LeOmi's Solitude (20 page)

“You know as much as I do, if not more.”

“Well we cannot leave the mountain today, or
during Tent Fest so I guess we will go next week. On–not Monday,
that’s flags practice so…Tuesday. I guess this calls for another
letter to your dad.”

After LeOmi wrote another letter, Bekka left
promising to return later on in the day.

LeOmi made her way around the outskirts of
the tents area. Bekka had given LeOmi an area map that showed the
entire Seventh Mountain complex. It reminded her of Henry’s Wheel
of Life, the Wheel of Four Ages.

The school was surrounded by twelve outer
Regions. She knew where the Stables and the Game Preserve were.

In the center of the map was The Seventh
Mountain. The school grounds extended a mile to the rock wall with
its hidden offset entrances. The grounds included the Island with
the moat that was located in the northern school grounds. Beyond
that and over the wall were the fairly equal portioned divisions,
divided like spokes on a wheel. They were listed as:

Stables and Farming

Forest

Life Sciences

Power and Engineering

Vehicle Training

Airfield

Naval Combat

Firearms Range

Firearms Combat

Urban

Wasteland

Game Preserve, Rain Forrest and Farming

It was all surrounded by an area marked Magi
City.

It was odd how similar the map layout was to
Henry’s Wheel of Life with The Seventh Mountain as a hub and the
dividing lines of the Stables, Farming and other outer regions
acting as spokes of the wheel. Magi City was the tire ring, the
same type area that Henry had painted the vine and flowers. The
life in motion spins, bound with the experiences of a person’s
whole life. These good and bad experiences keep the wheel held
together. There is also the joining of the other wheels that
produce an efficient and productive system. If you take a single
wheel hung above the mantle and use it in conjunction with other
wheels, then you have an awesome power. The psyche people could
have a field day with that.

If Fireball could have been with her she
would have explored, but this was a week of rest for not only the
students, but the animals as well. So she just wandered around,
ending up at the posting board for sign-ups in the
competitions.

The Sword Fighting Competition already had
quite a few names written on the board in each grade section. Under
the freshmen, a few names stood out.

“Well if it isn’t the traitor.” Slone
approached her with his charming smile. LeOmi ignored him, turning
and sitting on a set of benches that had been placed on the desert
landscape just for the tents events. He sat down beside her. She
turned away, so as not to face him. He stood up and sat on the
other side of her. She moved down to the end seat and faced the
other way, and he followed.

“I may have been a little too severe in the
retaliation yesterday.”

“May have?”

“Well I was angry, and you didn’t make it any
better, smacking me around like that.”

“I am thinking that you will get over
it.”

“Yeah. Anyway, let’s just put that behind us
and start again.”

“I don’t think so Slone, I think that you
passed a point of no return with that one, at least for me. I hope
not for yourself.”

“Ah, you are concerned about me, how
touching. See, we could get past this.” He grabbed her hand
pretending to want to hold it. She tugged it to pull it away and
then he bent it around her back and pulled her face right next to
him. When she attempted to punch him he grabbed her arm and
tightened his grip on the arm in her back. Before he caught her
arm, she did manage to make his nose start to bleed again. In pain
she could only listen and kick. He could have broken her arm, but
he didn’t.

“Now you listen to me, I have given you a lot
of opportunities to come to me and my group, but you’re just a
tease.”

“What?”

“You heard what I said.”

An instructor was calling out, “Hey, what do
you think you’re doing there? Stop that.”

“She bloodied my nose.” Slone said as he
quickly released her and stood in one swift movement.

“Well, probably not without good cause. Go
get yourself cleaned up.”

“Are you okay Miss?”

LeOmi stood as well, and she was rubbing her
arm and shoulder. “I’ll be okay. I want to sign up for the
competition.”

She gave Slone the, “
I am going to beat
you into the dirt”
look, and he returned a similar one. He went
to stand with his group of followers and she returned to her seat
on the end.

The competition began. Ralph Lawrence had
been diligently practicing. He won the first few competitions.

