So this chapter is a bit intense but there isn't any Anna Elsa or anyone like that, but we'll get some character moments with Drake and his fellow competitors.

Either way I hope you guys enjoy this chapter for what it is. On with the show.

Chapter 9: Let the games begin

His face twisted and scrunched as the suns morning rays infiltrated his room through the purple velvet curtains. Groaning he shifted positions until he was facing away from the window. Without the sun in his face, maybe he could get some more sleep before he actually had to get up.

His eyes snapped open. Wait a second. He searched his surroundings incredulously. How did I get here?

He lifted himself up into a seated position. By all accounts everything seemed normal, but for the life of him he couldn't remember how he had gotten back to his room. Flopping back onto the bed he stared at the ceiling trying to think of the last thing he remembered. Muddling through the memories a goofy smile crept across his lips.

That's right. Ice skating.

He lifted his hand towards his face, rubbing his thumb along the pads of his fingers. Because he was awful at ice skating, Elsa had to keep a firm grip on his hands to keep him upright. He still fell, bruising his knees, but her astounding patience kept him getting back to his feet. Looking back she was probably just amused that he kept falling and liked to see him hurt himself. Eventually he got the hang of it, but that also meant she didn't have to hold his hands anymore. It amazed him that something so soft and gentle held so much power.

He put his hands behind his head, his mind still racing with thoughts of the snow queen. It wasn't anything new for him. Ever since the incident with the werewolves he had a difficult time NOT thinking about her. It fueled his training, and his studies. He couldn't allow the same mistakes to be made his next mission, or the mission after that, and so on. He had to be a protector, a knight, and he had to save people.

…..but was there more to it?

He remembered one instance in particular where Cynthia accused him of having a little crush on Elsa, and he adamantly denied it. She was his friend, his first friend that wasn't in Kuarlong, and he cared about her in that regard. He worked hard because he didn't want anyone else to experience the loss and stress that she had. He wanted to be trusted and live up to that trust, just like Elsa trusted him.

Besides He didn't think of her in that way. He didn't think about her soft porcelain skin, her adorable freckles, her beautiful hair, her swimmable blue eyes or her red rose lips. He didn't think about her incredible strength, in both power and her ability as a young monarch to rule a kingdom, or her regal grace, or her voice that was a gift from the heavens. He didn't think about how hilarious and fun she could be whenever she managed to let down her walls and allow people to see the real her. He didn't think about flying with her and now ice skating hand in hand.

…..no. He didn't think about her that way at all.

Drake pulled himself out of bed and set about his morning. "Stretches and meditation." He grumbled to himself. As much as he pretended to hate it, his morning ritual did make him feel better throughout the day. Before he could do anything, he froze when he noticed something, something written on the door of his room.

Only two words.

"Get out."

He tilted his head examining his door further. The doorknob was missing and was instead replaced with a box, with five little boxes inside of it, above that was a small watch. Connecting it all was a note attached to a string that was attached to a small pin on top of the box.

"Nope. Not ominous at all." Thinking back on it, he didn't remember anything except for ice skating with Elsa and now he's in his room with a weird box, note and the letters "get out" on his door. This had to be the next trial. Forgetting about his morning routine, he immediately changed out of his sleepwear and into his usual attire of an undershirt, his vest, pants and boots and his gauntlets. Nobody said he had to wear any iron today.

He took the note in his fingers, without releasing the pin, and flipped it open.

"Hello Mister Daniels and welcome to your second trial. No this is not your room, you're in one of my islands and will be required to get out. You and your team will have three hours to go through a series of riddles and games and the first team to succeed will not have to compete in an upcoming trial of their choice. There are two teams of six, and it is best to be the first one out if you want to win such a prize.

