Trigger warnings- Swearing 

When two men in black suits came in to untie the boys, Finley wondered if he'd made the right decision in trusting Kaiden. After all, Kaiden could be planning to stab Finley in the back too.

In the outside world, Finley thought Kaiden was ok, but in a game where only one of them could win and escape with the glory of becoming a Champion, he was scared that Kaiden could kill him at any moment.

He considered going back on their alliance, but Kaiden would simply kill him faster if he did that.

The Ceremony took place in the lands outside of the six kingdoms. A new arena was built every Ceremony, and the old one was destroyed. Somewhere within the arena, their twins were held hostage. That was the end point of the game. It was usually in roughly the same place every Ceremony, but as no one from Kyrah had ever won, no one knew.

"Attention selected," the voice said from the speaker again. "The Ceremony will begin in ten minutes. Please wait to be handed your equipment."

The two boys watched as the men in black suits left and returned with their outfits they'd be wearing for the game. Finley had to force himself not to laugh as Kaiden looked disdainfully at the outfits they'd been issued.

It was a blue jumpsuit. Cyan blue, almost as bright as the sky. They'd be spotted from miles away. Kaiden clearly realised this too.

"I'm not wearing that," Kaiden spat. "Why do we have to wear cyan?"

"Cyan is the colour of Kyrah," one of the men explained. "If you refuse to put it on, we'll just knock you out and put it on you ourselves."

Kaiden reluctantly took the jumpsuit and turned around to change. Finley expected that this was so he wouldn't watch him change. After grabbing his own jumpsuit, Finley did the same thing. They were also given a pair of black boots which looked rather scuffed. Finley hoped that these boots hadn't been used before. If they had, who knew how many people could've died in these boots.

Once they were changed, the two men handed them backpacks which were identical in colour to their jumpsuits. Both backpacks were embroidered with their numbers. Kaiden grunted angrily.

"You must not look inside the bags until the game begins," one of the men instructed.

The other man stepped forward and removed something from his pocket. It was a bracelet made of metal. He approached Finley and tried to put it on his wrist.

"What's that for?" Kaiden asked.

"These are used to track your location when you're in the game. With this, we'll always know where you are." The man explained, as he put the bracelet on Finley's wrist.

He placed an identical bracelet on Kaiden's wrist too. Kaiden didn't fight with him this time.

"Attention selected," the voice echoed. "The Ceremony will begin in two minutes. Please make your way to the loading platforms."

On either side of the room were two doors. One labelled with Kaiden's number, the other with Finley's.

Kaiden stepped towards him and held out a hand. "I'll see you in the Play Zone," Kaiden said, using the nickname for the arena. It was a shame that it was such a cute nickname for such an awful place. For all Finley knew, it may be the last place he ever saw before he died. Maybe Kaiden would die out there too.

Finley took Kaiden's hand and shook it.

"See you on the outside," he replied, and made his way to his loading room.

—-----

Kaiden stood on his platform. He couldn't stop his hands from shaking. His life could be over in less than an hour. Of course, Kaiden hoped that it wouldn't be, but one of the scariest things about the Ceremony, excluding the possible death part, was that you didn't see your opponents until the game had already started. This meant that, for all Kaiden knew, he could be the youngest contestant.

For seventeen years, the Ceremony had seemed like a dream. It was something that happened to other twins. Not Kaiden and Raven. They'd always believed that they would never be selected. Now, they knew that was a lie.

Kaiden tried not to feel scared. He didn't want Castel to think that he was scared. He reminded himself of what his father had told him in the farewell room. The only thing he'd said.

"Either you emerge victorious, or you die in the most honourable way you can."

Kaiden knew that if he died by starvation or sickness, or worse if he died first, his dad would be extremely angry. He would probably hate him and not even mourn his death. Raven was his dad's favourite anyway. The one who would've gone on to be successful. The one who would've amounted to something. Kaiden was nothing. Even if Kaiden was the older of them, Raven was the one his dad would choose in any situation. He was the brightest star, and Kaiden was the accessory. No matter how much he'd tried to make a name for himself, he'd only succeeded in being on every sports team and being in detention every day. He was worthless.

Kaiden took a deep breath and closed his eyes. He repeated his dad's words over and over, as the platform rose up into the arena.

—-----

When Kaiden opened his eyes, he blinked in the bright light. As he looked around, he saw nothing but trees as far as the eye could see. Far off in the distance, there were some snow covered mountains. The sky was bright and cloudless, and Kaiden had to squint to try and see if he could see where Finley was.

"Welcome selected, to the arena," the voice said from somewhere nearby. "Once the countdown has ended, you are free to step off of your platforms and begin the journey to the hostages. We wish you the best of luck."

Kaiden knew that he'd need more than luck to succeed if he had Castel on his side. Maybe asking for an alliance wasn't such a good idea.

"Five," the voice began. Kaiden readied himself to run as it continued. "Four...three...two....one, let the 80th Ceremony begin!"

Kaiden ran forward into the trees. Branches scratched at him from all sides. The thin material that his jumpsuit was made of did little to stop him getting hurt by the trees and bushes.

Suddenly, he felt a huge force on his left side, which knocked him onto the floor. He tried to open his backpack so he could grab his weapon and fight off the attacker, when the culprit spoke.

"Oh, it's you Kaiden," Finley Castel said. "I was scared that I was about to be the first to fall."

"You will be if you do that again Castel," Kaiden snapped.

"Sorry, I thought I heard someone following me."

"You probably imagined it, idiot." Kaiden replied. "Anyway, we need to cover up this stupid colour or we'll be spotted in two seconds."

