Chapter 87 - The Kids' Playground

“So tell me again, why didn’t we bring these damn carts with us in the first place?”

Skyle had to chuckle at that.

“How could you appreciate these beautiful forests while lugging these heavy things around? The first time was for you to enjoy the scenery. Now, we can get to work.”

A derisive snort was the only reply that got.

“Besides, carting heavy loads across rough terrain will exercise most of your major muscle groups while also training your balance.”

Leon cursed as his cart struck another exposed root and nearly tipped over. “I’ve had just about as much exercise as I’m willing to take for the next five years combined. They don’t torture fresh army recruits half this much in the army, you know?”

“Relax, you big baby. I’m sure you’re gonna enjoy the next part.”

“Shovel a bunch of manure to a cart while half of it gets in my hair? Such bliss! By the Goddess, how had I never thought of that before?”

“No, I mean the snowblade playground,” Skyle said.

“Snowblade what? You better not be taking me to some god-forsaken torture chamber where your fiendish beasts toy with their food by poking them full of holes with their snowblades - while the victims are still alive.”

Skyle rolled his eyes, though deep inside he could think of quite a few snowblade tigers he knew who would really enjoy that. It wasn’t that they were cruel, they just had a peculiar sense of humor sometimes. Glancing sideways at Ash and how his eyes brightened at Leon’s words, Skyle decided to put such notions to rest before the over-eager cub could return to his streak-mates and spread the word of a new idea for their next wishlist.

“Ahem, not at all. It was started by me and Ash, actually. We often would wrestle and fool around, and Ma finally got tired of us breaking everything around the house. So, she forced da to build us a playground for us to wrestle in. When the rest of the streak found out, all the younger tigers decided to join in the fun.”

Leon’s pretty noble face scrunched up. “Somehow, I doubt it’s as simple as that. With you Farrows, it never is.”

Skyle shrugged, knowing words would be useless. It really was just a little playground for him to fool around with a few of the more playful tigers.

They had been skirting around the side of the mountain where the Den was, and arrived at a wooden gate with a big sign that read, “Adults May Not Trespass! Kids only!”.

Leon let out a breath he probably didn’t know he had been holding. It was as though only now he began to believe Skyle’s earlier words. In fact, from beyond the gate the sounds of laughter could be heard.

“Reik, catch!”

“Kass, not so high! I almost miss- Woa, back at ya!”

Kass cried out in surprise, then began giggling uncontrollably. Reik’s voice soon joined in.

“Of course, the playground grows a little more complicated with each passing season - which is good, since it makes it all the more challenging and fun to conquer!”

Skyle could barely hold back the excitement in his voice as he undid the latch on the gate. He really had missed the playground, and couldn’t wait to get back into the swing of things. Leon’s face was one of skeptical aloofness, as though his noble self couldn’t be bothered with little children’s silly games.

“Oh, relax, you big lump. It’ll be fun, I promise!”

Leon snorted and had been about to push the gate open, but Skyle placed his hand on the bigger boy’s arm. When his friend turned to look at him questioningly, Skyle simply shook his head with a smile and winked, putting a finger to his lips.

Leaving the carts behind, Skyle led Leon through the gate with careful steps, crouching low in order to avoid being spotted. They walked over a dirt path that had hundreds of tracks meandering through and high rock walls on either side. When they finally emerged from the exit of the corridor, Leon would have cursed out loud if Skyle had been a second later in clamping a hand over his mouth.

Skyle frowned as he glanced at Leon’s wide-eyed stare, then turned around to look at the playground. Just what had surprised his friend so much?

The playground lay much as he remembered it since the last time he had visited it a few days ago. It was a wide clearing at least three hundred feet wide with natural walls rising high all around it. The floor was made of the same soft soil that lay at the entrance, which was great because it could cushion one’s fall and at the same time be used to put out the fires that occurred from time to time.

“Oh, I get it now.” Skyle almost rolled his eyes. “Of course, he must have gotten surprised by the flaming rings. So much for being a lord fire summoner Adept.”

Skyle threw Leon a meaningful look before slowly taking his hand away. It was just a few rings of fire which a few snowblade tigers were taking turns in leaping through. What was the big deal?

“This is madness!” Leon mouthed to Skyle, his eyes still riveted on the scene playing out below.

