Pit had always thought Angel Land had a lot of angels living in its boundaries. It never felt crowded or enclosed, but there were definitely a lot of angels. But with the addition of the angels from Pallasa, Corinthia, Amidimea, and Borona, Angel Land was starting to feel a little bit cramped.
Tents had been set up in most of the fields where the adult angels would be staying. They packed into the field as much as they possibly could, leaving little to no room for walking. The first morning the adult angels were there, they all rose from their tents like a flock of multicolored birds to make it to the street where they could walk more comfortably.
Pit had been with Lady Palutena when the angels arrived. He stood at her left side, Nighthawk at her right, thankfully free of his clipboard. He must have managed to get everything done, or just about, because he looked more relaxed than he had been in the last week. Both of them stood straight and tall next to the goddess, who took her place in between them.
Lady Palutena's flowing hair glowed off the light, giving her the illusion of a halo. Her aura glowed bright and strong, making her appear taller than usual. Pit realized at that point that he actually wasn't all that much shorter than Palutena. He was nearly up to her shoulder, and in a few years, he might actually reach her height. That was an odd thought. Lady Palutena had always seemed so incredibly tall and imposing, but he realized now that he was actually growing up.
The massive flock of angels landed in front of the temple. Despite the fact that all of angels were unique and individual, there were obvious lines between the four groups and it was easy for Pit to tell the groups apart.
In the front of each of the groups stood their leader. A single angel was chosen as a representative for each of the cities, usually one of Palutena's older commanding officers. As one, the four of them bowed.
Palutena raised a hand. "Thank you all for coming."
The leaders rose and dipped their heads. "We thank you for your invitation, Lady Palutena, and I assume I can speak for all of us. We are pleased and honored to be here."
The one who spoke was the leader of Corinthia, the largest of the Skyworld cities. She stood with her shoulders thrown back and head high. Her long black hair flew back in the breeze, and one of her hands gently laid on a bejeweled dagger. It was as though she was expecting to be attacked. But her hand was so casually put there that Pit wasn't sure if she was doing it to actually defend herself or more for show. The latter was probably true, knowing her, which Pit did.
Her name was Magpie, and she hadn't been in Corinthia very long. Pit knew her well, and she had been one of his sparring partners when he was younger. He hadn't known that she had become the leading regent of Corinthia, but it honestly didn't surprise him. Magpie was clever and sharp. If anyone could make their way to the top that quickly, it was Magpie.
One of the male angels narrowed his eyes, frowning hard at Magpie. "Thank you for the introduction, Magpie. Lovely Lady Palutena, thank you for your invitation. The city of Pallasa thanks you for hosting us as well. We know we will make you proud." He bowed his head. Pit inspected him closely. Pit only knew his name through other angels' stories, but he was known as Gyrfalcon, but Pit had heard he went by Falcon. He was a legend among angels. It was said that he had singlehandedly defeated Pyrrhon and Thanatos in a sword fight, back to back, and fought off more Underworld monsters than any other angel. He was a master at sword fighting and archery, and Pit realized that he would have some serious competition in those events.
Pit watched Gyrfalcon as the angel bowed and moved. He was actually quite short in stature, now that Pit looked at him, and didn't seem all that imposing. But after a closer inspection, Pit realized how tight the muscles on the angel's arms were, and the hardness of the angel's jaws. This angel had obviously seen some battles in his lifetime, and Pit realized that Gyrfalcon was probably just as powerful as he had heard.
The other two leaders also made their cities well-wishes known and afterwards Palutena sent them away to set up for the night. The other angels dispersed along with them, all heading back to their homes. Pit and Nighthawk stayed behind, as well as Kaitlyn.
Palutena let out a tired sigh as she sat down on her throne. "And now starts the chaos," she said, rubbing her eyes.
Pit gave her a half smile. "I'm sure it will be great, Lady Palutena! All we have to do is keep over a hundred new angels entertained for a few days!"
"You make it sounds like it's going to be easy," Nighthawk grumbled, having once again pulled out his clipboard and began flipping through it. "But they're going to need food, shelter, entertainment—."
"You make it sound like they're dogs," Kaitlyn said with an eyeroll.
Palutena thought for a moment. "The leader of Borona…" She paused, snapping her fingers for a moment and looking to Nighthawk.
