Bambi and the Duke

Vivian stood at the far corner of the crowd of the hundred candidates who had come to take part in the annual examination of the council so that they could be part of the law. She looked at the crowd, a mix of human, vampires and pureblooded vampires had come to attend it in the hope to be able to work for them.

If someone had asked her a year ago if she would be standing anywhere near the council she would have stared at them for their ridiculous question but now that she was here, she calmed down her nerves. There were no women, not even one single one of them which only added to her nervous wreck mind. It didn’t help when men stared at her with a sarcastic look of what she was doing here. The pureblooded vampires didn’t mingle with others as they considered themselves to be too high to talk to creatures who belonged to the lower status.

A ruckus formed somewhere in the middle before a man was beating another one suddenly due to which guards had to come and take them away from the crowd.

The exam was going to take place in a building away from the council where she had previously stepped into. Looking at the large gates which were locked, Vivian who had her back leaned against the wall observing the men who had come. There was nothing else to do but wait before the gates would be opened.

Finally, when the gates did move inwardly, the men began to flood inside slowly filling space where a man stood sporting a beard.

”Welcome, gentlemen. I am Lionel and will be the one invigilator your exam today,” the man announced when everyone had quietened down. Vivian didn’t miss the fact the way the man disregarded the fact that she was also present among the group, flocking her to the male category, ”This is the fifty-seventh year of the council exam. Divided into two categories where the first one will be the written exam. An exam to test your knowledge and how you would tackle in various work task if you were given one. During this time, no cheating shall be entertained, which I doubt can be done. You will be removed and disqualified for the next two years. The second exam is what you will get to know once and if you pass the exam. Please follow the guards and take the seats so that we can start the process.”

Vivian followed the men, stepping inside the vast room she took the closest empty seat she could find. Settling herself like the others she waited for the councillors to pass on the sheets of paper of question where answers had to be filled in. Taking her quill she had brought along with her, she took the paper which was sealed in an envelope.

”Before anyone tears, the envelope,” came the voice of the head invigilator, ”Please remember that everyone question needs to be answered. Failed to complete the paper, your answers will be put into the trash of unwanted list. You will have three hours to complete the exam. Once done, place it in your seats and leave the room to wait outside. The results will be relayed by the end of the day. You can now start,” on his word, every person in the room began tearing the envelope to read the questions so that they could answer it quickly.

Like the rest, Vivian tore the corner of the envelope to pull out a couple of papers out of it.

Looking at the top, she first wrote her name as asked. Happy that they hadn’t asked for the gender or the species one belonged to, she started reading the questions which had enough space where one could write the expected answer.

None of the questions was direct. It was tricky and twisted, making one think hard before writing down the answer. The edicates were the easiest to Vivian to write down when it came down to scenarios. With her sound memory and Leonard’s questions with revision time and time again during their meals, she was able to answer them quickly without wasting much time.

It was after answering the eleventh page did the level of difficulty increase. Though she tried to read the questions more than once or twice, some didn’t make sense to her. Pressing her lips she decided to leave it empty for the time being and return back to it once she was done answering. The councilman had given them three hours of time but with the exam paper having more than two hundred plus questions, she didn’t know how one could complete the paper on time.

Few she answered while few she kept it on hold, hoping to find enough time to answer during the last hour. All the candidates wrote their answers carefully, some had not even bothered to lift their head up and instead, they went on to write.

Moving to the twentieth page, Vivian found a strange page. It wasn’t that the question was odd but it was that there was no space to answer it. Where was one supposed to answer? She carefully sat back and wondered what it was about. Surely, the man had told to complete the paper or they would be immediately disqualified from the exam with rejection. If he really wanted it to be answered, where was one supposed to write?

Her lips set in a thin line, she read the question once, then twice and a few more times yet there was something about it. It was a trick question. A question that couldn’t be ignored and had to be answered to acknowledge the presence of one’s mind, thought Vivian to herself but then where was the clue? She turned the page and read the other questions which followed a similar pattern. With only questions and no answers to be written.

She looked around, her eyes very careful while scanning the room. It somewhat gave her relief when she caught sight of a few perplexed faces as they stared at the paper.

That meant everyone had received the same question paper but they had to figure it out.

Leonard had told her that the exams in the council were never repeated. It always changed its pattern trying to implement and improve its methods and also to have quality people to work with.

Dread began to fill her. What if she was going to fail with not one or two but so many questions left blank? Two hours had already passed and she had barely finished anything. Turning the pages until the end, she read the last question before moving up. Eyes scanning the page from one question to another.

It was after fifteen minutes of reading the paper did Vivian realize something was very much familiar from the last question to the one she was reading now. She flipped back the page and read through to finally realize something. These questions weren’t questions but a complete story of a probable case which was jumbled around to make it look like different scenarios. The answers were supposed to be written in the blanks given previously.

With only thirty more minutes that was left before the exam would be completed, Vivian began to scribble her answers with what she had read through. Not letting a single question unanswered she finally completed the paper at the end moment.

Looking at everyone’s face, she could see the confused, some dejected and some who didn’t express about how they felt about the questions that were given to them. Soon the papers were given to evaluate and the candidates stood outside waiting for the result to come out. Vivian wondered if there were many councilmen to evaluate each and every paper as it didn’t seem to look like an easy task, especially when it was said that the result would be out by end of the day.

The exam had taken place before noon and now it was the time of evening. The sun was about to set, the sky splashed with beautiful pink, blue, red to have a serene atmosphere though one couldn’t guarantee it was the same for the people who waited outside.

Finally, the man named, Lionel arrived with a sheet of paper in his hand. Looking at the size of it anxiety began to appear in the atmosphere, hoping and praying that they had made through the round.

”I have the results in my hand. Names that will be called are the ones that have made it through, the rest are the rejected candidates,” spoke the councilman who began to call the first name, then the second, stopping at the ninth name he stared before calling her name, ”And Vivian. That is all.”

She had made it! She couldn’t wait to tell it to Leonard now.

”This looks unfair!” voiced a man in anger, ”I made sure to answer all of them.”

”Yeah! Yeah!” some of them joined at the disappointment that they were trying hard to digest that they had failed the exam.

”I have studied more than the syllabus that was asked, answering them and you say rejected?!”

Lionel then spoke, ”It isn’t my fault that you are a dumb idiot which I can clearly see. Just because you were asked to fulfil the task, it didn’t mean you had to write answers that were wrong. We wouldn’t want a man who in the future will take a decision because he needs to complete the case and move to the next one. We need someone who will do a thorough check before submitting any report than half bullshit which I am not interested in,” said the councilman, leaving the candidates outside as he was done with his job.