64. The Luck of the Straw

“So, I have to take one of the pots to the top of the hill?”

“That is correct: first, you fetch the pot, then you must use the bars, the rope bridge, then the cyan stones to get to the goal without touching the grass.”

“And if I touch it…”

“You lose and you must go back and start again, or choose another path. Same if you spill the water and it goes below the line indicated on the pot. Any more questions?” The black-haired fox-man assistant for the Rescuer path, who was probably not more than thirty, stood before me, inquisitive. After a tough, brief conversation in Sarwish, it had turned out he spoke Yanganese too. Thankfully, Yanganese was kind of an international language too, though not officially recognized as such inside the Nyomin.

I looked at the wooden structure. Its appearance was unmistakable: it was a jungle gym, but way bigger than the likes anyone would see on the playgrounds of Farskyer City. Several pots were hanging from the highest pipes. I was supposed to take one and climb the hill with it as fast as I could. I gave a firm nod.

“None.”

The assistant smiled slightly.

“Then good luck.”

I rushed to the jungle gym. I climbed the bars as swiftly as I could and grabbed one of the pots—a simple bowl with two strips tied on the sides. I grinned. So easy! I started to go down, reached the wooden ground under the climbing frame, and was about to sprint uphill toward the bars and the rope bridge when the assistant cleared his throat.

“The water…”

I looked down at my pot. It was almost empty. S-Since when?! Then the echo of splashing water came to my mind, and I grimaced at the wet floor. Ah… Come to think of it, I had never been good at gymnastics. My lack of senses didn’t help, like, at all. And I couldn’t use my telekinesis to keep a bowl full of water in balance: it was too heavy. I ran a hand over my head. In a way, I may have chosen the most challenging path of the four. Still…

“Sorry! Can I try again?” I exclaimed.

The young assistant nodded.

“Of course!”

His positive attitude cheered me up. I couldn’t lose to Linah. I really wanted to win. After a short glance to my right, toward the Peacemaker path, I could see the Lil Witch start jumping on colored stones. She landed on a green one and hissed “hot!”, then on an orange one and almost fell on her knees, struggling to simply stand. Apparently, the color and effect of those stones were related to the different types of Crystals. Green for temperatures, orange for gravity… To think that even Linah would struggle with this last leg… I still had a good chance of winning!

“Okay, let’s go!”

I climbed the jungle gym again, and this time, I made sure not to spill the water. I landed on the wooden ground, carefully but triumphally.

“Well done,” the assistant said. “Now, wait for a second, I’ll fasten it on your head.”

Wait, what?! So that was what the strips were made for… I raised a panicked hand.

“I’ll do it myself! I mean, it’s a training race, so I want to do everything myself.”

The assistant didn’t insist and even looked impressed, wagging his black tail.

“Such a good spirit!”

“… Nnnnrmlf… Dammit, did I spill water?”

“A few droplets. Do you really not want me to help you?”

“Stay away.”

“…”

I felt ashamed for my rude comeback, but it was for his sake. After a silence, the assistant asked:

“Do you think this is a ridiculous exercise for a Rescuer?”

“Eh? Ah… No, well…” I was way too focused on lifting the bowl perfectly horizontally over my head.

“My master made me live with a bowl on my head for an entire month.” I stopped dead. The hell? He went on: “I needed four months to complete her challenge. Do you know what she said? ‘If you can’t keep a bowl safe, how can you keep anyone safe?’ A Rescuer must be able to focus on himself, his balance, his concentration, his every movement, before trying to save lives.” I frowned. Was he telling me one had to be able to do all that in order to even try to save one life? Nonsense. Although it made sense that one had to be well prepared in order to save lives for a living… “Ah, consider yourself fortunate that your bowl is filled with normal water and not with tickling water like mine was: you just spilled more of it.”

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“Damn…”

“Not enough for the water to go under the line, though.” The assistant’s black tail slowly made a circle as he added: “Go with no rush and think of the bowl as a person that you’re trying to save.”

A person than I was trying to save… I had finally attached the bowl over my knit cap, making a knot around my chin, when the picture of myself carrying the Lord on my head came into my mind. Perched like a bird, he complained: “Not too fast or I’ll be spilled!” I couldn’t help it: I laughed. The water splashed all over.

Darn me.

* * *

This time, I took things most seriously: I grabbed a new pot, tied it on my head, thanked the assistant, and began ascending the hill. First, I had to go up a labyrinth of pipes without touching the ground, climbing until I reached the rope bridge. Then I began walking across the bridge. It oscillated. Damn. Too much.

I had no idea if I had spilled water—I wasn’t able to sense it—, but since I was advancing with extreme care, I could only hope everything was doing all right up there.

I was reaching the end of the bridge when it started moving even more. I reached the end as quickly as possible, wondering what idiot was crossing behind me. I didn’t wait long before I could see who it was: he soon caught up with me and got past me rather quickly, passing to the first cyan stone. It was Noah.

The crimson guy was so focused that he didn’t even seem to recognize me. He wavered, but then jumped to the next stone, then the next. How could he go so fast with a bowl of water on his head?!

I was tempted to accelerate, then remembered what the fox assistant had told me. No rush, no panic, no misstep, and I would be sure to get where I wanted in all safety.

