by Bill Albert
“The string was spun from the webs of the giant spiders of the Stack Black Mountains and are stronger than any known stretchable substance in existence,” the man continued.
Gallif started to work her way into the crowd to get a better look.
“Along with this you get two dozen beautiful arrows crafted by a team of a dozen dwarves’ whose virgin daughters hand cut the feathers from Rainbow Mountain eagles.”
There was a general giggle from the crowd at the mention of the virgin daughters and Gallif smiled quietly to herself. She was very close to the podium now and had a clear view of the bow and arrows the man was promoting. She nodded to one of the assistants who brought over an arrow for her to inspect. She couldn’t deny that it was the finest craftsmanship she had ever seen.
“And of course, ladies and gentlemen, humans, dwarves, halflings and others, what good would a bow and arrow set be without a high-quality sheath to carry the arrows in? The final piece of this set is certainly the finest seen in this region for hundreds of years.” With that he pulled a thick leather sheath from behind the podium. There was silence from the crowd as the red tinted leather was waved before them. With a grand sweep he took a dagger from the podium and slashed into the sheath. He held it to the crowd and soon the cut on the leather was sealed and disappeared. There was no doubt that this was protected.
“What else would you expect of this magnificent piece brought to us today by the Third Minister of the Giant Lords himself?” There was a gasp in the crowd and all doubt of the authenticity of the piece was removed. For all the bluster and flash of the details this truly was a very special item. “Now, I can imagine you are wondering just how much a set like this would cost. Five hundred? Six? Well, I’ll tell you, ladies and gentlemen, humans, dwarves, halflings and others, this could be yours for a minor registration fee.” He paused and waited for the astonishment of the crowd to peak before continuing. “That is all it would take for you to enter in the bow shooting contest that will begin in this arena within an hour. How about you, sir?” he asked as he pointed to a younger halfling farmer near the podium. “You look like a talented man who’s done lots of work with his hands. I bet you have an eye eagles would be jealous of.” The man smiled and handed over the fee.
There was a rush of people wanting to enter and Gallif handed her entry fee to an assistant and took her numbered contestant tag before moving out and finding Luvin. He stood with his arms crossed and shook his head.
“I thought you weren’t interested in bows and arrows.”
“Not as a weapon of choice, I said,” she corrected him. “And I’d have to be a fool not to want a set as good as that. We’ve got an hour. What should we do?”
“There’s a show starting up across the street,” Luvin said and pointed at the theater. “Let’s take a look.”
They got to their seats just as the show began. It was an elaborate costumed comedy and they knew they were in for good time. Audience participation was mandatory for these types of shows and they cheered and booed at the appropriate times.
“In the beginning...” the Story Teller’s voice echoed through the arena. “There was Starpoint Mountain!”
In the back of the stage was a large wooden pillar painted to resemble Starpoint Mountain and as he gestured to it the audience gave a cheer that shook the auditorium.
“Starpoint Mountain is grand and beautiful and all of the citizens of Starpoint prosper in its shadow,” the Story Teller called.
With that cue a dozen actors dressed in outrageously silly human, dwarf, goblin and hobgoblin costumes ran on to the stage and danced in circles. Some jumped and rolled in dazzling display of acrobatic work that the crowd cheered and applauded.
“But he who rules the mountain rules the land,” the Story Teller smiled. “Who rules the mountain? Is it the humans?” The human characters on the stage pretended to be royalty but the audience cried that they were not rulers. “Is it the dwarves?” The dwarven characters and each of the races pretended to rule the mountain in silly ways only to be denounced by the crowd. Finally, a giant character, made up of one man sitting on another’s shoulders and wearing a long royal gown, came on to the stage and stood directly behind the Story Teller.
“No, it is the Giant Lords that rule the mountain and he who rules the mountain rules the land,” the Story Teller said and feigned looking for the giant character in every direction but where he was. “The Giant Lords?” the Story Teller looked at the audience. “Where are they?”
“Behind you!” the audience shouted in unison and the Story Teller literally jumped out of his pillowed shoes as he finally saw the giant behind him. He quickly stepped into his shoes and they all bowed to the giant character.
The giant character quickly nodded to the audience and, to show its gratitude to its followers, started pulling wrapped sweets and licorice from its many pockets and tossed them into the crowd.
Gallif and Luvin were impressed by the almost magical amounts of candies that were given out and everyone, including them, received a treat. In unison the audience bowed and thanked the giant character.
“There was a great happiness in the Land of Starpoint. But,” the Story Teller said in a deep and ominous voice, “there were also those who did not celebrate with us.”
From the stage, behind the painted symbol for Starpoint Mountain, there was movement beyond the curtains and silence fell on the crowd. There were brief glimpses of elves and others and the crowed hissed and booed. Finally, an elf character jumped from behind the pillar and all but the giant and the Story Teller cowered and ran from the stage.
“Don’t I get rewards?” the elf character asked in a silly voice.
“No,” the crowd jeered.
“Why not?” the villain of the story asked.
