The First Bimonthly Fair

The following day we left the village and hiked even deeper into the mountains. We climbed the highest peak among them, but besides the spectacular views we found nothing at the top. We defeated a few monsters along our journey, and Ori reached level 4, but it didn’t feel like we had crossed any new milestones. And though I’d agreed to follow Ori's less rigid approach, I felt a growing sense of worry that we weren't doing enough to win the panacea.

That evening we camped in the hollow of a huge sycamore. Such trees were becoming increasingly common, and we hoped that the change from predominantly evergreen to deciduous forest signaled that we were almost out of the mountains.

“I can't believe how huge this place is,” said Ori, as we sat facing each other in the room-like hollow. Without the cobwebs and random insects which that place might ordinarily attract it was surprisingly cozy.

“You mean this?” I said, gesturing with my head at the hollow space. “Or are you talking about the mountain range?”

“Eutopia, there’s a whole world of it.”

“Nah, I don’t think it’s that big. Probably no bigger than a state,” I said.

“You think it’s that small?” she asked.

“That’s not small.”

“You think it’s smaller than a country?”

“Not smaller than any country–there are tiny countries. I think it’s smaller than the US, yeah.”

“That’s crazy,” said Ori.

“No it isn’t. All right, listen. If you win and get out of here I want you to walk from your house to the Oregon state line.”

“You want me to hike the Pacific Crest trail?”

“Yeah, I want you to hike it and see how big a state is.”

“I don’t think the PCT goes through Santa Barbara.”

“Then I want you to drive to the nearest trailhead and hike from there.”

Ori considered this for a moment. “Okay,” she said.

“You realize it takes weeks if not months?” I said. “You have to plan it and pack all the stuff you need.”

“I know what the Pacific Crest Trail is, yes,” said Ori.

“Okay,” I said, leaning back. “Rod’s not gonna like it,” I said, teasingly.

Ori looked thoughtful. "The person who makes it out of here is probably going to be quite changed. Rod, or whoever it is that's out there waiting for them, is going to have to learn to accept that."

“Let me see your skill tree again,” I said, letting her observation settle for a few seconds before changing the subject.

“Mhmm,” she said, pulling up the menu.

“Here, level 12. I’ve been thinking about this,” I said. “I think there might be a clear best choice.”

“I can either learn ‘Ray of Light’ or ‘Photon Needles.’ Okay, so which one should I learn?”

“That’s for you to work out,” I said.

“Why don’t you just tell me?”

“Because, it will give you something to figure out–teach you how to start thinking the right away.”

“It’s the Ray of Light” said Ori.

“What makes you say that?” I asked.

“Because it lets me heal and attack at the same time. That seems good…”

“Okay, but that’s just what the move description says. How does your circumstance lend itself to Ray of Light more than Photon Needles?” I asked.

“I don’t know… Is it Photon Needles?”

“I’m not telling. You have to figure it out.”

Ori sighed and every few minutes for the rest of the evening I could tell when my question resurfaced in her mind. She would screw up her mouth and look off into space. Then she would shake her head and exhale loudly, and I would try not to let her see me laughing.

The next morning we set off downhill. It was sometime around ten o’clock when I suddenly felt like someone was casting a spell on me. I turned to look at Ori, but the same moment the forest fell away. The next instant the world came back into view, but we were not in the forest, and we were no longer alone.

“Where are we?” asked a strange voice.

“What’s happening?”

The questions from frightened voices gave me a flashback to our first moments in Eutopia. I looked around. We were in a large field, and as far as I could tell everyone from that first day was there. It took me a few seconds to realize the presence of colorful flags and banners like you might see at a fair.

At one end of the field, not far away there stood a raised platform. There stood Pasqual, evidently waiting for our initial surprise to wear off before speaking.

“Greetings, ladies and gentlemen! Welcome to the first bimonthly fair!”

“On your guard! Let no one forget the last time he gathered us together!” I couldn’t see the speaker through the crowd, but I knew from the tone and voice that it was Leo.