"As mentioned on your door, you will be required to get out of your room in three minutes time. If you've ever played the game "hangman" you'll have to guess the correct word to unlock the door. Guess a letter correctly and thirty seconds will be added to your time, guess wrong and thirty seconds will be taken away. If the timer runs out before you guess the correct word you will receive an automatic loss and will no longer be able to participate. You will be given one hint that will be given to you on the door, just say the word 'hint'.

"Pull the pin and the game will begin. Good luck and we hope to see you soon."

Drake looked at the box as soon as he was done reading. "So guess the letters and get out, don't and rot in here?" He reached for the string attached to the pin. "Here we go." And he pulled the pin out.

The watch set into motion, counting down three minutes with a ticking that sounded almost defining to someone under immense pressure.

"Okay just start guessing letters. Well let's start with the vowels. Um. A?" The third box flicked to the letter "A" and thirty seconds was added to the ticking clock. "Oh, well look at that. Um. E?" The last box flicked to "E" and thirty more seconds were added.

"Ha! Sweet!" Brimming with confidence he tried, "I!" There was a loud buzzing followed by thirty seconds being taken off his time. "Oh. Uh….O?" Another buzz and a loss of thirty seconds. "Crap. U?" Buzz and thirty seconds lost.

"Damn it." Rather than guessing more letters, he looked at the box trying to see if the word would just come to him. But with an A in the third spot and an E in the last spot, nothing was coming.

"Erm, Hint!" The words "get out" vanished, replaced by more words until it formed a riddle.

I belong to you, but other people use me more than you. What am I?

"Crap." The riddle played over in his head as he looked back at the box. "What do I have that others use more and includes the letters A and E?" His first thought would have been sword had it not been for the letters. Time? No, not that.

"Ugh! What do I have with an A and E?!" And the clock was ticking down closer and closer to zero. "Five letters A and E?... name? No there's only four—" his eyes widened, "son of a bitch. It's my name. Drake!"

The boxes flicked to D, R and K spelling out Drake. There was a dinging noise that sounded similar to a bell and the door slowly creeped open. He exhaled the breath he was holding. "Forty seconds to spare." The door fully opened and his face dropped.

He definitely wasn't in the tower anymore instead it was some tunnel leading into darkness. Looking at the ground he noticed a red line heading into the darkness. "Alright then. Let's do this."

He shut the door to his "not" room and followed the red line into the abyss.

—:0:—

Finding his destination was easy, simply follow the red line, it was once he got there and that he was puzzled. The hall that took him there was dark and grimy, but the room he had come too reminded him of Dirgelaff's office. Fine leather couches and chairs, fully stocked bookcases, paintings along the walls, a coffee table, a lit fireplace with more pictures on the hearth and a desk. Stepping through the door into the room there was a beeping sound above him, showing four glowing green lights and two lights yet to be lit. He decided to ignore them for the moment and continued on. Inside the room were two other champions meandering the office and the Raptor, Sitting beside the fireplace in the lotus position for meditation.

Huh, a fellow meditator? Crossing the room he took a seat a few feet away from him in a cross legged position and started his own mediation. He sat quietly for a moment before the Raptor spoke.

"It's been my understanding that Dragon Knights also use mediation in their training. To be honest I didn't believe that such peaceful practices would be employed by such brutish creatures."

Drake chuckled. He'd heard that before. "We use meditation to help us control our powers."

The Raptors eyes cracked open. "I thought that was what your gem was for?"

He looked down at the aforementioned necklace. "Yes, but complete control still requires work on our part." He "hm'd" with a small nod. "Couldn't help but notice that your queen is a bit young."

The Raptor's face was blank when he answered. "She is my empress, and her parents were killed in the wars leaving her ruler over her country. It is my honor to fight for her and her house." His crystal blue eyes shifted in his direction. "Besides, your queen seems quite young herself."

"She's not my queen. She's my friend." The Raptor raised a brow as a loud buzzing sound, brought them both to their feet. The two remaining lights above the door had now turned red, leaving only four green ones.

