Day Twenty-Two
Tension in the camp is understandably high this morning. Last night's vote was along the old tribal lines; obviously old alliances are strong on both sides, no matter how much the show would like us to now be one big happy family. And my tribe now has the advantage. We have the majority vote. We can pick the former Fetia Rai members off one by one, and they know it. It will be interesting to see what kind of deals they may try to make.
Sheryl offers to go get water with Kiki and I, and the attempts begin.
"So," she starts, "we're down to four guys and five girls. That gives us the advantage." An unsurprising angle, to try and pit the men against the women. "The men will probably do better at the physical challenges, so we women should all get together."
"Interesting." Kiki catches my eye. "Of course, you could also say the advantage is with our old tribe."
"Yes, but..." Sheryl glances around, then whispers, "I'd much rather see someone like Carla in the final five than someone like that Pete. I'm sorry if you two like him, but I find that guy incredibly distasteful."
We agree about our mutual Pete-loathing. I tell Sheryl that we'll consider it, and we definitely need to talk to Ellen and see how she feels. Sheryl agrees to talk to Carla. Kiki and I will definitely talk later about how to work this to our advantage. We re-emerge from the jungle to find the others waiting for us.
"We got mail this morning," grins Ellen. She reads the cheesy rhyme off a scroll of parchment. This is to be our first individual reward challenge, and a change from our regular schedule of no challenge the day after Tribal Council. From the rhyme, some kind of underwater activity will be involved.
We all begin the short trek to the challenge site. Malfoy falls in step with me briefly, but remains quiet. I glance up at him, and he gives me a genuine smile instead of the smirk I've grown to know so well. Then he speeds up and joins up with his former teammate, Toby. I just don't understand what goes on inside that devious mind.
We emerge onto the challenge beach to find Marcus waiting, looking tidy in his usual faux-adventurer outfit. After three weeks of scant food and no creature comforts, we're a fairly ragtag bunch in comparison. We gather around as he explains the day's game. "Here you see," he points to a pile of swim gear on a blue mat, "snorkels and masks for everyone. You're going to swim out to the platform, which is the starting line." He indicates the floating dock out in the lagoon that we've used before. "On my mark, you will dive down and find a brightly colored rock. There are nine of them, one for everybody. Your goal is to get that rock to the shore. First person to put their rock on this blue mat wins a reward. Do you want to know what you're playing for?" Of course, everybody nods. Marcus steps around behind us to a covered table, and returns with a pizza box. He opens it up, and inside is a large pepperoni pizza. I'm sure I'm not the only one whose mouth and stomach both made a noise upon seeing it.
"The winner will get this entire pizza. Whether they want to keep it all to themselves or share it with the rest of the tribe is solely up to them. It's fresh and warm, and smells very good." He walks down the line of players, just out of reach. We can all smell it, and it smells fantastic.
We swim leisurely out to the platform, mostly saving our strength for the challenge. I have my swim mask around my neck, several others have them up on their foreheads. We reach the platform and climb out to find Marcus behind us in a small boat. After lining up on the edge, we're given the signal to start and dive in.
The rocks are painted bright blue to stand out against the sandy bottom. I quickly shoot downward and claim one as mine. It's simple enough to spell the rock so that it's significantly lighter, but both Malfoy and I need to surface for air regularly to avoid any suspicion. There are underwater cameras watching us, so bubblehead charms are out. Likewise, there is no gillyweed to be found on the island. A lightening charm helps, but a good deal of this challenge will have to be done the old-fashioned Muggle way. I try to make my rock appear heavy, and move with it as far as possible, then throw it toward the shore before I head upward for a breath. After a few more rounds of dive, grab, run, throw and surface, I check the status of the competition. Most everyone is behind me, and Malfoy is about equal. I continue to move my rock forward, but even with its reduced weight, it's a tiring process to keep diving and throwing a rock underwater. I finally make it up to where I can stand on the ocean floor and keep my head above water. I clutch my rock against my stomach and slog through the waves. As I emerge from the water, I steel my muscles and mutter a spell to make the rock its original weight. Hopefully my staggering under its weight isn't noticeable, as it happened at the same time as a wave crashed into the backs of my legs and would have made me stagger anyway. Malfoy is right behind me, but I manage to get up to the blue mat and drop my rock first. It makes a satisfyingly heavy thud when it hits the ground.
The rest of the players are trudging out of the water, leaving their rocks behind. Even without magic, Pete had been fairly close behind me and Malfoy. Marcus ceremonially hands me the pizza box, and I open it up. I know there's no way I could eat it all myself; my stomach has shrunk significantly. A quick count of the box shows ten pieces of pizza. I take two out, then tell everyone that they can all have one piece. Hopefully it's a gesture of goodwill that will stick with the rest of them.
It's quite possibly the best pizza I've ever tasted.
