Rise of a Legend

by C.L. Mozena

Chapter 22

  The next day, Orion ventured out into Royal City for the first time with Rick, Joshua, and Chris, all on horseback. Olhoe had five cities, Royal City was situated in the center of the others, with the palace founded on the northern border. Most of Olhoe’s businesses were located in Royal City. Peak City, located up in the mountains north of Royal City, was cold all year, but an ideal place to herd many different kinds of animals. Sea City was built along the coast to the west of the palace, and most of the people there were fishers. Long Water River to the east ran from the northern mountains down to the sea, separating Royal City and Lumberland, where forests surround the rolling hills. To the south in Mineral City, crops and farmers flourish due to the sediments carried down by the river.

  Once again, they were stared at by everyone else, but this time, it didn’t bother Orion as much. They found that Royal City wasn’t much different from Lunspae’s only city. There were all kinds of shops, large and small, all kinds of people scurrying everywhere, and all kinds of activities taking place. The four of them wandered the cobblestone streets on horseback wondering where to go. King Frederic had insisted that they take warriors with them, so there were five warriors on horseback, following the four friends. They were very different than the royal escort that his mother had given the boys on Lunspae. The lunimorf escort had six guards, all dressed in matching clothes with matching swords, and two of them carried flags. All of the lunimorf horses were the same, too. None of these telblec warriors carried flags. They were all dressed differently. Each horse was different from the others; a chestnut here, a black and white there. Orion only saw swords carried by two of them. He guessed that they all had different weapons, based on their preference. They weren’t in any kind of order, either. At least, Orion couldn’t see any order to where the warriors walked their horses.

  “How about over there?” Rick asked, pointing to a fenced-in field full of teens yelling and whooping.

  “Sure!” Chris answered, “Looks like they’re playing tawttuwy ball. How ‘bout it, Orion?”

  “Look’s like fun,” Orion replied as he led his horse toward the field. Rick and Chris followed.

  “Hey!” Joshua piped up, “Doesn’t anyone care what I think?”

  “Not really,” Rick said carelessly, “So, what’s tawttuwy ball?” he asked as they tied their horses to the fence and stepped inside the gate. Orion and Chris gave him a blank stare.

  “It’s only the most popular game on the face of the planet,” Chris said sarcastically, “Where have you been?”

  “Josh and I were born and raised on Lunspae,” Rick said defensively, “We’ve never heard of tawttuwy ball before.”

  “Alright,” Orion chuckled, “let’s see if I can explain it to you. See those guys over there?” Orion pointed to a group of teenagers running around a painted steel circle dangling from a chain. “There are two teams, usually a red team and a blue team. There are five members on each team. The ball is made of cloth, and stuffed with plastic pellets, so that it doesn’t bounce. That ring on the chain is the goal. It’s set up in the middle of the playing area. One side has been painted blue, and the other is red,” Orion pointed to the ring. It was swinging and twisting freely on the chain, showing that one side was red and the other was blue. Some of the paint had been chipped off so that the bright silver of the steel ring shone through.

  “The goal of tawttuwy ball,” Orion continued, “is to get the ball through the ring. You get one point each time it goes through, and the game is done when one team reaches ten points. However,” he glanced sideways at his brothers, “if you’re on the red team and manage to get the ball through the ring on the blue side, the blue team gets the point. Get it?” The others nodded. “Good,” Orion turned back to watching the game, “Oh, and another thing. You’re not allowed to touch the ring or grab the ball with your hands. You have to get the ball in or pass to your teammates using only your feet, knees, elbows, or head.

  “So,” Orion gazed at his brothers, “ready to play tawttuwy ball?”

  “Uh,” Rick stammered, not to sure about playing a game he had never heard of, “I think I’ll sit this one out.”

  “Sounds like fun! Count me in!” Joshua exclaimed as he and Chris trotted over to the group.

