As Daniel jogged towards the danger zone, he considered his options in his mind. It was a little too late to avoid conflict, as far as he could tell, but maybe they could still talk it out. He wasn’t sure why the teenager and his fairy were being hunted, but he figured they were smart enough to keep their heads down. They shouldn’t have bothered anyone powerful enough to threaten them. Although, when he thought of Petra’s personality, he realized that maybe he shouldn’t assume anything.

  Another crash from not far ahead shook him from his thoughts, and Daniel slowed down. His footsteps were getting slower and slower, until he was basically creeping through the trees. He looked around and saw that the creature had returned to invisibility. That was the smart decision, he supposed, but that wasn’t exactly reassuring to him right now, because that meant Daniel would have to confront the attacker on his own.

  The hubbub died down a little, and Daniel walked carefully, wary of alerting the attacker. Thankfully, there were only a scant number of leaves and branches on the ground, so he didn’t make too much noise walking around.

  As he passed a nearby tree, he suddenly caught a glimpse of something unfamiliar.

  She was a distinct blot of white in a sea of green, with skin so pale she was almost glowing. She was also very small, childlike in stature, and she currently had an annoyed expression on her face. She paced through the forest with ill-fitting sneakers and an oversized shirt, all the while carrying some kind of flat white cord that wrapped around her arm and dragged on the forest floor.

  The girl glanced towards him and Daniel whipped his head back behind the tree and took a deep breath, hoping she wouldn’t notice him. Unfortunately for him, a white head of hair soon popped out from his right, staring at him intently.

  “Who are you... mister? What are you doing here?” She asked innocently.

  The girl’s eyes were an icy blue, but they had an unsettling look to them. Her flawless white hair showed no signs of wear, not even so much as an errant twig or leaf to show for her forest march. Overall, her atmosphere was even more unnerving up close. As the girl frowned, however, Daniel realized he had been staring for too long.

  Children were generally cute, but the girl’s grimace only made her more menacing. Daniel’s mind race as he tried to come up with an excuse.

  “I was taking a walk, and I heard a lot of crashing noises around here.” He said, and it wasn’t even a lie, broadly speaking. “Are you ok? Have you seen anything weird around here?”

  She stared at him for a moment, before her mouth stretched into a big smile.

  “Nope, I haven’t seen anything weird, besides you!”

  Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon.

  Her snake-like grin did nothing to assure him. Nonetheless, he continued trying to fool the girl.

  “Well, I haven’t seen anyone either. Are your parents around?”

  The girl’s smile slowly faded.

  “...No.” She replied.

  “Well, we better go out and look for them-” Daniel said, turning around.

  Without warning, the young man was tackled to the side. As Daniel flew sideways, he felt a rush of cool air over his head. An icicle the size of a water bottle hurtled past where he’d just been, impaling itself into a tree. The white-haired girl clicked her tongue.

  “There you are...” She said.

  Her wide smile slowly returned to her face as she turned to face the interloper.

  “Come on Mr. Daniel, we need to move!” Michael said, grabbing him by the arm as he raced to get away from the strange girl.

  “Hold on, hold on,” Daniel said, hobbling to his feet. “I’m not good at dealing with sudden developments...”

  He was half-dragged into a sprint by the brown-haired teenager, and they sped off into the forest, maneuvering between the trees. Daniel turned to look behind him and saw the girl following at a moderate pace. As she walked, the life seemed to bleed from the greenery around her, and he heard a sudden crash as a wave of ice swept forward, felling the obstacles in her path. They were rapidly putting distance between them and her, mostly due to her sedate starting pace, but she was slowly getting faster as she chased them.

  “Eyes in front, idiot!” Petra yelled, as her head emerged from Michael’s jacket pocket.

  Daniel’s eyes whipped to the front, just in time to avoid running into an inconveniently placed tree.

  “How... How is she making ice like that?” He said, panting due to the sudden exertion.

  “Her family is the head of the largest refrigeration company in the galaxy.” Petra explained through gritted teeth. “That cord around her arm sucks the water from the nearby area and turns it into- TO THE LEFT!”

  Daniel banked left, and another ice spear thudded into the ground behind him. Unfortunately, the sudden move made his exhausted legs give out, and he fell to the ground on his back.

  He could only watch dumbly as he watched the little girl approach, unsettling smile plastered on her pale face, staring at him like a cat looked at its next prospective meal. As he looked on, the cord around her arm pulsed, a streak of blue splitting the pure white band through the middle as the plants around her visibly withered. The section of cord dangling on the floor curved around and the light slowly hued red, then orange, as an icy spear formed on the forest floor. The light pulsed again and a puff of steam burst from behind her back, blue light racing up the cord and overtaking the orange, before it all disappeared back to pure white.

  The girl continued walking forward and the cord moved autonomously, picking up the newly formed ice spear and moving it into position above her shoulder. It drew back menacingly, preparing to launch. And Daniel couldn’t do anything but watch.

  “WAIT!” Petra screamed. “You can’t attack that guy!”

  The cord moved back and the girl smiled wider, heedless of the fairy’s words, but her expression froze with Petra’s next words.

  “You can’t attack civilians! You’ll get disqualified!”

  The ice spear halted its advance, and everything went still.

  “You’re... not a contestant?” The girl asked Daniel.

  He blinked.

  “No?”