“Because you’re evil!” the crowd yelled.
More elf characters ran on stage and in unison they shouted “Oh, no we’re not.”
“Oh, yes you are!” the audience shouted back.
“Oh, no we’re not!”
“Oh, yes you are!”
Before the elven characters on stage could respond more giant characters appeared and a great comedic battle took place. The elves tried their best to hide but before long the giants were the only characters left on the stage and the audience was on their feet with applause.
Excited and cheerful Gallif and Luvin left the theater and made it back to the contest arena just in time to check in.
The arena was rectangular and could seat nearly four hundred. At the far end there was a covered storage area where assistants would produce targets and judges would rate the players. The three remaining stands were open to seating and had been filling up steadily. A specially designed area in the near stands had been roped off and the Third Minister of the Giant Lords himself sat smiling at the crowd. The man who had made the pitch outside stood nearby. He introduced himself as Phan and announced he would host the contest as well.
There were fifty entrants and they were randomly divided up into five teams of ten. They were each given a target and in the first round of the first stage fired from a distance of ten yards. The targets were a ring of colored circles with each circle having a point value with the tightest inside circle being the highest. After the first round each contestant moved back another ten yards and fired again. The third round was fired from yet another ten yards back. After that the points were counted and the two contestants with the highest scores were moved to the next level where the process was repeated.
Gallif was in the beginning set of contestants to shoot and had no problem getting through the first stage of the contest with twenty-three points. She and Karena, the second-place contestant in the contest, were escorted to a waiting area away from the contest and sat patiently while the second set was played. She looked at the bow she had been given and scanned it for any imperfections but found none. She had also been given a full quiver of arrows that was a slung over her shoulder. Afterwards the young farm boy h
alfling who had been the first to enter was brought in along with an older dwarf in leather armor.
“My name’s Gallif,” she introduced herself to the farm boy.
“My name is Gave,” he said and shook her hand.
“I’m Tobio,” the dwarf said as he came forward.
They all sat and chatted politely as they were joined by the other finalists two at a time. Some of the men swapped stories of their great experiences hunting using bow and arrow but many of their tales seemed a bit colorful. The women talked about their school training.
“What schools have you been to, Gallif?” a human female who introduced herself as Ari asked.
“Actually, I went to a small school,” Gallif said. Her heart skipped a beat as she realized what she was about to tell them, and her words stumbled to a stop.
“Where is it?”
“Well to tell the truth,” Gallif stumbled again as her mind raced for a believable answer. “It’s just in a small farming community way down south between Riverbend and Keometric.”
They all nodded in understanding. There were dozens of schools scattered throughout the farmlands and they probably had not heard of any town she would name. Gallif let out a long sigh of relief and hoped that no one had noticed her slip up. Luckily the next round of the contest was starting and several of them were ushered out onto the field.
Gallif had been impressed by Gave who had had a perfect score of thirty, but the woman, Karena’s, score of twenty-eight was nothing to be ignored. By the time they were all together Gallif placed fourth highest.
As they waited Phan had mastered the crowd into a frenzy of excitement as the game continued and when they were brought into arena for the final contest the cheers were deafening. Phan had the crowd cheering, jeering, oohing and ahhhing at his command.
“We’ve some very special targets made for the next round of shooting,” Phan announced. “Now we present the pixies!”
As the targets were brought out the crowd roared with laughter. These targets had pale colored sacks of beans representing pixies attached to each circle. Each bag had small dark streamers attached to it and as the breeze came through the arena the streamers made the exact location of the bag harder to see. Hitting the circle and a bag was extra points. The crowd laughed and applauded at the silly looking targets and Gallif had to force herself to stop smiling and concentrate on the contest.
Phan managed to bring the crowd to complete silence as the contestants took their aim and fired. Gallif, Cave and Karena easily won the first round and Gallif was now second in the count.
“May we present the fairies,” Phan announced as the second targets were brought out. These were set up the same way as the pixie targets except the colors of the bags and circles were much more colorful and harder to see. These targets also had lights magically cast on them to make the center less discernable.
Unlike the pixies fairies had really once lived in the Land of Starpoint. Almost two centuries ago they had all been sadly destroyed when the Goblin Blood Lords tried to invade. The Giant Lords had defeated the invaders and saved the land but, to everyone’s dismay, the fairies had been exterminated.
The crowd was silent as the contestants fired. Tobio missed the target completely and cursed under his breath. Two of the other contestants hit the outer circles and knew that there was really no way for them to win no matter what happened in the final round. Tery, who had been with the fourth team, hit dead center and had become the crowd favorite. Gallif hit the second circle but missed the bag and was now in third place. She scanned the crowd and saw Luvin cheering her on. She winked at him and he shouted her name in glee. She wasn’t worried. She was confident that the final round would go in her favor.
“For this final round each contestant will have three chances to win,” Phan announced. The ten contestants were moved to the thirty-yard position and each given three arrows. Phan continued, “We have targets that have been especially made for this event. Representing the worst of evil that our world has created I’m sure you will enjoy seeing them used as targets.”
