Aurora had her eye on the prize - or, what she assumed was the prize. She'd seen the round knot on the side of the trunk and that was her target. She hadn't seen any other knots on the tree after circling it a few times, and this was was almost TOO perfectly round to be believable. That HAD to be it. They might as well have painted it bright red to signal that it was the correct one.

She took a few steps forward, branches and snow crunching under her shoes as she began to pick up the pace. The first branch aimed for her, and she jumped to the side with relative ease. Wow, she had forgotten how much smaller she had been just a mere eight years ago - she was MUCH faster and agile than she had remembered. Perhaps she had just never noticed at the time, or maybe having the stamina of a sixteen year old in a eight year old body was making her move faster than normal. Each jump seemed to take less energy, and she seemed to move faster with less effort. Either way, she wasn't TOO sure her normal self could move like this - best take advantage of it before the potion wore off!

After she dodged the first branch, another one - a particularly LARGE one - was trying to come down RIGHT on top of her head. She sprinted towards the tree, avoiding the crushing blow from above while also hopping to jump over a vine that was aiming at her feet. This was by far the most challenging thing she had ever done. She had never been a particularly athletic child, but your body could do crazy things under the pressure of adrenaline! Her wide brown eyes were darting left and right, watching for the slightest bit of movement that would clue her in to the tree's next move.

She had to side step back a bit to avoid another branch, and as she did so, a branch came down and SMASHED on the ground next to her, causing her to throw out her arms to keep her balance. WOW. That had been a close one. The branch had come so close, she had goosebumps from the WHOOSH it'd made as it passed her ear. Shudder. If she had been her normal size, it would have gotten her ear, and gotten it good. The momentary set back didn't stop her from focusing though - the tree wasn't stopping, despite her small loss of balance, and she had to literally DIVE to the ground to avoid another branch crashing down on her.

Landing with a grunt, she got to her hands and knees just in time to see a GIANT branch that looked WAY too much like a hammer coming down RIGHT at her head. Aurora gasped and buried her face in the ground, rolling like a log to the right and narrowly avoiding being turned in to a pile of guts on the ground. Her heart was pounding out of her chest due to that near miss, but she had to remind herself to keep moving as she shakily got to her feet. She could feel her protection spell wearing off, and her suspicions were confirmed when a vine wiped at her face the second she got to her feet. In her attempt to dodge, it still got the edge of her cheek, causing a blinding burning sensation that made her eyes water and her whole right side of her face to grow numb. She reached up and a fresh streak of blood was on her cheek, which wasn't a surprise.

Still, she had to KEEP MOVING. She was so close!

Going in to a full on sprint, she decided to just go for it, eyes locking on the knot again and making a beeline for it. As she ran, she jumped over another vine that had attempted to take out her legs, and dove to the side to avoid a branch that was trying to take the OTHER side of her face. She scrambled to her hands and knees, half crawling and half running towards the trunk. Her hands were growing numb from constantly falling in the cold snow, and her leggings were starting to get caked in dirt - and she didn't even want to THINK about what her face looked like at the moment. Her beautiful, perfect face!

The giant hammer looking branch was BACK and wanting vengeance, but thankfully Aurora was better prepared for this one. She stopped, staring at the branch as it came for her, and she was certain it couldn't back out of the swing, she sprung in to action and power sprinted to the side, missing the blow and giving herself a few seconds of much needed safety while the tree recoiled from the attack. It wasn't until after she had dodged it that it occurred to her just how STUPID that move was, and how terrible that could have ended up.

Ah well. It had worked and that was all that matter. This was a competition, after all - you had to take risks!

The knot was just a few inches away from her, and she jumped forward, pushing her entire body weight onto the knot. Here's hoping that worked...