Children of the First

Here's the new chapter. There will probably be some bonus stuff between now and the next chapter, which will go up Monday at the latest, depending on whether I get a job by then.

Pebbles, Retis, and I set off toward one end of the scram field so we could take a look at one of the goal towers. We had already gone a little way into the forest when Roo and Jarn dropped out of the trees.

“Saurus,” Retis yelped. “You scared me.”

I chuckled. “They’ve been following us for a while now.”

“How d’you know?” he asked.

“Heard ‘em jumping between the trees,” I said. “You’re gonna have to be more aware than that during the actual game.”

I didn’t mention that I thought there had only been one of them following us, but I’d bet a gold it was Roo that I’d heard and not Jarn. At least I knew one of us would be making the team.

“Lode!” Pebbles cried and clapped her hands in a surprisingly girly way. “Now that we’re all here we can start the first lesson.”

“There are lessons?” Retis asked.

“Of course there are lessons,” she replied. “There are always lessons in scram.”

“So what’s the first one?” I asked apprehensively.

Pebbles flashed me a devilish grin. “Catch me,” she said, and shot off through the trees.

I just stood there, staring after her, until I felt Jarn dart past me.

“Shit!” I shouted, and the rest of us tore into the forest after her.

It’s pretty obvious how her people got their name; I could barely even see where she was, only catching “glimpses” of her here and there as she careened through the undergrowth.

It was almost impossible to keep up with her—she kept switching between running on two legs and using all four double-jointed limbs. “Double-jointed” is a bit of an understatement though, since she would be running in one direction then suddenly stop or push off a tree, flip all her limbs around and run in the complete opposite direction.

I don’t think her head turned all the way around, but she was moving so fast it was hard to be sure.

“Gai-damnit, Pebbles!” I was starting to get used to saying that.

“If you can talk, you’re not running hard enough!” she called back.

I put my head down and barreled ahead, ignoring the thorns that raked across my bare arms as I ran.

I was actually starting to close the gap when Pebbles looked over her shoulder. “You all still with me?” She called. “Good.”

She must have been holding back, because she was gone a second later. Jarn disappeared after her, leaving me swearing and clawing at the undergrowth. I tried to force my legs to move faster, but I was already tired and gave up on trying to stay with them. I slowed down a bit—part because I was tired, and part to let Retis and Roo catch up.

“Gai, she’s fast,” Retis puffed. “Jarn too. I wonder if he’ll catch her.”

“Doubt it,” Roo said. “He’s good, but nowhere near as quick as she is.”

“Well lets not end up looking like assholes,” I said after I’d caught my breath a bit. “If you can talk, you’re not running hard enough, right?”

I picked up speed again, leaping over brambles and skidding around trees. I couldn’t see Pebbles of Jarn anymore, and now that the pressure to keep up was gone, I could really enjoy the run. I nearly fell into a ditch that cut across my path, but I managed to jump and grab a branch to swing myself over.

I slipped in loose gravel on the other side of the gap, and twisted around to catch myself before I hit the dirt. I looked up just in time to see Retis leap over the ditch and barrel past me. He wasn’t as graceful as the others, nor as agile as I usually was, but he was more solidly built than any of us. He leaned forward as he ran, his clawed feet digging into the earth with each powerful stride.

I got up and chased after him. He held his tail out for balance, his upper body barely moving as he thundered down the path. Retis was faster on the straight-away, but I was faster on the turns, and had caught up to him before too long.

We were neck and neck when we reached the end of the path (a bit awkward since it was only a couple feet wide). The trail disappeared into a tangled mess of briars, so I planted my foot on the trunk of a tree and launched myself over the bush. Retis, on the other hand, simply charged ahead, grunting as he burst through the thorny vines.

When we made it out of the forest and up the grassy hill to the tower, we found Pebbles sitting atop the sandstone obelisk and Jarn leaning against the side.

“You… actually… caught her?” I panted.

“Hell no,” he said. “I’m just faster’n you guys.”

“Fuck… you,” Roo gasped, and flopped down onto his back.

Pebbles laughed and jumped down from her perch. “Not bad,” she said. “With a little work, you guys might not completely suck.”

“Gee… thanks,” Retis said, bracing himself with his hands on his knees.

Pebbles laughed again. “Relax a second,” she said. “Then we can get started,” she said.

“We haven’t started yet?” Retis sounded dismayed as he looked up at her.

“Don’t you wish.” She was thoroughly enjoying herself. “Hey Shawn, you okay?”

“Huh?” I looked down at the mess of scratches and dried blood on my arms. “Oh, yeah. Just some thorns, no big deal.”

“Okay,” she said. “We’re heading down to the stream after you all catch your breath—you can get cleaned up there.”

“Okay,” I nodded. The scratches didn’t really hurt, but they were starting to itch.

“There’s a stream?” Retis stood up, brightening. “Gai-damn, what’re we waiting for?”

“Keep yer pants on, Fishlips” Roo said. “Lemme breathe a minute, yeah?”

“Put some pants on, Fuzzball, then we’ll talk.”

