I was feeling really good in classes after meditating. My concentration had improved and I really liked learning new stuff anyway. Mind Reading was still hard for me but I was getting the hang of it. I was not as good as Chris, though. He could just see someone and know the person’s feelings. He never did that usually.

So it was kind of funny when my friend asked me to be on her team. I had long way to go in both Mind Reading and Mind Shifting skills.And then there were other kind of projections which everyone just knew.
The Annual Festival was coming up and all projectors participated in some type of contest of their liking.

“Will you come with me?” Lexie asked.

“Where?”

“The Annual contest Trials. Team category.”She told me.

“They have an obstacle course and many other things.”She added as an after thought.

“Fine. Who else will be with us?”

“Can I get in with you?”
We turned towards the speaker.

“Why do you always eavesdrop, Lucas?” Lexie glared at him.

“I was not. You were not being quiet, anyway. So what do you say? I am good with objects and projections.”

I turned towards Lexie and she was frowning. As much as she hated him, he was valuable as a team member. She sighed, “Fine.”

“You can ask Chris if he wants to enter in the contest.”

“I will try.” I said.

Before leaving for my class, I ventured towards the bulletin board. The flyer had all kinds of entries for the competition. There were many categories in single and team entries. It had nothing in my projection specialization. There were no other students to participate anyway if it had been.

“Think you can participate in the contest with us?”I questioned.

“I guess you got roped into this.” Chris smiled.

“Yeah. With Lexie and Lucas.”

“I can try. You should know the contest tests are brutal.”

“I am not worried. And here comes, our instructor.”

Carl had us doing more exercises and also had us practising on each other.He had us fight each other till we were exhausted then made us write reports.He certainly was not giving us any time off.

The Annual fest was upon us, and I seriously hoped I did not fail. We met in the quad and waited for our turn. Everyone would get different kind of obstacle course. So they were preparing ours after the last team got out.

It was time.

The layout was similar like in the Forest of Illusions. They could try something new,seriously.It was dark. The first test. I smiled.

“Anyone got any flashlight or similar thing?” 

“I work with plants. I have this.”Lexie rolled her eyes.

“That’s bioluminescent. Clever.”I said.The others nodded.

“I can increase its intensity using these stones.”

Lucas gave us each a stone after making them glow using the plant’s essence. Awesome.

We moved forward on the path. It looked like a maze.

“Chris, you can remember the path, right? This is a maze. Every turn would have something which would test us.”

“Let’s be vigilant. There could be animals.”Lucas frowned.

“No. Animals are not here. It was declared in the last contest. Apparently lots of other things are here.”

The next turn bought us in a sand storm. It was hard to keep our eyes open let alone walk on the path. There could be traps here. 

“What do we do now?” Lexie was agitated.

“We could create a protective bubble. Chris and I worked on it. Just stay close.”

It was hard combining our powers, but we managed. The sand was deflected on contact with our shield. Whoever created this storm was an awesome projector. The next turn was predictable. Icy floor. With triggers. We tested one and it spontaneously broke. The ice was real thin. It would be real hard to cross.

“Any ideas?”

“We could try swimming.”

“No. We can’t. It would be freezing. You can’t heat up the entire path, Lucas.”

“I think I have a solution. We could Transport.”

“You know that?”Lexie had incredulous look on her face.

“Yeah. We tried once.”

“Do you think it will be safe unlike last time?”

“Yes, Chris. It’s like 20 metres long. We can do this.”

Chris took Lucas first and well he disappeared. I willed myself to do it properly this time. I could do it now. I grabbed Lexie and concentrated at the end of the path.

We stumbled, but we were in a single piece. And I had not fainted but I was tired. Chris was also tired. We certainly could not handle this energy loss. Which was why when I saw we had a puzzle ahead, I was happy.

The puzzle was to find a way out when there was none. I thought of it as a puzzle because the path ended right there.

“Did we choose the wrong path?” Lucas scratched his head.

“I don’t think so.” Chris said scrutinising the wall.

“It must be our Final test.”

“You are right, Lexie.”

“What should we do now?”

“There must be some clue here.”
I tried to concentrate on the wall and somehow, I was being deflected. I told this to my friends.

“Wait a minute,” said Chris.

He looked at the wall for what seemed like 2 minutes. He turned towards us.

“That’s not a wall.”

“What?” Everyone shouted.

“Yeah. It is an illusion.”

“But we see the wall. Only you say that it is not a wall, then what is it?”

“It is a path.”

“Why are we not seeing it then?”

“I don’t know.” He shrugged.

“Let’s concentrate hard enough. If it is an illusion, we have to break it. Now that we know what it is, it would not be hard.”

The wall shimmered, and I could see what Chris saw. A bright path.

Now all of us were seeing the same path.

“Let’s test it,” Lexie said.

She threw her light stone, and it bounced back.

“There must be some Repeller. We have to overpower that magic and negate it.”

“Let’s all work on it.” Lucas said.

We nodded. I pushed my magic at the barrier and tried to push it. My friends had their hands in pushing position, and I could feel their power joining mine. The Repeller broke and the force knocked us down. It was done. Lexie tested it again and the stone did not bounce back.

We moved forward and like that the obstacle course was done. An official stood outside.

“Good work. But you weren’t the team with the least timing. Anyway, you did great. I like how you thought out of the box. You can expect many more obstacles in the Winter Face-off. Congratulations on making it.”

“We have to do this again?” Lucas asked what we were all thinking.

“Yeah. And we better start preparing.”

“Really, you wanna start now, Lexie?”

“Sure. I want to win this thing.”

“I’m leaving now. I am hungry. You wanna come?”

All of us ended up eating sandwiches and then I headed back to my rooms with Chris.

“So, what happened about the Archives?”

“Carl says we can go as a field trip.”

“That’s nice. Did you learn anything about Memory stones?”

“I tried once again, and I think it gets activated depending on the person’s ability who created it. And also on what kind of protection, he wanted to give. Here.”

He gave me a black stone. Nothing happened.

“Give it to me.”

He took the stone and stared at it. He gave the stone to me. This time I saw a faint outline of our table at the cafeteria.

“You gave it a protection layer.”
I examined it.
“So, I saw that in your perspective. Then why did the stone show both Sameyra and Samey?”

“Because, I think someone else was also present there.And was watching them."

Author's note:

Hey everyone!I am posting this a bit early.
Thanks for reading,voting and commenting.I really appreciate that.
:)