The Green Tournament

      The day that everybody was waiting had arrived. Both the boys and the girls woke up so early that the dining room was so crowded even at the time of dawn. The tournament was held in a big stadium quite far from the castle. Everyone had to walk but because of the fresh air in the morning and the nice essential smells of the flowers, had eased all the drowsiness. By the time it reached eight o’clock, the castle had become a desert.

      Saoirse was the host of the tournament this year. There was one spokesman from Lathaniel and one spokesgirl from Saoirse each. When it was the time, the Saoirse’s principal got up and gave a speech.

      “Welcome to the 216^th Green Tournament!!” and the stadium was filled with the applause. “I…am not going to talk much because I guess everybody is excited and want to watch the tournament rather than listening to my speech. Anyway, I hope it’s going to be fun and please do not kill each other.”      

      That was the worst speech Zes had ever heard.

      After that, a little girl walked into the centre of the field, which was in the middle of the stadium, and narrated the history of the Green Tournament.

      “The Green Tournament was begun after Lathaniel and Saoirse had built for 50 years by Empire Green Phelan, the second principal of Lathaniel. Empire Green Phelan saw the importance of testing the students’ skills and the unity between the two schools. Now, it has carried on till the 216^th. Lastly, please enjoy the tournament.” 

      Everyone applauded and the spokesman begun his job…”Goooood morning!!!!! Let’s begin the first match of the Creature Line, Quadrupeds Zith . The first pair is…There! Here they come!!!! Felis and Chaus, the famous jungle cats of Quinn from Saoirseeeee!!!!” he spoke like he didn’t have to breathe. ”Annnnnnnnddd!!! Iolo! Lovely little lion, no! I mean, brave and  graceful lion comes along with Bayu from Lathaniel!!!!! Ai!!!! The lion and the cats… isn’t really fair but two to one is …okay!!” Zes noticed that the spokesgirl had already gave up and enjoy the tournament instead.

      “It’s beginning!!!!!!! The brawl, I mean, the fighting between three arrogant creatures. Look! They started to frighten the others! Their hair’s rising…so cute, no! I mean, so scary!”

      Zes decided to stop listening to this weird spokesman when he finished that sentence.

      Two swift, tiger-like cats jumped and bit hard at the elegant and beautiful lion’s neck and body immediately when the starting sign was given. But Iolo was bigger, more powerful and its skin was so thick that Felis’ and Chaus’ fangs couldn’t make a little scratch. The lion shook and the cats flew away in different directions. Hair from its mane stuck in Chaus’ mouth. The lion, then, decided to finish one of the cats.

      “Chaus!” alarmed by Quinn, yet the cat stayed still. At the moment that Iolo’s claws nearly reached Chaus’ head; he stumbled back and howled with pain. It was Felis who came to save his friend just in time. With its claws, Felis harmed one of Iolo’s eyes.

      The pain made Iolo gone crazy, he chased the fearful cats without looking where it went and not even listening to Bayu’s voice which had tried to tell him to calm down. It’s then when the jungle cats seemed to have formed the fear in their heart so they couldn’t shun the lion’s attacks. All over Felis’ and Chaus’ bodies are full of wounds and cuts.

      “Felis! Chaus! Don’t panic!” shouted Quinn to the cats and it did work! Her instruction calmed the cats down so that they could keep away from Iolo. The cats started to strike back and never missed the targets. Iolo was so tried from his anger and the wounds all over its body. Soon he collapsed.

      “The winners are Felis and Chaus!!!!!!! What a wonderful fight!!!” the spokesman’s voice came along with the applause into Zes’s ears again after the match.

      The wounded animals were all cured by the master from the Cure Zith. Not  for long, Iolo was able to stand up and gave a clamour roar, Felis and Chaus also came back to their robust condition.

      “The first match ended, oh…what an impression!!! Hey! There! There! There! The second pair’s already coming out!!! Now, it’s the Aquatic Creature Zith!!! Oh!!! Oh!!! The field has become the pool!!!!”

      The area that used to be the jungle cats’ and the lion’s fighting field suddenly changed into a big pool with a special technique that would only use for this tournament.

      “Here she comes! Here she comes! Here she comes!!!! Dasflowera!!!! The aquatic creature that she’s going to use for this fighting is….The white seal!!!!!!”

      The applause from the girls grew louder and louder that it was able to shake the stadium. “And from the other side____ why hasn’t anyone coming out? Hey! Come out___”

      Zes, suddenly, felt uncomfortable with his stomach. He ran back to the castle for the toilet. It appeared that Zes didn’t look well so Rai followed after him.

      Zes went into the toilet for a very long time. When he came out, his body had gone pale and then he went in and out, in and out for several minutes. Rai decided to ask for help, first, he went to tell everybody. Then, Deinol went back to the bedroom to see if there was any herb that he brought could help. Reese went to find his Cure Zith’s friends but they could only cure the wounds, cuts, broken bone or burns, something like that. Veejay went to find those who were in Drug’s Line. They saw Zes, said it wasn’t serious and went to get the medicine which was in their room. While they were waiting for those Drug Line’s, the dark brown hair girl who Zes had met when her friend dropped a letter for Reese, passed by. She looked at everyone, didn’t say anything, didn’t smile at Zes like yesterday and didn’t have any feeling on her face. Then, she reached into her white jacket and picked out a small brown bottle. In the bottle were many small green pills. She gave one of them to Zes. But before Zes could say thank you to her, she had gone.     

      “I think she’s strange.” said Reese.

      “At least she saved Zes.” argued Veejay.

