they get out with another door. I was waiting for my turn without asking myself questions. Too preoccupied by myself without worrying about others. What have they seen? What have they done?

I inspire again. No. I have to focus on me. This path, where will it lead me?

I walk by the lights of the luminous lichens, following the strange path. Sometimes, nocturnal noises of the forest are heard. Hooters. Acute noises. Rustling.

Suddenly, I arrive at a crossing: two paths. Which one should I take?

I hesitate.

One side, it seems like there's more light. But on the other side, more noise. That makes me think that there's more life there. So, maybe humans...

I don't like to be with people. But playing it alone in a hostile environment is dangerous when we want to stay alive...

I'm still hesitating.

How much time do I have to decide? Do " they " record my reaction? Obviously, I'm observed.

I clench my fists. I have been revising for almost three years to get out of this environment. I learned by heart our community's stories, the morality, the values of the Village. I can recite our founding songs and the anthem of the nation.
I know all about the Hunters in South's New Athens and what we officially known about the wolves' Big North. I learned all the legends of Arthurian Landes of the West and the beliefs of the Land of Eastern Jade.

I know their political systems and the Granny's power since the dawn of night. But here, all my knowledge seems unnecessary...

At the end of the quietest path, I see an animal.

A silver fox?

It's a rare specie but that's not why I'm surprised. What shocks me... Is that I see my totem animal.
I'm called Fox because it's the name the community choose for me. It's the name that we give to the orphanage here.
My first name, Diane, is the goddess of Hunt one. It's not an anodyne choice. A way of telling these children of unknown origin: you're not a wolf but you can be a hunter if you put your destiny in our favorite goddess's hands. DIANE FOX, so I was name, but we're many orphan in this world with this name for generations. It's a very common name.

The fox is staring at me or is it me who's staring at him? He suddenly leaves and my legs move by themselves. I run after him. I have the strange sensation that I am chasing myself. We cross the forest quickly.
And I laugh. I laugh because I'm running and it's forbidden when we are not in sport class and because our clothes, long and shapeless, don't give us the possibilities to move quickly. I love to run. I never said it here. Here, we can't say unnecessary things and sometimes, it bothers me.

I'd like to run to lose breath until I forgot who I am. I'd like to run without thinking about what others think about me. Just to release myself. But the villagers said that running only serves to flee. And we don't flee: we fight, with weapon or knowledge.

I want to flee this place. If running is forbidden, I thought of flee in another way. That's how I got the idea to come to this exam. The one who success it may leave the Village. He can choose to go in the Big North or New Rome! He can choose his way. It's my freedom that I hope I'll get.

I only need this damn last test to do.

The fox suddenly slow down.

We are in a clearing... I stop a few steps from the animal. He suddenly disappears in a silver smoke.

My jaw tightens at the same time. I stood up with anxiety. In front of me, " they " are there, sitting behind their ocher stone desk.

The famous Jury exam.

Seven people with animal mask. I distinguish a raven, a wolf, an owl, a deer, a rabbit, a cat and finally in the middle a fox.

I swing my red hood over my shoulders as a sign of respect.

— Diane Fox, articulates a woman's voice from the owl mask. Sing the Village anthem.

They want me to sing? Are they serious?

I thinned my throat...