The Race [Aura's B rank Exam]

Aura was doing some laundry at the guild when she felt a little buzz coming from her leg. As she looked down she saw her book glowing and vibrating. She then put her laundry down as she stared at her book with question in her face. When she picked it up she saw one page in particular glowing with the intense light she saw from earlier.

As she opened her book the page was blank but yet Aura could feel as though she still saw the words on the page. When she touched the page her hand felt like it was floating, which was impossible because she reached through it while it was on the table. All of a sudden she felt her whole body draw in closer as if it was slowly being dragged into it by some sort of magnetic force. As her head went in she saw that she was coming upwards from the ground, which confused Aura a lot. When her whole body entered the area she began to look around. Looking around the area made her feel as though she was in some sort of ancient ruin. There was a lot of stone marble around but yet it looked like some of it had decayed from some sort of poison. Others looked like they were kicked through as if something extremely hard hit them.

All of a sudden she felt something tug at her leg. It was her book and it seemed like it wanted her to go somewhere. As the book dragged her towards the area it wanted, things started to look more destroyed. Things looked more decayed, more destroyed, and all together more like chaos. Aura started to become frightened by the sites of destruction as she got closer to the sounds of two creatures.

One of these creatures sounded like a nagging old lady, and she seemed to be complaining to someone else. The lady said to the other creature, “Now son we have a visitor coming soon, so you better behave or we won’t have our dinner tonight.” The goosebumps on Aura’s body stood up as she heard a snake hiss very loudly. After the spider hissed the lady spoke delightedly and said, “Seems like our visitor’s here. Now go get everything set up please, my little pumpkin pie.”

Aura heard the slither of something as it came closer to her. She heard it go through the bushes ahead of her as it got closer and closer to Aura. With lots of fear Aura felt completely paralyzed as a lady came out of the bushes. She had snakes for hair that hissed at Aura from the sight of her, as well as a bow with some sort of ancient symbol on it. As Aura got down lower she realized something odd about the lady, it seemed like she had a snake tail instead of legs. She then got closer to the lady as she screamed, “Staring is very rude girl! Now then, let’s get this started. You know how these trials work because I’ve watched you do many. Now then, if you want a contract with me and my son you will have to beat our little game without being killed, or all you’ll have is death and a lovely dinner. Although the problem with that is is that you’ll be the dinner. So then, let’s get started shall we?”

Aura looked fearful at the snake lady as she walked through the bushes to the area she was talking to her son with earlier. Looking around she found nobody else except for some weird white horse with blue wings. She went closer to the peculiar sight and then screamed as something unusual happened. The horse seemed to be able to talk as it said to Aura, “Well hello there Ms. Sparks, it seems like you have met my mother. You see here me and my mother have started to believe you are strong enough to handle us. This is why we are holding an event just for you. Look around and you will see a beautiful track we have made just for your arrival.”

Aura looked around and realized that the area was a full on track, but instead of a lot of lanes there were only two. She looked around and then asked the little horse, “So, sir what do you want me to do here exactly.” With a cheerful reply the horse said to her, “Today me and my mother want to test your resilience with a little trial we call the ‘Rodeo Race.’ You will be riding on me through the race as we try to beat the finish line before my mother. She is feisty so it’s not going to be easy, but if you lose you die. Luckily though the prize for this trial is our contracts.”

A scream from the forest next to the tracks could be heard. It seemed to be the snake lady, as she said, “Oh sweetie, you found the girl. Now we can start the trial where I can crush her dreams and her bones.” With a loud gulp Aura walked to the track where a helmet was found. When the horse came over she mounted it and heard the horse say, “You better hold on tight, because if you don’t I can’t promise you won’t fall off.”

With that Aura held onto the horse for as hard as she could. With a loud scream the snake lady yelled out the countdown. Aura got prepared for probably the worst ride of her life as the snake lady said the last number. Aura felt the whole world beneath her disappear as she realized she was flying. When she looked down she saw a snake in the place of the snake lady. Luckily though Aura was ahead of her even with the long body she had. Looking up confidently, she felt something hot coming her way as she saw a ball of acid shoot straight towards her. She luckily steered the horse away from it and heard the snake lady yell out, “Lucky!” After she said this Aura finished her first lap but saw something peculiar happen as the Pegasus started to shake.

Aura held on as tight as she could and yelled out, “What are you doing!?” When she finished the horse started laughing maniacally as it said, “I never said I would play fairly either.” Aura held on as tight as she could as she felt another glob of heat coming towards her. With a loud shout she yelled, “Open gate of the paired fish, Pisces.” As she said this two sirens formed in the air as Aura nodded to them, hoping they would get her message. They then nodded back as they were falling down. With one quick action they sang beautifully harmonic notes as a shield formed around the horse. It seemed to calm down from the sounds but it was still shaking. Luckily though as the ball of goop hit the shield it was absorbed and then brought back out into a beam that went straight towards the snake lady. She was slowed down as Aura cheered with delight as the Pegasus ran into the finish line pole.

As her hands were in the air she saw the snake lady coming towards her. She turned back into her lamia form while Aura was cheering and now had very visible indications of anger. She seemed like she was about to attack Aura, and shot an arrow at her. The arrow then became slower and slower as it reached a stopping point. The air had seemed to dissipate from thin air as Medusa grunted with hate for Aura. She then said to her with plenty of spite and said, “Grrr, I guess our contracts are now yours. Have fun saving the world or whatever.”

Aura looked at Medusa as she screamed into the air and dissipated into golden dust. When she turned to Pegasus he had seemed to be asleep and dissolving into golden dust. She then sat down as the world around her disappeared. She was now sitting on the ground of the laundry floor with two keys in her hands. As she put them down they flew towards the story book and mended with it as words formed on two pages. On one of them, “The Cursed,” and the other “The Winged.” She closed her book and decided to not be reminded of those crazy summons for the day as she finally got to her laundry.