Skyle scratched his head as he followed Leon’s stare. The bigger boy's goggle-eyed stare was following Reik’s figure as the little rascal dashed along a corded rope stretched taut between two poles. Skyle’s brother was doing admirably well, his eyes focused as he spread out his hands to either side in order to keep his balance while his feet lithely dashed along the thin rope.

“Relax, Leon,” Skyle whispered. “Last time anyone fell off during the ropewalk was two years ago.”

Skyle waved a hand at Leon to put him at ease. Apparently, he was worried Reik would fall and hurt himself. His concern was endearing, really. Little did he know, the last time any of the Farrow children had slipped during the ropewalk was when Skyle had taken his father’s bait and tried to do it blindfolded.

Of course, that had been two years ago and the rope had only been 15 feet high back then, instead of the 30 feet it now hovered at. It was inevitable that the rope would continue to climb higher with the years, as the relentless tigers kept getting bigger and continued to jump higher with every season.

“I’m not talking about the crazy rope. What the hell are those murderous sons of bitches doing now?” Leon cried out, forgetting to whisper.

Skyle made hasty shushing noises. “Relax, I told you it’s the playground. Young tigers always hang around to play amongst themselves or with us.”

Leon turned to look at Skyle as though he were afraid the smaller boy had hit his head a few times too many during his fight against Old Razor. Then he turned back to stare at the sight of Reikard Farrow running along a rope that hung at least three stories high, and the five horse-sized snowblade tigers who leaped and clawed at the little boy from the ground below.

The expressions on each and every tiger was one of predatory hunger as they all gathered their limbs under their massive bodies, then leapt as high as they could while stretching their deadly claws in an attempt to drag Reikard down. The red-faced boy laughed in delight as he hopped lightly to avoid one particularly enterprising snowblade tiger who had used one of his fallen comrades to provide him a boost, only barely missing his mark.

“Oh, here Reik. I’m here!” came the enthusiastic voice of Kassandra Farrow. Leon turned to see the little girl waving at her brother from the top of a nearby wooden wall that seemed to have been purposely designed after a castle’s inner wall, complete with crenelations and buttresses. It towered high above the ground, and below her another three tigers were clawing their way up by using their snowblades as improvised climbing hooks.

Reikard was nearly to the other end of the rope, but at this moment a huge tiger stabbed its blades clean through the pole on the far side. It used his hold to leverage its body on top of the pole, perching there in a precarious state of balance as it glared fiercely at the little boy.

Reikard whooped in delight as he skidded to a stop, then with a helpless shrug and a manic grin, stomped down against the rope as hard as he could. It bent from the impact and promptly bounced the hollering Farrow boy up high into the air. Reikard used this momentum to throw a small bundle he had been carrying under his arm to the waiting arms of his sister. Then he stretched out his hand and caught hold of a nearby ledge, scampering up in the blink of an eye and disappearing beyond their line of sight.

“You’re up, Kass!”

“Got it! See you at the other side!”

The little girl snatched the bundle from the air with hardly a look, then immediately jumped off the ledge. Just moments after she vacated the platform, the first of the tigers climbing up from below finally made the top. It could only roar its frustration as Kassandra stretched out her tiny hand and caught hold of a rope hanging from a nearby pole. She let out a whoop of joy as she soared through the air, with a few tigers jumping at her and missing by just a hair.

Suddenly, a tiger loomed large in front of her, finally having judged the angle of her swing correctly. Kassandra didn’t panic, instead throwing the bundle straight toward the incoming tiger. It flailed its claws as it twisted in mid-air to try to catch it. It just barely missed, and its desperate movement allowed Kassandra to let go of her rope and sweep past it at dizzying speeds.

Just when she seemed to reach the apex of her trajectory, she stretched out her hand and caught the bundle in her outstretched hand. She wore a triumphant grin as she then reached out with her other hand and grabbed hold of another rope. The tiger could only stare as it fell back to the ground, while Kassandra soared toward another wall.

If Leon could feel his jaw hitting the ground, he gave no sign. Instead, he turned to Skyle while gesturing wildly toward the furious chase taking place in front of their eyes, as if to say, “See?!”.

Skyle quirked an eyebrow at Leon. “Relax, Leon. They know what they’re doing. That tiger wouldn’t get hurt just by falling from such a height.”

Leon nearly spat out blood as he stared at his friend in frustration, as if trying to decide whether this was all part of yet another bloody unfunny prank.

“B-But they’re just ki-” Leon began, but was promptly shushed by Skyle as the smaller boy pointed in excitement.