"Looks like we're the only ones playing today." Drake recognized the speaking champion. The blonde pretty boy that was ready to kill him and Arabella in the first trial.

"Only four?" The other champion, a dark skinned man with a Nigerian accent. "I thought it must be six?"

The blonde shrugged. "Well their loss." He extended his hand to Drake, "my name is Dusan. No hard feelings about that first trial business, yeah?"

Drake narrowed his eyes, but smiled. "Of course." He accepted Dusan's hand and jerked him close. "Do it again, and I'll break you in half, and you know I can do it too."

Dusan chuckled nervously. "Fair enough."

The African man stepped forward. "I am Kwamie." Everyone introduced themselves just as the doors behind them closed. "What is that?" He pointed to the other end of the room above the fireplace.

In red appeared a word, "Escape".

"Sounds simple enough." Following the Raptors comment was a loud clanking noise, like the sounds of gears moving. To their horror, accompanying the cranking of gears was the wall moving closer to them.

Dusan went pale. "That's not good."

"Move!" Drake shouted, "find a door out of here."

Before they ran about the room, Raptor grabbed his shoulder. "You're not wearing iron, you can stop that wall from crushing us." Drake sprinted to the ever closing wall, pressed his hands against it and pushed with all his might. Though his strength was slowing it down, it was still creeping closer and closer.

"Any day now guys!" He grunted.

"We're looking!" He heard Dusan say. They were tearing apart the room, throwing books off the shelves, paintings off the walls, knocking over Knick knacks, turning the desk and tables over, but nothing.

Drake could feel the room getting smaller around him when he heard Kwamie shout, "I FOUND A LOCK!"

"Lock is good!" Drake grunted, "it has to lead to a door."

"It's a word lock." Dusan added, "we need a five letter word."

Drake, turned around, pushing his back against the wall, so he could see what they were doing. They were in the far corner, messing with a lock, but didn't seem to be having much luck. Drake looked around the room for some kind of idea, until his eyes fell on the word in red. "Escape".

"Try 'escape'!"

Dusan fiddled with the lock. "That's a six letter word! We need five!"

"Well at least I'm trying!"

With the wall inching closer the Raptor called Drake, "Change into a dragon!"

He looked around. "No...enough...room!" The Raptor ran to the wall and began pushing against it with Drake.

He looked up at the word "Escape". "Use the letters! Move the letters around!"

The wall was now mere feet from crushing them, but it gave Drake and the Raptor a chance to hoist themselves into a horizontal position and pushed with their hands and feet. It slowed, but it still wasn't enough.

"I GOT IT!" Kwamie shouted.

The door swung open. Dusan ran through as Kwamie grabbed the Raptors arm and pulled him out. Drake spun around, planted his feet against the moving wall, and pushed himself through the corner door and slammed it behind him.

—:0:—

The four of them lay on the ground of a darkened room, panting and huffing and grateful to be alive.

"Well that was fun," Dusan got to his feet and dusted off his trousers and coat. He pulled out an ancient looking pocket watch on a chain and examined the face. "We have an hour forty five to finish."

Drake rolled his eyes, his muscles aching and throbbing with incredible pain. "What was the word?"

Kwamie helped Drake and the Raptor to their feet. "Something I've wanted in my country since I was a boy. Peace."

"Good work everyone. Team effort." Dusan looked around the darkened space. "Was that it? Are we done?"

The Raptor ran his hand along the ground until he came to a wall. "I don't think we'd be so fortunate." Torches lining the walls suddenly lit the space around them showing six glass boxes lining the walls and a table in front of them with six tubes, each with blue caps. On the other side of the room was a door with no lock.

"Well look at that," Dusan coughed, "We can just leave."

The other three watched him approach the door. "I guess…he is as stupid… as he looks." Drake found himself struggling to get the words out as he was experiencing coughing fits with Kwamie and Raptor not far behind.

"Bloody hell!" The others joined Dusan at the door, now reading the words that had been revealed on its metal.

