Trayne Treadwell-Lang- District Six male (17)
We had no idea what the challenge was going to be as we walked to the clearing. We had no idea what the prize would be, either. We all definitely knew what we hoped it would be. It doesn't take long for humans to descend to their primal urges. The people of Ellekoner greatly hoped that the prize would be food. I was hoping for hamburgers. Rowena wanted hot dogs and ever since she'd announced it, we'd regarded each other with the suspicion that hot dog lovers and hamburger lovers had had for centuries. Octavia opined that it should be spices because then our rice would be like different food every day. Amberlynn was the one of us who stuck out, stubbornly insisting that it should be grape soda.
I was unsurprised to find that Ellekoner was the first to the clearing. Octavia, who had watched the most episodes before we left, had mentioned that Isabella would want to dramatically reveal the eliminated Tribute. Isabella herself was of course already at the clearing. We had a guess that her cabin was probably nearby. We didn't know for sure it was a cabin but it seemed aesthetically appropriate.
Almost as soon as we sat down, movement between the trees marked Huldra's arrival. Isabella perked up right away.
"Good morning, tribes." We all peered past Isabella, impatient to see who was missing as Huldra filed in. I wasn't sure I even remembered everyone on their tribe. "Ellekoner getting its first look at the new Huldra tribe. Ai was eliminated at tribal council."
Beetee's kid? Big surprise. I would have thought maybe the Twelve girl, but other than that, Ai was a pretty easy pick.
"Are you ready for your second challenge?" Isabella didn't wait for an answer. "Behind me in the woods you'll find two marked trees- one for each tribe. In each tree there is a bag suspended twenty feet off the ground. Using the materials given at the foot of the tree and anything you can find nearby, contestants may use any method to retrieve the bag except climbing the trees. Once the bags are retrieved you'll find letter tiles in each bag. Arrange the letters to reveal a message. First tribe to shout the message wins immunity and reward- all of the supplies for retrieving the bags, plus the bags themselves. I'm sure you'll find many uses for them around your camp."
That's pretty cool, I thought, nodding to myself. I tried to do the math in my head of twenty feet of space divided by the number of Tributes, wondering if we could build a pyramid or something. We probably had the height, I concluded, but I wasn't sure if we could pile that high or if we'd just fall and break all our limbs. We'd find out soon enough.
"Since Ellekoner has one extra member, they'll need to pick one member to sit this challenge out," Isabella added.
"Yo," Amberlynn said, raising a finger. Octavia had mentioned this as well and we'd discussed it last night. Amberlynn said she'd take one for the team unless it was a social challenge.
"All right," Isabella nodded. "Let's get this started."
Leo Fabrizio- District EIght male (18)
Seeing as this was not a navigation challenge, the path to the trees was clearly marked by red flags sticking from the ground. We ran down the path and quickly came to two trees so neatly symmetrical they must have been placed there by the Gamemakers. Each tree had a thick, straight limb with a red or white cloth bag dangling from about two feet of rope, with each bag about the right size to hold a bowling ball.
"What do we have for supplies?" Trydan wondered aloud as we shifted our attention to the pile at the foot of the tree. I could see a pile of boards, a container of nails underneath them, a hammer, two long nails, some ropes and a spear. All right, we can work with this.
Trydan started pulling boards from the pile. "If we nail together just a few we can make some A-frames. That would give us a big height boost really quick."
"Let's just spear them," Birdie suggested.
Kendall picked up a spear and aimed at a bag. It hit the side of the bag but the bag merely moved sideways at the force, swinging from the rope but unbroken.
"I can do it, it's just going to take a while," Kendall said. "We don't usually aim up. Keep trying other stuff while I go."
Robbie Emmers- District Nine male (18)
I sorted through the boards and pulled out the longest one. It was about as long as me, so about six feet, or at least that was what I told the ladies.
"If the two tallest of us have another one stand on our shoulders and they hold the board, maybe we can knock it down," I suggested.
"Cactus is the tallest so he should be with you," VIrgo said.
"Put Rowena on top since she's the skinniest," Lana suggested. Cactus and I shared an insulted look at the suggestion that we were not strong enough to carry a heavier Tribute but didn't comment.
Cactus and I stood facing each other and braced our arms on each other's shoulders. Persi boosted Rowena under her backside as she tried to climb on top of us. We quickly realized how very awkward it was to try to climb a person. Rowena ended up on her hands and knees on our shoulders, trying to stand and at the same time trying not to step on something fragile or poke our eyes out.
"Hey," Persi said, waving Virgo over. The two of them stood behind me and Cactus to provide stability and a wider base for Rowena to climb on. She managed to shakily rise to a stand as Virgo and Persi held her legs.
