Prior to Nelly's run . . . Both Heath and Iliana couldn't help but overhear the conversation between Nelly and Evelyn. Heath caught Evelyn's confused look at him too and he merely shrugged in response. He had no clue on where Nelly got the idea that two people had to do that sort of thing in Seven Minutes in Heaven. If Heath had to guess, it was probably Fiona since those two were good friends now. But that was a guess since Nelly enjoyed talking to a lot of people.
When Nelly started stretching, Evelyn asked her what she found appealing about Sylas, or so she assumed Sylas since they just talked about him.
"If you're talking about Sylas, I honestly don't know. I just felt instantly drawn to him because of his enigmatic persona. Charming for sure, but unpredictable. I know now he's someone I don't want to underestimate, if his trial taught me anything. Why do you ask? Have you got your eye on him?"The first part was said in a serious tone, which is rare for Nelly, but it turned playful when she asked those last two questions. Her eyes twinkled at Evelyn. She very tempted to ask how well Sylas kissed, but not only was that in bad tasted, but even Nelly would never ask such a personal question in front of others.
After Nelly's runHeath had overall been impressed with Nelly's run, even though Mason gave her a run for her money. Sofia had done a decent job too. Iliana was wondering how she was going to get through this course in one piece. One thing was sure, after this, she was going to work out more. Soon the fourth group was called out and three of those names stuck out to Iliana. First was Leo and to her surprise it was the red-head guy sitting near Veronica, who had been called as well. She recalled last night that Duke told her he was a son of Ares, making him Trinity's sibling. Looking around she spotted Trinity. This sibling did look nicer, and Duke did say to give him a chance. So she would. The other name was Baxter. He was the guy who gave her that nice drink last night. Where was he? Heath also noticed only four campers too.
"Someone didn't show up. River is not going to be happy about that since in his announcement he wanted us to be here on time."Iliana nodded, agreeing with him. The idea of being late or not showing up terrified her and she knew River was capable of intense emotions.
"Well, I am going to warm up before my name is called. Do you want to join me, Lia?"Iliana nodded and the two went about their own routine while Iliana continued to watch the race. Leo blazed through it similar to River. The dark hair male wasn't too far behind him, but the other dark hair female and Veronica took a little longer to finish. She wished she could go down there and check on Veronica. She promised herself she would do just that after training was done that day. Heath and Iliana finished their stretching before the 5th group could be called out. Heath wondered how Wes was going to do certain courses, especially the rope climb when he lacked an arm. Hopefully there was something else he could do.
During this whole time, Nelly had been cooling down and was feeling a bit better after doing that, returning to her old seat. She was definitely going to have a nice, good bath after this though. Watching the current group, it seemed to her that the only one doing decently was the lady out in front. The rest seemed to be struggling one way or another. Her heart went out to Wes naturally. She wanted to cheer for them too, but being close to others, she didn't want to accidentally shout in someone's ear.
After the last runner finished the course, it wasn't long for the 6th group was called. Hearing Heath and Iliana's names, Nelly turned to them.
"Good luck you two," she smiled at them.
Iliana looked very nervous but nodded.
"Thanks. Come on, sis, let's go," Heath said before heading down, with Iliana following him.
One name did stick out to Heath though. Pallas. That happened to be his middle name. Besides Fiona, there was two other males, one who was a blonde like him, and the other with darker skin. One of them was probably his half-brother. It was too much of a coincidence not to be. He would find out eventually, but for now his attention was on the course.
Iliana looked briefly at the others in her group. She had no doubt Fiona would do well. Of course she hoped Heath did good too. Looking briefly at the other two males, both good like they were in great condition. If anyone was going to struggle, it be her.
Just then the race started. Heath had no issues with the tires but knew he didn't do it as quickly as other did. He wanted to pace himself after all. The log jumps were harder to do than he thought though. He was going to work on his upper body strength for sure. He saw Fiona was a nice distance from him and could barely see the two males, but he wasn't going to worry about them. Important thing was to take no more than 15 minutes. After completing the 2nd obstacle, he couldn't help but look back to see how Iliana was doing and she was struggling on the log jumps. Hoping she improved, he moved onto the next obstacle, which was the low crawl. This proved to be trickier than he thought. He never did this activity before, and he tried recalling how other did it, which did help. This type of workout definitely required good core strength. Already Heath was thinking of ways to improve his own routine.