“Relax, I promise there will be no troll today.”

“He’s got a dragon!” I heard a girl shriek.

“No dragons. In fact, there will be no danger of any kind. Today you will be competing against each other to earn points in a series of festival games.”

Leo’s concerns, however, had evidently not been pacified.  “Anytime someone gathers a bunch of people by force to compete in so-called ‘games’ it never ends well for the contestants.”

“These aren’t those kinds of games! Really, I promise,” said Pasqual raising his hands in protest with a laugh. He cleared his throat. “If you will just listen for a moment, I think you are going to like what I have to say. You will see that we have just sent you a message stating how many points you currently possess. Go ahead and look at those now.”

It took me a little while to scroll down to notifications and select the recent message.

“You have obtained 106 points, congratulations!”

I looked up to see Ori giggling. It was easy to read her message, even with her facing me and the text mirrored. Apparently she had 230 points.

“What are you laughing at?” I barked. “You think it’s funny that I have less points than you?”

“No,” said Ori, still giggling. “It’s you navigating the menu. You were like–” Ori made a pretend serious face and jiggled her breasts in imitation. Realizing what she was doing, she stopped and went red in the face.

“Yeah, well that’s all I can do…” I mumbled as we avoided each other’s eyes.

Pasqual continued “We know that many of you have probably had concerns about not being able to see your point totals or be informed when you receive points. Some of you have even tried to report this as a bug. I assure you that we have given the subject considerable thought, and at the present time we prefer to keep some elements of point attainment a mystery. We want you each to follow those courses of action which you feel drawn to, not base your actions solely on what you know will earn you points. This also allows us to reward certain behaviors repeatedly without altering your motivations.

“To illustrate this, I want you to imagine if giving someone a cookie earned you a point. The first time you gave them a cookie was done out of charity, with no expectation of getting any reward or compensation. That charity was subsequently rewarded. But if we then told you that you got a point for giving that person a cookie, you might give them more cookies, no longer out of charity, but for personal gain. If that didn’t work, you might try to game the system by giving a cookie to someone else. We are afraid this will lead to inauthentic interactions, which is something we greatly want to avoid. Furthermore, we believe our point system is robust and offers rewards for many different kinds of excellence. This is attested to by the fact that all of you have already earned points, ranging from over a hundred to a whopping 1140! As we continue to have occasional point check-ins, we encourage you to draw inferences from what you have done, and try to earn more points in the future.

“With that said, today I will keep it as straight forward as possible. The team with the most victories in the games will receive a reward of two hundred points. Additionally, you will receive ten points for every event that you personally win as well as ten points for any game that your team wins. And five points will be given to the runners-up. You have each been given a headband in your team color. Go ahead and put those on, then find your team members.”

“Looks like I’m on blue,” said Ori, equipping a blue headband.

“Green,” I said.

“Oh,” said Ori. “Well, good luck then,” she said. If I had a free hand we might have shaken. As it was, we stared at each other awkwardly. “Ah! I see someone else from blue team. I’ll see you later.”

“Bye,” I said.

Through the crowd I saw someone with a green headband and made my way over. It was Lilian, standing with someone I didn’t recognize. Her eyes narrowed as she saw me. “Oh great,” she said. “Kegs is here. I’m surprised you haven't blown yourself up yet.”

“Not yet,” I said, laughing nervously.

“Don’t tell me I’m on the reject team. That would be just my luck.” I turned to see the speaker and found myself face to face with Hashi. I started back on seeing him, and he smiled smugly.

“How do we know you’re on green team?” asked Lilian suspiciously.

“Relax, it’s right here,” he said, holding up the green headband.

“As for your team being the reject team, that’s probably because you’re on it,” said Lilian coolly.

“Calm it down, it’s too early in the morning for repartee. I was mostly talking about him.” He gestured at me. “I mean what’s he gonna do?”

