Legend of Ransera

Frost is soon over and the temperature had started to increase a little into much more comfortable levels to be out and about without having to be the long distant cousin of some fat, large, hairy beast although if they were like that, Shuai would still be in hibernation right? The long sleep. He could understand why those animals did it. He too enjoyed sleeping in the cold weather and if it was not for his hunger and boredom, he would have slept over the whole of Frost too. But it was a good thing that he was not an animal like them or he would miss out on all the fun. With the ending of winter came the return of the bright sunny sun of the land and the energy the children of the neighbor had to keep contained in themselves just so they would not go batshit crazy at home. Shuai's mother had her reservations of allowing her son out already though. He only had to wait for a few days and it would be the next season. The cold would end. Why not wait until that happened?

Because there were things which could only be done during the winter and while the adults have forgotten how fun it used to be back in those days, their children wanted to make the most of the season while it was still enjoyable for them and especially when the weather permitted them to. Also, Shuai missed his friends. It had taken nearly the entire season but it seems like the adults have forgotten all that happened or maybe they took for granted that their tamer kids stuck during the Frost had somewhat matured enough to not cause any more problems. That would be a great big mistake on their part because now, all that energy the kids repressed into themselves? They were going to need an outlet and what other thing to do by playing games.

But if all that Shuai was going to do was play in the snow with his friends, his mother hardly saw the trouble and dropped the subject. Her only instruction to son was to have run with making his snowmen with his friends, or having large scale snowball fights with his friends or even better large scale snowball fights with his friends with snow forts. And an contingent of snowmen guards! Or, or, or snow treasure hunts under snow forts protected by a maze of snowmen guards while being pelted by snowballs? Those were really ambitious things her son wanted to do and she doubted he would have enough energy or attention to last him two projects before he go tired started up his mischief but not wanting to ruin his fun she only told him to have fun and make sure he came back home before the lights were out. "But mmmmoooommmmm" but nothing. He could still play with his friends the next day, weather permitting.

She would not know how wrong she was about her son's patience before he started up his mischief although to be fair to the boy, his friends were a bad influence. He had told them of his plans and ideas as he wanted to recruit them to help him to it too. "We'll have snowball fights, in snow forts, with snowmen guarding us and treasure. Buried treasure! Just like that game. Remember that game?" The game he referred to was of course the game the children had played over in searing, the last game they played before they all got into trouble with their parents because they were also playing with knives. Not the one with two kids in a ring held together by a length of cloth making stabs at each other. The other game where they all took knives to the field and declared war on one another for the sake of treasure. And they were not using actual knives of course, even though they were young and maybe quite foolish, they were still aware enough of the dangers such weapons were. To make up for their inability to use the knives, they had taken to using wood of a similar length as a substitute where the only risk of harm and injury were in splinters and an errant hit here and there. That did not matter to the parents however they were worried about the violence which was spreading among the kids, hence the mass freeze of activities until the Frost.

They actually liked Shuai idea though. Making snow forts. Having snowmen guards protecting them from the projectiles. A big snowball fight. Buried treasure. Everything which was needed to get a bunch of energetic children excited and wild. However his friends had a different idea. Did it have to be snowballs? It had been a season and they have all grown up now, ready to move on to bigger and better things. "How do you mean? Bigger and better snowballs? I don't think we can throw those at anyone, unless you want to drop them. But then we'll need bigger forts and those will take time to build. I don't think even with all of working together we can get them done before the snow thaws." Look at Shuai thinking things through, he had really grown up as his friends had said they would. Or not. Anyone who had really grown up would have known this could be a bad idea because as they discussed about the big game they all wanted to play, it was revealed just like Shuai and especially among the army brats, the children had learnt how to fight for the sake of defending themselves, as an outlet for their frustrations and especially for the latter group, for the sake of discipline.

It looked like it did not take as the boys suggested to use bow and arrows instead. At least one among their number had definitely matured as had this been earlier in the season Shuai would have been glad that he had learnt how to use the bow and arrow just a few days go and would be able to take advantage of his training in the weapon to come up the winner. Now he was more concerned with the one fact that it was dangerous, you'll hurt someone. Take an eye out. Are you really sure you want to play with those? And not all of us know how to use bows and arrows you know." Better keep it quiet he was one of the exceptions and actually knew how to shoot already. Now imagine if he his learning the how and arrow had been delayed to the next year just as his father wanted? He would definitely now have been able to voice his concerns so confidently like this as he would be afraid of what his friends would think of him. A coward? No actually a buzzkill they called him after they heard him. But for his sake and the other cowards, the boys came together with a solution to use arrows which were not sharp. They could remove the head and wrap around leather, cloth or beanbags or something. Would it work? Maybe, some of them had heard their siblings in the army doing it which was all they needed to be convinced it would work and they could get on with the game. Shuai considered it for a bit and the idea of fun won out in the end and he agreed to join in the game.

