Chapter 21-Good News At Last
Irgen turned distractedly
as he heard the gates slam shut. He
looked around to see if someone had just entered, but upon seeing no one he
quickly turned his attention back to blocking Helen as she sprinted towards his
goal. He thought it was a strange
sensation, playing soccer. His whole
life he had grown up around kids who had only ever known American football, and
now here he was, playing soccer with this beautiful woman before him who had
wanted to play football, or what she called the noble sport of soccer.
Once they were off the
wall, she had asked him if he wanted to play, and after only getting an
offended look out of him. She made two
magical soccer goals appear, with a ball directly in front of her. She had given him a playful look and darted
off towards a goal. It was then that
Irgen’s pride took control. He did not
care how good of a girl she was, or even if this was her sport, not his. All he knew was there was no way that she was
going to beat him… Well at least unless
he let her. So taking this as a personal
affront to his athleticism, he took off as well, and the game had been going
for some solid minutes before the distraction of the gate drew his attention.
He turned back just in
time to see her plant her left foot, while deftly bringing her right foot into
solid connection with the ball. Irgen
froze watching the ball soar gracefully through the air in front of him. Suddenly he felt anger rise in his body. With this goal, Helen would pull too far
ahead of him. She had already scored
numerous goals, but this one was the last straw for Irgen. Suddenly fire erupted in his heart and the
ball before him leapt into flames, before finally disintegrating in front of
the goal. Helen turned around with an
angry look on her face, “What did you do that for?” She demanded in a very imperious tone.
Irgen’s anger dissipated
under the fiery glance. “I-I’m sorry. I just got carried away,” and then he added
softly as he turned his attention to studying the grass around him, “I just
didn’t want to keep losing like I was…
I’m sure you could tell, but I’ve never played soccer before in my
life. I just didn’t want to admit that
you were better than me.” He stopped as
he nervously clasped his hands in front of him.
“Hmmmph. Well perhaps this can teach you a lesson in
humility Irgen Tuerl. You know, not even
the Tuerls are perfect.” Her anger
subsided as she conjured another soccer ball in the air, now come on Irgen, and
I’ll show you how to play the real game of football. She kicked him the ball and he lifted his
eyes to meet hers as though in a token of gratitude, but as he did, he found
himself having to punt the ball to the side and chase rapidly after it to avoid
being tackled by this frenzied woman who used to be Helen Leshore.
After being thoroughly
thrashed by Helen, Irgen finally threw up his hands in exhaustion and
defeat. “All right Helen, you’ve proven
your point, but remember you are lucky we are not playing an American sport
because if we were it would be you, not me, who would be getting humbled.”
“Soccer is an American
sport my dear friend.” She said
mockingly as she made the equipment disappear.
“Everyone else in the world calls it football or futbol or something to
that affect, but we Americans won’t relinquish our own beloved football’s name
so instead we call the sport where you actually use your feet soccer.” She gave Irgen a lighthearted shove as he
smiled mischievously.
They walked back to the
castle, each teasing the other good-naturedly.
As they came within a couple of feet of the castle a great horn sounded
making them both jump. They looked
around shakily, preparing for the worst.
“It can’t mean another attack… Can it?”
Asked Irgen.
“I don’t know, but I
don’t think I have ever heard that horn.”
She paused looking up at the four towers surrounding the middle
turret. “There is a mighty horn imbedded
in each of the four towers surrounding the castle, each stands for one of the
four elements. To be honest I have only
ever heard the water and the earth horn sound, and to the best of my knowledge,
the other two have never been used.” Her
voice trailed off as Irgen too stole a peak into the sky, and then of a sudden
a loud clang stunned the two even more.
They turned and saw the
pudgy figure of Alexander come running out of the now wide open door of the
Citadel, onto the street towards them.
“Idus is awake, Idus is
awake.” A soft thud broke into the
echoing of Alex’s voice off the walls.
Helen turned in joy. Finally able
to be truly excited for Irgen, but to her surprise she found him lying on the cobblestone
street. Ironically his body had
collapsed from too much stress and shock, on hearing the wonderful news.
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