67 Glade 110
The tyrannical reign of Big Gwin earlier in the season was still not something the children in the neighborhood had gotten over yet. His final words as they collectively gave him the beat down of his life and left him having to recuperate from the new cauliflower which grew off his face still haunted them. What if he was right? What if someone bigger came for them next? Where would their peaceful days go? Would it be their dues for going overboard when their chance to strike at him came? But he asked for it! His rules! Take him down and so, they did. The children did a lot to calm themselves down and convince themselves they were in the right and if another Big Gwin should appear, they would be in the right to deal with him just as they had Big Gwin. They believed even the adults approved. After all it was weeks and they have yet to say or do anything more about the incident after one token inquiry which was more because their own children also came home with plenty of bruises of their own.However no matter what they told themselves or did, the children still had this uneasiness and worry about them which seemed like it would last for the rest of the year; until Frost could for some other distraction. At least that was the case until one of the military brats in the neighborhood made a suggestion. Years and years of exposure to his parents' exploits as well as stories from his older siblings in the service taught him the value of bravery and valor. Equipped with both even the weakest among them could do something, just as they all had when they finally decided to strike back at Big Gwin who they feared for what felt like forever. And this was despite all the strength, and more, for a kid his age which used indiscriminately against the rest of them. It was a good idea which sounded like it could accomplish something or at least serve as a good distraction until Big Gwin became nothing more but a bad memory they would eventually forget so they asked him, how could they get those bravery and valor things?
The kids were all too green to figure out the boy they were all listening to attentively did not even begin to know what he was talking about; one of those moments they really needed an adult around to stop them from doing something stupid but with no such convenience, the brat continued. According to his parents and siblings, and this was the brief notes for their benefit, while their enemies were not scary, big bullies like Big Gwin, a lot of times they outclassed the brave men and women of Kalzasi. With some enemies, they had the benefit of better ground- whatever that means. Others could use magic, had powerful weapons like guns, did cool things called tactics and stradebilly and the big dogs like Zaichaer had great heroes and generals to lead them into battle. They were not like Big Gwin, a bully, but better to the point even their enemies in Kalzasi were impressed at the mention of the name of these individuals. However no matter what went against them, Kalzasi remained unbeaten or obviously the kids would not be enjoying themselves in the playground right now, and why?
Because no matter what happened, Kalzasi had their own weapons to aid them. Magic, swords, spears, lances, axes, and all those other things. Weapons were the great equalizer. The idea captivated the children's imagination as they heard of a soldier armed with a lance being able to take down a charging horse, a scout spearing a tiger down despite the beasts' reputation for ruthlessness among seasoned hunters and, run the mill grunts defeating squads of moratallen because a sword was all they needed to make up for the difference in strength. That decided it for the children. They were going to get themselves weapons which they would ask their parents for as soon as they reached home. For some parents, this was a cute joke coming from their kids. For others this was a serious matter and their children ended up in a long lecture for the rest of the night as they explained all the dangers and violence inherent to the weapons their children romanticized. And then there were some whose parents got so worried they immediately grounded their children and forbade them to meet their friends anymore because they were bad influences. Especially the army brats.
Whether one were to think it was fortunate for Shuai to not have been of the group suddenly isolated from his peers, or not, his parent's laughed off his request for a weapon as a joke which left him in the middle camp- his father talking him right through the night about how bad and dangerous weapons were. It was also then his father's history as a duelist came up, not from his father who intended to dissuade his son from pursuing the subject but from an elder in the family who thought it amusing that an accomplished duelist like his father did not want his son to follow in his footsteps. From point on, it was Shuai constantly bugging his father to let him use a weapon the way a duelist would but it would be long before the man would be worn down enough to even consider the idea. For a long time it was Shuai who would have to end up listening to his father's old exploits as the man did his best to relay the honour and responsibility of one who chose to pick the sword to the next generation of his family.