"His name was Tern, I believe," Nighthawk said.
Palutena narrowed her eyes, her lips becoming thinner. "Yes, yes, him…forgot for a moment…anyways, do you think he'll be a problem?"
Nighthawk shook his head. "He's imposing, but I don't see anything on his forms about possible bullying behavior or anything like that."
"And the leader of Amidimea, her name was…" Again Palutena seemed to have some difficulty remembering the name.
"Victoria," Kaitlyn provided.
"Yes, Victoria," the goddess said, nodding. "She's not very old, is she?"
Nighthawk read through his notes. "No, she's relatively recent. I'm not sure how she got to be the leader either."
Palutena let out another sigh. She looked more tired than Pit had seen her in a long time. "I can't remember at the moment. Then again, I can't remember much of anything at all." She stood, yawning. "Well, then, I think I'll be off to bed. I'd like to be able to be of sound mind tomorrow, if possible."
The three angels bid her farewell and left the temple to enter the dark streets. Pit looked ahead of him to the massive grassy field. It was too dark to see anything, but Pit knew that it was fully decorated for tomorrow, and would be used for most of the events. The only ones that wouldn't be held there would be sword fighting, and wrestling, which would be held in their own separate arenas, for safety purposes. Pit wasn't sure how safe they would be anyways, but he wasn't about to argue with Nighthawk. His friend seemed to know best.
Kaitlyn yawned, stretching a little. "Well, I'm going to hit the hay. See you boys tomorrow."
The two bade her farewell. Pit noticed that Nighthawk's gaze lingered on Kaitlyn as she walked away. He blinked, frowning. "Alright, what's going on in that meticulous head of yours?"
Nighthawk didn't face Pit. "I wonder how they're going to take her."
"Who?" Pit asked, confused.
"The adult angels. You know, they've probably heard all about Kaitlyn, but who knows how they'll actually feel about her being here, and her competing."
"Nighthawk, is there something you want to tell me about how you feel about Kaitlyn competing in the festival?" Pit crossed his arms, leveling his gaze. Nighthawk turned to face him, golden eyes narrowed.
"I have no problem with Kaitlyn competing," Nighthawk said sharply. "But I know it took me a while to get used to her being here. The adult angels don't have the time that I did to think over it, and to get to know Kaitlyn personally. Besides, she'll do really well at what she's competing in."
"How is that a problem?" Pit asked.
Nighthawk sighed. "Look, Kaitlyn's different from us in many physical ways. She's stronger, but heavier. She can't shoot a bow, but she's fantastic with a handgun. She can't fly well, but she makes up for that with her sheer power. Honestly, she's got an advantage at wrestling and javelin, and I don't doubt that we'll have to calm down some of the more competitive younger angels when she beats them at those events."
Pit cocked his head slightly. "So, what are you saying exactly?"
"Just…keep a close eye on Kaitlyn."
Pit found himself running across the massive auditorium room, plates in hand, and trying desperately to figure out which angels had already eaten, and which still needed breakfast. Unfortunately, it wasn't all that easy to figure out. For one, adult angels could eat a lot, and weren't about to let Pit know that they had already had their share.
"Cedar!" He called back over the loud room, "table fourteen needs food!"
He saw the young angel girl nod and fly over the crowded room with her own platter of plates. Pit wiped his head of sweat, panting slightly. He had been at this since he had woken up, which was about three hours ago, and he was exhausted.
"Hey, Pit!"
The angel nearly cried out as he was jerked by his arm to one of the tables. He floundered for a moment, readjusting so his arms were balanced and the plates didn't fall. With a sigh of relief, he managed to do so, saving the food.
Turning, he found himself face to face with Magpie. She still gripped his arm, her face a mere inches from his. Smooth skin, layer black hair that shone like obsidian, and dark, nearly black eyes…Pit remembered her well. He had spent many years sparring with Magpie. Being this close to her was not uncomfortable.
He smiled at her. "Hey, Magpie! Great to see you again!"
"Good to see you too," she said, giving him that mysterious half smile she had become known for. Her hand lifted from Pit's arm and wrapped around his waist, pulling him into a hug. "You seem like you've been doing pretty well for yourself."
