Chapter 62: New Arrivals - Part 3
But seeing them now, captive, with my real dad, walking alongside my bride’s parents, just shows me how fast she works. I feel her hand move around my arm as she stands on her tiptoes to whisper to me, and don’t get me wrong, she is tall for a female, but not as tall as me. “Aren’t those your adopted parents? And who is that with my mom and dad? Why are they in cuffs? And why are they here?” Ok, so it wasn’t her if she was asking me all of this. I can hear her heart racing. So, I pull her closer to me and hold her tight. “I’m not sure, Cher. But that man with your parents, that is my real father, Lestat.” I felt her racing heartbeat even faster. But what caught me off guard was the pure innocence of what she said next. “What if he doesn’t like me? What if he doesn’t approve of you being mated to a hybrid like me?”
I looked down at her, realizing she had heard what I had to say this morning, and she sees what is going on in front of us, yet the only thing she is worried about is if my father, Lestat, will like her and approve of our bonding. I kissed her hair and told her that regarding that matter, she will come to learn that he already approved of us, and that he is proud of her.
Her parents walk forward, leaving my adopted parents with some guards, Michael, and my father. “Trainers, members, and candidates. We apologize for intruding on your training session, but we have an important matter to discuss with the final group of members. Your final test will not be tonight, but right now. There will not be 2 sessions; it will be one session. We now need the best of the best.” Celine spoke clearly and stepped aside for Dominique to speak. “You will all be given a necklace in a small box. Do not touch this necklace until you are told to hang it around your neck. Now, you will be divided into groups. Each group will be chosen by a leader. There are 50 of you in total, and we have 10 teams. The first team to finish, their leader will be named captain of the Elite Team. You all have exactly 5 hours to get the necklace to the pond in the clearing 2 miles from here. I know you think it sounds easy, but the teams that do not finish are out of the Elite Team. Those who do finish, your training will start full-time tomorrow morning at 05h00 after a meeting later this afternoon. Good luck to all of you.”
With that, we got split into groups. Drake, I, Remus, Lumus, and Sheamus were the team leaders. We all started choosing our teams. We all chose our matched better halves to be in our teams, and then carried on choosing strategically. Sheamus seemed to have a weak team, and I saw Michelle whisper something to Stella, which she passed on to Sheamus. He looked at the box in his hands that contained the necklace and frowned, then looked at Michelle and nodded. I looked at Michelle, and she whispered to me, “I can feel some sort of magic coming from the box. Stella confirmed it feels like a cursed object. All of them are. We will need to make sure to take the shorter roots and let the strongest members help with the burden of carrying the necklace.” As soon as we open the boxes, we hear Merymere gasp loudly for air. She looked up to Queen Celine, “Where did you get these?” All the queen did was answer with a riddle. “If you all get there in time, 10 lives will be saved. The source of life that sparkles in the brightest light can bring back a song forgotten in time.”
Michelle grabbed my hand, and I knew she knew what had to be done. As all the trainers walked outside, she called all the groups together. “Listen, we all need to make it to the Elite Team, just trust me on this.” She explained what she told me and Stella and added that she thinks the necklaces need to be dropped in the pond. You see, the source of life that sparkles in the brightest light is water. The song forgotten in time, it’s a siren's song. Merymere, how many men of your clan were taken?” Merymere looked at my bride, with hope in her eyes, “15, but we only found 10 necklaces. These 10, to be exact. Do you think…?”
I stepped forward, “Drake, take half the groups and flank the left, Michelle, and I will take the other half of the groups, and we will flank right. We meet up in the middle of the grass area just before the pond, and drop the necklaces in the water all at the same time. This way, no group gets left out, and we get to save 10 lives.” With that, we moved out and walked past all the trainers towards the woods.