It was one of the boys who had recently strayed away from the twins’ crowd but hadn’t made an effort to talk to Jahrra and her friends.
Ellysian stopped laughing, and glared at the boy. “Those are just silly stories your parents told you to keep you away from the lake. There’s no lake monster!”
As much as Ellysian tried, however, she couldn’t completely convince the others that such a creature didn’t exist. Many of their classmates started chatting about details they remembered from the stories they were told when they were younger.
“I heard that it feeds only during the full moon, and only when the moon is directly overhead!” Scede added dramatically over the racket of voices.
“Yes, and it sleeps the rest of the month on the bottom of the lake, surfacing only to hunt!” squeaked a younger girl, trembling from the sudden recollection of an old fireside story.
Jahrra, Gieaun and Scede couldn’t have planned it better. They had thought it would take weeks to get the other children to believe them. But the twins, whom they wanted to convince the most, were remaining quiet, their faces free of expression, and Jahrra started to worry. What if this doesn’t work? What if they just let us all talk? she fretted to herself.
“You’re all a bunch of babies, believing fairy stories!” It was Eydeth who finally spoke up.
“Really, a lake monster? That’s the best explanation you can come up with?” he snorted a short laugh and shook his head.
Jahrra, seeing their intricate plan taking a positive turn, blurted out before thinking, “What do you think it was that ripped the boat in half then, Eydeth? A lake trout?”
The crowd’s murmuring transformed into a healthy chortling. Eydeth looked rather annoyed as his classmates had a good laugh at his expense.
“You know what I think?” Jahrra said, gaining steam. “I think you’re just scared.”
Gieaun and Scede looked over at her, surprise written all over their faces. This wasn’t the way the plan was supposed to go; they were supposed to take their time, not jump right into it. Jahrra quickly darted her eyes away from theirs and frantically searched for an escape route. She hadn’t meant to lose her temper and antagonize Eydeth, but she couldn’t stop now.
“What did you say to me, Nesnan?” Eydeth said with malice.
“I think you’re afraid of the idea of a lake monster,” Jahrra ploughed on. “I bet you wouldn’t even be brave enough to go out on the lake during the next full moon to prove me wrong.”
Jahrra crossed her arms and sat upright on the huge rock, a very nervous Gieaun and Scede on either side of her. Eydeth’s ears began to turn red while he glared right back at her.
“I’m not afraid of some make-believe sea snake!” he spat.
“Then prove it.” Jahrra uncrossed her arms and stuck her nose in the air. “Prove that, for one, you aren’t afraid of it, and two, that it doesn’t exist. Go out onto the lake during the next full moon, and see if it shows up.”
Everyone in the schoolyard had his or her eyes glued on Eydeth. Ha! Jahrra thought triumphantly, he has to do it, or he’ll look like a coward! Jahrra smiled inwardly, but continued to frown down on her nemesis. She could almost see his mind working furiously behind his angry eyes, and she knew she had him.
“There is no lake monster, and I’ll prove it.” Eydeth turned to the crowd. “In two weeks’ time, I’ll be going to Lake Ossar to demonstrate what fools that Nesnan and her friends are. When I have gone and shown that there is no lake monster, then those of you who believe her and her friends will see what a mistake you’ve made.”
He jerked his head aggressively in Gieaun’s, Scede’s and Jahrra’s direction. Jahrra had to admit, it was quite an eloquent speech for Eydeth. He turned and glared at her once more, but she stared right back, barely able to contain the huge smile she held in her heart. As they returned to class, everyone was buzzing about the dare that Eydeth had accepted.
“He’ll be sitting on that lake all night and nothing will happen, Jahrra is such an idiot!” one girl said.
“I’m not going! What if the monster does show up and eats him alive!” another said.
“Wouldn’t that be a treat?” Jahrra whispered to Gieaun and Scede as they slinked in behind the rest of the students. Both Gieaun and Scede were trying very hard to hide their triumphant smiles.
The next few weeks crawled by as Jahrra both dreaded and anticipated the approaching night of the prank. As the time ticked away and as the moon grew more and more round, the tension slowly climbed with it. The schoolyard became a battle ground between those who were foolish enough to believe the monster existed, and those proud enough to insist it didn’t.
Jahrra feared that Eydeth would chicken out, and even saw a slight panic in his eyes when he thought no one was watching. As time wore on, however, he became more and more determined to show Jahrra he wasn’t afraid of a “stupid little Nesnan and her imaginary monsters”.
“You are going to look so foolish Jahrra! You shouldn’t have dared him!” many would say as they passed her and Gieaun and Scede on the way to class.
“Oh, leave her alone!” an auburn-haired girl finally said one day. “Let’s just hope the monster doesn’t show up! I would hate for anyone to get eaten!”
Jahrra remembered her from the twins’ Solsticetide party so long ago, Rhudedth was her name. She was the same girl that went for help when Jahrra had become entangled in the oak tree.
Even their teacher Professor Tarnik, normally oblivious to Jahrra and her friends, noticed the battle going on between his students.
“I do not know what all this nonsense is about a sea serpent, but it needs to stop this instant! If I hear another word about it in this classroom, you’ll be writing lines until summer arrives!”
This frightening threat from their tyrant of a headmaster forced everyone to keep their opinions contained to the schoolyard. By the end of the final week, one day before the full moon, Eydeth had rallied a large group willing to witness his bravery.
“We’ll all be camping on the lake shore tomorrow evening, and then I’ll row out into the middle of the lake. I’ll even make a lot of noise so your ‘monster’ can’t miss me.” Eydeth grinned malevolently as he swept past Jahrra and her friends.
“If you don’t show up, it’ll just prove my point further: that the monster is real and you were just too scared to prove me wrong!” Jahrra threatened back.
Eydeth turned and gave a quick look of consternation as Jahrra said this. So, he has been thinking about backing down. What a coward! she thought angrily. Eydeth’s look of fear, however, was only a fleeting one, and he gave her one last smug glare before marching on with his sniggering crowd of followers.
“Please. Even you, Nesnan, aren’t brave enough to go fishing for your own make-believe lake creature,” he spat over his shoulder, refusing to let Jahrra have the last word.
Jahrra breathed away her moment of irritation and allowed the corner of her mouth to rise just enough to make it look like she was smirking.
We will see who the brave one is tomorrow night, Eydeth, she thought jeeringly, and then loud enough only for Gieaun and Scede to hear, “And we’ll be there to see it all, you just won’t know it. C’mon, we have a lot to plan before tomorrow night.”
Jahrra, Gieaun and Scede went to get their horses and started towards home. That night, Jahrra planned to stay at Gieaun’s and Scede’s, telling Hroombra, Kaihmen and Nuhra that they were going to go camping that weekend at the lake. Jahrra cringed at the thought of how easily their plans could be discovered, but as they rode through the farmlands and over the Aldehr River bridge, Jahrra tried to clear away her negative thoughts. It’ll work out, it must work out! she told herself confidently.