Pit nodded. "Yeah, I've been doing pretty well." He looked at his plate of food. "Well, I'd better go and—."
"No, stay!" Magpie said, grinning widely as she dragged Pit back onto the bench.
Pit jerked back down onto the seat from the force of Magpie's tug. He tried to pull himself away, but Magpie's fingers were as tight as iron. He swallowed, gripping onto the platter of food so it didn't spill. "Magpie, I'd love to stay and talk, but I'm a little bit busy at the moment." He held up the plate. "You know…serving food and all?"
The female angel's smile turned from cheerful to mischievous. "Then we'll talk later, okay?"
"Okay," Pit said quickly, starting to worry about the tables that didn't have food.
"You and me, together, lunch, okay!"
"Sure." Pit hardly heard Magpie's words as he hurried to the back tables and started serving food, apologizing for the wait. He ran and flew between the kitchen and tables, Cedar quickly doing the same behind him until all of the angels (and there were a lot of them!) were eating.
Pit groaned and flopped onto an empty chair. Cedar sat next to him, her wings drooping as she laid her head on the table and closed her eyes. Pit was sore from head to toe. He had been on his feet practically all morning. Nighthawk had him help with the breakfast for all the angels, and that meant that he was up before sunrise, and if he continued to work in the food department, he would be asleep after the sun set. It was going to be a long day.
Kaitlyn eventually brought over three plates of food, setting two before Pit and Cedar and taking the third for herself. "Well, you two look beat."
At that moment, Pit let out a long yawn. He gave Kaitlyn a weak smile as he munched on his grapes and raisins. "Yeah…how have you been?"
"I slept fine," Kaitlyn said through mouthfuls of eggs. "How was it waking up the angels?"
"Like herding rabbits," Cedar moaned.
"I think the expression is 'like herding cats', but that doesn't really matter. Were they really that scatterbrained?"
Pit nodded, rubbing his face with his hands in annoyance. "Honestly, I want to go back to bed." He laid his face in his barley cake and moaned.
Kaitlyn rolled her eyes. "You're so dramatic." She rolled a fig between her fingers before biting into it thoughtfully. "No wonder I'm in shape. You guys eat super healthy."
"But not Nutella," Pit sighed, grabbing one of the barley cakes and eating. "It's a sad fact of life."
Kaitlyn smiled. "So, Cedar, did you sign up for any of the events?"
She nodded. "Yes, the flying event. I don't think I'll win, though, especially with the adult angels here. They seem pretty fast."
"I'm sure you'll do great," Kaitlyn said encouragingly. "When is it?"
"Tomorrow, after lunch. Maybe I'll just skip lunch to make myself lighter. At the rate the adults are eating, I might have a chance purely on body mass alone."
The three laughed before continuing with their food. "When is wrestling?" Pit asked Kaitlyn, after starting into his porridge.
"On the last day," Kaitlyn replied. "I wish it was sooner." She glanced at one of the larger tables, where a group of muscular, male angels were arm wrestling. Her green eyes narrowed and her lips pinched. Pit swallowed.
"Kaitlyn, you'll do great!" Pit said quickly. "Don't let any of them intimidate you."
"I'm not intimidated. I just want to beat them."
"Have you been practicing?"
Kaitlyn nodded. "Every day, against anyone I can get. Most of the angels I've trained with are pretty young, though. They're just a bunch of young boys who want to convince me they're strong. The only problem is that they're easy to beat. I haven't had any real competition."
"I'm sure Kestrel would love to fight with you, and she's pretty strong," Pit pointed out.
"Oh, she already did. I won." Kaitlyn sighed, her eyes never leaving the young men. "I'm going to beat the crap out of them." Her lips pulled back into a snarl. It was all Pit could do not to shrink back or leave the table.
Finally, Kaitlyn sighed, lowering her eyes back to her food. "So, now comes the big question: how should I introduce myself?"
"What?" Pit cocked his head.
"I mean, as Kaitlyn, or as Blue. I go by both here, but if I go by Kaitlyn, then it's obvious that I'm the odd one out. If I go by Blue, then I sound like an angel, but they'll figure out that I'm human and complain that it wasn't a fair fight."
"I personally like Kaitlyn," Cedar said, giving Kaitlyn a friendly smile. "It's pretty and exotic."
