Back with Kat.
----
Thyme had passed out cards for an impromptu poker tournament after the thirty minute mark passed and all the volleyball players were still going strong. Thirty minutes after THAT Thyme pulled every to the side again. "Right… so I know it's getting rather late and you've already technically missed lunch but I wanted to make the offer again. Do you want to take the chance to start the wood chopping contest? It's much simpler and only going to take forty-five minutes maximum. Fifteen for the setup, and the judging at the end, with thirty minutes for the activity itself,"
Everyone sort of looked over at everyone else and just shrugged. The poker tournament had turned into a mess because most people didn't actually know how to play poker, Thyme's deck had a bunch of extra cards in it, not just to Kat but to everyone, and it had turned into something fairly fun. The extra cards were all weird things like 'you win this round if you successfully do a handstand for the entire following round' or 'you lose immediately unless you manage to score lower then a six out of ten in a dance contest'.
All, very weird, but quite fun with they appeared. Kat was actually pretty curious as to why a poker tournament with these amusing cards wasn't part of the main contest. Perhaps it would be, but Kat doubted it. Oh, and it was worth mentioning that Thyme provided chips for everyone to play with. Though they weren't actually worth anything. They weren't even worth the same amount as others of the same colour.
Green chips could be worth anything from one all the way to fifty, except for one chip that Kat had managed to sneakily pass off to Romilda that had negative two hundred points on it. Red and purple weren't much better, though purple chips only seemed to have prime numbers on them.
All of this was to say that, passing the time had become rather amusing and giving that up for a rather simple sounding woodchopping event wasn't everyone's favourite idea… but it did need to be done. Blue seemed to be going strong, and Marigold was getting into the grove of things. She'd adjusted her healing a bit and was keeping herself from making the same mistakes as last round. Burgandy was doing her best, and Gareth was doing his best to nap.
In the end though, it was Vanya that stepped up. "I say we go through with it. Marigold will be sad to have missed out on a bunch of sweaty people chopping would, but honestly after the she riled up Blue enough to force a final round happening for real, I'm not feeling like rewarding her,"
Thyme looked around but once again he got a round of shrugs. Thyme seemed to deflate a bit at that. Thyme had managed to create an interesting, and entertaining party game. They hadn't played more than a few rounds, so nothing too silly had happened yet but it was at least interesting. Still, Thyme was the one running the tournament, and the plans for it had already been submitted for approval. Thyme knew they couldn't just start an unsanctioned gambling operation mid-tournament. Especially not INSTEAD of an official event. "Right, well seeing as everyone is, if not in agreement, at least apathetic enough not to complain, we're going to do the wood-chopping contest now. I just need the contestants… but honestly? I don't think I can muster up the enthusiasm to care if anyone else comes along,"
The group that would be chopping all stepped forward. Kat stepped forward alongside March, Mauve, Nabras and Asteodia. Kat looked at her competition, and rather quickly dismissed Nabras and Asteodia.
*They just aren't that scary. Nell seems strong then Nabras, who is more in line with Kress as a fighter then March and Marigold. Mauve at least I understand considering she had an axe on her when she arrived, so she probably knows her way around an axe better then most. And March… well… I'm strong, very strong, and very fast but March is March so I'm not going to count her out just yet.*
Nixilei stepped up to go as well, while Green said, "I'm going to stay here with Gareth. Even if he's not doing anything important or interesting I should still cheer for him!"
"And I'll stay as well," said Kress. "Because we all know that Green is going to fall asleep no more than five minutes after you've all left and while I trust Thyme to take keep her safe while she does… I am a bodyguard technically, and it's not really Thyme's job to watch over sleepy fae."
This of course caused Stan to decide on staying, which tipped the scales quite a bit. Pretty much everyone else decided they didn't want to be anywhere near Stan while he was flirting. The only people sticking around were Carl, Ellenell and Burnice, who had accepted Vanya's job of keeping Marigold out of the worst of trouble for the time being.
With that Thyme snapped their fingers and stepped away to reveal they were on the opposite side of the island just off the beach. The sea was behind them, and in front of them was five stumps, and then behind them was a massive stack of logs about two-thirds of Kat's arm in length. Off to the side was a variety of axes in different styles. Hand-axes, double side axes, a normal looking axe with a reasonably long handle and an axe head designed for cutting wood instead of people.
"I would've made everyone walk, but as I said, I understand that everyone is ready to wrap things up and have lunch. I'll be moving back the final event as well so that you all have time to actually eat instead of just smelling the food before time is up. Now, rules are super basic. You'll have thirty minutes to cut as many logs as you can manage into four even pieces. No magic allowed.
"That's basically the all the rules. You can use your hands, one of the axes, heck if you think you can get away with staring at the logs until they split you can try that as well. The four pieces all have to be no more, or less then two percent off a quarter of the log. So be careful how you're cutting things. Little splinters are fine, but same as before. The logs have to be within one percent of a quarter, including missing splinters. The only other thing that you might find difficult is this final matter…
"The stump you are using to cut wood must remain in one piece. Some cuts and light damage is fine, but if the stump separates into two pieces then you're automatically eliminated. Now, that's all the rules. Oh, and Mauve you CAN use your own axe if you want… but I wouldn't recommend it. That seems like a good way to dull a nice blade. I won't stop you so you can, if you want, but yeah I wouldn't recommend it. Oh wait! One final thing. You are not allowed to attack your competitors or try to sabotage their log piles,"
Kat nodded, but Lily frowned mentally and pointed out. [Thyme didn't say anything about attacking other people's stumps. This game is going to boil down to not just how many logs can you chop, but if you can do it while keeping your chopping station in one piece.]
*So what are you saying? Should I try to take out everyone's stumps instead of focusing on chopping wood?*
[Hmm… no probably not. You've got a good chance of at least coming second I think. It might be worth sabotaging March or Mauve, right before the timer ends. Just go for whoever is doing better. If you tried to go after anyone early, they'd all just gang up on you then perhaps fight it out. Though because you aren't supposed to fight each other… or sabotage the log piles you'll need to be careful.]
[Hmm… that might be something worth looking into. Perhaps you should start by building up a log wall around your stump? Make it hard to get to your stump, or interfere with you by making sure that to get to either they'd need to 'sabotage' your log pile?]
*Not necessarily a bad idea… but I feel like I'd need quite a lot of wood for that and I'm not entirely sure I'd have the time. Well, no I do have the time thirty minutes is a while but I think I'd fall too far behind everyone else. I'll also need to work out what the best way to chop everything in four is. I can't just keep swinging, I'll need to stop and pick up all my halves at some point…*
[If you're really good maybe you can cut the wood almost all the way in half then in half again while it's still held together at the bottom?]
*Seems… unrealistic but I can give it a shot?*
Read 𝓁atest chapters at fr(e)ewebnov𝒆l.com Only