Slowly, I took a long stride and reached the first cyan stone. From how Noah had reacted, I had expected it to have some kind of effect, as did the colored stones Linah had been stepping on on the Peacemaker path… yet, I felt nothing. Maybe they were just simple stones?

I continued and soon found myself advancing just behind Noah. Was it my imagination or his movements had become heavier than before? Nah, it was not my imagination: he was trudging. I raised an eyebrow, glanced at the dozens of stones that still awaited us uphill, and said:

“Perv, what are you doing?”

“…! Tch. Stupidstar? So it was you I got past earlier.” He stepped on the next stone. “What do you mean, what am I doing? Am I blocking your way?”

I stepped on a stone to my right then on the next, ahead of Noah, and answered:

“Nah, there’re plenty of stones. But you were going so fast on the bridge, yet you move like a turtle right now. How come?”

“Do you really have to ask? Or do the stones not—?” Noah grimaced as his bowl on the head staggered. He was sweating hard. Were the stones really affecting him? “Never mind. Get moving. I want to beat my damned teammate to this race. I hate fickle, spoiled kids.”

I raised an eyebrow. Cyan Crystals were usually related to mind powers and mind spells. Maybe those stones were meant to induce fear? In that case, it seemed that their spells weren’t able to reach an undead core. I smiled under my mask, rather proud of my nature, and passed to the next stone asking:

“You mean, Lei?”

“… I mean that happy-go-lucky stupid patronizing guy with the long black braid.”

“Lei,” I confirmed.

“Whatever. That bastard went ahead without even waiting for me. I know what you’re thinking: that he probably already beat me to this race, but,” he huffed, “he was so damn fast and stupid that he may have gone past the Beak of the island and dived into the ocean.”

I smiled as I kept advancing from stone to stone.

“Sure.”

“…”

“Say, perv.”

“What, stupidstar.”

“Those stones… What do they make people feel?”

“Hah… What’s with that weird question… You feel what you’re most likely to feel when in a chaotic situation. Panic. Fear. Desperation.”

“Oh. I see. Thanks.” I almost nodded, then remembered the bowl on my head, and thank goodness, stopped myself in time.

“… Say, stupidstar. ”

“What, perv.”

“Are your shoes special?”

“My shoes?” I was about to look down, then breathed in with a terrible thought in mind. “Are you trying to make me look down and spill my bowl?!”

“What? I’m not! Really. That would be a disgrace. I’m asking honestly. Or are you doubting me because I’m from the Champion Inst—”

“For pity’s sake, it’s not that, man! Sorry for doubting you. About my sneakers, they’re about three years old, I think, so they’re kinda special to me. Why?”

“You don’t get it. I wanted to know if they are impermeable to crystal capillarity.”

“Crystal what?”

“You know, that phenomenon that makes the energy flow on a surface by simple contact and—Whatever! How can you be fine on these damn stones?!”

Ah, that… I finally reached the last stone of the path.

“You wanna know?”

“Yeah.”

“Heh. You really wanna know?”

“… Nah, I couldn’t care less,” Noah snorted.

I chuckled, and turning my back on him, raised a hand.

“It’s ’cause I’m not afraid of death—No: it’s because I’m not afraid of living the way I am. That’s why.”

Feeling kinda cool, I kept walking through the grass towards the pole, the instructors, and the few trainees that were already there; meters behind me, Noah groaned under his breath:

“How does that make any sense… You’re simply a lucky idiot too dumb to be afraid, dammit.”

As I arrived next to the pole that stood on the hill, I caught a glimpse of Linah jumping off the last colored stone of the Peacemaker path. She ran towards me, desperate to win. She even threw her fist as fast as she could. Too late. I touched the pole and smiled. Heh. I certainly wasn’t a lucky idiot—I mean, lucky idiots did not die so young—, but all things considered, being an undead wasn’t all that bad…

I could still win a race against the Lil Witch.

CRACK.

Linah’s fist smashed the pole and split it into two. Aghast, I saw it collapse next to me. Angela Lasri, the Soft Queen, glared at the culprit.

“Where do you think you are!”

Linah blinked, as if surprised.

“Aw… Hwara-hwara… Sorry, ma’am, I got too excited.”

“Aya-aya.” Sitting on a bench with an orange pill in his hand, his brother Lei commented cheerfully: “My little sister, when you’re told to reach a goal, you don’t need to destroy it: it’s bad manners.”

“Shut up, brother. I just lost a race!”

“I lost to Axel, too, and I didn’t break the pole.”

“Good for you. But you always lose to Axel, anyway.”

Lei smiled.

“Ah, so true.”

That was mean, Lil Witch, I thought with a grimace of solidarity. When Linah finally came to me, I snorted:

“I can’t believe you got away with it so easily.”

“Why? It was just a pole!” she grinned.

Just a pole but the Soft Queen kept staring at her not very favorably—her eyes were even freezing. Being a Sunclaw sure was convenient sometimes, huh.

“So…” Linah hesitated. “Since you won by a nose… what do you want me to do?”

I raised my eyebrows. Was she worried about what I could ask from her? Heh. Well, since I had a sparrow memory, I might as well tell her something right now. After a brief reflection, I made up my mind, mustered up my courage, and bowed saying:

“Erma, please can I call you Linah!”

The water of the bowl flew off, soaking Linah’s surprised face.