Lana handed up the board. "Can you reach?" she asked.
Rowena swung the board lightly, the movement unbalancing her so she almost fell. With my neck craned up I could barely see that we were about two feet short.
Lana ran to the pile of boards, no doubt planning to nail another one on the end to get the last bit of length. I just hoped she was fast. I wasn't tired or anything, but we had a time limit.
Kendall Delancey- District One male (18)
"Let's just spear it," they said. "Kendall can use a spear. He's a Career," they said. Do you have any idea how hard it is to penetrate a soft swinging target? I am hitting it. It just keeps moving.
Kallik and I took turns throwing the spear, silently commiserating about people thinking that if you can use one weapon you can use all of them. The thing about a crossbow is that it's not a spear. A harpoon is pretty similar, but like me, Kallik was used to aiming ahead or downward. It wasn't often a whale was above you.
On my next throw I could just feel I was right on the mark. The spear hit the bag right in the middle, so center-mass that the bag couldn't swing out of the way. The spear punched through the fabric and… stuck there.
"Oh…" I said, looking up at the pierced bag and the spear now dangling from it, ten feet out of reach.
"I got it!" Kallik bent over and started looking through the grass. She came up with a rock and hucked it at the bag. I followed her lead. It wouldn't take much to knock the spear loose. It might even rip the bag open enough that the tiles fell out.
Dorian Sargasso- District Four male (18)
Robbie's pyramid was going pretty well. Rowena was up there batting the bag like a pinata and eventually she'd either knock it loose from the rope or rip it with the nail we'd pounded into the end of the board. I was just doing my own thing as a backup plan.
It wasn't hard to splice together the two ropes into one really long one. Then I tied a rock to one end and started twirling it almost like a lasso. I threw it overhead, aiming at the limb the bag was dangling from. After a few false starts I made the shot. The rock carried the rope over the limb and back down so it draped over the limb and reached just above my head. I jumped up and grabbed it, then tied a looped knot and pulled the other end of the rope. It slid down along itself until it knotted against the limb, leaving me with the long tail end of the rope.
Easy money, I thought. I looped the rope around my foot and pulled myself up onto the rope. I'd always enjoyed climbing the ropes in the Academy. Once you got the technique down it was really easy. I shimmied up the rope until I reached the bag, my tribemates cheering as they caught on. It was only tied with a simple knot, so it was easy to lean out and untie it without much risk of falling. I tugged the knot free and let the bag drop.
Val Vella- District Two male (18)
"They got theirs!"
We looked over at Taylor's warning and saw Ellekoner tearing open their bag of tiles. I looked back up at our bag. It was still dangling, but the fabric was shredding around the edges of the spear hole and were those of us who weren't building Trydan's frame were throwing rocks at it. I watched impatiently as Ellekoner spread out their tiles, trying to peek at them and maybe guess the answer and swipe it from under them, assuming the answers were the same and it didn't backfire. Why did they put me on the loser team? I griped. I couldn't win these things all on my own, after all. Sometimes you won or lost entirely based on which team you were on.
A chorus of cheering turned my attention back to our bag. I turned my head just as the tiles were hitting the ground, knocked loose by a few final hits. Trydan's idea had also been viable- we had a hobby horse-looking frame already nailed together and we would have been able to add to it with just a little more time. If we won the challenge we could definitely use the frame for a shelter or something useful.
I ran to my tribemates huddled around the tiles on the ground. Birdie was already arranging them into lines for easier reading.
Octavia Jacobs- District Two female (18)
Dorian opened the bag and spilled the tiles onto the ground. I flicked my eyes over them, looking for a few easy combinations. I saw three O's and looked for a W. There it is.
"Outwit, outplay, outlast!"
"Ellekoner wins immunity and reward!"
Generally I keep the tribes pretty much even so Tributes have even chances, but this time I had several things that let me go rogue. First off, several nonactive tributes I need to clear out are on Huldra. That gave me the unique opportunity to have an Ulong happen when normally I'd feel really mean doing that. (For non-Survivor watchers, Ulong was the worst tribe ever and lost just like a buttload of challenges in a row). I can assure you poor Huldra submitters that this won't be THAT disastrous, but since these first few challenges don't affect active submitters anyway I can have a little mischievous fun.
No need to vote this time, since it's another nonactive tribute I'm clearing out. For anyone tracking POVs, the short ones in challenges aren't counted on the sheet I use to make sure tributes get even POVs, so the only one who has a POV counted toward him in this chapter is Trayne.
Fun fact I usually use the Survivor wiki for challenges but this one I made up. There are probably some big holes in it so if you find some feel free to make up an explanation in your head.