“He’s our mascot,” answered Lilian.

“Why’d I have to be put on the green team?” I wondered.

“What’s up green team peeps?” said a guy with short dark hair beneath his green headband. I recognized him after a moment as another person who had been at my table–someone I hadn’t much cared for. Behind him was a girl I didn’t recognize wearing our headband.

“Man, nobody I know,” said the newcomer. “Recognize him at least, not that I’m happy to see him on my team,” he said, nodding to me. “You all from the same party or something?”

“I don’t think so. It seems they’ve deliberately split us up. Likely to give us a chance to distinguish ourselves from our party members,” said Lilian.

“Oh, that makes sense,” said the newcomer.

“Why don’t we take a moment and introduce ourselves?” said the last guy who, until now, hadn’t spoken. “My name is Tank. I’m a paladin.”

“I’m Joe. My role or whatever is the atlantean,” said the short haired guy.

“Lilian, ice elementalist.”

“Bastian, goblin petard,” I said.

“We know,” said the group in unison.

Eyes turned to Hashi. “My name is Hashi or Ghost if you prefer, which is also my class.”

“I’m Nory,” said the quiet girl. “I’m an herbalist.”

“I guess it makes sense they would pair him up with some stronger people,” said Joe. “So which one of you was he talking about when he said someone had 1100 points?”

“Not me, I’ll tell you that much,” said Hashi. “Must be Miss Perfect over here.”

“No. I only have 912 points.”

“You’re so honest–it’s adorable,” said Joe, laughing.

“I’m aware that people think of me as a threat. I’m also aware that could make me a mark during the games, but they can think what they want, and they can try what they want–I’m not afraid of having a target on my back.”

“Oh, ice cold,” said Joe, smiling.

Lilian scoffed.

“Alright everyone, there will be seven events. Please come line up by the cone with your designated color. You may use your abilities as long as you are actively participating in the event and they do not hinder another team. I don’t want to see anyone get hurt. If I see anything against the rules your team will forfeit that game. Do it again and you will lose the contest immediately along with any points your team would have earned. For the first event, you will be participating in a four-person relay race, so decide which four people from your group would be the best qualified for this event.”

“Alright, everybody listen up,” said Lilian. “Winning a game is ten points–twenty if you personally participated. That means the most any player could win is three-hundred forty points if they won every event. Since the team winning is worth two-hundred points it doesn’t really make sense to bicker over being in one of the games. It’s better to let someone else participate if they are more likely to get us a favorable result.”

“I love a woman who can take charge,” said Joe.

Lilian pretended not to have heard him. “Nory, are you fast?” she asked.

“Not particularly,” Nory said nervously.

“Then you and Bastian can sit this one out.”

“Wait, why me?” I asked.

“You have a problem with that, No-Hands?” asked Hashi.

“No, you’re right,” I said. “I would only slow you down.”

“I’ll go first, then it will be: Joe, Tank, and then Hashi–got it?”

The others nodded.

The race started like any other relay race I’d ever been a part of. No one, at first glance appeared to be using any abilities. After Lilian we were about in the middle of the pack. Joe caught us up to third place, but Tank proved a surprisingly slow runner.

“It’s over,” I mumbled, as he finally reached the other side of the track, now clearly among the back half of teams. I looked at Lilian, but she wasn’t listening to me.

“Ah, they have a wind elemental,” she muttered.

I looked back at the race and realized that the red team in first had a small but comfortable lead.

“We’re going to have to do a better job of considering our abilities. Hey Nory, could you have made the grass in our lane shorter?”

“I think so, why? Should I have said something?”

“No, it’s not your fault. I should have thought of it sooner and had you run in my place. Small advantages like that can be the difference between winning and losing.”

We had a couple minutes after the race to catch our breath and strategize for the next event, the shot put.

“We need three people for this event, although honestly I doubt it will make much of a difference. Leo’s team is going to win,” said Lilian.

“Leo? Oh, you mean the knife thrower guy,” said Joe.

