“Oh,” she managed, barely holding back a grimace, “that would be nice. I haven’t seen him in awhile.”
Scede and Gieaun grinned, and Jahrra tried to ignore them. She was just thankful he lived so far away and didn’t go to school with them. She couldn’t imagine how Eydeth and Ellysian would treat him. She shivered at the very thought of it.
The group laid out their picnic blankets and ate their lunches, reveling in the fine weather and laughing at the shore birds chasing desperately after sand crabs while trying to avoid the encroaching waves. Before they realized it, the day was over and the children ruefully headed back home in the rich, golden light of the setting sun. Jahrra, Rhudedth, Pahrdh and Kihna waved goodbye to Gieaun and Scede as they disappeared down the driveway leading to Wood’s End Ranch, turning north as they made their way home. The four remaining companions tore down the road and around the town of Nuun Esse as they raced towards the Castle Guard Ruin.
“You’ll never catch us!” Jahrra called as she and Phrym jumped an old broken fence marking a fallow field.
“Of course we won’t!” Pahrdh shouted breathlessly from his laboring horse. “You have Phrym!”
Several minutes later, Jahrra slowed a lively Phrym to a stop in front of his stable. While they waited for the others, Jahrra gave her friend a good pat on the neck. Phrym whickered energetically, trying to convince her to let him cut loose once again.
“Maybe we shouldn’t run so far ahead of everyone all the time,” she whispered, smiling.
Phrym cocked his ears backwards and let out a small snort, as if doing such a thing would injure his pride.
Jahrra laughed. “You’re right, but maybe we could go just a little slower next time.”
The three riders came thundering over the hill just as Jahrra was climbing down from Phrym’s back.
“I know Phrym is a semequin, but I’ve never seen a horse move so fast! Too bad you can’t enter the Great Race next year; you two would beat everyone by far!”
Pahrdh’s expression glazed over as he imagined his friend and her smoky semequin leaving all the other racers in the dust.
“Oh please!” Kihna breathed as she brought her white mare up next to the others. “I thought you were done talking about that race!”
The three of them bid farewell to Jahrra and headed north towards Aldehren. As they disappeared over the edge of the Sloping Hill, Jahrra sat on Phrym’s wood pole fence and watched as he danced around his corral. After a few laps, he trotted up and leaned his neck gently against her, forcing her to grasp the rough wood so that she wouldn’t fall over backwards.
“It would be amazing to run in that race,” she admitted to him, “but we’ll have to settle for our races down the country roads I suppose.”
Jahrra reached over and scratched Phrym on the neck. She quickly jumped off the fence and turned to face him in the darkening light. “We’ll have to dream about races later, Phrym. Tomorrow we have lessons with Yaraa and Viornen, and you and I both need to rest.”
She kissed his silvery-dappled forehead and began the downhill walk towards the Ruin.
As she trudged through the long grass, Jahrra gazed up at the sky, searching for the first stars of the night. Tomorrow she would be going back to her usual summer routine. Her days, like many of the summer days before, would be filled with hard, physical work with the elves and the constant struggle against Kruelt with Hroombra. Jahrra sighed, realizing that she would have only a few chances to see her friends over the next few months, but knowing all too well it would soon be over and she would be back in school once again.
As the weeks passed, however, Jahrra grew more and more advanced in her complicated defense lessons. She could now make herself relax and concentrate on the task at hand in the most stressful of situations, and had even trained herself to hold her breath for nearly a minute. She was now able to defeat Yaraa in a sparring contest while Srithe, Strom, Samibi and the family dog danced around them making a huge racket, and Viornen found it increasingly difficult to break past her defenses while they practiced fencing maneuvers. Jahrra’s aim with a bow and arrow was close to perfect, and the tricks she could manage while on horseback rivaled those she read about in Hroombra’s old books of ancient sagas.
With her internal senses sharpened from the years of continuous training, detecting an encroaching enemy (or sometimes three if her trainers’ children were employed) became as easy as locating Atrova in the night sky. Furthermore, to Jahrra’s great astonishment, she started to notice the emotions and earthy senses of the ancient trees surrounding her. At first she wasn’t sure what that deep prickle of joy had been, that is until she remembered, with a pleasant shiver, how it had felt “speaking” with the sacred Apple Tree in Ehnnit Canyon. Jahrra’s progress carried over into her lessons with the dragons’ language as well, something that pleased Hroombra very much. She was able to recite to him, in almost perfect Kruelt, a summary of what she’d learned from her elvin trainers that summer.
Although she had spent most of her vacation learning and not playing, Jahrra couldn’t help but be extremely pleased with herself, even on the eve of her return to school. She had grown another two inches, bringing her just over five and a half feet tall (the tallest of her age level at school and only third tallest overall), and her many years of defense training had made her lean, quick and strong.
In fact, Jahrra was certain that if she were ever challenged by any of the boys at school, either those older or her own age, she would win hands down. Any arm wrestling contest, fencing match or foot race would be no problem for her. She grinned to herself as she imagined the pompous Eydeth challenging her to full-out, hand-to-hand combat. What a delight it would be to rearrange his facial features and pummel him to a pulp in front of the whole entire school. Jahrra sighed. No, she thought, that would be too easy. And it would be an unfair advantage for me. He wouldn’t stand a chance.
As she lay in her small bed that night, her arms folded comfortably behind her head, Jahrra found herself looking forward to the start of school for the first time in her entire life. She no longer imagined herself as the awkward Nesnan without any friends, but a confident, young woman capable of defeating her enemies with one movement of her hand. She took a slow, deep breath and closed her eyes, wishing that the dream world would welcome her soon.
The first few months of school proved rather dull despite Jahrra’s enthusiasm, but once it was full autumn and Sobledthe drew ever nearer, the pace of life picked up a bit. Many of the children who were finally old enough to go to the festival in Lensterans on their own were bustling with excitement. All Jahrra could think about, however, was the famous scavenger hunt, something she’d been looking forward to since she’d learned of its existence a few years ago.
The elders planned two hunts, one before sunset and one after. The pre-dusk contest was for the children, and in Jahrra’s opinion, a rather boring and unchallenging event. The clues were easy and it all took place within town. The advanced hunt was much more appealing; what with its mind-boggling riddle clues and the mere fact that it took place after sunset, its boundaries including the farmland surrounding the town. The second contest was a real challenge, and Jahrra would compete in nothing less.
“Our team will win the scavenger hunt for sure!” an older boy said one day at school.
Jahrra’s head shot up and her skin tingled. She strained her ears to pick up any details she could as she listened from her favorite perch in the oak tree on the edge of the schoolyard.