We Fight Dragons (Volume 3, Chapter 4) "Strengthening"
The next morning there was just enough cereal and milk left over for everyone to have breakfast, although it had to be rationed. It was clear that they needed to gather their own food, which Jam thought was both alarming and exciting.
After eating and washing up, Rustam suggested to the other kids that they play some kind of game. 'Do you know Builders and Barbarians?’ he asked. No one else had ever heard of it, so he explained.
‘We split into two teams. Builders and Barbarians. We stack six flat stones on top of each other, and someone from the Barbarians throws the ball at the stack of stones to knock them over. The Builders have to rebuild the stack, but they can get out if one of the Barbarians can hit them with the ball, and the Barbarians win if they get all the Builders out. But the Barbarians cannot move while they are carrying the ball, and the Builders win if they can rebuild the stack before all getting out. Also, if a Barbarian throws the ball and it touches the ground, then the thrower is out. Or if a Barbarian throws the ball and a Builder catches it, the thrower is also out, and then the Builder can thrown the ball anywhere.’
‘I think I get it,’ Jam said. ‘But no powers allowed.’ Jam knew that they had to have that rule if they were to keep Tobes’ secret a secret.
‘No way!’ exclaimed Matheo. Both he and Karim were irritated by the limitation, and they demanded an explanation.
‘So it is fair for Enzo and Mels.’ Enzo smiled at Jam again, like a little brother.
Although they had to agree to it, Karim and Matheo remained united in their dislike of the ‘no powers’ rule, so when they broke into teams they made sure they were on the same side.
Jam, Tobes, Enzo, Mels, and Rustam started as the Builders, and they won the first game. The teams switched roles each game, and ultimately the team of Zach, Oli, Karim, and Matheo managed to win the next two games in a row.
Matheo boasted, ‘We beat you! And we didn’t even need powers!’
‘You only won because you have Zach,’ said Jam. ‘And he is the fastest, with or without powers.’ Matheo didn’t bother to disagree, because it was too obvious. But he kept gloating.
For the next game the teams stayed the same, so Mels and Rustam plotted together and suggested something called ‘Five Gems’.
Mels explained, ‘It is like 'Jacks’. You drop five stones on the ground, and have one in your hand. Each go, you toss the stones in your hand into the air, pick up another stone from the ground, and then catch all the tossed stones when they come down. You keep doing it until you are holding all the stones in your hand. If you can pick up all the stones then you make it through to the next round, and each round gets harder because you have to pick up an extra stone each toss. The last player who isn’t out wins the game, and you can tie if both teams go out in the same round.’
The last two surviving players ended up being Mels and Matheo, for their respective teams, each needing to pick up all five stones on the first toss.
Matheo went first. He tossed his stone in the air, and then scooped up five stones so quickly that his hand was a blur.
Mels frowned. Uncertain of what she’d seen.
‘He cheated!’ Oli declared.
‘I did not. Hey, you are supposed to be on my team!’
‘But you cheated,’ Zach added.
‘Yeah,’ added Jam. ‘We know know what it looks like when we use our powers.’ Tobes nodded, to back him up. Rustam and Karim reluctantly conceded the point.
Matheo was disqualified, but Mels still had to succeed in the round, or it was going to be a tie. Jam figured that she just had to toss the first stone high, to give her time to scoop up all five from the ground. To his surprise, she didn’t toss her stone higher at all, in fact she tossed it slightly sideways, and she used the toss as the movement to collect the other stones off the ground in a sweeping motion. It was a clever tactic, and it worked.
‘Then… I win?’ Mels asked, more surprised than anyone.
Rustam took Mels hand and held it aloft, like she was the winner of a fight. Everyone on their team cheered as they shared the victory. Jam cheered less enthusiastically, as he watch Rustam holding Mels hand.
When the cheers subsided and the kids got to talking about other things, Mels confided to Jam, ‘I picked this game because I knew I’d win. I used to played it a lot in primary.’
Matheo remained annoyed, not because he was caught cheating, but because of the ‘no powers’ rule. ‘This is not how my dad told me it would be! Playing with girls and babies!’
Jam jibed him that he was just being a sore-loser.
The banter was interrupted by Mr Kapadia, who approach the group looking as if he had some very serious news to deliver. Jam hadn’t had a chance to meet Mr Kapadia, but he seemed nice enough.
‘Listen up, all of you children!’ Mr Kapadia demanded their attention. After he was sure that he had it, he gave them an ominous warning.
‘We are not the only one’s here at this place. Every Corded Sun attracts the attention of a creature called the Huldraba! We don’t know what it is, but we believe that it is a wilderness spirit, and it has been here since before our people started using this place. It is not a Dragon, but it is dangerous. There are stories of people who walked too far into the woods being abducted by the creature, never to be seen again. And apparently, its bite is venomous.’
Jam felt a chill run down his spine, because Mr Kapadia seemed to look right at him when he was describing the Huldraba.
‘We think it is afraid of fire and stone, but no one who it has taken has ever returned to say if this is true. All we can say, is that no one who has stayed near the camp has even gone missing.’ Mr Kapadia surveyed the kids with a stare that fixed them to the spot. ‘Have I made myself clear?’
Several of the boys nodded mutely.
‘I asked, have I made myself clear? You are Knights, so speak up!’
Jam was first to answer. ‘Yes sir,’ he gulped. ‘We won’t go into the woods.’ The others echoed his example, even Enzo and Mels.
Mr Kapadia’s mood lifted noticeably. ‘Good!’ he exclaimed, with more cheer than seemed to suit the moment. ‘You understand the peril. Now have fun playing. The work will start soon.’ And with that, he left.
Mels eyes were wide with wonder. ‘What does a forest spirit look like? I wonder why it’s here?’
Jam hoped that he would never find out. However, he was now old enough to know that merely hoping for something never worked, and bad things also tended to happen no matter how much you hoped they wouldn’t.
Such thoughts made him glance at Matheo, who probably understood this more them any of them, and Jam hoped that he would never find out what it was like to lose his father.
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