Chapter 26 - Test of Insight 2

Currently it was late at night, indicated by the the moon that floated up in the sky and was hanging at the apex. A boy, who was wearing a Raloman soldier’s uniform, sat on decayed and rotting log that was washed up onto the shore. He was surrounded by similarly dressed and like minded boys. The Raloman boy sitting was brooding. They were all quiet. Waiting with bated breath for the boy who was sitting to say something or anything to break the awkward silence.

“Hagen, we don’t have enough people on our team.” one of the surrounding boys said, looking to his leader.

The Raloman boy sitting on the log was Hagen Layol, the one who led a small group of thugs to attack Lajos before the exam started. He had passed the first two parts of the exam so he was made a General. The other boys around him were his friends who either passed the first part or second part, becoming a group of Captains and Lieutenants. Because of losing in the fight to Lajos and Arnest, even when they outnumbered the two Ingras, no one really wanted to join up with a team of weak bullies. Maybe if they were stronger then they wouldn’t be in this predicament.

“Don’t you think I know that?” snapped Hagen.

“How the hell did the deserter’s son and his friend recruit so many of them?” Hagen muttered to himself but it was still audible to everyone else.

Another Raloman boy could be seen running towards them in the distance. Behind him was a larger group of other boys, some dressed like Ralomans and others who lacked the uniform. As they drew closer the crowd grew even bigger.

“I recruited some people!” the Raloman boy leading the charge yelled out.

His facial features and body type could now be clearly seen. If Lajos was here he would immediately recognize him as the first boy that had attacked him and was thrown to the ground immediately, only to be trampled by his “friends”.

“Retraso, how did you convince all of them to join us?” said the boy who had earlier reminded Hagen of the lack of their men.

“They all came running to me, asking to join! Can you believe it Faunco? They must’ve finally realized Boss’s Hagen’s greatness.” Retraso answered with a stupid smile plastered all over his face.

Hagen didn’t to seem to be that pleased though as he stared at his new prospective team, frowning.

“You.” he pointed towards one of the boys who wasn’t wearing Raloman armor.

“You’re Ingras, right?”

“Yeah, so what?” the Ingras boy became pretty antagonistic once he realized he was probably being discriminated against.

“I don’t need cowardly Ingras’s on my team. If you’re an Ingras, you can leave.” Hagen waved his hand like he was shooing away flies. The Ingras in the crowd started to leave.

Faunco immediately ran up to the departing Ingras and said, “All of you wait, don’t leave yet. Wait a minute.”

Hagen looked towards Faunco angrily. “What are you doing?”

Faunco moved in closer to Hagen’s side and whispered, “They may be cowardly Ingras but they still have a use. We can use them as fodder on the front lines. Even if they run away they can distract our enemies.”

“I don’t want some dirty Ingras’s to become Ralomans.” Hagen would not listen to reason.

“That’s not a problem. When we win, you can just kick them off our team. Then they won’t get promoted.”

Hagen thought for a moment. Faunco words made sense but he still had his reservations when it came to accepting Ingras’s. But he was right. With the current situation, there was no way he would be able to combat Lajos and Arnest and stop the son of the deserter from being a Raloman. There were twenty flags so there were more than plenty to around to the thirty three Generals and their armies. The only real way to stop them from getting a flag would to be physically confronting them and preventing them ever touching one.

“The Ingras can stay if they promise to fight.” Hagen said after thinking it through.

“I promise to fight.” the Ingras all said in unison.

After being handed soldiers on a silver platter and some convincing by Faunco, Hagen got the army he so desperately needed. His forces amounted to a force that was about three hundred strong. There was only about six thousand people taking the Raloman exam so this was quite a large chunk. Between thirty three Generals, being able to get just two hundred could be considered good. Three hundred could be considered at least a medium sized army compared to the average.

“I’ll teach those two not to underestimate us Ralomans.” Hagen thought to himself as he dug his fingers into palm, forming a tight fist.

Meanwhile at Arnest’s camp, his team of about four hundred was soundly asleep. They were all ordered to rest in preparation for the mock battle. Everyone except himself, Lajos, Urbano and the other officers. Arnest gathered them far away from the other teams and Sixth Army, setting up a few small fires that spit and crackled flames occasionally. Arnest was huddled around one of the fires with four others.

“I finished scouting the north.”

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“I finished the east.”

“The west looks like this.”

