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There were fifteen minutes left and counting until the final even began.

Now, if Hayley wasn’t deliberately trying to pull my leg then that means a quicker end to this date with this walking, talking optical illusion over here.

At the same time, getting the event over with also meant potentially having to get chummy and close with her like I normally would to Adalia.

Convince myself that her ghastly scowls make my heart skip a beat, take her grander-than-thou attitude as a lovable, cutesy quirk of hers. Basically, fall completely in love with Amelia.

And here I thought nightmares were usually before Christmas, not during it.

“What a stroke of good fortune,” Amelia said, relief flooding through her every word, and sharing my sentiments one-to-one. “Shall we make haste, then? I’m sure you are just as eager as I am to finally part away from each other. I, personally, certainly have had much better company than this before.”

That always condescending tone. Yeah, I’m supposed to find that adorable? What am I, a masochist? a pig groveling in the dirt and going oink oink?

Nope, not for this girl…

.....

Answering was just inviting more chances to engage with her, something I much rather have less of. So I just kept quiet, took a final glance at my crumpled flier, and promptly began to lead the path to our destination forward.

Not having to bother the slightest with taking detours made for a pretty brief journey, a pretty empty one too. No taking our time, no arm clinging over mine, ‘Adalia’ here seemed content keeping her hands to herself, which would be fine if we’re trying to put an act of being estranged rather entwined.

Put us in with a couple of lovers, and we’ll stand out like a couple of, well… haters, I suppose.

Before long we finally arrived at our destination, which strangely enough, brought us standing in front of the entrance to the park, now brimming with all sorts of vehicles parked in every curb, and still funneling in stragglers late to the festivities.

“Here, is it? The final venue?” Amelia inquired, striding ahead of me to assess with scrutiny. “Surely, you must be mistaken, no?”

I couldn’t really blame her for being doubtful. ‘Obstacle Course’ was the titular name of the game, and yet as far as I could see, nothing really stood out as an obstacle of any kind.

Where were the hurdles to vault over? Those steep climbing wall-things we were supposed to scale? Not even a set of platforms to hop, skip, and jump our way across lest plummet all the way down into a pit of foamy cubes.

Maybe I’ve watched too many television shows…

“Registry’s over there,” I said, spotting a familiar table stand with a familiar lady-elf standing close by. “Has to be. Let’s go.”

Upon approaching, the elf lady in her deep green and lustrous white greeted us with a beaming smile along with a blatant eagerness that seemed almost too invested.

“Ah, I was honestly wondering when you two were going to show up again!” She said, spreading her arms wide almost as if in a big embracing hug. “Three out of three games you’re here for! And even the first to arrive this time! You know these are all optional, right?”

“Not to us,” I said, struggling to form a smile that Amelia just couldn’t be bothered with.

“Happy to hear it,” She replied, then like everyone, the elf did a quick double take toward my partner, her brow furrowing slightly, but ultimately disregarding it and beamed again. “Can’t let you into the game until I get the all-clear, sadly. So how about I just take this time to inform you as to what it’s all about?”

And so in the elf’s usual boisterous fashion, she began elaborating away, filling us in all the details that finally made all things plain and clear.

“Simply put, there are five different artifacts hidden and scattered all across the park, and your job is to simply find them, round them up, and bring them back here before time is up. You’ll have thirty minutes in total, and obviously, the faster you complete the course, the higher your score at the end.”

“So…” I said, summarizing. “...it’s a scavenger hunt?”

“Obstacle course,” She reaffirmed. “It’s not a simple trail from point A to point B. Along the way, there will be speedbumps to your journey, puzzles for you to solve, objectives for you to overcome… obstacles, one could say… on your path forward to true love.”

A harsh crackle of static then suddenly blared from the radio fastened around her hip, and the elf lady seemingly took that as a cue to get the ball rolling. From beneath the table’s drape, she pulled out a single roll of parchment latched around the middle with a little heart-shaped clasp.

“Is that our first clue?” I asked.

“First obstacle, more like,” The elf replied, “You’re our first participants, so you get the privilege of setting the bar for the rest,” then speaking with best wishes, she relinquished the scroll over to our possession. “Do try and make it a pretty high one, alright?”