      “Anyway, Zes what have you eaten, why was it so bad?” Reese came back to Zes’ problem.

      “It must be because of yesterday’s dessert.” said Rai “Zes hasn’t been here that long, he might never eat that thing.”

      “What’s it? I think it’s delicious, although it looked disgusting.” said Zes.

      “Smadra’s flesh!” everyone said together at once excepted Zes whose face started to turn pale again. “It ‘s a kind of animal, look like a lizard.” explained Rai

      “The…Then.. how could… how could they use it as the dessert?” Zes asked with a face likely to throw up.

      “It tastes like one, doesn’t it? Some people also can’t eat the smadra’s flesh, like my brother. I don’t know why.” answered Rai.

      “Yea… I’ve never thought of that.” said Deinol “Besides, yesterday’s one had the blood spilled on top.”

      “BLOOD!!!!!!!!!” and Zes did really throw up this time.

*

      Zes who had just recovered from the stomach ache and learnt the truth of what he ate yesterday and vomit, wanted to rest a bit so the others went back to the stadium except Rai who wanted to accompany Zes. When Zes felt better, they walked back to the stadium. Meanwhile, Zes saw a hawk, like the one he rode to Theodore forest, flying in the sky. He didn’t pay attention on that because there were many strange things happened since he came here.

      Zes and Rai missed all of the morning matches. They saw the others walked out when they entered the stadium. All of them had lunch together in the lawn around the stadium. There were many stalls around that providing foods and drinks. Zes had just known that there were the toilets in the stadium too after being so silly, having to run back to the castle.

      “Pheew….” sighed Zes “What a pity! Rai and I missed all the morning matches, sorry Rai. What had they already compete?”

      “Creature Line, Plant Line and Drug Line.” said Otis “Musical Line, Art Line and Language Line will start this afternoon.”

      “Huh? What about us?” Surprised, Zes pointed at Rai and himself.

      “It’s tomorrow! Don’t tell me you don’t know that.” Freza said after swooping another spoonful of soup. “Weapon Line and Magic Line’s competitions’ often very excited so they arranged another day especially for them.”

      Then, many groups of girls came to sit around them. (This does remind me of a harem.) Reese looked so bored about his popularity. He ate quickly and ran away without saying anything. “Hey! Reese! Where’re ya goin?!” Eifien, one of Reese’s gang members shouted after him.

      Without waiting another moment, the others also ran after him, Reese actually went back to the castle where no one was, hiding from those girls.

*

      “The Musical Line‘s competition’s going to begin. Oh! Oh! I’m sooooo excited!!” the spokesman said when everybody slowly set themselves in. Zes noticed that the spokesgirl had already gone. “Here comes Rapha and his beloved piano. And Oh! Oh! Oh! Look, Saoirse girl’s coming out!!!!!! ORALIA AND HER GLMOUROUS HARP!!!!!”

      This was the first time that the boys applauded and cheered loudly, but they didn’t cheer their friend. It was Oralia that they gave a clamorous applause.

      Oralia was enchanting. Since she stepped into the field, all the boys stared at her and didn’t dare to blink their eyes, afraid that she would disappear. Her long wavy shiny black hair was dancing with the wind, her rose red lips got along well with her pink cheek and her skin was shining like pearl yet the part that attracted everybody most was her amorous and gorgeous eyes.

      Veejay looked at her, couldn’t take his eyes off of her while Reese…didn’t seem to be that interested.

      “That’s my cousin. She’s just entered Saoirse this year.” Reese said.

      And this is the only sentence that could make Veejay took his eyes off of Oralia.

      “Beautiful, isn’t she? But she’s strange. She hardly smiles.” Reese continued “If it’s about music, I think she’s the best in Derst.”

      Zes wondered how would they use music to compete but his doubts had gone when the match began. It wasn’t playing the music and judging whose better, but it was fighting with music.

      Oralia was an extremely well harpist. She played it hardly but it also felt tender and soft at the same time. Rapha, then, looked a bit uncomfortable so he played another quick lively song. Oralia didn’t give up, she played the song that made everyone felt the power around and Rapha suddenly flew of the piano.

      Rapha wasn’t a lame pianist. He stood up and got back to his piano. He, then, played the song that made his opponent felt like something had threatened from inside of her body. The pain grew on Oralia’s face and her blood spilt out of her mouth making her lips even redder. Veejay (and other boys) suddenly stood up from his(their) seat and looked over at Oralia. Surely, Reese saw that.

      Although losing a lot of blood, Oralia didn’t stop playing her harp. The song she played had changed again from the fighting tone to the killing tone. Rapha was shocked that his fingers stopped moving when he heard this song. His hands trembled and he looked confused. Then again, he flew out of his piano while coughing a vast amount of blood at the same time. His blood spread all over his piano and he wouldn’t be able to fight anymore so Oralia won.

      “She was trying to kill that guy!!” said Reese after the fighting ended with a shocking voice. “She used to tell me, that song is used in the war to kill the enemies, why’s she so ruthless? Shouldn’t be my cousin!”

      Veejay was very shocked from what Reese had said and looked a bit disappointed.

      “Hey, let’s go! Art Line’s and Language Line’s competitions are boring.” Reese quickly changed the subject when he saw Veejay disappointed face.

      “Why? I want to watch them.” Zes said, didn’t want to miss anymore of the competitions. Especially, this tournament was very excited and unexpectable.

      “Nah.. you don’t wanna watch they drawing and speaking strange language that we don’t understand.” Reese said and walked away, everyone followed him. Zes also saw that a lot of people left the stadium so he, too, followed them out of the stadium.