“There, Kass is at Cliff Mountain. She’ll be taking Adventure Slide soon!”

Heedless of Leon’s state of shock, Skyle hurriedly dragged his friend to the side, pushing him up against a nearby ledge from which they could gain a better vantage point.

“Abandoned gods, just what’s going on here?” Leon moaned feebly as he followed by sheer inertia rather than any will of his own.

“They’re nearly there. They just need to make it past Cliff Mountain and down Adventure Slide, and they’ll be home free!”

“You mean from the horde of murderous, blood-thirsty tigers trying to butcher them?”

Skyle chuckled good-naturedly at that. Leon nearly spat out blood again.

“Hush now.” Skyle held up his hand. “Just watch. Kass usually gets overconfident when they’re this far ahead. It will probably come down to whether Reik can pull through and go the extra mile.”

Leon stared at Skyle as though to ask what part of this bloody affair was supposed to let him know Kassandra was far ahead, when the entire bloody place was spilling out berserking tigers left and right?

Skyle’s words proved right on the mark. Kassandra was climbing an artificial wall with the bundle strapped to her back. It towered a good hundred feet off the ground, but there were many footholds purposefully build there ahead of time. The little empress of the Farrow clan resembled nothing more than a monkey as she lightly scampered up the wall with astonishing speed. Only a handful seconds later, the wave of crazed tigers fell upon the wall like a giant wave of white crashing upon a cliff. They scrabbled at the wall and tried jumping as high as they could, but Kassandra was already far beyond their reach.

Kassandra kept glancing down as she climbed higher and higher. A confident smile lit up her doll-like face as she finally crested the hill. She even took the time to turn around and wave at the tigers madly scrabbling up the cliff. They snarled at her as they used their snowblades to dig into the wall and slowly climbed their way up.

Skyle shook his head. “Silly girl, she’s fallen into their trap.”

Leon blinked at Skyle for a moment, clearly unable to understand.

“See there?” Skyle pointed at the other side of the wall. From this angle they could see a number of sleds and a long slope winding its way back down to level ground.

“Looks to me like she’s won.”

Skyle shook his head impatiently. “No, not there. Look there.”

Following Skyle’s finger more closely, Leon finally seemed to understand.

There, just around the corner from where Kassandra was waving down to the tigers below, a patch of white was conspicuous amongst the dreary brown of the slope. Leon could see the glint of silver which told him the fierce hunter was getting ready to strike.

“We have to warn-” Leon began.

Skyle poked the bigger boy’s ribs. “Don’t you dare! Kass’ pride makes for a very exploitable blindspot, and maybe this time she’ll learn her lesson. Oh, never mind.”

Skyle shook his head as though disappointed.

“Huh?” Leon blinked again.

“Good old Reik, pulling through just in time to save the day again.”

Skyle chuckled helplessly as he saw his little brother sneaking up behind the snowblade tiger lurking in ambush.

“What is he trying to do?” Leon furrowed his brows in confusion.

“Cheat,” Skyle sighed. “Then again, I suppose it is not really cheating since technically he got the jump on poor little Ruffles. The unlucky cat will be taking a lot of crap from his streak-mates for this.”

“Huh?”

“Shh, watch.”

Reikard slunk forward at a steady pace, each step careful and deliberate even though Kassandra was now drawing closer and closer, almost within reach of Ruffles’ ambush.

“Now,” Skyle whispered, tightening his fist.

Almost as though Reikard had heard his older brother’s prompt, the little boy chose that exact moment to jump on top of the crouching snowblade tiger. As he did so, Reikard took advantage of the momentary shock to slip a length of rope over Ruffle’s head and around his neck. Drawing the ends back tightly, the little boy shouted at the top of his lungs.

“I’ve got him. Run Kass, RUN!”

Kass didn’t need to be told twice. She immediately realized she had almost fallen prey to an ambush. To her credit, she didn’t even pause as she picked up her feet and dashed past the struggling figure of Ruffles. The poor snowblade tiger was bucking and hopping all around, trying desperately to dislodge his unwelcome rider while Reikard hollered and whooped as though he were riding a wild stallion.

Ruffles finally managed to work one of his snowblades close enough to the rope to cut himself loose, sending Reikard tumbling from his back and leaving him sprawled on the floor. Ruffles didn’t even glance at Reikard, instead dashing in Kassandra’s direction.

