Race  

"Ow. My arm hurts. And my back." I mumbled, stretching my hands out to the sky.

The moment the three-hour limit came, I and Altair walked out of the temple after I gave them my best wishes. I did not realise how fast we walked out until I looked at the time and noticed only thirty seconds had passed since the three-hour mark.

"Would you like me to massage you?" Altair asked, holding his hands out ready for me to place my hands on. "I am not bad at it."

I looked at his hands and then at him before politely shaking my head, "No thank you. I am not very good with people touching my body."

"You seemed to quite like it last night though," Altair said, looking at me with nothing but amusement dancing in his eyes.

"I did," I answered honestly, looking at him. "Does that mean you will be helping me tonight as well?"

If he expects me to get flustered, he picked the wrong person to tease like that. I do not care about things like this.

As we passed another group of Priests walking past us with boxes and boxes of things in their hands, we passed a large tree with large green leaves and unripe fruits hanging from it.

Altair looked at me closely before sighing in defeat, "You certainly are nothing like I expected you to be. Judging by your demeanour."

"What did you expect me to be like?"

We turned a corner and walked down a flight of marbled stairs with statues of pots at the side of the railing, walking down the stairs we never took out eyes off each other as we dodged the people walking up the stairs.

"Well … something of a stickler for the rules and very … pious." He said, dodging the branch of a tree sticking out from the side of the railing.

"Oh, I am like that," I said, appearing in front of him, staring at his colourful prism eyes for a moment too long as I lost my footing and almost fell, catching myself just in time.

I also had the chance to look at the man's frightened expression as he reached out to try and catch me. Then his confused expression when I caught myself.

"What do you think? Am I not elegant?" I asked, meaning to sound as though I am teasing him. I wanted him to refuse and say something snarky back.

Instead, he said, "Yes. The most elegant one out there."

Rolling my eyes, I leaned against the railing of the stair as I waited for him to catch up, that trip sent me down several stairs. "That is not what I wanted you to answer."

"Really?" He asked, eyes widening the moment he reached me and smiled playfully. "What did you want me to answer as then?"

"Who knows?" I said, slipping away from him as I made my way down the stairs, passing even more Priests carrying even more boxes of things in their arms. I stood on the opposite side of the stairs, waiting for Altair to catch up. "What is this?"

"Food." One of the Priests said, turning to me. "It is almost time for lunch, so we are preparing for the people to be able to eat as well."

I think I know him. Blond hair that never seems to be able to look neat, no matter how hard he tries. Vesper.

"Will it be enough for everyone?"

"No." He answered honestly, chuckling. "But that does not change that we should try to give food, if it is available. Are you on your way to the bottom, Orion?"

"Yup. I still have some work to do." I said, seeing Altair getting closer to me suddenly. "Well, I will see you some other time, Vesper."

"Ah wait!" The boy grabbed me by the arm and pulled out a wooden box and placed it in my hands. "Here you go. I know it will be nighttime before you actually start eating. Don't starve."

"Thank you," I said, smiling brightly at him just as Altair reached us, having avoided the wave of Priests in between us. "Altair. Have you ever had boxed lunch before?"

"Boxed lunch?" He asked, looking at the wooden thing in my hands. "What is that?"

Vesper and I looked at the man with surprise written all over our faces. Mine turned to amusement but Vesper's continued to be horrified.

"I heard someone is tailing you today. Is this him?" He whispered to me, a hundred per cent insulting Altair though he does not know it.

"Yes. It is." I said, enjoying myself a little too much. "He has been a wonderful person to be around."

"Really?" He asked, looking Altair up and down before sighing.

"Here." Vesper took another one out of the box and gave it to Altair who just looked at it, confused. "Orion will tell you what to do with it when the time comes. I will need to resume my work."

"Bye-bye, Vesper," I said, waving at the boy taking off almost immediately and handed my box to Altair who took it without question. "Could you hold onto mine too?"

"I don't see a problem with that. But what is this?" He asked as we made our descent down the stairs again, the number of people walking up the stairs is now thinning out.

Fortunately, there are no civilians here, given that this is a pathway that only the Priests can use. The Priests and their guests.

Though it is a bit of a trip as it is a long, long, long, staircase that feels like it is formed at the side of a mountain will all the plants, trees and rocks at the side of the stairs.

There are some statues but they are not too important. Some parts of the rocks have water flowing down them, almost like a little stream.

"You'll know when I show you," I said, smiling at him. "By the way, back at the temple. You knew, didn't you?"

"About some of the people there?" He asked, eyes looking up at the sky and then at me, breaking into a cocky grin. "Of course I did. They were too obvious. I should commend you on your … creativity with the blessings."

"Well, I cannot just send them away and I have no proof against them. That will reflect badly on the temple. They will merely get what they deserve." I said, still a little annoyed when I think about it.

"Still. To dress up as a poor peasant to be able to get more blessings. How despicable can you get?

"They are all well-to-do Alphas that just want to increase their wealth and power. They will get their just deserts soon."

"I know they will. After all, a blessing from you means it is written in stone." Altair agreed, looking forward at the unending flight of stairs, raising an eyebrow before looking at me.

"This is called the Eternal flight of stairs," I explained, skipping down a couple of stairs as I felt my hair dancing with the wind. "Because it feels like it goes on forever. Could it be that … you are tired already?"

"No," Altair said, appearing beside me as if he used teleportation magic, face inches from mine. "I am just worried you might feel tired, after all, your legs are sure to be sore."

"Honestly. How can you talk like that in public?" I asked, side-eyeing some of the other Priests that passed us, making them climb up the stairs even faster. "Do you have no shame?"

"Why should I? I was not the one that did anything last night." He said, trying to put on as much an innocent face as he could.

"Right. Because you took care of everything yourself, right?" I asked, pocking him on the side before running down the stairs just as I felt his hand reach out, almost grabbing me.

"Orion."

"Catch me if you can! Also, don't drop those boxes." I said, turning into a wolf as I raced down the stairs, avoiding the Priests in front of me by disappearing through their shadows and then appearing out the other end.

Wondering how he attempts to catch me while holding those wooden boxes the size of a laptop, I turned around just to see him floating in the air casually, the boxes in his mouth.

We made eye contact and he just smirked at me, coming even closer.

Enchanted wolves are so annoying. I thought, disappearing through the shadows before he could catch me and then decided to just move in the shadows alone.

There are enough people and shadows to do that in broad daylight. Now, how will he catch me? I wonder.

Carefully moving through the shadows of the people and then alternating between that and the shadows of the objects around us, I noticed that I was finally about to reach the end.

Just as I jumped out of the shadows at the end of the stairs, I turned back human and was about to land on the ground when a figure appeared in front of me out of nowhere.

What the-?