LeOmi took her turn and easily beat him. He
was still clumsy and LeOmi moved swiftly and agility.

Several other competitors lost to her.

Keith Richards took a little more effort. All
the practicing that they had been doing was showing.

She had been competing for quite a while and
she was getting tired. There was a large group of onlookers now. It
seemed like a large percentage of the freshmen had heard about the
upcoming match and had gathered around.

The instructor called, “Slone Voif.”

Slone immediately approached and as they
bowed to each other before the call to begin, he said, “I think
that it is time that I paid you back for the bloody nose.”

She was still breathing hard from the earlier
matches, “So you have been practicing falling down and getting back
up again, have you?”

Mark called out from the onlookers, “She’s
tired. Can she take a break?”

The instructor that was monitoring the
competition said, “That’s up to her.” He looked a LeOmi.

“Let’s do this.”

“Very well. Begin.”

They had barely begun. Just a little
sparring, she lost her balance, and Slone jabbed her hard in the
ribs.

Her legs collapsed under her. She sat on the
ground, holding her rib cage tightly. The other hand held her baton
in a defensive position.

“Hold!”

The instructor put his hand on LeOmi’s
shoulder. She looked up at him, but she didn’t stand. He turned and
grabbed Slone’s arm and put it up into the air and said, “Slone
Voif the winner.”

Slone put both hands up into the air and
started jogging around the arena. Then he leaned in towards LeOmi’s
ear, “Aren’t you glad this wasn’t my real sword.”

Slone’s crew was applauding, and he turned
and approached the group then regally bowed.

The instructor asked, “Are you all right
Miss?”

“Yeah, it is just a bruise.”

She stood up and hobbled over to her seat,
followed closely by Mark.

“Are you all right?”

She didn’t answer. She just looked at
him.

“You’re the best freshman fighter that I have
seen yet. Slone just got lucky. I bet you’d have won if you weren’t
so tired.”

“I’m going to win. I am not going to let him
win.”

The instructor called out for another
opponent, any more challengers for Slone Voif?”

Mark said, “Your too tired to fight now, at
least let him take on another opponent first.”

“All right, I guess you’re right. I do need
to catch my breath.”

The instructor called out, “We need a
challenger for Slone Voif, the current Champion.”

“It doesn’t look like anyone is going to
challenge him.”

“Just give it a minute. I can’t think of
anyone who wants him to win the trophy except those cohorts of
his.”

“Last call for a challenger for Slone Voif.
If no one challenges him, he wins by default. I’ll give it to a
count of ten… One.”

LeOmi was starting to stand and Mark put his
hand on her shoulder. “You can’t fight him now. You’re too
tired.”

“Two…”

“I know, but I am not going to let him go
unchallenged.”

“Three…”

“What does it matter if he wins the cup? It
doesn’t mean anything.”

“Four…”

“I’m not going to let that good for nothing
bully win it, not him or any of his goons.”

“Five…”

“Why do you feel so strongly about it?”

“Six…”

“Its personal and none of your business.
Besides, what would a goodie-two-shoes like you know about
life?”

“Seven …”

“Ouch, what brought that on?”

“Eight …”

“Like I said, none of your business, now get
out of my way, I am going to fight him.”

“Nine…”

“No you’re not.”

Mark raised his hand. “I’ll fight him.”

Slone had been watching the conversation
between LeOmi and Mark.

Slone now tried to stand as tall as he could,
“I didn’t think you had the guts and I know that you don’t have the
skill. Last chance to back out. I know that you want to. I have
seen you fight in class, if you can call it that.”

“I don’t want to fight you Slone I just want
to wear you out so that LeOmi has a fair chance against you.”

“Begin…”

Mark took the defensive tactic.

Slone said, “Fight me you coward.”

Mark said, “If you don’t like the way I
fight, you can quit.”

Slone was in a rage; he yelled and came at
Mark, “Get out of my head.”

Mark easily dodged his attack and jabbed
Slone in the ribs, just where he had jabbed LeOmi.