  “Can I play, too?” One of the warriors asked, dismounting. Orion glanced at the warrior. He looked pretty young, maybe only a couple years older than Orion. His black hair was short, and he wore a long, dark brown coat buttoned down to his knees. He had dark gray pants on and brown leather boots. The warrior was standing straight, but he had an unusual lump on his back by his neck. Orion couldn’t tell what it was since it was covered by the coat. He didn’t think the warrior would be able to keep up since he was so big around, but Orion wasn’t about to be rude. He also didn’t think that the warrior couldn’t be much of a warrior, either, but the bright, gold eyes that shone from under dark brows told him otherwise.

  “Sure, you can,” Orion smiled. “What’s your name?”

  “Alex,” the warrior said as he tied his horse beside the others. The other warriors, who looked years older than the boys, stayed in the saddle and watched them. “I really appreciate this, majesty. Nobody really let’s me play anymore. They think I’m weird because of the bump on my back,” he reached up, over his shoulder, and laid a hand on the lump. Orion thought he was a little weird, too, but didn’t voice his opinion.

  The teenagers were more than happy to let Orion, Chris, Joshua, and Alex play. Four of the group sat out with Rick to allow room for the new members. Joshua got the hang of tawttuwy ball right away, and before the first point was scored, Rick was itching to join. Orion, his brothers, Chris, and Alex took turns with the other teenagers, and played for the rest of the day, taking a break for lunch when the sun was at it’s highest point in the sky. Alex had surprised them all with his skill at the game, making the opposing team complain that Alex needed to be on their team, so Alex switched teams a few times. Finally, it was time to head back to the palace. Orion was looking forward to training with his friends and Bertha again.

  “Hey, Alex,” Orion said once they were on their way, “Would you like to train with us?” Orion had underestimated Alex’s skill with a tawttuwy ball, maybe he was also underestimating Alex’s ability to be a warrior.

  “You’d want me to be there with you?” Alex asked, becoming excited. “Really?” Orion nodded. Chris smiled. Orion had the feeling that he and Chris were thinking the same thing. “This is so cool! Nobody ever wants me around anymore. Not since...,” he let his voice trail off as he reached over his shoulder and rubbed the lump on his back. Orion didn’t say anything. Alex hadn’t taken his coat off, or even unbuttoned it the entire time they were playing, even though Orion could see him sweating. Orion figured that he had a horrible disfiguration caused by a battle where the lump was, similar to the way the right side of Orion’s face was all scarred up when he lost his eye. He lifted his right hand slowly and began tracing some of the deeper scars under the hair that fell in front of his face. Orion wondered if Alex would take the long coat off to train, but he didn’t think so. Alex seemed more embarrassed by the lump on his back than Orion did about his scarred face.

  When they reached the palace and given their horses to the stable hands, Orion, Rick, Joshua, Chris, and Alex ate a quick dinner and headed down to the courtyard. Bertha was waiting for them, along with Orion’s four friends. Kevin and Teddy, who hadn’t seen Orion yet since they were busy the night before, ran over to greet Orion, and to introduce themselves to Orion’s brothers.

  “Welcome back, Orion,” Bertha came waddling up to them. Orion thought she looked a lot older, although he hadn’t been gone a whole year. Her hair, instead of being black with a few gray strands, was now gray with a few black strands. Her wrinkles seemed to have gotten deeper, too. Her eyes hadn’t changed, though, and neither had her smile. “How’s my youngest trainee? Ha
ve you been keeping up with your training while you were gone?”

  “Yep, and I’ve gotten a lot stronger, too.” Orion smiled at his friends’ mock terror.

  “But you were already stronger than us, Orion,” Kevin mused, “You don’t want us to be able to touch you, huh?”

  “I just want to be the best that I can be,” Orion explained, “Maybe someday, if I’m strong enough, I’ll be a warrior.”

  “I don’t think strength will be a problem for you, Orion,” Teddy said, chuckling. Orion could tell that he was hiding something, but didn’t question him.

  All of the boys, except Joshua, began their exercises. Orion watched as his five friends seemed to do twice as much as they did before he left. Alex, too, seemed to exercise more than he should have been able to. His friends seemed to give Orion sly grins while they did sit-ups, push-ups, stretches, and chin-ups. Orion found out why when they started sparring. Usually, Teddy, Jose, Kevin, and Shane would gang up on Orion, while Chris got ready with the fire baton. This time, Chris and Jose ganged up on Orion, while the other three stood by, watching. Orion thought they were crazy, and that they wouldn’t be on their feet for very long, but the first one down this time was Orion. His friends had gotten a lot better while Orion was away.

