training wheels | [georgie/umber] day 1

He made his way back down to the base of the trees at long last, exhausted and covered in scrapes and now with a shiny new sword in tow, courtesy of the biggest hater he'd ever met in his entire life. He would never forget the sound the blade made as it cut through the air towards him and lodged itself into the bark of a tree with a resolute slice. He would never forget how his instincts told him to lie down in the moment before, and how glad he was that he listened to himself. A second longer and the sword would've done exactly what Eulalie intended it to do: remove Umber's head clean from his shoulders.

Now, he held the sword up to get a good look at it in the light. The hilt was shiny and reflective gold, warm to the touch, a softer metal than he would've anticipated. But the blade itself was matte black, lighter than metal and wickedly sharp. The blade ran about as long as his arm as he held it up to observe. In the other hand, his walking stick/wizard staff helped him to keep his balance on the uneven terrain. Now that the treetops were behind him, Umber found himself sludging through slick mud and quiet pools of knee-deep water. Frogs croaked and bathed, he saw several clutches of eggs waiting to hatch, and decided he too would've enjoyed being a frog in such a tranquil place. As overtaken by nature as the place seemed to be, though, it was still strangely cultivated in some way. There was always a path to walk, and each pool was connected only in ways that seemed to aesthetically pleasing to have occurred naturally. There were large structures- idols and statues- covered by soot and moss, half-buried in the pits of mud. One frog sun-bathed atop the head of a statue depicting a goddess with flowing robes. Another sat in the center of what looked to have once been some sort of temple or gazebo as if laying claim to it.

In the distance he saw a large tree, which by the description alone was nothing special in this arena, but this one was different. It was less towering and more overgrown, wide and squat with a huge canopy of branches yawning out in all directions rather than further up. At the base of its building-sized trunk was a carved face, haunting and deliberate, staring at him. He stopped where he stood to admire it. There were already several sets of footprints leading up to the large base, which should've been a warning for Umber to turn in the opposite direction, but instead he eventually found himself quietly trudging closer to it still. He had to find Georgie still, before it was too late. What if she had a run-in with another tribute like he'd had with the girl from One? What if she wasn't able to get away like he was?

What if Eulalie was still hunting him down in this very moment and would eventually find him and kill him if he didn't have any help in defending himself?

To his surprise, approaching the tree did not trigger any surprise attacks from other tributes. Umber let his hands reach up to feel the delicately carved features of its face looking back at him. Wisdom shone on it as clear as day; a real wizard would've known a way to communicate with it and hear its stories but he settled with taking a seat at the base of it, right next to its smiling mouth. It was only a few minutes alter when he could hear someone approaching.

He wouldn't be caught off-guard this time! He gripped the sword and held it out in front of him.

"Stop following me, you creep!" He declared, expecting to see the girl from One when he rounded the base of the tree. Instead, he found Georgie staring back at him.

"Georgie! Holy- I've been looking everywhere for you! The girl from One nearly chased me off a cliff!"

Talking about it out loud affirmed how scary it'd felt when it happened.

"She threw this at my head, so I stole it," he said, showing her the sword, "And then I ran away and wound up here. Speaking of... do you have any idea where we are?" He certainly didn't.

[investigate da tree]
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