"You're free to leave, but please note. It's best to have the antidote."

"We are….being poisoned…." Kwamie pointed to various air ducts above them where they could hear a faint hissing.

"But….where's the antidote?" Dusan stumbled towards the table, looking into the tubes, but only found keys.

"There!" The Raptor pointed at the glass boxes, each with needles filled with a green liquid. "We need….the keys."

Drake grabbed one of the tubes and tried to pry the cap off, but was unable. His strength fading and his vision blurry he was able to detect something off with the cap. "There's some weird squiggly things on this cap."

"It's a puzzle tube." Dusan began twisting and pulling on the cap, "I...had a servant who would hide candy at the bottom of these….and I would have to figure it out." The stumbling trio watched Dusan maneuver, twist and pull, until the cap came off. He dumped the key onto his hand. "And that's….how you do it."

The remaining three began fiddling with the tubes and the special caps, all the while coughing, and hacking up blood and bile. Dusan went to one of the glass boxes, but his key wouldn't fit. "I need...another key…"

"Or the right….box." Kwamie pulled the cap off of his tube and started looking at the boxes. Drake was next to pop his cap off and looked at his key, then went to find the appropriate box.

"Well… I don't…." Dusan had managed to open one of the glass boxes, grabbed the needle and injected himself.

"Hey….me too." Drake opened another of the boxes and threw the needle into his arm and pushed the plunger.

The Raptor and Kwamie on the other hand had been coughing so hard they had collapsed. Raptor was still struggling with his tube, and Kwamie was on the ground, his hand still tight around a key.

"Dusan, help Kwamie." Drake went to the Raptor and began working the puzzle tube.

"Why? Let's go! This is a competition isn't it?"

Drake snarled. "Get off your rich ass and help them!" Dusan looked at them, then the door. "How long do you think you'd last alone?"

Seeing that Drake had a point Dusan took Kwamie's key and looked for the corresponding box. Drake struggled with the cap of the Raptors tube, but kept going till it popped off. Using the key he opened a nearby box, grabbed the needle and put it into the Raptors neck. Dusan, likewise injected Kwamie with the antidote from a nearby open box.

With the Raptor draped over his shoulders, Drake led him to the door. "Now let's get the hell outta here."

—:0:—

Luckily for them there wasn't a room behind that door but another hallway and a red line on the ground. With Kwamie and Raptor still out cold, Drake and Dusan took the time for a reprieve.

"We can't stay here too long." Dusan breathed. He fiddled with his pocket watch. "We only have an hour left."

"At this point it's about surviving. Time limit be damned." The two sat against the wall watching over their unconscious companions.

"I didn't think Dragon Knights were easily poisoned?"

Drake let out a short cough. "Well who knows what Dirgelaff has locked away in here." His head slumped against the wall. "Here's my question. What's a pretty boy like you doing in this tournament? Isn't this something that would be beneath you or something?"

Dusan's head rolled to the side to stare at Drake. "Well you're not wrong. I usually wouldn't be caught dead at something like this." He coughed a laugh. "Poor choice of words. Anyways, A close friend of my family, a nobleman, asked me to participate and I thought it would be fun so I accepted. Had I known these were what the 'games' consisted of, I would have said 'no'." He looked down at his pocket watch and began to rub his thumb over the face of it. "Maybe now, seeing me take some sort of action in my life, my parents might be proud of me."

Kwamie started coughing, rolling to his side to better remove the bile from his throat. Raptor sat up, rubbing his face, head, neck and eyes.

"What happened to us?" He groaned.

Drake and Dusan stood up, attempting to get the other two to their feet. "We were poisoned. You and Kwamie we down and out."

"Fortunately we saved you!" Dusan flashed a triumphant smile making the others roll their eyes.

"Either way. A thousand thanks for saving our lives." Kwamie searched their new surroundings. "What now?"