  “Wow, you guys improved a lot while I was on Lunspae,” he surmised as he got up, wiping some dirt off of his face. His friends just puffed up their chests with secretive smiles. “What’s going on?”

  “This is going on, buddy,” Chris stepped over to Orion, pulling his sleeve back, and revealing a shiny, silver wristband. Orion gaped at it, then glanced up at the other boys as they rolled up their sleeves, showing off their new silver gauntlets. “We got the idea from you, Orion,” Chris explained as he pulled his sleeve back down. “We’ve been training with these ever since you left. I’m up to forty pounds each.”

  “I’ve got thirty,” Kevin said, “and so has Jose.”

  “Mine are thirty five,” Shane said.

  “I’m only able to handle twenty five,” Teddy said, sheepishly, “but that’s okay. I’m going to get better until I can train at sixty pounds like you, Orion.” Orion laughed.

  “Do you really think I would have stayed at sixty all this time?” he asked, still laughing.

  “Of course, Orion,” Chris spoke up. “There’s no way you can make these heavier than sixty pounds each.”

  “Actually, there is,” Joshua piped up.

  “What do you mean?” Chris eyed him suspiciously. He still wasn’t used to the fact that Orion and Joshua looked identical except for hair and eye color.

  “With fysimae, I can make the wristbands weigh hundreds of pounds if I wanted,” Joshua explained. “Here, let me show you.” Joshua’s eyes glowed green as he raised his hands at Chris. At the same time, Chris’s wristbands began to glow the same shade and Joshua’s eyes. In a moment, Chris went from lounging on his feet to struggling to stand up. With a grunt, he fell to the ground. The strange green glow of Joshua’s fysimae faded out. No matter how Chris struggled, he couldn’t pick himself off the ground. The others laughed.

  “All right, all right, you got me,” a helpless Chris struggled in vain to get up. “Will you let me up, now?” Joshua chuckled as his eyes and Chris’s wristbands began glowing green again. In no time, Joshua had restored Chris’s wristbands back to forty pounds. The others laughed again.

  “Just to let you know, Chris,” Orion chuckled, “I can do the same thing, and my wristbands and anklets are up to eighty five pounds each.” The laughter ceased as all eyes were on Orion.

  “Seriously?” Shane asked. Orion nodded. “Amazing,” Shane whistled.

  “And have you been working on that pyrophobia of yours, Orion?” Bertha asked. Orion smiled real big.

  “Why don’t we see about that?” Chris said as he dashed off to get the fire baton and some matches. He was looking forward to humiliating Orion now, after he had been humiliated by Orion’s brother. Lighting the baton, Chris came around a bend in the cobblestone path.

  “You ready, buddy?” Chris sneered, twirling the baton in front of him, allowing the flames to dance.

  “Oh, yea,” Orion replied, standing casually, looking over his shoulder at Chris. Chris started running full-speed at Orion, waiting to hear his friend’s screams of fright, but they never came. Instead, when Chris got close enough, Orion twisted around and grabbed the baton, holding Chris’s hands on the wooden shaft. Orion lowered the baton and stuck his face into Chris’s as his good eye began to glow blue with fysimae. There was a blue glow coming from underneath his eye patch, too. The heat began to make both of them sweat and the others back away as Orion enlarged the double fires, making them burst and go out. Orion released the baton, wiped sweat from his brow, and smirked at his friend, stepping back. Bertha, Shane, Jose, Kevin, and Teddy just stood there openmouthed at Orion’s performance. Rick and Joshua cheered. Chris just stood there with the baton in his hand, staring at where the fire had been only seconds before.

  “I taught him that!” Joshua said, jumping up and grasping Orion on the shoulders.

  “Amazing, Orion,” Bertha clasped her hands, “Simply amazing! Congratulations on overcoming your pyrophobia! I knew you could do it!”

  “Who said you ever had pyrophobia, Prince Orion?” Alex asked, folding his arms and grinning. Orion beamed.