Gallif looked around confused as a cold shiver went up her back.
“Hold on to your hats and children as we introduce the big finale. Our targets have been made to look like,” he paused with the crowd waiting for the announcement. “ELVES!” He shouted as ten mannequins were brought out and set in the target positions. Each was colored dark green to resemble the aquilus elves and had numbered circles on the chests and comically exaggerated faces painted on. Exaggerated even more were the long pointy ears that spiraled outward. Despite all the different physical traits in the races that existed in the land only elves had pointed ears. The crowd erupted into cheers and jumped around at the excitement of the thought of target elves. Everyone hated elves. All elves were evil.
Gallif heard nothing. She stood alone on a dark field with the aquilus and there was complete silence. Should she let it live? It was there and it was trapped and it was at her mercy. She wondered briefly why she should care. The aquilus had never shown any kindness for anyone. No, she said. This would be different. She aimed and fired three rapid shots. Make it a quick kill.
With a crash the world came back to life for her as the crowd cheered and laughed. She had fired all three arrows from the first position and she immediately knew she would be disqualified from the contest. Before she could do anything, Phan darted towards her and patted her on the back.
Phan smiled and thanked her for being a good contestant and got a round of applause for her as he put a firm arm around her and guided her out of the area. Before the door was closed behind her she looked back and saw the mannequin that she had shot at. There were three arrows in the dark figure. One in the heart, one in the throat, one in the head.
***
As Gave was trying to shake the hands with the Minister, human and giant handshakes were quite difficult, and accepting the prize Luvin left the arena and broke into a sprint. Gallif was already a block away and walking at a strong pace. He called her name several times, but she refused to hear him. When he finally caught up with her, he grabbed her by the wrist and tried to drag her to a stop. With a sudden fierceness she swung around and raised a hand as if to strike him back. He froze, staring at her with wide eyes. After a few moments she let her hand drop and leaned against the wall of the restaurant they were next to.
“What happened to you in there?”
“Nothing.”
“You were in full combat mode when you fired off those arrows. The guy next to me said Acrufix would be proud of you.”
“Acrufix,” she said as her memories of the legend came to her.
“Yes,” Luvin said. “You used the arrows like he uses his sword to destroy the elves.”
Gallif thought of what she had heard of the elven killer. No one knew exactly who he was but there were stories abound of his quest to destroy the evil beasts and how the sword he used struck every time. To be compared to him was a compliment but she doubted she could ever match his fighting.
“Like I said, nothing,” she said and brushed her hair back and took a deep breath. The smell of freshly baked chicken caught her attention and she looked into the restaurant. Despite everything she couldn’t deny that she was hungry again.
“Come on,” Luvin said invitingly as he opened the door.
She didn’t say anything but went inside and sat down.
They had a good meal and ate and drank heartily. They spoke lightly about the day and agreed they should be heading back to school soon. As the kobold waiter was taking away the plates and empty dishes Gallif took a long drink of ale. It was her fourth since they’d sat down.
“Something seems odd to me,” Luvin said as he finished his drink.
“Such as?”
“That quake this morning. Nobody’s talking about it.”
Gallif swallowed her last drop. She had been enjoying the day so much that even she had forgotten about the incident at the pond. “There’s a lot of cel
ebration going on today, it’s Festival Day.”
“Yes, but something like that this close to Starpoint Mountain certain would have gotten some attention.”
“Maybe it was just an isolated thing. We’ll tell Rayjen tomorrow morning and ask him if he wants us to report it to anyone else.”
“Fair enough,” Luvin agreed.
They exited the restaurant and headed back to where Snow was waiting.
They had gone just two blocks when Gallif gripped Luvin by the arm and pulled him to the other side of the street without breaking stride. She didn’t respond to his query and kept walking.
After another block they approached a small side show. Gallif came to a stop so fast that Luvin walked on a few steps before realizing she was no longer with him. She turned and looked at a colorful puppet show being played before a group of about a dozen children.
“Do you have your hammer with you?” she whispered out of the side of her mouth. He looked around and then glanced up at her nodding that he did. “We might need it. We’re being followed.”
Luvin quietly looked around them and studied the faces of the crowd. At first, he saw nothing unusual but after a second glance realized that the dark-haired male in a dirty blue tunic and pants was a few yards to their left had been in the arena during the contest. He had also been near the restaurant when they ate.
They watched the puppet show which, in the simplest way, was talking about the Dragon War of a thousand years ago. The puppet master told the children that, when the war began the landers, those who could not fly, refused to take sides in the war and cleared the battle areas around Starpoint Mountain.
“Lose him?” Luvin asked with a whisper.
“Lose him,” she replied without looking down.
The puppet show had reached the point in the story when the elves revealed their evil ways and sided with red dragons from the north. Those evil wicked elves betrayed their friends. The children shivered as the puppet master spoke and Gallif and Luvin very swiftly slid into the standing crowd of parents and other watchers.