“Alright,” Pebbles said after a few minutes. “Let’s get going.”

Retis let out a whoop and took off down the hill toward the stream.

The rest of us took our time, enjoying the breeze and unwavering sunlight.

“Tha’s a pretty nice glove y’got there, Shawn,” Jarn said.

“Thanks,” I smiled. “I like it.”

I looked down and saw he was wearing one too. “Hey, when did you get your glove?” I asked. “And what kind is that?”

“Roo and I got our gloves from th’ judges’ box before we met up with you in the woods,” he said. “We both use Bariwood spider-rings.” He held out his hand so I could see it.

Jarn’s glove was built like most spider-rings—five smooth rings connected to a wide bracelet. Normally, spider-rings are made out of silver, but Jarn’s was made of a rich brown wood (Bariwood, apparently) and the rings were attached to the bracelet with thin vines instead of silver chains.

“Don’t the wooden rings get in your way?” I asked.

“Nope!” he grinned. “Bariwood, man. It moves with you.”

“Nice.” I turned to my left. “Where’s your glove, Pebbles?”

“Oh, I didn’t bring it,” she said. “Derrick and I were just gonna run a course, so I didn’t think I’d need it.”

“Makes sense,” Roo agreed as we reached the water’s edge.

The stream ran along the edge of the field opposite the judges’ box where we came in. It started on our side and, as far as I could tell, ran all the way out the other end.

“Where’s the water come from?” I asked. “And where does it go when it reaches the other end?”

“I don’t know, he was a really powerful druid,” Pebbles replied. “You know how it’s the Aerwyn/ Olag gymnasium? Aerwyn was the druid and Olag was the thaumaturge… or maybe Olag was the druid, I can never remember.”

I got cleaned up and we watched Retis swim for a bit. Whatever grace and agility he lacked on land, he certainly made up for it in the water. He folded his legs and arms against his body and used his tail to steer through the gentle rapids. He would climb one of the steep banks every once in a while, barely making a splash as he dove back in.

After a while, Pebbles decided it was time to get back to the “lessons.” Retis climbed up the bank and put on the gauntlet he had tossed aside before diving in.

“Alright Teach, I’m ready to learn,” he said with a grin.

“Good,” she said. “First of all, you’ll have to set your spells.”

“Uh… I can’t really cast any spells,” he said, suddenly sheepish. “None that would be any use, anyhow.”

“But you know how to cast them, right? I mean, they teach you basic combat in high school.”

“Yeah, but I can’t do them very well.”

“Doesn’t matter,” Pebbles said. “As long as you know the spells and have cast them at least once, the glove will do the rest. Sometimes you don’t even have to have cast them before, just as long as you have the capacity for them.”

“Oh, okay.” Retis seemed relieved. “How do I set them?”

“Just put your other hand on the back of the gauntlet and imagine casting the spell. Since this isn’t a real game, we won’t worry about having different ones for offense and defense. Just pick three to set for now—a basic Jolt, Stun, and Shield would be good.”

Retis closed his eyes and concentrated as he put his hand on the glove. After a few seconds, the part under his hand started to glow.

“Okay,” he said as he opened his eyes. “All set.”

“Try casting Shield,” Pebbles told him. When Retis looked skeptical, she said, “Don’t think about it, just do it."

“Okay, here goes.” He held the glove out in front of him. A white oval flickered in front of his hand. “Hey! Look at that!” he exclaimed.

“Try it again."

He did, and this time the oval stayed. It was a couple feet tall and only half as wide, but it looked solid.

“Okay, Shawn, set your glove with the three spells Retis has, then you two can spar a bit while the Gibri and I do some tumbling drills.”

“Sounds good,” I said, and set my glove. “Retis, why don’t you send some Jolts at me to get a feel for it?”

At first, it took him a few seconds to produce each Jolt, but after a little while he was shooting gold sparks at me with relative ease and accuracy. We took turns attacking and defending, and before too long he was pretty comfortable with all three spells.

“You ready for some actual sparring, now?” I asked.

“Bring it on, Smokey,” he said, and fired a Jolt at me.

I dove out of the way and fired one back, which he blocked. I rolled under his next Jolt and came up right in front of him, casting a Stun as I rose. The air between us pulsed and Retis flew backwards a few feet. He got up and circled around to the right, throwing Jolts as he went. I blocked one and dodged the rest, firing one back that missed his head by inches.

Half an hour later, we lay panting on the grass. We’d both gotten in some decent hits (though I was the only one to land a Stun), and my foot was tingling where he had caught me with a Jolt.

Pebbles stood over me and looked down. “I think that’s probably about enough for the day,” she said. “What do you guys think?”

“I think I’m starving to death,” Retis said, and rolled to his feet.

We left the field and changed in the locker room before leaving the gym.

Pebbles had errands to run, so it was just the four of us as we walked back toward the dorm. We ordered pizza and hung out for a while before Roo and Jarn said they had to go get their stuff together for classes the next day. Shit, I thought. Classes!

This entry was posted on Monday, August 4th, 2008 at 12:18 pm and is filed under Chapters, CotF Main Story. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.