After eating we gather up our snorkels and masks, which we're allowed to take back to camp, and return through the underbrush. We pass a lazy afternoon back at the camp, with just quick forays for more firewood. A couple of players take their new swim gear and try to catch fish by dragging the net around underwater. I perch on a rock and settle in to watch them. The patterns of the sunlight on the water must have lulled me into a daze, because I never heard someone come up and sit next to me.
"Hey," Malfoy whispers. "What'cha doing over here all by yourself?" I blink a few times then look over at him, but he's gazing far out to sea.
"Just thinking about things."
"Nice job on the challenge."
"Thanks." If he's going to be nice, I'm going to be even nicer.
"Our team is outnumbered now. You guys will doubtless vote us off first." There's a hint of sadness in his voice. I'm sure he's terribly upset that he won't be winning the million now.
"Unless you win all the immunity challenges, that is."
"Maybe I'll just have to do that." He grins, eyes still on the slowly rolling waves. "It's just a shame I wasn't put on your team to begin with." He reaches down and takes hold of my hand. "Do you ever think that you were put on the wrong team to begin with? That you were meant to be on the other side?"
"When something happens by chance, like team selection, it's probably for a reason."
He sighs, eyes still on the water, and plays around with twining my fingers in his. "You know, even when it appears that you've chosen your own team, maybe there's someone else making that decision for you. Or maybe when you select a team, you'd really love to be on the other team, but you know there are important reasons for you to join the team." His fingers tighten in mine, and he finally turns his head to look at me.
After a deep breath, he continues. "Don't always assume that someone chooses a team because they really want to be on that team. Even in other venues, like a war, for example." His silver eyes are almost mesmerising, and his hand is warm around mine. "There have been people all throughout history who choose to be a part of the side they don't support. But they know it's more effective for them to subvert and destroy from the inside than to fight from the outside. Everybody has their reasons for doing things, and they alone are the only person who understands those reasons." He holds my eyes and hand a bit longer, then releases both. He gets up and starts heading back to the camp.
I watch his back as he walks slowly away. He pauses and turns back briefly. "Remember, there will always be a winning team in everything. But not all the members of that team at the time of victory were there at the time of the team's inception." With that, he turns back and goes to join in on starting dinner.
I didn't get a chance to ask Malfoy about his cryptic remarks the rest of the night. But as I lay in the shelter, almost drifing off, a thought came back into my head that I had pushed aside for weeks. I was in intelligence during the war against Voldemort, and yet I'd never heard word one about Draco Malfoy. Where had he been, and what had he been doing?
Tension in the camp is understandably high this morning. Last night's vote was along the old tribal lines; obviously old alliances are strong on both sides, no matter how much the show would like us to now be one big happy family. And my tribe now has the advantage. We have the majority vote. We can pick the former Fetia Rai members off one by one, and they know it. It will be interesting to see what kind of deals they may try to make.
Sheryl offers to go get water with Kiki and I, and the attempts begin.
"So," she starts, "we're down to four guys and five girls. That gives us the advantage." An unsurprising angle, to try and pit the men against the women. "The men will probably do better at the physical challenges, so we women should all get together."
"Interesting." Kiki catches my eye. "Of course, you could also say the advantage is with our old tribe."
"Yes, but..." Sheryl glances around, then whispers, "I'd much rather see someone like Carla in the final five than someone like that Pete. I'm sorry if you two like him, but I find that guy incredibly distasteful."
We agree about our mutual Pete-loathing. I tell Sheryl that we'll consider it, and we definitely need to talk to Ellen and see how she feels. Sheryl agrees to talk to Carla. Kiki and I will definitely talk later about how to work this to our advantage. We re-emerge from the jungle to find the others waiting for us.
"We got mail this morning," grins Ellen. She reads the cheesy rhyme off a scroll of parchment. This is to be our first individual reward challenge, and a change from our regular schedule of no challenge the day after Tribal Council. From the rhyme, some kind of underwater activity will be involved.
We all begin the short trek to the challenge site. Malfoy falls in step with me briefly, but remains quiet. I glance up at him, and he gives me a genuine smile instead of the smirk I've grown to know so well. Then he speeds up and joins up with his former teammate, Toby. I just don't understand what goes on inside that devious mind.
We emerge onto the challenge beach to find Marcus waiting, looking tidy in his usual faux-adventurer outfit. After three weeks of scant food and no creature comforts, we're a fairly ragtag bunch in comparison. We gather around as he explains the day's game. "Here you see," he points to a pile of swim gear on a blue mat, "snorkels and masks for everyone. You're going to swim out to the platform, which is the starting line." He indicates the floating dock out in the lagoon that we've used before. "On my mark, you will dive down and find a brightly colored rock. There are nine of them, one for everybody. Your goal is to get that rock to the shore. First person to put their rock on this blue mat wins a reward. Do you want to know what you're playing for?" Of course, everybody nods. Marcus steps around behind us to a covered table, and returns with a pizza box. He opens it up, and inside is a large pepperoni pizza. I'm sure I'm not the only one whose mouth and stomach both made a noise upon seeing it.