"We have less than an hour to finish so I suggest we make haste."

"As much as I hate to agree with him," Raptor commented, "I'd rather not stay in here any longer then we have too. So let's move on."

Hesitantly, the four made their way down the hall, being sure to follow the red line at their feet. The mood was of more urgency, even Dusan was more then ready to have this trial be over. The hall was short, a few yards at most before they came to another room. Small and unimpressive, but held two doors, each being guarded by a lone Bernard clone.

"Congratulations." One of them deadpanned, "for making it this far. You'll be delighted to know that this will be your final test."

A wave of relief passed through them, but it was short lived once the other one spoke. "But you have forty five minutes to complete this room. Otherwise you will lose and the game ends." They stood aside gesturing to the doors behind them. "One of these doors leads out while the other leads to certain death. Your task is to decide which is which."

"You may ask us one question as to which door is which." The other mentioned. "However one of us will only lie to you, while the other only tells the truth?" They took their positions in front of the doors. "You may confer with one another and you may examine the doors to your heart's content. Touch them, examine them, whatever you wish, but once you ask your question and a final decision is made, there will be no going back. Let the game begin."

"I'm sorry wha—" Drake slapped his hand over Dusan's mouth and the four of them moved back, out of earshot of the Bernard's.

"Are you a complete idiot? We only get one question." Drake hissed.

"I was simply going to see which one was the lair—ow!"

The Raptor smacked him on the back of the head before turning to Drake. "Look at the doors, if there is anything that can tell us which is which. Kwamie go with him." Once the two had left, Raptor turned his attention to Dusan. "We have to be smart about this. We can't afford to make a choice we'll regret later."

"Couldn't we simply ask them which door is which?"

Raptor turned to the Bernard's, examining both of them looking for any sort of tell or way to see which was which. "One of them will always lie and one of them will always tell the truth, but we don't know which is which and we don't want to waste our question on it. What did you find?"

Drake and Kwamie had returned, both shaking their heads. "Nothing. Both doors are exactly the same."

"I didn't hear, smell, or see anything that screamed 'I'm the death door'. What now?"

The Raptor ran his hands through his hair. "We need to think of what question we need to ask."

"Well if we want to know which is the liar we just ask them if they think I'm the most handsome man alive."

"Okay Dusan's on his own page," Drake pushed against him, "step back. The adults are talking."

"I actually have an idea." All eyes were now on Kwamie.

—:0:—

"How much time do we have?" Raptor asked.

Dusan looked down at his watch. "Fifteen minutes."

The Raptor patted Kwamie on the shoulder. "We're counting on you. Are you sure about this?"

There was hesitation. "...yes. Fifty percent."

"Fifty—ow! Would you stop!"

"Fifty percent is what we have. So I say go for it."

"I agree with Raptor." Said Drake. "It's the best we got."

Once all were in agreement, the approached the Bernard's with great apprehension. "You take the lead, Kwamie."

He nodded to the Raptor and stepped forward. "We have a question we would like to ask." He turned to the Bernard on his left. "Which door would the other Bernard say is the exit?"

He remained stone faced silent for a moment before stepping aside and motioning to the door behind him.

"I see. Thank you." Kwamie took a deep breath and pointed to the door on the right. "We will take that door."

As per usual, they were blank, emotionless slates. "You sure? Once you make a decision you can not take it back."

Kwamie turned towards his companions who nodded in affirmative. "Yes. We're sure."

"Okay." He stepped aside. "Then feel free to open the door and accept whatever is on the other side."

All four took a step towards the door but only Kwamie took the handle. Casting a glance over his shoulder, his fellow champions nodded their heads, giving him the okay to open the door, ready to take on whatever was waiting for them. With a deep breath, Kwamie pulled down the handle and pushed the door open.

Question time. What do you think the right answer is? Did the make the right choice? Let me know in your review.

Next chapter will get uncomfortably intense so be prepared.

Till then.