Chapter 3

       I got absolutely no sleep during the night. We had no idea what to expect during the trial, which was why I forced myself to stay awake, especially because I offered to take the first shift of staying awake. I just didn't other waking up the others to take their shift, and they all stayed asleep the whole night.

       Arcadia was the first one to wake up, which was right at sunset. She sat up and rubbed her eyes before looked at me sitting on the fence of the front porch while I just played around with my magic. "Did you get any sleep?" she asked.

       "Nope," I said. "I was on guard all night."

       Arcadia sighed. "Grimm, that's not fair on you. You should have woken one of us up. You're going to be really tired for the trial."

       "I'll be fine," I said. "I don't need sleep and if anything, we'll just find somewhere to nap if we get too tired."

       Lance and Opal woke up too, almost at the same time. They both were upset that I didn't wake any of them up during the night to stay on guard, but I didn't care too much.

       Honestly, I was a bit paranoid. I was afraid something could have attacked us during the night, and I had a better chance of stopping it, even for a quick second, while everyone else woke up to hide.

       Thankfully, none of that happened but you could never be too careful.

       "I say we start heading out on the trial," I said. "Better get it done and over with."

       "I really don't like how confident you are with this," Opal said. "Aren't you the tiniest bit scared?"

       "Not really, no," I said. "Paranoid, I'll admit, but not scared. We can handle whatever the trial throws at us."

       "Nobody else was," Opal said. "What makes a difference if we are able to?"

       "Numbers? There's four of us, and was only one of them. Besides, all of them might not be dead like the guy in the cabin. They could have found a new place to live, because screw the whole Wicked verse Moral crap."

       "Grimm...." Arcadia began.

       "What?" I asked. "It's stupid that every single person in Peyetia is expected to be exactly who their parents are. People fear me just because Mom and Dad are the most wicked people ever. Have I ever caused harm to everyone? No. Do I want to? No."

       "We should really start heading out," Lance said as he stood up from the porch. 

       Everyone was always so touchy about the Wicked verse Moral subject. Nobody liked it when I called it out for being stupid, and I seemed to be the only one who had the guts to call it out.

       "Lance, come on," I said as he started walking on the path we were following before we got to the cabin. "You're telling me you're completely fine following in the footsteps of your parents?"

       "Yes," Lance said, turning to face me. "I don't see what the big deal is. And face it Grimm, you are like your parents."

       "Don't compare me to them," I said, hopping off of the fence. "You think I enjoy hurting people like they do? You think I enjoy this stupid trial? I don't. The only thing that makes me like them is my appearance and my magic. Other than that, I am nothing like them."

       "Right," Lance said sarcastically.

       "Can you two not argue right now?" Arcadia asked. "We're going to have to work together, and it definitely is going to mess things up if you won't get along."

       "Then tell Grimm to stop complaining about everything," Lance said. "Things are the way they are for a reason. We're Wickeds, who cares?"

       I cared. I hated it.

       I didn't say anything though as I walked passed Lance and started walking down the path. I just didn't get why nobody else understood that we shouldn't have to follow in our parents' footsteps.

       Nobody else said anything else as well as they started following me, after Opal grabbed the sword I had leaning against the wall. We got out of the tiny clearing, and now had to walk through the forest. Almost immediately, I noticed net 'hiding' underneath a pile of leaves. "There's a trap," I said, stepping over it.

       Apparently, I notified the others too late because Lance ended up stepping on it and activated it. I started laughing when he was hanging from the tree in the net.

       "You're right, this is so funny," Lance said. "Just get me out of here."

       Opal was about to cut the rope, but I stopped her. "No, just wait for a bit."

       "Now isn't the time for you to stay mad at me, Grimm," Lance said.

       "I'm not," I said. "There's definitely more to this. You think there would be just a simple trap laying out with nothing else attached? You could probably get out of this alone if you really tried."

       "Stop being paranoid and just get me out of here," Lance said before looking at Opal. "Ignore Grimm and just get me out."

       I sighed. "I'll do it, but don't blame me if something else happens."

       "Okay, but let me down easy," Lance said.

       I ignored him and walked over to the rope holding him up in the net before burning them with my hands. Lance fell to the ground with a thud, followed by a groan.

       "Oh, sorry, did you say easy?" I asked.

       Lance glared at me before dusting off his pants. "And would you look at that? Nothing else happened."

       I raised my eyebrow. "Not yet, but just wait. I'd give it a few seconds."

      "You're being too paranoid," Lance said before continuing down the path, right as I heard a low growl, and the others heard it too judging their reactions.

       "You think paranoid, I think being smart," I said, looking around to see what had growled.

       "Someone kill it," Lance said. "Whatever it is. I can't see it anywhere. It's official. We're going to die. We're not making it home."

       "Would you relax?" Opal asked. "I have the sword."

       "We're not going to kill it," I said, still looking around. I finally saw what it was; a bear hiding in a bush and just staring at us.

       "What?" Lance asked. "If we don't kill it, it's going to kill us."

       "Well, I'm not killing it," I said, leaning against a tree. "Feel free to do it yourself."

       There was no way I was killing an innocent animal, just because we were sent on this trial, in its habitat. I could definitely make it fall asleep for a few hours, which would give us more than enough time to get away, but I was going to wait for the others to realize we didn't have to kill it.

       Opal stared at the sword in her hand before handing it out to Lance. "Here, you do it," she said. "I don't have the strength."

       "My pleasure," Lance said, taking the sword. He spotted the bear too, and just glared at it. "I'll wait for it to attack. It won't see it coming."

       "It sees the sword," I said. "It's waiting for you to attack."

       "Then I guess we're going to stand here for a while," Lance said. "Hey, Grimm, you're the sorcerer. You kill it."

       "Nope," I said. "It's an innocent animal. I'm letting it live. You kill it if you want."

       "Fine," Lance said, taking a few careful steps towards the bear. 

       I already knew what was coming, so I prepared myself. Right as the bear launched itself at Lance, I hit it with a spell that knocked it out cold. It still fell on top of Lance, and he struggled getting out from underneath it.

       Arcadia, Opal, and I worked together to get the bear off. I then knelt down beside Lance and patted his shoulder. "Next time, let me handle things," I said.

       "You refused to kill it," Lance said.

       "Yes," I said. "Which is why I knocked it out. Two different things."

       "I'm really hating you right now," Lance said.

       "Hey, you're the one who offered to come along," I said before helping him stand up. He just pulled his arm out of my grasp and glared at me.

       "Do me a favour, Grimm," Lance said. "Stop acting all smug and actually get us out of here without playing any mind games."

       "Oh, trust me, it's not going to be my mind games that you should worry about," I said.

_________________

Grimm, I'm so proud of your sass. <3 My son is amazing omg i love him so much.

lol