“Hold.”

Slone started to come after Mark again and
the instructor yelled out, “HOLD. I said HOLD.”

The instructor went up to Mark and held up
his arm and said, “If there are no other challengers, Mark Young,
the Freshman Sword Single Combat Championship Winner.”

He was awarded the trophy.

Mark went back to LeOmi, “You know you
rightly deserve this trophy.”

“That’s all right, you won it.”

“You would have beaten him hands down if you
hadn’t been so tired.”

“I didn’t want to beat him; I just didn’t
want him and his slime winning that trophy.”

“What I don’t understand is why you’re so
down on him. I thought you were part of his group, at least for a
while.”

“I have my reasons; maybe someday I will
explain it to you. Right now, I just want to be left alone.”

“Suit yourself. I think you would have won.
You’re a really good fighter.”

He walked off and left her alone.

The instructor came over and told her to show
him the jab. She just stared at him.

“Well then raise your arm.”

She raised her arm about five inches and then
she gasped in pain and then passed out. The instructor held her
gently and remanifested.

She was in the Healing Ward when she woke up.
Her father was sitting in the chair beside her bed with his hand
holding hers saying a prayer.

“What happened?” LeOmi moved her arms to try
and sit up, but the pain forced her to lie back down.

“Please stay still; I did what I could until
the Healer gets here.”

“I don’t see how I can protest, I can barely
move without passing out.”

“Yeah, he really did a number on you, it is a
good thing they weren’t real swords or else he would have killed
you.”

“Yeah, I can see that.” LeOmi was in deep
contemplation.

Bekka came into the room, “Busted rib and a
pierced lung was your dad’s diagnosis.”

She felt the bandages and then the sharp pain
of inhaling a surprised bit of air.

“I guess you’re not indestructible.” Her dad
smiled at her and gave her hand a small squeeze before releasing
her.

“She fought magnificently though, or so I
hear.”

The nurse came into her room with a small
vial.

“I apologize for the delay, Tent Fest
Competitions always keep us busy but Competition injuries are up
this year.”

The Healer pulled the bandage back and shook
her head when she saw the back and blue rib. She tapped one drop
from the vial on LeOmi’s forehead. Immediately she fell asleep. A
little under an hour later she awoke.

LeOmi stood, and removed her bandage.

“Oh thank You, dear God,” Her father
said.

The nurse said, “How about your lung?”

“I feel fine, thank you.”

“You’re welcome.” The nurse turned and left
the room.

LeOmi stood rubbing her head.

Bekka said, “Is there something else
wrong?”

“I come to the Garden alone.”

Her father and Bekka said, “What?”

LeOmi turned from them and walked towards the
window and looked down onto hundreds of tents.

“That was the song. Somehow Mark was
projecting it into Slone’s mind and I heard bits and pieces of
it.”

She turned, “At the moat, he projected
thoughts to Chenoa; I heard…or felt him. I know that he can
converse with animals too. Thorpe said that he had talked to a
lioness. What else is he capable of?”

Bekka smiled and nodded, “So, you are finding
out some of the mysteries of our mysterious Mark Young. The truth
is that no one knows what he is capable of. Not even Mr.
Diefenderfer, who sang about him. The song really just made us
aware of his coming here to The Seventh Mountain and that he would
be a champion of sorts.”

“A champion?”

“It will all be revealed in time. We can
depend on that.”

Bekka took LeOmi’s father by the arm and
lifted him from the seat. “I know you don’t want to go but the
healers are busy and they probably need this room.”

Bekka turned and waved for LeOmi to follow as
she ushered her father from the room.

As they left the room, LeOmi sang, “I come to
the Garden alone.”

* * *

Throughout Tents Fest week, there were lots
of activities, but LeOmi spent most of her time at her tent in
rest, meditation, and study. Tent time also meant that she avoided
Slone and his gang.

There were others who had been injured during
the Tents Fest competitions, just none as badly as she had been.
The pitfalls of competition.
At least Slone didn’t win.