Kaitlyn smiled a little. "It's anything but exotic in Chicago, but I guess it's pretty different here." She began twisting her fingers in her curls, as she always seemed to do when she was deep in thought. "I don't know. It's pretty stupid, honestly, this whole thing. I just…I want to make a good impression on them, and this could go so many ways."
Pit shrugged. "I don't think it matters."
The blonde-haired girl rolled her eyes. "You're such a guy…" She sighed.
Nighthawk set his plate down and quickly seated himself next to Pit. His clipboard came down quickly next to him. He hardly seemed to care what he was eating, his eyes glued to his clipboard where he hurriedly scribbled down notes.
Pit cleared his throat loudly. "Um…hi, Nighthawk! How are you—."
"Can't talk," Nighthawk interrupted. "Too busy."
"Too busy to eat, or talk to people?"
"Too busy. I have exactly five minutes and forty-three seconds to eat breakfast."
Kaitlyn, again, rolled her eyes. "You're such a workaholic, Nighthawk. Take a break!"
"Cantkabrk," he said through a mouthful of food.
Pit looked to Kaitlyn for help, who replied, "He said he can't take a break."
They all looked back to Nighthawk, who at this point was so distracting that the other three angels' food lay untouched. Finally, Kaitlyn snatched the clipboard from Nighthawk, looking at it nonchalantly as Nighthawk flailed to get it back.
"Give that back!" He snapped. "Can't you see how much work I still have to do?!"
Kaitlyn shook her head, showing him the clipboard from a safe distance. "Nope, it's just a bunch of scribbles to me. Remember? I can't read Ancient Greek."
Nighthawk shook his head wildly, straining to reach the papers that Kaitlyn held. "I need those back!"
Pit laid a hand on his friend's shoulder. "Nighthawk, just take ten minutes of your own life and eat your food. Then we'll give it back, okay? We don't want you to burn yourself out! How long have you been up?"
"Since…four in the morning," Nighthawk said slowly.
"And what time were you in bed last night?"
"…one, maybe?"
Pit sighed, pushing his plate in front of Nighthawk. "Look, just my figs, okay? If you keep this up, you'll collapse and die."
"And if I don't, the whole festival will be ruined!"
"No, I don't think it will," Kaitlyn said. "Seriously. Eat ten figs and I'll give this back. Just ten. That's all we're asking."
Nighthawk looked at them all suspiciously for a moment, but consented to eat the figs. He did so quickly, but not as wildly as he had downed his porridge, which the other three angels took as a good sign. Finally, after a good four minutes, he put down the last stem and sighed, gulping down water. He wiped his face and held out his hands. "Okay, can I have my clipboard back now?"
Kaitlyn handed him the clipboard and Nighthawk immediately left the table and went out of the room. Kaitlyn raised an eyebrow. "No offense, Pit, but Nighthawk is a little…"
"Obsessed?" Cedar put in.
"Yeah, that's a good word for it."
Pit sighed, pushing his plate away. "Yeah, I know."
"Good morning, and welcome to the Panathenaia!"
The cheers arose from the crowd of angels. The energy exuding from the crowd was invigorating, and Pit couldn't imagine anywhere else that he'd rather be.
The angel who was announcing continued her speech, her voice easily heard over the crowd. Pit recognized her as Lyre, one of the loudest, chattiest angels in all of Angel Land. It wasn't surprising that Nighthawk had chosen her to be the announcer for the festival. "Welcome to the archery competition! Will all of the archers please step forward?"
Pit shouldered his bow and stepped out into the Archery Arena. The amount of angels filling the stands was overwhelming. He tried to find which ones he could recognize, but from such a distance and without their wings showing, it was hard to tell them from one another. Still, he was cheerful and waved to all the people around, grinning widely.
Slowly, he stepped up to his place and set his bows next to him, which was helpful because his arms had started to get tired. He was holding a lot of bows, and he hoped to pick a certain one for each round, depending on the challenge.
He glanced around for a moment at each of the other archers. He had never met any of them before, but they must have been good. They each had their own set of bows, which they had set down. Pit admired them from a distance, only able to see bits of each. They seemed nice, probably specially made for each of them.
"Archers," Lyre continued in her booming voice, "your first challenge will be the straight on target at fifty paces. Pick your bow!"