"Maybe we should check our bags first," Finley suggested. "So we can see what we have to work with and get our weapons out."

"Alright," Kaiden said, angry that he hadn't suggested it first.

Kaiden opened his first. Inside was a litre bottle of water, two small packs of crackers, some dried fruit, a four metre length of rope, a box of matches, a map, and...a stick, sharpened to a point at one end."

"Is that supposed to be your weapon?" Finley questioned.

"Well there's fuck all else in that bag," Kaiden snapped. "See if you've got anything better."

Finley opened his bag. Everything was the same except for his weapon. A butter knife, not sharp at all.

"Fuck," Kaiden said angrily, "we're screwed."

—-----

The two boys made their way to a muddy pool so they could cover up their clothes and backpacks. The stench was almost unbearable, but Kaiden simply grabbed some and started rubbing it on himself like he was having a bath.

Finley was shocked that he didn't seem to care about getting dirty at all. He simply covered himself and his bag in mud. Then, he tried to rub some on Finley.

"You are not putting that on me," Finley said.

"You'll be spotted from miles away if you don't."

"I don't care. I'm not putting that all over me."

"Fine, we'll do this the hard way," Kaiden replied. He stepped towards Finley and shoved him against a tree. Finley began having flashbacks to their school days. He tried to push Kaiden away, but he was much stronger than him. He rubbed the mud all over him, then his bag.

When he was satisfied with the results, he let go. He grabbed Finley's water bottle and washed the mud off his hand, using as little of the water as possible.

"I could've done it myself," Finley argued.

"Then we would've wasted twice as much water by washing your hand as well, idiot."

Finley realised that Kaiden was right. Apparently, he was a lot smarter than people gave him credit for.

Just then, Finley heard the snap of a twig.

"Kaiden," he hissed.

Kaiden turned, just as there was another snap. He reached out and took a tight hold on Finley's wrist, and pulled him towards a large tree. He began to climb, and signalled for Finley to follow.

"I don't know how to climb," Finley whispered.

"Oh for fucks sake, Castel, just try!" Kaiden snapped.

So, Finley tried. He was nowhere near as good as Kaiden, but he managed to climb up to where Kaiden had perched. Kaiden grabbed his wrist and pulled him up as he approached.

"Thanks," Finley said.

"Shut up!" Kaiden replied. "Look!"

They listened as the sound of footsteps got closer, and closer. The two boys watched from their tree as a girl who looked about thirteen or fourteen appeared in the clearing where the mud was. She was dressed in a purple jumpsuit.

"Which kingdom's colour is that?" Finley asked.

"Don't you know anything? It's Astra, the same as the winner of the last Ceremony."

They watched as the girl did the same thing that they had done before, rubbing mud on herself and her bag. After this, she sat down in front of the boys' tree. She took off her bag and placed it next to her.

Kaiden looked down. A grin crossed his face,

"What?" Finley asked.

"I've got an idea of how we can get ourselves a better weapon," Kaiden whispered. "Follow my lead, and grab the rope out of your bag."

Finley grabbed it and watched as Kaiden crept along the branch and carefully climbed down a little.

"What are you doing?" Finley hissed.

"Just tie your rope to the tree and follow me."

Kaiden continued until he was only a few metres above the girl's head. Then, he dropped to the floor.

The girl screamed and stood up, trying to run off, but Kaiden was faster. He pinned her against the tree. He was much bigger and stronger than the girl.

"Now!" Kaiden shouted.

Oh well. Finley thought. Here goes nothing. He slid down the rope and dropped to the floor too. He fell flat on his face. Apparently, jumping from trees wasn't his specialty.

"Grab her bag!" Kaiden ordered.

Finley opened her bag and discovered that she had a real knife.

"Give it here!" Kaiden snapped.

Finley thought about asking him to say please, but he didn't. Instead, he handed him the knife.

Kaiden held the knife against the girls' throat. "Are you alone?" Kaiden asked. Finley realised that Kaiden had just worked out that she could've had an ally. He was a little ashamed that he hadn't thought of that.

"Yes!" The girl shouted. "Corey didn't want to team up!"

Corey must be the other selected for Astra.

"How do we go about finding our twin?" Kaiden asked.

"Really? God, Kyrahians are so stupid." The girl replied.

"Answer the question!"

"It's on the map. The cross shows where they are. It's on the top of those mountains."

"How do you know so much about the game when you clearly haven't even opened your bag?" Kaiden hissed.

"My mother won the Ceremony when she was younger," the girl explained.

"Fine. Now, you're going to join us."

"And why would I want to ally with the losers of the Ceremony? Everyone knows that Kyrah never wins. What would be the point?"

"I intend to change that. I am going to make sure that I win this Ceremony, and unless you want to be the first one to die, you're going to help me do it." Kaiden told her.

"Alright, but if we're going to be allies, I need to know your names."

"You don't need our names."

"Fine, your numbers then?"

"I'm 121101 and he's 100780," Kaiden said, pointing at Finley as he said his number.

"Wow, Kyrah's numbers are that high? Mine's 814."

"Can't you give us your real name?" Finley asked.

"You say yours, and I'll say mine," the girl snapped.

"You can have our last names, but we want your first name, or I might reconsider our agreement."

"Ok. Last names are fine."

"Lynch," Kaiden replied.

"Castel," Finley added.

"My name's Adrielle, but you can call me Adri."

Kaiden finally let go of her. "Nice doing business with you. Now, let's get this show on the road."

So that's Chapter 1. And we've met one of our other competitors. Adrielle. Inspired by a close friend's name. (You know who you are (; ) Anyways, what do we think of the characters? Do you think this alliance will last?