By now it was late afternoon and Kaihmen and Nuhra had to drag the hypnotized children reluctantly back to the stables to harness the horses and head home.
“Oh please, Father! Mother! Can we stay just a half hour more?!” Scede complained as Kaihmen hauled him by his hairy paw. “We’re plenty old enough to stay after dark! It’s silly to have to leave so soon!”
“Just twenty more minutes, please!” Gieaun whined, being pushed onward by her mother.
Jahrra plodded along gloomily, wishing secretly that she could stay as well.
“We’ve been here long enough. You should be glad you got to come at all,” Nuhra answered in a stern voice.
They all sighed and with one last expression of their disappointment, all three of them plopped down on the back bench of the cart, looking longingly at the enchanted town as it faded behind them in the golden light of promised sundown.
Despite the fact that they were leaving before the true festivities began, Jahrra had had the time of her life. Her elated mood was only smothered when she realized that there was still another month of school before the Solstice season began. She grumbled inwardly as they passed over the bridge spanning the Oorn River.
Just focus on the lake monster, it’s almost done, she told herself as they traveled across the newly harvested fields cloaked in the eerie blue of approaching twilight.
Autumn eventually faded away and the rime-encrusted earth slowly submitted to winter’s harsh grasp, leaving Jahrra clinging to the happy memories of the Fall Festival as she focused her sights on the end of the school term. Solsticetide was drawing near, but even the prospect of the long break couldn’t drive the anxiety from her bones. This was the first year that she and her older classmates would be taking a series of excruciating exams in order to move on in their grade level. Naturally, Jahrra dreaded these tests with every fiber of her being and just the mere thought of the extra math work and history lessons gave her a headache. Worse was what would happen if she failed to pass her exams. Not only would she be forced to study all during her break in order to re-take them before school started, but failure to pass the first time would only give Eydeth and Ellysian one more thing to taunt her about.
Jahrra sighed as she stretched out before the great fireplace in the common room of the Castle Guard Ruin. She had finished studying and was now trying to memorize some very difficult Draggish words. Hroombra made sure to peek up from his reading every now and again to flash her an encouraging smile full of dagger-like teeth.
As she struggled over the dragons’ words, Jahrra tried hard to forget about her sore muscles and aching joints. She’d spent the better part of her weekend at the cabin east of the Aldehr River fending off Yaraa’s quick attacks and parrying Viornen’s direct sword blows. Her weekend meetings with the two elves had started early that fall, and although she had improved immensely over the past two summers, the elves both agreed that Jahrra would benefit even further if she met with them all year round.
“The exercises and techniques will only be getting harder as you progress, so it’s important that you check in with us regularly,” Viornen had told her seriously.
Jahrra wasn’t frustrated with the extra lessons; she loved training with the elves, but she was disappointed that it meant less time to help Gieaun and Scede finish the lake monster. More often than not, the Resai siblings would have to go out to Lake Ossar to work on the monster on their own. Jahrra hated to be held back while they worked, but her two friends assured her they didn’t mind spending more time on the project than she did.
“Hithe ist dodthe yiroehnin?”
The sudden intrusion of Hroombra’s voice made Jahrra yelp.
“Huh?” she uttered, frantically trying to translate Hroombra’s words in her mind.
“How are you doing?” he repeated in the common tongue.
Jahrra scowled. She was seconds away from deciphering what he’d said and kicked herself for not being quicker. She took a deep breath and answered slowly and carefully, “Aardthe rhesin phoerrel. Not so good.”
“Ah,” Hroombra grinned, “you have much on your mind now. We’ll spend more time on your Krueltish lessons once your exams are over.”
Jahrra’s stomach sank. She knew her exams were now only a few weeks away, but she’d momentarily forgotten about them.
“If I even survive them,” she murmured grouchily to her guardian.
He smiled warmly, no sign of his teeth this time, and said, “Perhaps you should go to bed, you’ve had a busy weekend.”
Jahrra simply nodded and dragged herself up from the thick quilt she’d been resting on. She limped off to her room, trying to stretch out her complaining arms and legs along the way.
“Good night,” Hroombra called.
Jahrra grunted a reply and then fell into bed, falling asleep almost instantly.
The exams came and went, and to her great relief, Jahrra passed all of them. On the first day of Solsticetide break, she, Gieaun and Scede headed to Lake Ossar. Although they weren’t quite finished with their beast, the only thing left to do was to add the teeth and some minor details to the head.
“We’ll be done by the end of this week for sure, even with Jahrra going to defense lessons,” Scede said, casting his friend a forgiving glance.
Jahrra frowned as a small gust of icy wind shifted the reeds and tossed her hair into her face. She was practicing with Yaraa and Viornen four days a week during the winter break. Fortunately, her practices were early in the morning, and by early afternoon she was free. Not so fortunately, the multiple bruises and aches she received during practice hindered her ability to be of any real help to her friends.
“Well come on! It’s freezing out here and we still have so much to do!” Gieaun cried, pulling her jacket tightly around her.
Jahrra and Scede took the hint and soon the three were scurrying about, draping icy, dripping seaweed over the creature’s massive neck or fastening jagged, rough rib bones to its jaws.
“A few more days and it will be finished,” Jahrra breathed as she stood back staring at the nearly completed monster in awe. “I can hardly believe it.”
Three days later they added the final layer of kelp skin to their creature, and after many months of hard, dedicated work, their lake monster was complete. In its finished form, their creation was unbelievably realistic. The long, towering neck looked strong and powerful, and the gaping mouth, filled with grimy, foot-long teeth would terrify even the bravest of men. The eyes they left hollow, which looked more frightening than if they’d been filled in. Great tangled masses of horse hair ran down the beast’s neck, giving it an even more ghastly appearance, and Scede had even attached some hair to the creature’s chin, making it look like a very old monster of legend.
“Wait a minute! Is it just going to rise out of the water and gape at them? We can’t have a genuine lake monster without it roaring or growling as it is about to eat its prey!” Jahrra stated, delightedly imagining Eydeth’s face as their creature loomed over him.
“I already thought of that,” Scede said rather smugly, holding up what looked like a horn made out of old leather stretched over a funnel-shaped frame.
He held it up to his mouth and blew forcefully into it, causing a low bellowing sound that seemed to reverberate deep within their bones.
Jahrra shivered with goose bumps and Gieaun said, “It’s perfect!”
That weekend the three of them went out to the lake one last time. They paddled out to their island where their monster’s neck and head lay waiting just beneath the surface. They brought with them extra rope and more rocks to help make a counter weight in the final step in their building process. They ran two ropes from the base of its neck, one over the small wood pilings in the middle of the lake, and the other back to their island. Scede tested it out and found that the pulley system worked perfectly.