Pit eyed the target and immediately picked up his Fortune Bow. It was large and quite heavy, but had been designed for medium-to-long range attacks and was very accurate. He glanced at the other contestants and their choice of bows. Large, small, all of them were unique and individual.
"Raise your bows!"
Pit did so, pulling back on the invisible string, feeling the light pulse between his fingers. The arrow appeared on the bow, a streak and point of light that grew bigger and bigger.
"Take aim!"
A long, deep breath settled Pit's form. His muscles were taut though his stance was relaxed. Feet apart, shoulders back, chest out, head back…
"Fire!"
His fingers slipped cleanly off the light string and the arrow shot from the bow. He let out a long breath, watching the arrow streak across the arena with the other arrows. Pit sucked in a breath again, biting his lip.
Nearly a bull's-eye.
"Yes!" Pit pumped his fist, grinning. The crowd cheered loudly. Pit waved, proudly holding up his bow.
Lyre's voice was clear over the crowd. "Alright, archers! If you managed to hit in the red or the inner white ring, you have qualified for the next round! If you hit in the blue or outside, then you will not be moving on. Please exit the field."
The four angels who had not qualified gathered their bows, dipped their heads, and left the shooting area.
The rounds became consecutively more difficult. After straight on came flying and shooting straight on, which was hardly any different to Pit. But some of the angels who were weaker fliers were cut out from that round. Then came the moving targets, which even Pit had a bit of trouble with. But he was good enough to move on to the last round.
He looked over at the angel who hovered next to him, the only other angel that had made it this far. He was good. His dead-on bull's eyes made Pit nervous.
Pit racked his brain for a name. Raptor, that was it. His name was Raptor, from…was it Amidimea? He wasn't a very tall angel, a little like Gyrfalcon in that way, but he was much thinner. His slanted eyes were narrowed and focused, and his dark wings beat effortlessly as he hovered. Pit wasn't sure how he felt around him…maybe slightly lazy? He didn't seem nearly as focused as Raptor was. Pit ran a hand through his hair, letting out a long breath. This was not going to be easy.
From up above, he tried to see if he could spot Kaitlyn in the crowd. But no matter how much he looked or strained his eyes, he couldn't catch a glimpse of Kaitlyn's golden hair, which was odd because it was usually incredibly obvious in bright sunlight. But he didn't see her golden hair anywhere. Did she just decide not to come? That didn't make any sense. She had said she would be here…
Lyre's loud voice pulled him out of his musings. "And for our final challenge, our final two contestants will be using the aerial obstacle course and firing at multiple targets at a time. And now let me introduce our final two contestants! On the right, we have the Captain of Palutena's Guard, Slayer of Underworld Beasts, Pit!"
The crowd once again cheered, and Pit waved to them with a grin. He nearly bowed, but decided that that probably wasn't the best idea and instead continued to wave, smiling widely. But as he did so, he continued to scan the crowd. There was Nighthawk, easily visible in the southwest quadrant, and Cedar appeared to be right next to him. But Kaitlyn was nowhere to be seen.
"And on the left, we have the powerful, sharpshooting master of Amidimea, the Champion of Bows, Master of Flight, Raptor!"
The crowd that had been loud for Pit suddenly group much louder. The adult angels were on their feet, pounding on the ground and howling in delight. Pit swallowed hard, watching Raptor, who didn't seem to mind the attention. A small smile was on his face, and he waved a little. He didn't seem particularly ecstatic, though for all Pit knew, the guy could be screaming for joy on the inside.
"Contestants, pick your bows!"
Pit smiled and held up his bow for the crowd to see. It was his usual, everyday Palutena's Bow, the blue one edged in gold. It wasn't nearly as particularly accurate, but Pit was used to it. He knew that its comfort would balance out the fact that it wasn't all that accurate.
The other angel picked his bow and the two nodded to Lyre that they were ready. She dipped her head and grinned, spreading her hands wide. "Alright! Contestants, on your mark!"
"Get set!"
Pit took a long, deep breath. Forget about Kaitlyn right now…he told himself. She can take care of herself. She's probably just delayed by something. Yeah, that's it…she's just—
"Go!"