As we lined up, I saw that Leo was on the blue team with Ori. For whatever reason, seeing them together reminded me of what she'd said about him. I think he’s a great choice. You could tell he really did everything he could to help everyone back there.

We ended up sending Hashi, Joe, and Tank who did surprisingly well. The red team who had the benefit of strong winds just barely nudged us out for second, but the clear winner was blue team, thanks to Leo’s throw going almost twice as far as the rest.

Pasqual gave us a short break afterward to mill around and eat some snacks. It was weird and enormously welcome after several days of foraging all our food to suddenly see peanut butter crackers and chocolate chip cookies. I was debating how to load up my plate, when I saw Ori waving to me. 

“Cookie?” she said, offering me a cookie.

“Sure,” I said.

“No, like, I’m giving you a cookie.”

“Okay…” I said, still waiting for her to put the cookie on my plate.

“Ta-ding!”

“What’s ta-ding?”

“I got a point.”

“Oh! I get it–from giving me a cookie. Sorry,” I said.

“I guess it wasn’t very funny,” said Ori, now actually putting a cookie on my plate.

“No it was good, I just wasn’t expecting a joke.”

“So how is everything going?”

“Good. Well, actually bad since we have no points, but yeah. I haven’t been in any of the events–probably why we’re losing to be honest.”

Ori laughed. “It’s okay. I haven’t been in any either.”

“Yeah but that’s probably… never mind.”

“You were going to say because I’m a girl!”

“Guilty,” I said, scrunching my face and bracing for an impact which didn’t come.

“Honestly you’re probably right. I hope some of the other events are a bit less, rah!” She imitated throwing a shot put.

“I bet they will be. Though there probably won’t be anything I can do.”

“Alright everyone, it’s time for the third event so let’s stop fraternizing with the enemy and get back to your groups! The next event will be archery and you will need two contestants.”

Ori and I wished each other luck and returned to our respective teams. Unsurprisingly, Lilian was already in full strategizing mode.

“Well, at least this is one event the red team shouldn’t have an unfair advantage in, and the rangers are on yellow and purple, I believe.”

“That’s so unfair,” said Joe. “Top two is already decided before the contest has even started.”

“We don’t know that since we haven’t heard the rules, we just have to put our best foot forward. Has anyone here ever shot a bow before?”

“I have,” I said.

She gave me an annoyed look.

“You asked,” I said.

“I’ve shot a gun before,” said Joe.

“I guess that will have to do. I’ll be the second.”

“Hold on, why are you the second?” asked Hashi. “If we have no chance at actually winning we should let someone who hasn’t gotten to participate have a turn, no?”

“Fine, Nory will be the second, happy?” said Lilian.

“Yes, princess,” said Hashi.

“Alright, as soon as the two participants from each team step forward I will describe the rules.” Pasqual cleared his throat. “Each team will take turns shooting at the target. After each round the target will be moved back. If either of you should miss the target, your team is eliminated. Red team, go ahead and start us off.”

“See! We did have a chance!” muttered Lilian.

“Relax,” said Hashi, "what makes you so sure you’d do better than Nory? Let’s try believing in our teammates, huh?”

“Uh huh,” said Lilian.

Red team made both of their shots, as did orange team. Next up was green.

“Ladies first,” said Joe. Nory drew back the string and the arrow swung out away from the bow, but it didn’t fire. Slowly it came back into place. She released the arrow and it struck the target.

The team let out a sigh of relief.

“See?” said Hashi.

Purple team made both their shots too. Next up was yellow. Their ranger stepped up and made his shot effortlessly, but the second player’s arrow missed the target by an inch.

“Wait a minute, we’re out? But I made my shot!” shouted the angry ranger.

“That’s the rule,” said Pasqual.

Then came the blue team’s turn. First up was Leo, who made his shot. And the second archer…was Ori! I hadn’t noticed since I had been watching each team shoot. She stepped up, drew back the bow, and loosed an arrow which struck just off the center mark. Shall we add archery to that impressive list of hobbies? I thought.