There was much disappointment among the children when they next met one another after they were so confident they were going to get their weapons from their parents. The weapons had already taken casualties from their number as some would not return for a long time and even among those which remained, there was nothing but continuous sobbing amidst all the outcry that weapons were bad. Even before the kids of the neighborhood could build their forces they were already faced with betrayal and desertion. It was then the boy who led all the children against big Gwin, Lanius, spoke up. They did not need weapons. From what he was told by a cousin's friend telling the sister of Jeremiah back at school who re- yes; a stupidly long chain which concluded with the idea relayed to Lanius just about anything could be used as a weapon or could be used as a substitute until they could get some proper. Anything? This scared a lot of the kids and few more deserted. While he had no fear like them, Shuai understood their worries about being maimed, crippled or worse, dead.
The remaining kids under the instruction of Lanius went on to collect some sticks lying around the playground. Just as he said though they could not use actual weapons, they could still use something as close and the ones readily available would be the sticks. There were some concerns about this. Even before this the kids played with sticks so they all knew there was a chance this was going to hurt but all Lanius had to say for this is a quote from that old saying. Sticks and stones may break their bones but it was better than getting stabbed or having an arm chopped off. "Wait a sec... that's not how it goes. I thought it was wor-" but yeah. Lanius made his point. Some overachievers not to be left behind in the dust even brought stones after the quote but even the bravest of them, like Lanius, had to admit that was taking things a little too far for what they were going to do.
But to a lot of them, too far was at very different points. For Shuai, "I'm not going to hit any of my friends with a stick" even if they agreed, a sentiment shared by quite a few others. The solution? Lanius suggested a game but "isn't this what Big Gwin did too? Make up a game to force everyone to do the things he wanted?" It seemed like a slippery slope they should not start on but Lanius did his best to assure the rest that like all the other games they play all the time, it was their choice to join in or not. Though he could see the similarities to what Big Gwin had done, Shuai decided to keep quiet, this time, because the game Lanius described actually sounded fun and not as brutal as the so called game Big Gwin forced on them. Being quite excited about it, it was the rare occasion Shuai volunteered to take the first go. This was noticeably contrary to his usual practice of going as late as possible for their games just so he could learn as much as he could to get the win for himself.
In order to get them more comfortable with their 'great equalizer', Lanius and Shuai had a hand wrapped together with a long piece of cloth, effectively forcing them to be joined to one another. Their other hand was not free either, holding the sticks they found, about the length of most knives. There was no option for Shuai to run rings around his opponent with this game. The rules were simple. For each time their sticks hit the other, a point and, no hitting below the waist or above the neck for the sake of safely. There was no need for more parents' to ground their kids or forbid them from meeting their friends just because they came home with more injuries. "Are you sure this is all? This sounds too easy. I bet I can hit you a kabillion times since you can't run away" Shuai declared confidently. But of course, the same applied to Lanius which was why the other boy asked for Shuai to at least make the effort to dodge out of the way because he was not going to let Shuai get any easy hits either.
Who said this was easy anyway? It had been over a minute and Shuai found it hard to score even one hit! Each time he moved in to strike, Lanius was already out of the way. Shuai felt after their first few attempts of exchanging blows they reached the same method to dodge. At least the way he had been doing it, Shuai used their joint arms to feel when he was being pushed forward to get a feel of when Lanius was coming in and retreated for as long as the other boy decided to keep pushing to maintain their distance from one another. This was a bit problem. If this stalemate continued, just when would it end? Becoming more anxious he went in for another attack- missed that too as Lanius leaned to the side before the other boy came in for an attack. Not this time! Effortlessly, Shuai stepped back and bent his way out of the oncoming stick. Oh this was another reason it was so easy to dodge one another he thought, by the rules and limitations the areas they could attack one another at was so small that they only had to focus on not getting hit at those specific spots to not get scored against. Was this what Lanius had in mind when he gave the rules? Did he not realize his opponents could take advantage of those rules too?
Evidently Lanius had put a lot of thought into it and taking advantage of a confident yet distracted Shuai, he suddenly made a pull when Shuai advanced throwing his opponent off balance and getting a point in that way. Good game, but a lot of room for improvement. "Next time, I'll win. Just you wait." Shuai would not wait for long though as it was in the plans that Lanius made that the game would continue to be a something the other kids would practice and come to rely on, like in resolving the top dog of the playground, so it would be harder for another Big Gwin to appear and impose a new game to take control without a lot of resistance.