"The winner will get this entire pizza. Whether they want to keep it all to themselves or share it with the rest of the tribe is solely up to them. It's fresh and warm, and smells very good." He walks down the line of players, just out of reach. We can all smell it, and it smells fantastic.
We swim leisurely out to the platform, mostly saving our strength for the challenge. I have my swim mask around my neck, several others have them up on their foreheads. We reach the platform and climb out to find Marcus behind us in a small boat. After lining up on the edge, we're given the signal to start and dive in.
The rocks are painted bright blue to stand out against the sandy bottom. I quickly shoot downward and claim one as mine. It's simple enough to spell the rock so that it's significantly lighter, but both Malfoy and I need to surface for air regularly to avoid any suspicion. There are underwater cameras watching us, so bubblehead charms are out. Likewise, there is no gillyweed to be found on the island. A lightening charm helps, but a good deal of this challenge will have to be done the old-fashioned Muggle way. I try to make my rock appear heavy, and move with it as far as possible, then throw it toward the shore before I head upward for a breath. After a few more rounds of dive, grab, run, throw and surface, I check the status of the competition. Most everyone is behind me, and Malfoy is about equal. I continue to move my rock forward, but even with its reduced weight, it's a tiring process to keep diving and throwing a rock underwater. I finally make it up to where I can stand on the ocean floor and keep my head above water. I clutch my rock against my stomach and slog through the waves. As I emerge from the water, I steel my muscles and mutter a spell to make the rock its original weight. Hopefully my staggering under its weight isn't noticeable, as it happened at the same time as a wave crashed into the backs of my legs and would have made me stagger anyway. Malfoy is right behind me, but I manage to get up to the blue mat and drop my rock first. It makes a satisfyingly heavy thud when it hits the ground.
The rest of the players are trudging out of the water, leaving their rocks behind. Even without magic, Pete had been fairly close behind me and Malfoy. Marcus ceremonially hands me the pizza box, and I open it up. I know there's no way I could eat it all myself; my stomach has shrunk significantly. A quick count of the box shows ten pieces of pizza. I take two out, then tell everyone that they can all have one piece. Hopefully it's a gesture of goodwill that will stick with the rest of them.
It's quite possibly the best pizza I've ever tasted.
After eating we gather up our snorkels and masks, which we're allowed to take back to camp, and return through the underbrush. We pass a lazy afternoon back at the camp, with just quick forays for more firewood. A couple of players take their new swim gear and try to catch fish by dragging the net around underwater. I perch on a rock and settle in to watch them. The patterns of the sunlight on the water must have lulled me into a daze, because I never heard someone come up and sit next to me.
"Hey," Malfoy whispers. "What'cha doing over here all by yourself?" I blink a few times then look over at him, but he's gazing far out to sea.
"Just thinking about things."
"Nice job on the challenge."
"Thanks." If he's going to be nice, I'm going to be even nicer.
"Our team is outnumbered now. You guys will doubtless vote us off first." There's a hint of sadness in his voice. I'm sure he's terribly upset that he won't be winning the million now.
"Unless you win all the immunity challenges, that is."
"Maybe I'll just have to do that." He grins, eyes still on the slowly rolling waves. "It's just a shame I wasn't put on your team to begin with." He reaches down and takes hold of my hand. "Do you ever think that you were put on the wrong team to begin with? That you were meant to be on the other side?"
"When something happens by chance, like team selection, it's probably for a reason."
He sighs, eyes still on the water, and plays around with twining my fingers in his. "You know, even when it appears that you've chosen your own team, maybe there's someone else making that decision for you. Or maybe when you select a team, you'd really love to be on the other team, but you know there are important reasons for you to join the team." His fingers tighten in mine, and he finally turns his head to look at me.
After a deep breath, he continues. "Don't always assume that someone chooses a team because they really want to be on that team. Even in other venues, like a war, for example." His silver eyes are almost mesmerising, and his hand is warm around mine. "There have been people all throughout history who choose to be a part of the side they don't support. But they know it's more effective for them to subvert and destroy from the inside than to fight from the outside. Everybody has their reasons for doing things, and they alone are the only person who understands those reasons." He holds my eyes and hand a bit longer, then releases both. He gets up and starts heading back to the camp.
I watch his back as he walks slowly away. He pauses and turns back briefly. "Remember, there will always be a winning team in everything. But not all the members of that team at the time of victory were there at the time of the team's inception." With that, he turns back and goes to join in on starting dinner.
I didn't get a chance to ask Malfoy about his cryptic remarks the rest of the night. But as I lay in the shelter, almost drifing off, a thought came back into my head that I had pushed aside for weeks. I was in intelligence during the war against Voldemort, and yet I'd never heard word one about Draco Malfoy. Where had he been, and what had he been doing?