One other team ended up being eliminated in the first round but all the others advanced, and it was red team’s turn again, but this time one of them missed. Orange made theirs which meant it was our team’s turn again. Nory stepped up and shot an arrow.

“It’s out!” I heard someone in the audience yell.

“One moment,” said Pasqual, going to check the arrow. “It’s just barely cut paper. It’s a hit!” he announced.

Hashi shook Lilian’s shoulders.

Joe clicked his tongue. “We can’t be doing that Nory, not this early in the competition. He drew the string back casually and shot. The arrow clipped the top of the target and disappeared in a puff of straw.”

“Oh, the irony,” said Hashi.

“Shut your mouth!” said Joe.

The purple and blue teams rounded out those which advanced to the third round.

“Alright, it’s even farther now. Let’s see who the real archers are!” said Pasqual.

Orange started this time around but missed on the first shot. The ranger for purple made his shot, still nowhere near being tested. His teammate followed, but she missed her shot.

“Blue team can win it here,” said Tank.

“We ought to be rooting for purple since they haven’t won yet,” said Lilian.

Leo stepped up to shoot and made his shot, meaning it all came down to Ori. She stepped up and shot, but it missed the target.

“What now?” asked the ranger from the purple team.

“You’ll have to reshoot,” said Pasqual.

“Hey, what about me? I should get a chance!” It was the second archer from orange team.

“Alright,” said Pasqual, go ahead. If you make it your team will also get to do a reshoot.

“How’s that fair? I didn’t get a reshoot,” said Joe.

“Totally different circumstances,” said Lilian.

“Sorry Joe, totally different circumstances,” said Hashi.

“I’m beginning to dislike you,” said Joe.

Hashi laughed.

The second archer for orange stepped forward and made his shot.

“Since all three teams went one for two we will do a reshoot, but only of the archer who missed.”

“Hey, how is that fair?” demanded the ranger.

“Considering your ability to hit the target up to 30 yards is basically guaranteed by virtue of your class and no doing of your own, I wouldn’t talk to me about fairness, ranger,” said Pasqual with a threatening glance.

First up was the girl from team orange, who made her shot. The girl from team purple stepped up, and again her shot missed the mark.

“Go Ori! You can do it!” shouted one of her teammates.

Ori took a deep breath and stepped up to the mark. I could feel myself clenching my hands, even though they were frozen in place. I could see her arching her back and flexing her neck, trying to relax muscles taut with stress and exertion. Slowly she raised the bow. A moment later her arrow found its mark near the center of the bull’s eye.

“Yes!” I exclaimed, forgetting for a moment–not that she was on a different team–but that I was surrounded by members of my own team. A fact of which Lilian’s icy side-eye soon reminded me.

The distance was increased once again, and now only orange and blue remained. The first orange member stepped forward. He made his shot.
A cheer went up from the orange team. The second stepped forward, but their arrow fell far short of the target.

One of Leo and Ori now had to make the long distance shot to stay in, and both making it would clench the archery competition. Leo was first up, but his arrow sailed clean over the target.

Ori stepped up. She repeated her calming ritual, as I felt my heart rate quickening once more. She loosed her arrow and the field fell silent. It was a repeat of Nory’s situation. An arrow too close to call from that distance. A hush fell over the crowd as we awaited Pasqual's determination.

“The blue team’s arrow has missed the target by an inch. Orange team wins!”

“That’s good,” said Lilian.

“How can you be rooting for the orange team? Aren’t you and Leo in the same party?” I demanded, almost angry on behalf of our disappointed friends.

Lilian looked at me, her beautiful face contorted by contempt. “As I told you before–this is our opportunity to get ahead of our party members. If you had a shred of desire to win the Panacea for yourself instead of only thinking of that girl you’re puppydogging after, you wouldn’t be asking such a stupid question!”