Getting up, Heath was tempted to check on his sister again but manage to not get distracted. Instead, he focused on the rope climb, which really was as hard as others seemed. He went a bit slower than he liked but barely managed to make it up to the top. Once he was down, he did glance at Iliana since he need to take a breath or two. He couldn't see her, so he assumed she was in the low crawl. Moving on, he didn't have too much trouble with either the rope bridge nor the swing. In fact, he hoped he was making up for loss time by the time he got to the balance beam. This was probably the easiest for him if he was honest since he was always good with balance, but it going down was a bit tricky. Thank goodness he was patient like his mom. It was a nice relief when he got into the water. This was something he did miss. Scotland had brief short summers, so they always made the most of it and often took trips to a nearby lake to swim growing up. This reminded him of that. He didn't take too casual though, this course was still timed.
Once out of the water, Heath started climbing that ladder and by this time, he was pretty tired. His arms ached, but he didn't complain, kept pushing forward, determined to make the time. Seeing one last obstacle, he found the energy within himself to make the jump and landed on both feet. Leaning forward, he tried catching his breath.
"I definitely need to . . . improve." he said in between breaths, not bothering to see if anyone was there.
He turned to look at his sister, who was still a ways off. While he didn't cheer, he did clap for her.
Iliana didn't have a good start. She tried doing the tire walk, but almost tripped a few times. She focused and barely managed to clear it without falling flat on her face. Coming to the log jumps, she recalled how others do it and tried mimicking that, but she fell trying to get to the second log. That knocked the wind out of her. Embarrassed, she still got up and tried again, this time succeeding. Taking a deep breath, she prayed to her mom for strength and barely made it to the third log, but it was a struggle to haul herself up.
~Come on, Lia, you like climbing trees, you can do this.~ she mentally told herself, trying to be her own cheerleader.
She managed to make it the rest of the way, but her upper strength was already zapped. It be a miracle if she make the time requirement. The low crawl was a bit of a welcome relief, but it was still a struggle since her arms felt like noodles at this point. She hoped Heath was doing okay, Fiona too. She took this time to catch her breath a bit too. The low crawl was over sooner than she thought and the next one was one she dread the most, the rope climb. She kept trying to climb it, but each time fell after a few tries and eventually was forced to move on. She was very frustrated with herself for sure, but tried to keep her emotions at bay since she didn't want her powers to activate and automatically disqualify her. She deliberately took her time with the rope bridge, but almost lost her footing a few times. She would not quit though. Coming to the rope swing, she tried her best to hold on, but her strength gave out and she felt into the water. Embarrassed, she got back on land. She wanted to cry at this point but refused to. She'd been through worse, she'd get through this.
Coming up to the balance beams, she only slipped a few times, but this time got back up and kept doing it. She may be the weakest here physically, but she would keep going. Because, she could only improve from here, right? With the swimming section, she didn't do the traditional freestyle, but did the backstroke since that was always easier for her, but at some point she did turn over to finish doing freestyle since she didn't want to hit her head. She could see that she was almost down. Her lungs were burning for air by this point, but she kept moving. Climbing the ladder, she struggled and went slowly, but at least she did slip on her way up. However she almost tripped on her way down. Seeing the final jump, she put everything she had into it, and miraculously manage to clear it, but she collapsed onto her back when she did, completely worn out.
Heath was by her sides in seconds.
"You made it, sis," he said, worry very clear in his eyes and radiating off of him.
She merely gave him a thumbs up, she was so out of breath she couldn't talk.
"Do you want me to carry you back up?"Not wanting to argue for once, Iliana nodded.
While Heath was still tired himself, he picked up his sister and carried her back to their seats. He put her on a seat, and she just rested her head and arms on her legs. Nelly would have said something, but for once decided to be quiet. Instead, she just padded Iliana on her back in comfort.
Interactions ~ Evelyn
@xNocturnax ~ Mentions ~ Sylas, Fiona, Leo, Veronica, Kacper, Katryna, Baxter, River, Ariana, Tapeesa, Wes, Anissa, Pallas, Colton
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