"Just maybe we use bows with a little less weight so it won't hit anyone too hard?" Shuai suggested before the group split apart for the game. No one caught on that Shuai knew what he was talking about too and that maybe he had learnt how to shoot the bow and arrow just as they did but the idea was sound, see he always was paying attention and if only his teacher was here for the boy to prove him wrong that all the lessons normally went out the other ear. Blunted arrows, weaker bows. Just who was going to get hurt here? But it was not like they were going to be able to prepare those weapons immediately so the rest of the way was in preparation of the grounds. Being his idea, Shuai had first dibs and he decided to go for the coolest among their choice of projects, building the snow fort. With the first pick of kids as well, Shuai chose the strongest and dexterous of the kids to help him. Of course he knew this were not going to be the pick of teams during the game or he would have a harder fight of the hands helping him but if there was one thing he was sure of, he needed the most suitable of kids for the job at hand. Into the evening they worked on the fort with a lot of attention placed on its foundations. He did not know why but it was something his teacher said, his lack of confidence in it had an affect on the other children as they tried to convince him to go with the important walls instead and with no reason not to, he agreed with their suggestion. Lucky he was not picking teams for the game, as a leader he was too weak willed.

Two days later with all their new equipment and hidden behind their snow forts, the anticipated game began for the kids. The parents still believing they were having their big war with snowballs were none the wiser. Kids hollered, a trumpet even blared, bows and arrows were raised into the air. This was it. The game was about to begin. Team leaders of the opposing sides met together confirming the rules, the old rules, most of the other kids who were there knew it too because they were there when it was hashed out but nonetheless they confirmed it for the benefit of their newer members. A big show of force was made with threats made and ultimatums given. "They are going to take our gifts if they win? Can they do that? I didn't agree to that" but nonetheless whether or not true it was only going to make all the kids fight harder. No one wanted to lose out on their seasonal gifts, they only came once a year and the only other event they got to enjoy such a thing was their own birthday. It was obviously an unpopular threat as the speaker was pelted with a snowball, lucky for him it was not one of the blunted arrows or he would have been out of the game.

But forget the pomp and pageantry. "ATTACK!!!"

From behind the protection of his snow fort, Shuai took aim and then fired, lined up his shot against his target just as he was taught to and then let the arrow fly from the bow. Right that was a really unpopular threat because he was not the only one shooting at the speaker. It was uncanny a lot of shots were fired that way. Had the threat been a strategy all along to draw the hate in? And look at all the arrows! He had always thought that iron was heavier than whatever it is they were using, leather, cloth or beanbags, but it seemed like the arrows were being weighted down too much that their descent happened a lot earlier than they should have. Maybe it had something to do with the less heavier bows the kids were using too. However he had not much time to consider how the change in the weapons had affected their effectiveness. As he was still worried the lot of them may have been tricked. "Follow me!" he told his teammate at his side and led him out of the snow fort to the side where there were not many engagements and hence no kids so they could sneak out without being seen. They encountered no one else so luckily the boy was mistaken and the other while he was dragged along did not make even a single complaint although he did express that the two of them should return to the fight soon as they were missing out on all the fun.

They had gone so far back however they had even made it past their opponent's line and were right behind them thanks to their advance and not even taking the precaution of having anyone in the rear. This was perfect. They may end up getting sent out of the game but it would be worth it if they could pull this one big move. "Ready? On my mark..." Both kids drew their bows and held them "steady, fire!" The rules were there for a reason and Shuai was not about to break them, but he was going to make his shots count. The only thing he had to aim for were the spots below the neck and above the groin although with how often the arrows fell, there was nothing he could do about avoiding hitting below the waist if he was unlucky. He aimed into concentration of kids which sped up the time he took to aim in between shots. He reasoned if he missed one, he would hit the others behind him and in fact the method worked.

Shuai's partner was the first to fall after the opposing team realized what was going on but Shuai? For some reason he had a lot more shots and it looked like they did not even know where to aim to get at him but for the directions his arrows came from. It looks like he had another advantage in the game other than having learnt how to shoot the bow and arrow from his teacher last week, he found out his white winter clothing was very effective for camouflage under the snow of Frost and then, he was hit by an arrow to the knee.

However like he told his partner, they were going to pull a big move and they did it with much success. Seizing the advantage of the confusion the pair just caused, many of his teammates had already left their snow fort, rushing at stragglers and picking them off one by one. If this had been a real fight with live weaponry Shuai would have wished that his contributions would be remem- oh right they did. FOr the next few days after the game it was nothing buy free desserts for him every time he entered the playground.