The Daughters had engaged a in a truly bizarre contest this time. They weren't competing directly with the other team, only indirectly. One of the large arenas had been filled with snow and refrigerated, then the two teams had been told the goals: build a shelter, make fire, and get at least three meals' worth of food. The winner was the one who did it first.
Ari took the lead in this, directing the others in trying to build various very, very small structures, barely big enough to hold a single sister. Slabs of snow failed instantly, bricks worked for making walls but not ceilings. They tried cylinders, but the roof was still impossible. They sat in the cold, unutterably glad of their snow suits, and Ari had a sudden inspiration. They'd seen domed roofs, and she directed her sisters to cut and pack the snow into blocks, and started building them into a ring, then into a slightly in-leaning ring, then a smaller and a smaller, and about halfway up, the structure failed. Undaunted, she decided to modify her technique, and built a kind of domed spiral of snow, then cut a doorway just big enough to let one of them through. They slithered into the shelter, stood up carefully, and the dome collapsed. Undaunted, Ari directed them through a slightly different construction, and this time, it stayed up. After the sisters packed the cracks with more snow, they discovered the shelter was amazingly warm, and at the request of the camera crew they placed several small wireless cameras within their dome. On to the next task: fire. They slithered back out, and went to scout their opponents, who'd successfully built a shelter much like their own, and were now hunting a large animal they didn't recognize. It had large antlers, stood very tall, and looked pretty dangerous.
Aki quietly approached the other band. "Can we talk?" she asked the leader once the others noticed her; she kept her voice low. The other band's leader nodded. This was a classic "battle of the sexes" scenario, so the other were large men with yellow hair and large beards, dressed in leather and furs, with spears and knives. "We have a shelter, and since we don't how to start a fire in these conditions, we want to offer a deal: We'll kill and butcher the animal, and you'll make a fire. You can keep half the meat, and we'll light our fire from yours. We'll both get a win, and the audience gets a surprising twist. It's more entertaining than watching you make a fire and hunt the animal and leave us to starve and freeze."
They leader considered, then smiled wide. "I have an even better idea: you hunt the beast, bring it back to the new shelter we'll build, then we'll show you how to start a fire and we'll share the meat, and the joys of feast and singing."
Aki smiled back. "Thank you, that sounds wonderful!" and she returned to her sisters with the agreement.
The hunt was quick; they crept up on the creature, Ari flung a bolas to tangle its legs, Avi leapt upon it and snapped its neck, then they pulled out the stomach and bowels and carried back the rest, just as the men completed the large snow dome.
As the girls watched carefully, the men started to take the carcass apart, explaining for the sisters and the audience exactly what they were doing and why. At the end, they were all gathered inside the snow dome, with the animal's fat burning in a lamp made from its skull. The wick, made from the animal's long hairs, wasn't ideal, nor was the composition of the animal's fats, but it served well enough. A fine feast, songs and tales, and the participants nearly hit the roof when the narrator's voice for the first time was played within the arena.
"Ladies and gentlemen, beings of all worlds, our judges have debated, and reached a verdict. Since cooperation was not forbidden, the alliance stands, and the winner of the event is the Northern Stars!"
As the audience cheered, the girls looked to the men, whose leader said that they worked under the name Northern Lights. They nodded to that, and smiled, and joined them in a final song and final cup of snowmelt warmed near the skull lamp.