We Fight Dragons (Volume 2, Chapter 4) "Pranked"
After several days the chatter at school surrounding Jam and Emma died down, and most people remembered that Emma was prone to spinning exaggerated stories. However, Jam still got the sense that the girls in school looked at him cautiously whenever he was around.
More importantly in Jam’s mind, he had realised how hard it was to tell if someone was a Knight. Both he and Zach agreed that this was a good thing, however, it frustrated their efforts to prove that Oli was also one of them. One afternoon when Jam was reading old stories about a boy who played jokes on his family and friends, he had a breakthrough idea that he shared with Zach.
‘Zach, just hear me out… we’ve always thought about testing Oli, but what about his parents? If he’s a Knight, then his mum must be a Maiden and his dad must be a Knight. That’s right isn’t it?’
‘That’s what they told me too.’
‘Did they tell you what happens when a Maiden is in danger?’
‘My dad said that he knows when my mum is in trouble. Like you and your father knew when your mum was kidnapped by that Dragon. I get what you’re saying, but Jam we can’t kidnap Oli’s mum! What if we’re actually wrong? They’d lock us up!’
‘Relax. Of course. But what if it doesn’t have to be so extreme? And what if the Maiden doesn’t even have to know?’
Zach pondered the complicated metaphysics behind the question. ‘Maybe… if this is a gift… then the warning is not coming from the Maiden… it’s from the god of light. Does that make sense?’
‘Exactly! So the Maiden doesn’t have to know what’s about to happen. That’s what I was thinking. So, we don’t have to actually do anything. We just just need to set up some kind of danger.’
‘Whoa, Jam! I don’t like the sound of that!’
‘I think it’s more about ‘intent’ than anything else. Instead of danger or a threat, think of a prank, like a bucket of water on top of a door.’
Zach laughed. ‘Sounds corny! You think it would work?’
‘Do you have a better idea?’
Zach didn’t, and they decided to give it try.
Several days later, when Mr Smith was still working at his electrical repair shop and Mrs Smith had come home for the day, Jam and Zach were hanging at Oli’s house after school. When Mrs Smith was weeding the family vegetable garden, Zach kept Oli distracted while Jam found an old laundry bucket, filled it with water, and stood on a chair to place it above the door to the garden.
As soon as he’d stepped down from the chair he heard Oli calling out to his mum, and his urgent footsteps rushing towards him. Oli, pursued by an astonished Zach, came running towards the door to the garden. Jam understood how Oli felt. He knew that that Oli was so concerned that he would be unaware of the bucket of water even though it was easy to spot. He tried to stop Oli from using the door, however, Oli carefully but forcefully pushed him aside despite the fact that Jam called on his power to restrain his friend.
The door opened. The bucket tipped, and then fell.
Instead of the water hitting Oli, it doused Jam who was standing next to him. The bucket clattered loudly when it landed just beside them.
In an instant Oli was back in control of himself and his sense of alarm was gone. He looked at his friends, bemused.
‘Did you two just try to prank me?’
‘Yuh!’ said Jam, flapping water off his soaked sleeves. ‘And it worked.’
‘Really? Did you notice that laundry bucket was metal! Jam, someone could have got really hurt!’
‘Shit!’ In his excitement Jam had failed to notice the real threat. ‘Close one! I’m sorry, but I promise we can explain. Um… can I get a towel? And borrow a hoodie?’
Later in Oli’s room, after the water was mopped up and Jam as dry as he could get, Jam started explaining. ‘So, you ran out of your room really fast. Do you know why?’
Oli looked perplexed. ‘I guess I must have heard you setting it up. But come to think of it, I don’t remember why!’
‘Don’t think about what happened. Try to remember what you felt.’
‘I felt… this kind of dreadful feeling in my gut… like when you get too much air off a jump, and you look down and can already tell it’s going to be a bad landing.’
‘Top analogy!’ Zach exclaimed. All the boys still regularly rode their BMX and jumped the creek.
Jam knew the conversation could quickly go off in the wrong direction, so he brought it back on track. ‘But why did you suddenly get that feeling? And why did it suddenly go away?’
‘Um… intuition? Maybe? It’s not that unusual. It’s happened before. Like when mum was at home and I was a school, but I knew something was going to happen so I pretended to be sick and went home.’
‘What was wrong?’
‘Dad had bought this new toaster from overseas, and it wasn’t wired up properly. He said that she could have been electrocuted!’
‘Your dad went home too?’
‘Yeah.’
‘And that doesn’t strike you as unusual?’
‘No. It felt normal. Like that’s what should happen.’
‘Have you always had these feelings?’
Oli looked up at the ceiling as he thought. ‘Come to think about it, I reckon they started earlier this year. Can’t pin it down. Why? It’s good. Why does it matter?’
Zach interjected, because he was worried that Jam would start blabbing about Knights and Maidens. ‘It’s fine. It’s normal. For us. What you need to do is tell your parents that you have them, and ask them why they happen.’
‘Yeah, and do us a favour,’ Jam added. ‘Please don’t mention that we told you. That would just get them pissed off with us.’
Oli surprised them with what he said next.
‘You know, I’ve always thought my parents were a bit different, and maybe that means I am too. I need to show you something. Wait here.’ Oli left them while he snuck into his parent’s room and went through his dad’s side-table. He came back with a highly stylised and well-crafted copper amulet. It reminded Jam and Zach of the amulets that their own dads wore.
‘Watch this,’ Oli said, as he held the amulet by its cord, and held his other hand underneath. The amulet started to spin, and the more he concentrated on it the faster it went. It didn’t take long for the entire chain to get twisted into a shortened ball, and it kept trying to spin. ‘Cool, huh? I found out I could do it just by mucking around. I mean, it’s not odd is it?’
‘That’s so cool,’ admired Jam and Zach in unison. They hadn’t thought to experiment with the amulets. Jam was particularly cautious around them after he caused a freakish electrical storm the time that Zar visited town. Oli seemed to have more intuitive control of amulets than either of them had.
Remembering Zar for a moment automatically made Jam wonder how Mels was doing in the city? Were Zar and Mels even still friends?
Then his mind returned to more immediate things, like how the three of them were going to show Tobes that he was also a Knight.
Later that evening, ending the day around the dinner table, Jam had to speak the truth but he left out some key details. ‘Today, Zach and I played a prank on Oli. Or we tried to. But I didn’t understand how it could have gone badly. It was only… luck… that his mum wasn’t hurt.’
‘And what did you learn from the experience?’ Mum asked.
‘That… I’m not as clever as I think I am?’
‘Oh, you’re clever. You just need to think ahead a bit more.’
‘Yes, mum.’ Despite how things had worked out in the end, Jam still felt embarrassed for being praised, when in fact he had only told half the truth.
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