“Let us get started then,” Amelia muttered, striding away from the table unceremoniously. “The sooner, the better.”

It was another one of those rare times where I was inclined to agree, and not just solely to put an end to this nightmare as soon as possible. If Leon was going to play, and no doubt he was, then every second truly counted if I wanted to set that bar high enough for him to not just simply jump and skyrocket past it.

I followed after her, unfurled the scroll we were given, and quickly laid it out before both our eyes. It was a sketch, an illustration in pen, there were symbols, a bunch of shapes, a lot of lines and shades, but more obviously…

“It’s a map,” I said.

“It’s a forest,” Amelia added, glancing at the drawing for only a second, before marching onward once more. “I recognize it. Follow.”

“Wait, hold up, there’s more though,” I hastened after her, my eyes falling to the bottom edge of the parchment where some writings were boldly inscribed. “Love does not blossom in isolation… I’m guessing that’s a hint as to what we’re supposed to be looking for.”

“Think later,” She said flatly, her speedy pace ever so begrudging. “Once we arrive at the place, only then may you feel free to allow your thoughts to assail my peace of mind.”

Y’know, in introspect, I can see how this event could prove to be quite a fun bonding experience. Figuring stuff out together, working with each other. I can see Adalia really liking this sort of stuff, so It’s only all the more tragic that it’s instead totally gone to waste on someone who was treating everything like ticking off a check on a to-do list.

A short while later, we arrived at our first landmark, and to my mild surprise, it was the very same snow-coated backwoods where Sera used to coop up before I had her come over.

Another glimpse at the map showed bushes and clumps of oak trees that resembled the ones that I was seeing, and perusing even more, I recognized even more likelike lookalike, but yet not a single indication of what exactly we were supposed to be looking for… leaving again just those words at the bottom to further contemplate on.

“Love does not bloom in isolation,” I repeated, as Amelia stalked off, scouring around in what seemed to be an attempt to brute-force her way to victory. “So we’re not looking for one thing exactly, we’re looking for two, possibly multiple.”

“Or perhaps just two, after all,” She called out from a distance, poking her grumpy face from around a tree and beckoning me forward. “You humans and your exhaustive sentimentals… have a look.”

And so I did, ducking and leaping over branches to reach her side, emerging into a small clearing, where, sitting meters away, two large willow trees potruded into the sky, extending, leaning, their barks and branches meshing into each other and vaguely shaping into a large heart carved out of wood.

“Fits,” I nodded, glancing once more at the riddle. “It should at least.”

“It better,” She growled impatiently, and headed off beneath its intertwining branches before reaching up and swiping an object dangling at one of its lower limbs.

A second later she was back, donning an even more agitated expression, and a small ornate chest held up by stiff, rigid claws. Naturally, the little chest took most, if not all my attention, and seeing as Amelia hasn’t already tried to pry it open just yet meant only one thing…

“Locked?”

“Most unfortunately,” She hissed quietly, flinging the box forward and hitting me square in the chest. “There, for your consideration.”

Now with the chest in my hands, I realized we were dealing with passwords now, the latch to the box firmly clamped shut by a lock hooked between its hoops, and instead of a key to slot in, three rows of numbers were present instead, as well as a new string of words etched prominently into the carving presumably hiding the correct combination.

“Let’s see…” I squinted closer. “Six in a day, nine in a month, beneath words behind words whispered from me to tender you, how many times may I—?”

“Oh, by the Divines, just—give it!”

And before I could even protest, I felt my grip give, the chest slip, and all of a sudden, Amelia had it back, the muscles in one of her arms visibly tensing as she took hold and with a loud, resounding snap, ripped the lock completely out of the latch.

The chest flew open, revealing a small jagged slab that appeared to be the artifact we were supposed to be finding, and as well as a small slip of paper springing upward.

Our next obstacle.

Or would-be obstacles amyway... if Amelia just doesn’t decide to just rip and tear her way to victory, at least.

“There,” her anger subsiding, she thrust the now unlocked chest back into my hand. “Now, what’s next?”

Like I said…

To-do list…