Conquer the Castle - A Legend of Oescienne Short Story Read online

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  Jahrra spent an hour of slow and careful weaving through Aldehren as she made her way back to Gieaun and Kihna. Despite her effort, she’d been shot by someone on the blue team as she moved from a forested hill onto the streets, and then had a near miss when she paused to adjust the bag that carried her ammunition. After the second shot she had slowed her progress down even more. Won’t do any good if I keep getting shot, she grumbled to herself as she crept up to the boundary of her camp.

  Before coming within range of the redwood trees, Jahrra cupped her hands and imitated the call of a mourning dove. Four more calls greeted her and she eagerly jogged the final incline to find Scede and Rhudedth leaning against the trunks of the redwoods, both speckled with their own collection of dye marks, but grinning foolishly.

  “Oh no!” Jahrra breathed. “You guys were shot too?”

  “Yeah,” Rhudedth answered, “but we gave them back as much as they gave us, and look!”

  She held up a green banner as her smile widened.

  “Excellent!” Jahrra cried as she pulled Eydeth’s yellow banner out of her bag.

  “We managed to steal three flags!?” Scede added as he dropped the red banner on top of the others.

  “And managed to keep ours safe!” Kihna said as she climbed down her tree to join them.

  Gieaun was right behind her. “You should have seen all the people we shot!”

  They all exchanged stories of their adventures for a few minutes, then Rhudedth looked up and said, “Where’s Pahrdh?”

  At that moment, another mourning dove call reached their ears and the five of them returned it, letting Pahrdh know it was safe to enter camp.

  He looked rather glum when he climbed up to the top of their hill. He appeared to have more paint marks on him than everyone else and he didn’t carry a blue banner in his hands.

  “I was ambushed,” he muttered irritably. “It was a trap. Ugh! I should have known!”

  “It’s okay Pahrdh,” Jahrra said grinning. “We managed to get all our flags, so I’d say we’ve done better than expected.”

  “True,” Gieaun added, “but the game’s not over yet. Where are we going to put these other flags? We’re allowed to hide them, but they have to be in plain sight. That’s going to be hard to do, considering their colors.”

  Jahrra frowned, studying the green, red and yellow flags. Gieaun was right. They had at least a few more hours left in the game and any one of the teams they had robbed could descend upon their camp at any moment to get back their flag and to take off with the others if they wanted to. It was one thing to guard one flag, but with four, every team would be after them.

  “No it won’t,” Kihna said confidently, responding to what Gieaun had said about hiding them. “Look.”

  She pointed over at one of the clotheslines that hung lower to the ground than the others. When they had first picked this spot as their camp, Jahrra had been slightly concerned that someone might trip over the line in the heat of battle, but had since dismissed it from her mind. Now, as she ran her eyes down the rope, taking note of the colorful sheets and towels that hung there, she grinned.

  “Someday we’re going to have to pay for all our good luck!” she cried as she picked up the pile of stolen banners.

  The six of them spent the next several minutes arranging the stolen flags on the clothesline so that they blended in with the other towels, sheets and clothing. After that, they huddled around their own violet banner to discuss the plan for the rest of the day.

  “I think we should be done with hunting for more banners,” Pahrdh said with a hint of resignation.

  “Agreed,” said Rhudedth, “we should stay here and spread out, shooting anyone who comes within a hundred yards of our base camp.”

  Jahrra thought this was a good idea as well, but she feared Eydeth had something more sinister up his sleeve.

  In the end, they went with Rhudedth’s plan and for the next hour, they managed to scare off the other teams as they shot at them from the cover of the redwood trees and the height of the hill. When Eydeth and Ellysian failed to show up, Jahrra’s nerves started to prickle. She called her teammates back down to talk it through.

  “I know they are planning something,” she said, her eyes scanning the shadows.

  “Well, what do you propose we do?” Gieaun asked, crossing her arms and arching a brow. “Do you want us all to go out and spy?”

  Jahrra opened her mouth to make a retort, but then she thought about Gieaun’s words. “Not to spy,” she said slowly, “but to lure.”

  “Huh?” Kihna asked.

  “To lure!” Jahrra smiled mischievously and crossed her arms. “I have an idea . . .”