The early morning light filtered in through the hotel windows, illuminating the dusty air. Like all previous mornings, Li Xiqin’s phone began to sound. Turning over in his bed, Li silenced the alarm, cursing himself for staying up so late the previous night. He had borrowed a book about the history of javelins, wanting to learn more about them before he attended the history convention today. He’d heard there was a javelin throwing competition being held in the morning, and wanted to see it for himself. Of course, it wasn’t necessary to learn about the history of a specific weapon to enjoy the competition, but Li was interested in the subject. Like his parents, he was a massive history buff, and like his parents, he also had a habit of sometimes focusing a bit too much on a very specific topic.
His parents…Li’s mind wandered back to the last time he saw them. 5 years ago, they had set out on an expedition down the Congo River for an archaeological expedition. Although Li wanted to join them, he was in his final year of high school, and thus had to stay behind to prepare for his university entrance exams. He never saw them again. Although he missed them sorely, he did manage to take comfort in the fact that they perished doing something they loved.
Li’s phone sounded again. Glancing down, he read the notification on the screen. It was from his classmate, Yanmei. A fellow history nerd, they had met in their first year of university, and immediately hit it off. As both of them studied engineering, they naturally shared many classes together, which deepened their friendship even more. While previously it was his parents who took him to conventions and festivals, after their disappearance, it was now Yanmei who joined him.
“See you downstairs in 30?” Li picked up his phone and quickly tapped out a reply: “Sure thing”. Dressing himself and brushing his teeth, he picked up his day pack, heading out the door and into the elevator. As the elevator doors opened again, he saw that Yanmei had already made her way into the lobby, holding two cups of coffee. “Want one?” Li took the proffered cup, taking a sip and letting the mellow flavour coat his mouth. Cream and no sugar, just how he liked it.
The pair walked out the hotel doors and were greeted by the sight of pitched tents and stalls. The hotel they had chosen had the advantage of being located right on road that the convention was to take place on. Ever since missing out on most of a single-day festival due to a subway shutdown between its location and his hotel, Li had been very particular about choosing accommodations located close to wherever they were visiting.
Strolling down the venue, Li watched as booth owners and event organizers set up for the day ahead. He spotted some blacksmiths lugging their anvils off the back of pickup trucks, and food sellers laying out various homemade delicacies on their stall counters. Turning left at the end of the road, they made their way to an adjoining park, where the event they had woken up so early for, the javelin contest, was to be held.
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The reason the contest was held so early was because later in the day, the park was to be used as the site of a reenactment of the 732 Battle of Tours, and needed time to be set up. There was already a small crowd of people gathered on the side of the throwing field. Li and Yanmei made their way to the edge of the crowd, downfield from the throwing position. This way, their view wouldn’t be blocked by the crowd located near the athletes.
However, as Yanmei looked across the soon-to-be javelin impact zone, she noticed something that was potentially unsafe. A storm drain cover, either missed or dismissed by the event organizers. She turned to Li, pointing at the solid metal circle: “Hey Li, shouldn’t we stand a bit farther back? If one of the javelins lands on there the wrong way, it could come flying our way.” Shrugging his shoulders, Li replied: “I’m sure it’ll be fine. The chances of that happening are as low as Prussia coming out on top in a war against the combined forces of Austria, Russia, and France.” “Might I remind you that they did indeed come out on top?” Li rolled his eyes. “Of course I know. But the chances of that happening back then were-“ “Yes, yes, I get it.”
As the sun continued to rise, Li watched as the athletes arrived and began to warm up. Being an event at a historical convention, they were all dressed as warriors from different cultures of varying time periods. Peltasts, Roman legionaries clad in both mail and plate, and one dressed as a Numidian horseman, albeit without the horse. The referees had to wrestle an atlatl away from one Aztec re-enactor who insisted that it wasn’t an unfair advantage. Grumbling, he took his place alongside the rest of the competitors.
The referee raised his hand, signalling for the first athlete to step forward. One by one, the competitors took their turns at the running throw, the javelins flying gracefully through the air before embedding themselves in the firm ground. Finally, it was the Aztec’s turn. The first thing Li noticed was that he held his javelin in a bit of an odd manner. It seemed he really was counting on being able to use his atlatl, so much so that he didn’t even bother practicing throwing without it. The second was the way the javelin rotated. The Aztec’s unrefined throw caused the Javelin to spin after he released it, the tip turning downwards as it travelled through the air. The third was the impact point, the pointed metal end of the javelin landing at an angle onto the metal storm drain cover. The fourth was the javelin itself, bouncing sideways off the cover, spinning as flew towards him…Li closed his eyes out of instinct.
When he opened them again, he was lying in a grassy field, surrounded by spruce trees, the sound of crickets audible despite the bright sun shining above.