Arina and Connie ran inside to search for the key immediately, followed by me. “It’s a very small and thin metal rod so look very carefully below the leaves”, I instructed so they don’t hastily toss the key away during the search.

We started searching through the dry leaves and suddenly we heard a growl from the side of Waterwoods.

A tall silver wolf stood there taller than others and telecommunicated to us, “if the wolves from Winterwells enter No Man’s Land, it would be considered as an attempt to attack. We won’t handle it casually”

I turned to see the team black trying to enter, they backed off immediately. The Waterwoods outnumbered us right now and an unintentional fight was a big No for our competition.

We searched for some more time and I found one more rod, Connie raised two rods Saying, “I found two!”

Arina looked disappointed and was searching more and more desperately, “why can’t I find any?”

“It’s okay Arina, we will help you. Let’s go ahead and search there”, I said, assuring her. After all, we were a team and teamwork was the most important thing even if we had divided ourselves.

A little more search and we had the 5 more rods that we needed, without any delay we unlocked the other balls as well and went back inside winterwells land.

“Okay, we are already divided into a group of two so let us try and complete our tasks in pairs”, suggested Diana as if we didn’t know that already. I was starting to feel that Diana wanted her words to be last, a theoretical technique of showing importance.

I ignored my observation and checked my and Hailey’s tasks.

The RED one said – ‘A tree that stands tall and cutting, belonging to no one yet watering the woods. Bring the red fruit that hangs by her upside down hair’

There was barely any logic in it, maybe because I was new here and didn’t know anything about geography. I ignored the need to find answers immediately.

And checked the other WHITE ball that read – ‘The blue and golden scales, so strong they defy the force of nature. Going upstream, while not leaving their home’

“I don’t understand”, I whine. It was pretty easy to solve the riddle for someone local.

“Tell me what is it?”, asked Arina. There was no one better than her who knew of history and geography so I handed her both the tasks.

She read both the tasks and replied, “I don’t understand your task Selene, but white ball talks about some river and fish. There is a strong flowing river to the west end” and she pointed leftwards, in the direction we were to head.

“This is so hectic”, whined Connie like a baby, “both me and Sam have two tasks and both are on the opposite end of the forest!”

“Same here”, said Arina.

“Then just exchange them, why would you waste time on something this stupid”, Communicated Hailey a little irritated by their stupid concern.

“Ohh that would be easy”, said Connie and turned to Arina, “Arina give your human task”

She laughed, “what do you mean human task?”

“Like this one”, Connie showed her his task, “bringing this particular beetle locked inside a coconut shell. Very stupid but needs human hands to do it”

Arina looked at it carefully and checked her tasks again, “we don’t have human tasks, both of these need the strength of a werewolf. What do we do now!”

“For god sake exchange the tasks!”, communicated Hailey with anger, “both of you are werewolves. Idiots, get going before I kill you!”

No one wanted to be around Hailey and my decision of choosing that was right. Not just because she was rude, but she also oozed her bloodlust like a tiger behind a deer.

“What’s our problem now?” Hailey asked me to indicate our tasks, her tone calmer than before.

I explained to her both the tasks, we waited for a moment and she said, “You can’t catch that fish with bare hands, this is definitely something for a werewolf to do. The current of that river must be the strongest around this time of the year”

My task requires me to climb a tree which means it has to be done in human form. “But do you understand this task?”, I asked Hailey, explaining the task from the red ball.

Hailey hummed before starting to walk and stand beside me, “We can find the tree later, let’s discuss on the way. Get on”

I got on her back and she took off just as recklessly as before, I had to take care of my part for riding in her properly cause she was doing her part damn well.

I read through my task again and asked shouting through the speedy air that Hailey left behind as she ran through the greenery, “What tree has hair? Or is upside down?”

Hailey didn’t say anything for a while and then finally spoke, “The is one tree with hanging roots on our way, but it does not bear any fruit”

“Is it a Banyan tree?” I asked, yelling and avoiding yet another branch that could have hit me.

Hailey replied a “Yes” and thought about it again. The task said tree watering the woods, Banyan tree was certainly not one cause it had a tendency to take up water and nutrition from others for its humongous growth.

“A line says watering the woods, what does that mean?” I asked again to which Hailey did not give any reply. I understood that even she wasn’t able to decode it and let her focus on the uneven terrain more, she was anyway struggling with carrying me on her back.

The handicapped task was not just extra weight but also tough to understand. We had a lot riding on it and especially me.

This win was important for me. I had only a few months to finish my mission and becoming the Beta was one of the fastest ways to go through it. At least if I wanted to gain the Winterwells’s trust faster, this was folding out perfect.

Just the problem was my task right now, I had to get the answers as soon as possible or even the doubts Diana had about would be proved right.