The Crown's Entrapment

[First day inside the Element forest…]

Xenia slowly opened her eyes. Raising her hand, she gently touched her temples. She felt dizzy and nauseous, and she wondered if it was because of her earlier fall. But only, her body still felt normal. Nothing was even aching in her body at all.

Blinking several times, Xenia only saw darkness around her. She could only assume that she was already underground. She could feel a distinct heat surrounding her body, so she was sure that she was already in the territory of the Basilisk. Quietly she carefully moved in the dark, only to halt when balls of fire started dancing before her eyes.

As if guiding her, fires gave her some much-needed light as she quickly noticed that she was currently confined by walls all around her. She turned her head back to find another way, but it was a dead end. It would seem that the only way forward was to take the only path available to her, crossing the wall that was currently shooting out fireballs from both sides.

Xenia stared carefully at the fireballs zipping back and forth in front of her. “I have to pass this,” she murmured, knowing she had to surpass the traps moving forward. It was the only way for her to come out from the Basilisk’s territory, which meant there was no other option for her to take.

Eyeing the obstacle, she knew that one wrong move from her and those fireballs would definitely burn her. They were small in size so thankfully, they would only wound her at most. Still, she was sure that the fires would consume her if she wouldn’t able to dodge every hit.

Xenia loudly took a deep breath as she recalled some things. She clearly remembered Osman saying that it had been way too easy for him to pass the Basilisk since there were no traps ahead of him inside the creature’s territory.

Instead, the Basilisk simply played hide and seek with him, giving him his freedom once he successfully hid from the creature. The admiral even assured her that it would be the easiest of them all to pass through, second only to the Fairy’s territory.

‘Is this Basilisk being biased right now?’ Xenia mused with a frown.

Or maybe these guardians simply had a different approach for every intruder that went inside their forest? She was a human going through the trials, so they probably wanted to give her a few harder tasks than usual.

Xenia shook her head as she quickly focused her eyes on the balls of flame that seemingly danced in a synchronized movement.

“One… two… three… One.. two… three…”

She counted the beat from where the fire from both sides would appear, then followed by counting the steps and the space she could use whenever the firing would stop. It wasn’t easy since she wasn’t sure how long the trail of the trap was, and she wasn’t able to see far enough to make up the distance.

Carefully moving forward, Xenia frowned upon seeing ground beetles scattered everywhere along with the same glowing symbol on the disc she saw on Darius’s device earlier. She had almost forgotten that she was being watched right now by the whole Kingdom of Cordon.

Gathering enough courage, Xenia went through the straight path, her gaze forming into a focused glance as she counted the beat inside her head along with the steps she had to make to surpass it.

She needed to at least get more than half of the counts right before moving forward. As soon as she was confident enough, she finally started moving with precise steps. Her body bending as if she was dancing with the fireballs coming her way, she contorted to dodge and weave through the obstacles.

It wasn’t the perfect move, of course. Xenia was well-aware that the fire graze her skin in some parts of her body, but at least they weren’t a total hit. Moving, she could feel the heat on her skin, sweat trickling all over her body as she continued on forward.

******

The trials inside the Element Forest were indeed a sight to behold for every Cordonian who had some spare time to witness the event. Whenever the symbol in each of the sacred places in every pack’s territory lit up, a semblance of fog was big enough to play the scene before the symbol would appear.

Of course, not all Cordanians were available to witness such a scene. But through the mind link, the news of what was currently going on with the human princess’s trials spread throughout Cordon like a plague.

Among the ones that were keenly watching Xenia was Darius. He was honestly weary just watching her go. Well, he couldn’t see anything as he rode on his chariot going back to the castle, what with there still being no vision coming out from his disc. As such, he had no idea what happened to Xen after the ground took her in.

Thankfully, the symbol on the disc lit up again to show Xen facing what seemed to be a barrage of fireballs coming her way. He could only hold his breath as he halted in his steps from walking through the hallways of the castle.

Watching her move, Xen had precise movement in her steps. But until she passed those fireballs, Darius felt like he would lose the air inside his lungs just watching her.

[How come you’re feeling anxious?] Zeus scolded. [Can’t you feel how calm and collected our mate’s emotions are right now? That means she can handle this simple trap just fine.]

Darius didn’t comment on his wolf’s words, his eyes still on the visage of Xen making her way out of the fiery death trap. His eyes narrowed and his brows knitted for some time, his nerves simmering till he suddenly burst out, “That’s my wife!”

He was rejoicing as he saw Xen finally passing through the fireballs safe and sound. He didn’t mind the eyes of the nearby guards and servants landing on him at all. He was simply happy to even know that she had managed to get through this trial, even if he knew that this was only the beginning.

“Your Majesty,” Elder Handi called him out for his attention. “Get yourself together and start addressing some of our Kingdom’s issues,” the elder reminded him.

Hearing him, Darius straightened himself out and gave the Elder a nod. He tilted the disc as he telepathically instructed his men to keep him posted about his mate’s, especially whenever Xen was in danger.

“Let’s go,” Darius said to the Elder as he led his way inside the Great Hall to perform his duties as the Kingdom’s ruler. Indeed, he still had responsibilities to attend to despite how much he wanted to just idle around and confine himself inside a closed room just to monitor Xen.