Pit grunted in effort as he pumped his wings hard, shooting off towards the first floating ring. He had to get through all of them, while paying attention enough to shoot. Missing rings cost points, as did missing targets.
Pit's eyes flashed across the arena and locked onto the targets. They looked like simple balls being thrown into the air, though how, Pit didn't know. He pulled back on his bow and released rapidly. One, two, three…four and five. He grinned as he pulled up and into the next ring, which he entered easily, and shot those targets as well. He had to do a quick barrel roll to manage all of them, but he was able to shoot them all down.
Alright, you take off and I'll start throwing things to you.
Pit suddenly remembered a time not too long ago, when he had been doing basically this exact same event. He could hear the man's voice, see his blonde hair and blue eyes and the disk he threw into the air for Pit to shoot down.
That was when he had flown on his own for the first time. It had been exhilarating and wondrous. Pit would never forget that feeling.
Come on, come on, come on… Pit thought, shooting multiple balls out of the sky. Had he missed any? It was hard to tell. He was starting to get dizzy from all of the spinning shots he had been forced to make in order to aim correctly.
Raptor was fast. Pit could see him out of the corner of his eye, and he was ahead of Pit, practically a grey streak in the air. His shots rapidly took the balls out of the air. Pit gritted his teeth and pumped his wings, trying to catch some sort of draft so he could go faster.
Pit was starting to lose track of time. How long had it been? Was he almost at the end? His head was spinning and he tried to focus on the balls in order to aim, but he was starting to completely lost focus. It took all his concentration just to keep his wings moving.
With a cry of relief, Pit caught sight of the end of the course. It was a platform high above the ground. Pit made his wobbly way over and landed ungracefully on the platform. His legs collapsed underneath him and he lay on the platform panting and heaving for air.
Raptor seemed to have less of a problem. He landed smoothly, save a few missteps, and shook out his head to clear away the dizziness. He glanced at Pit on the ground, and gave him a half smile. "Having trouble?"
Pit managed a thumbs-up in Raptor's direction. "Nothing…I can't…handle…"
Raptor smirked, but turned back to the scoreboard, which was still blank and waiting for the scores.
The scoreboard was attached to the booth that Lyre stood in. The girl angel had disappeared from view as the scores were tallied. Speed, ring accuracy, and number of balls hit were all taken into account. Pit managed to sit up, munching on his lower lip in anticipation.
Raptor's scores came up quickly.
Speed: 9
Pit nodded and clapped along with the other angels, who yelled out their approval.
Rings: 8
Also a good score. He must have missed a few though.
Balls Hit: 9
Pit winced. That was a really good score. Pit needed to get even better scores to beat him. But he clapped politely and nodded to Raptor, who nodded back in thanks.
Speed: 8
It made sense. He was slower than Raptor, and all his spinning had taken a toll on him.
Rings: 10
The crowd of Angel Land angels went wild in excitement. Pit held himself back from jumping and fist-pumping. He merely nodded, and waiting in anticipation. He needed at least a 9 on his last score to beat Raptor.
Balls Hit: 9
Pit let out a long breath, a grin coming over his face. The crowd at this point was screaming so loud that Pit couldn't hear Lyre's voice any longer.
"Good job, Pit." Raptor faced Pit and shook his hand, smiling. "You're a good shot. It's clear Lady Palutena's in good hands."
"Thank you," Pit said. "You're really great too! You hardly seemed to get dizzy at all!"
Raptor shrugged. "Years of flying can help with that. It just takes practice. You'll find your own technique eventually."
Pit nodded. "Thank—."
He was cut off by Lyre's voice, which seemed to have gotten louder. "Attention, everyone! I have an important announcement! It appears that the wrestling competition has been moved up! If everyone would please go to the wrestling arena, we will begin!"
The wrestling competition? But that was the one… Pit looked around and his eyes locked onto the ground. Standing in the middle of the arena, looking incredibly irritated, was Kaitlyn.
Yay, chapter 2! Sorry for any grammar or spelling mistakes in this...my usual editor (A.K.A. sister) is gone for the next week, and so she didn't have a chance to look over it.
Anyhow, in the next chapter, hopefully we'll actually start getting into the meat of the story...I know within the next two we will. We'll get a villain, and all the fun stuff that comes with it :)
Thanks for reading!
~Pixie
