Chapter 27 - Test of Insight 3

The thirty three teams all marched into the jungle, searching for one of the twenty flags. Arnest and his group avoided the other teams while trekking southward towards one of the large lakes on the island. Along the way they saw a few of the smaller teams when they exited the jungle patch and entered one of the clearings. They would just stare at each other, sizing the other one up. When they realized that Arnest’s group wasn’t going to attack them they continued to search the jungled areas.

It was uneventful for most of the afternoon, the only memorable part being when a few of the more excitable boys was spooked by a snake he grabbed onto, mistaking it for a vine. It wouldn’t have been so funny if they didn’t scream so loudly or in such a high pitched voice. These boys were part of Lajos’s unit so he was the one who grabbed the snake and tossed it back into the jungle.

Behind Arnest’s team were a few Raloman boys who were hiding in jungle brushes, watching.

“They seem to be heading south towards the lakes, what should we do?” one of them asked.

“Go tell Hagen that they’re heading there and tell him to keep following them. They’ll probably take the shortest path back between the lakes instead of around. If we position right, we can block their exit and send men around to their backs and pincer them.” Faunco said and the scouts started scurrying back to their main force.

A few hours later, after the start of the third part of the exam, Arnest and his team arrived at the western lake in the south. The eastern lake was further south by a mile so Arnest had decided that they would check out this lake first and if there were no flags, they would move on to the next lake.

Around the lake was mostly open areas but there were forests patches, instead of jungle, that were dotted alongside the lake. The water itself was transparent and you could see small fish and pebbles that covered the entire lake floor. Arnest cupped his hands like binoculars and scanned the lake. Nothing seemed to be on the lake itself, like a small boat carrying a flag or anything like that.

Arnest then ordered “Search around the lake. Come back here if you find anything.”

His men, or rather boys, split up into three groups. One went around on the eastern side of the lake, the other on the west and the largest portion of the army stationed themselves at the central location they arrived at. Captains Palben and Zenon went to the east and Captains Urbano and Victoro went west. Arnest paired them up according to how he felt they would synergise. To him, it seemed like Palben and Zenon were extremely proud Ralomans and he knew how Ralomans felt about Ingras. They had only joined Arnest after Urbano had convinced them. So the only logical pair for Victoro, an Ingras, would be Urbano who, although very proud, was willing to work with Ingras’s.

After thirty minutes or so, the entire perimeter was briefly combed over and the army converged into one.

“We didn’t find a flag in the east.” Zenon said.

“The west was no good too.” Urbano added as he scratched his head.

Palben stood to the side, annoyed. He then snorted, “I knew it was a waste coming here. We shouldn’t have listened to an Ingras’s advice.”

“If you knew it was a waste, then why didn’t you say anything before?” Urbano said, also getting visibly upset.

“Now, now. Let’s not argue. There’s still one more lake we haven’t searched.” Arnest said with a friendly smile.

“What if there’s no flag there? What happens then?” Palben questioned angrily.

“We would be wasting our time then.” Zenon answered with his characteristic calmness.

“Like I said last night, we can just take a flag from another army. We have more than enough time to scout out the next lake. It should only take another hour at most.” Arnest tried to placate the worries of his officers.

It wasn’t that Arnest didn’t understand Palben’s concerns but when he heard Victoro’s theory, he thought it was completely possible and even probable. Arnest wanted to test the theory to either prove or disprove Victoro. If he was wrong, then he would consider his Captain to be just a normal teenaged boy. But if he was right that would mean this teen had a mind for stratagems that rivaled whoever came up with this exam, possibly General Abdiel himself. If he confirmed the latter then he could try and befriend the genius before he grew up to become an even more terrifying monster.

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“I still don’t agree, we should-” Palben started to voice more complaints but Arnest swiftly interrupted him.

“Palben, you are to continue to the lake. I’m not asking anymore. This is an order.”

Palben stared daggers right into Arnest and then spat at the ground. “Fine, I’ll follow you. I hope you’re confident you can get a flag from another team in the little time we have left.”

And so Arnest’s team continued south and soon reached the next lake. From the eastern side of the first lake you could already see the second lake so it wasn’t a very long distance to travel. That, added to the fact that the land in between the two lakes was completely open, devoid of any forest and brushes.

Arnest was about to order his men to search but then he saw something on the lake. He squinted his eyes and saw two small makeshift rafts floating in the middle of the lake. On top of them were a crimson flag on each that waved back and forth in the wind.

“They’re flags! At least two of them!” shouted one of the boys.

“Urbano and Zenon, take a some of the soldiers and swim out to the lake and bring those two flags back here.”

“Right away.” Urbano happily said as he then quickly started ordering his subordinates to head out and retrieve a flag.

Zenon didn’t answer, unphased by the fact that there were actually flags. But he did go to one of his squads and ordered them to head out.

When the two of them left, Palben and Victoro were quiet. It was normal for Victoro, who usually would close his eyes and meditate, but Palben usually would talk with his Lieutenants and chat with other Ralomans during rests.

“I... wrong....” mumbled Palben.

“Did you say something, Palben?” Arnest turned to him.

“I was wrong. The Ingr...Victoro was right.” Palben said like a child who had just been lectured.

Victoro then opened his eyes. “You weren’t wrong to worry. I could have just as easily been wrong.”

“Victoro…” Palben was moved.

“See, we’re all friends here!” Arnest laughed as he slapped both of them on their backs.

Urbano and Zenon returned in about ten minutes, soaking wet with flags in hand.

“What should we do now, General?” Urbano asked as he stabbed the flag into the ground so it stood upright on it’s own.

“We can do two things now. The first option isn’t that fun while the second will be really exciting.”

“What’s the second option then?”

“We go back north and look for more flags and other teams that have flags. Then we’ll see how many more flags we can get.” Arnest said with a devious grin.

“And the first option?”

“We can sit here until daybreak when the exam ends.”

The four Captains stood in front of Arnest, thinking.

“I vote for the second option.” Palben said.

“Same here.” Zenon agreed.

“Why go looking for trouble when we already have flags and can pass the exam?” Urbano asked.

“The only one who did anything meaningful for the team so far was Victoro. It was thanks to him that we found the flags. I have to at least get one flag for the team.” Palben answered while Zenon nodded his head.

Urbano shook his head, “I still don’t think that’s a very good reason.”

Arnest ignored Urbano and clasped his hands so that it made a loud clap sound. “Then it’s settled. Let’s take a hour break and then head north.”

Arnest’s team then started to make themselves comfortable, either resting on the banks of the lake or swimming.

At the southern banks of the first lake stood two boys.

“They seem to be resting.” Faunco said.

“You said they got two flags?” Hagen raised his eyebrows because he couldn’t believe the report.

“Yes, they don’t need to go searching anymore. They might just set up camp here and return after sunrise.”

“They’ll have to go north sooner or later and they’re probably going to go through the middle of the two lakes. Even if the exam ends, we can attack them and just say we got the flags before fighting them. The only thing that concerns me is that I think they have more soldiers than us…”

“Don’t worry about that. I hear my cousin didn’t find a flag yet. I should be able to convince him to come and fight with us and we can split the two flags between our two teams.” Faunco smugly smiled as he started walking north towards a forest.

“When can his army get here?” Hagen said, following Faunco.

Faunco then walked into the forest and behind the screen of trees a huge group of Raloman boys was revealed.

“They’re already here.”