As Lala fell into the lava, she could feel her form shifting back. Her bald green head grew hair again. Her skin developed back into its alabaster white color. She felt her body shrinking back down to its normal size. She torpedoed into the lava headfirst and just before plunging into the molten rock and melting her skull, something stopped her descent,

  “Ladies and gentlemen! We have an upset! It seems… that Ironwood has rushed in to save the changeling!”

  Ironwood hooked her foot over the edge of the platform. She had extended her body and managed to snatch Lala’s leg. Lala swung, her longest hair strand singed as they brushed the lava. Ironwood swung Lala and tossed the changeling and herself back up. Lala slammed down onto the platform.

  Lala crawled up on all fours. Sweat dripped down her face and created a puddle on the ground. She pulled her head up and saw Ironwood staring at her.

  “Thank you.”

  The acrobat called out to Ironwood, “Come on! They’re getting ahead! We have to go!”

  Ironwood nodded to her teammate and stepped toward Lala. Lala shrunk. Iron walked past her adopted sister.

  Right before Ironwood stepped into the obstacles of rolling logs, she turned back to Lala and said, “Make it out alive. That was for the dwarf, but I’m not going to save you again.”

  Ironwood leapt through the platforms, gracefully jumping and dipping through the rotating logs. Ironwood made it through in no time.

  Lala got up, she refused to look at the crowd.

  “Lala!” Tamas’ voice cut through the crowd, “Come over here!”

  “Go on without me.” Said Lala, she could barely hear herself through the crowd of people.

  The way this race worked was that you had to cross the finish line, either first or with the most people. Everyone on both teams was still alive. Jasssper and Tamas had stopped jumping from donut to donut. They waited on the other side, debating whether they should go back.

  Lala was far behind. She attempted to stand up, but when she looked down, she saw her hands. Her skin. Her white hair. It sank in that she was in her non-shifted appearance. Worse yet were the boos and then at the audience. All she could hear were the boos. All she could see were the thousands of eyes staring at her. Judging. She covered her face and wrapped herself into a ball.

  Lala clutched her face, wishing the crowd would disappear. When she covered her face, she felt her scar. Her fingers traced over the grooves created by a human. Akun was right. The person who gave her that scar prevented her from ever being a full changeling. She changed to a form in which she was most comfortable. She changed into the woman with red hair and blue eyes. That was what she looked like when she felt most confident.

  Her jump boost was still in effect. Lala got up. She tracked the rotating logs and noted the lava on both sides. Lala ran, attempting to leap over one of the spinning logs. Her stride took her over one of the logs, but when she landed, she stepped into the radius of one of the other spinners. A big log slammed her against her obliques, twisting her and dropping. She did not drop low enough. The log she’d escaped squared her right in the face, and she fell. She tried to crawl, ducking under the logs.

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  Tamas and Jasssper both watched their teammate get whomped. Tamas wanted to stay, but Jasssper told them that those three would likely come for both of them and they needed to get moving. Jasssper and Tamas jumped from donut to donut as the enemy team closed in on them.

  Lala rolled under the log, and she leapt up. She jumped ten feet in the air. She hung in the air for too long, she came back down as the spinning log nailed her foot. She spun in the air, and the log thumped her chest and pulled her. She rolled along the platform toward the edge.

  As she rolled, she held her hand and broke momentum, feeling her foot dangle off the cliff, “Not again.” She thought, “I can’t get help from her again.”

  It was as she turned her head and waited as the log passed over her that she noticed something. The logs on the spinning mechanisms were timed so that every inch of the platform was at one point swiped. No area was safe. No area except for on top of the spinning devices themselves. She merely had to wait for the log to pass again. The log spun past her, and she propped herself up. Lala ran, and before the log could catch her again, she jumped.

  Lala aimed for the center of the spinning console and landed on it with her right foot. She took her left knee and, with the momentum created by the first jump, she lifted off toward the next console. She aimed her head at the next console and jumped at that one. She landed, and suddenly it became easier. She jumped again. Only two more to go. She jumped again, but this one felt different. She went up but went down harder. She felt the vibration in her knee. It dawned on her that her boost was running out. She quickly went for it again, but stopped short. She rolled, the log clipped her, but she was savvy enough from being punted before to throw her center of gravity over the log. She tumbled the rest of the way, but when she opened her eyes, no logs were passing above her. She had cleared the obstacle.

  She looked over at where her fellow teammates were at. Tamas and Jasssper were sharing the same donut, but the dwarf was on top of them. He had his sword out and punctured their tire. The air began to dissipate, leaving Jasssper and Tamas sinking. Jasssper hissed at Kiboz. Tamas took his lute and bashed the dwarf with it.

  Ironwood was halfway through the course. Lala watched as Ironwood pulled her sword out. When a magma serpent shot through the holes of the donuts, they snapped at Ironwood, but she was quick and sliced the magma serpent’s head off.

  Lala jumped down and landed. The donuts wobbled as soon as she landed on them. She attempted to settle the donut before moving to the next one.

  Tamas and Jasssper were trying to avoid the dwarf as he stabbed at them, but neither were combat-oriented.

  Tamas had his lute out, reinforced along the edges with steel specifically so that the quality of the sound was not damaged, but he could use this as a defense if need be, he could use it as a brace against errant stabs. As the dwarf brought down his sword, Tamas held his lute between both hands. When the dwarf pulled back against them, Tamas slammed his lute against the dwarf’s side. It did little to deter him and only allowed the acrobat to attack them. She leapt into the air, twisting around and landing safely on the tube, imbalancing Tamas. His rump touched the lava, and Tamas hollered in pain.

  “I’m on my way!” Lala yelled from her side.

  Tamas clamped onto the side of the tube. The acrobat lifted the whip but the magma serpent arose from the donut hole and chomped at the acrobat. The acrobat defended herself against the serpent. Tamas’s lute had been hurled to another donut. He reached out but could not make it. Jasssper coiled around Tamas’ arm and stretched his neck, wrapping around the end of the lute and pulling it back.

  “Thanks.” Tamas said, “Could you do one more thing?”

  “I'm not going to choke you again.”

  “Aw, dang.”

  Tamas got up with his lute, his fingers sweated and were already sore from all the gripping he’d been doing on the donut tubes, but he started playing. Kiboz stabbed Tamas. The blade nicked him in the side, and he bled. The dwarf brought his sword down, and Tamas used his lute as a shield. They were locked together, and in that time, Jasssper climbed back up Tamas and leapt at Kiboz, sinking his teeth into the dwarf’s neck. The dwarf slumped down dead.

  Tamas pulled himself back and said, “Aw man.”

  “What?” Jasssper asked.

  Tamas showed Jasssper his lute, “No more strings.”

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