It was too late, however. Kassandra didn’t even pause as she kicked one of the waiting sleds into motion, and jumped right in as it began to tumble down the slope. Ruffles soared through the air as he pounced after her, but once on the slope Kassandra began to pick up speed far faster than the snowblade tiger could.

Ruffles still didn’t give up, instead raising his head and letting out a loud cry. Answering calls echoed from across the slope, and soon the figures of several snowblade tigers could be seen crawling up the sides of the slope, sliding down to block Kassandra’s path.

Kassandra seemed to take all of this in stride. She did not make her earlier mistake of over-confidence again. Instead, as she came upon the first snowblade tiger sliding her way on a collision course, she deftly kicked out with her left foot and bucked her hips. This brought the right side of her sled off the ground while the left side carved deeply into the soft soil underneath. The pouncing snowblade tiger only got a mouthful of gravel for its trouble as Kassandra’s sled swept a graceful circle around it.

The same story repeated itself as tiger after relentless tiger rushed in to intercept the little girl and her sled. Time and time again, Kassandra seemed to know the exact angle at which she should swerve her sled to send her sliding smoothly past the ravenous claws of her would-be captors.

As she finally drew closer to the bottom of the slope, she showed no signs of slowing down at all, five snowblade tigers having been left biting nothing but dust in her wake. Kass waved a hand over her shoulder as she glanced back at her defeated foes.

“Kass! Watch out!”

Hearing her twin brother’s panicked shout, Kass swept her eyes back in front of her only to find a huge snowblade tiger baring its fangs right in her path. It was so close that it was too late to try to swerve aside. She’d never made the turn in time to avoid the tiger’s claws.

“Catch!” Kass cried out, once again flinging the bundle in her arms just above the snowblade tiger’s head.

Skyle slapped his own forehead as he let out a groan. "Wiggles, you big dummy!"

The surprised tiger reacted just as its predecessor had. It immediately leapt high into the air and stretched its neck forward to catch the bundle between its jaws. Kassandra let out a wicked little grin as she abruptly pulled hard on a string she held in her hands. The bundle immediately sank back down toward the little girl, and she caught it just in time as the sled sped past the airborne tiger’s paws.

“Maybe next time, Wiggles!”

Wiggles twisted in midair, stretching out its claws to paw desperately, but he caught only empty air. It let out a mournful cry as it watched the sled rush past below with disconsolate eyes.

Finally, Kassandra Farrow reached a wide platform at the very bottom of the slope. The sled crashed against a huge mountain of hay which had obviously been put there for just such a purpose. Only instants later, the little empress finally emerged. She puffed her chest forward and held her head high, nevermind all the bits and pieces of stray that lay hopelessly tangled all over her clothes and hair.

A victorious smile glowed upon her face, her eyes glittering like the stars. She at long last unfolded the small bundle she carried in her arms. It was a single doll of patchwork rags, roughly shaped like a little lamb. Upon its face was a squiggly line that was meant to stand for a sheepish smile.

Kassandra was all self-assured confidence as she stepped forward and placed the doll upon the shelf of a wooden stand that stood tall against the far wall. It contained three levels, each holding a different number of similar dolls. Upon the first level there was only one doll. Upon the second level there were well over two dozen, while on the third level there were only five.

It was upon this third level that Kassandra placed her doll with deliberate care. As she did so, she took up a piece of chalk and looked up to where a giant sandglass lay suspended high above, just below the ceiling. She nodded judiciously to herself as she scribbled some numbers there, then stepped back with a satisfied grin.

“All that.. For just a doll?”

Skyle tried his best not to roll his eyes. These silly nobles, they really didn’t understand the first thing about what was really important.

“You know it’s about more than just that, you silly arse.”

“Still, they risked their-”

Skyle held up his hand before his friend’s face, forestalling any further protests.

“Not just a doll, Leon. They faced off against twenty two snowblade tigers, two children barely over nine years old - and they won. They beat them all without using an ounce of magical power. Can you claim to be able to do the same?”

Leon swallowed loudly, then shook his head.

“Thought so. Well, then how about a little respect, huh?”

Slowly but surely, Leon nodded. There was newfound respect in his eyes now.

Skyle nodded, pleased with himself and proud of his little siblings.

“Hell, how did ma’am Farrow manage to stay sane in this absolutely crazy-fucking-bughouse-nuts family, I’ll never know..”

Leon’s words slowly trailed off as he shook his head in wonder, and with deep, abiding respect.