“And in the south it curves like this.”

Arnest had split up his team into four, each led by a Captain, to scout the entire island and get a sense of the terrain. Urbano, who was the first Captain Arnest was able to recruit, went to the north. Palben, a Raloman from the Olmos family, took the east. Zenon, another Raloman from the Espina family, took the west. And finally Victoro, the only Ingras Captain on Arnest’s team, explored the south.

He had them each draw out the island sections they scouted in the sand with sticks. The scene would’ve looked like kids playing in the sand but they seemed much too serious about it. When they finished drawing, the jungle island started to take shape. It was a narrow island, a long beach along the east and west that started out thin near the north, where the Sixth Army had docked its ships, and then thickened the further south you went. The jungle itself wasn’t as expansive as Arnest originally thought and it was actually more dotted and sparse. There were little pocketed areas of clearings, like the one he had earlier made a  shelter in, and two major lakes in the most southern quadrant.

“So where do you think they’ll place the flags?” Palben asked, his short cut blond hair fluttering in the night’s breeze.

Zenon who stood next to Palben, said “Since this is a test for an army, they probably want to see how well we can scout and search for an objective. Where would you hide the flags if you were them?”

“I’d place them in the larger jungle forest patches along the island. It’d be harder to search those areas.” Urbano answered.

The four Captains continued to look at the map but one of them just kept a serious face, unmoving and quiet. He was like a steady rock.

Arnest looked to him and asked, “Hmm, what do you think, Victoro?”

Victoro looked towards Arnest and stared a while before answering, “I agree that they’ll place some flags in the jungle patches but I think everyone who scouted beforehand will also think the same thing.”

“If I were them, I’d also place some flags in areas far away from the jungles where everyone will probably start looking.”

“Oh, like where?” Arnest asked, as his eyes sparkled.

Victoro took his stick and pointed towards the bottom of the island. “The two lakes to the south. There aren’t many jungles surrounding them. I think they’ll place a flag or two here.”

Arnest turned to the other three and asked, “Do you guys agree?”

Urbano was the first to say “I think it’s possible.” while the other two nodded in agreement.

“So it’s settled then. We’ll target the largest lake in the south.” Arnest said smiling.

“But wait General Arnest. I only said it’s possible.” Urbano said in a worried tone.

“Don’t worry. Worst comes to worst and we don’t find anything, we can just take a flag from another army.” Arnest said and then giddily laughed.

“Tell the Lieutenants of the plan and then send everyone to sleep. We need to be well rested for tomorrow.”

“Yes, General.” the four of them said and then headed towards the other small fires to inform their subordinates of tomorrow’s strategy.

“I better get some sleep too. I think I’m still a bit sore from fighting that lion.” Arnest yawned, laid down on the ground and closed his eyes.

Morning came and went and noontime was fast approaching. The thirty three armies arranged themselves in neat columns and rows along the shore. Their Generals all stood at the very front alongside their Captains while the rest were in formation, back’s erect and prepared to charge at a moment's notice. Captain Ramiro and Lieutenant Marco were standing next to each other at the the very front, between the armies and the jungle behind. A third person walked out of the jungle, middle aged with speckles of whitening hair and a flashy golden Raloman officer’s uniform, and stood with the two Sixth Army officers. Arnest had never seen or met this third person but he immediately recognized the officer’s uniform.

“All of you get on your knees! You’re in the presence of Sixth General Abdiel of the Sixth Army!” barked Captain Ramiro.

There was a momentary pause before the sound of six thousand or so boys, Ingras and Raloman, dropped to one knee. It made a louder commotion than expected, especially when they started whispering excitedly to one another.

“So he’s the famous general…” Arnest thought.

“I bet you’re all itching to start the third part of the exam. So I won’t talk for long.” General Abdiel started to talk and everyone raised their heads towards him in anticipation.

“The rules are simple. All you have to do is hold onto a flag until sunrise and your entire team will pass. You can do pretty much anything but no killing. That’s it.”

General Abdiel briefly explained the rules again and then everyone was silent. No one moved from their kneeling position and a few minutes passed by before Captain Ramiro whispered into his ear, “You haven’t told them they could get up.”

“Oh, right. You all may stop kneeling.” he quickly said and the boys slowly rose to their feet.

“May the third part of the exam begin!” yelled Captain Ramiro.

“Follow me!” Arnest yelled and his team started to march at a steady pace into the jungle.