The Asters of Ogaza

Game Day 1

           It was almost time for their first game. Master Poja and Princess Haile were talking to some Royal guards, and the Asters were scattered all around, each discussing with their clique. The training fields would be their meeting point for the games.

          “She thinks you’re Raya?” Amare asked wide-eyed for the millionth time. The three of them were a little distant from the rest of the Asters. Zina couldn’t risk their conversation being heard.

          She nodded and Amare laughed mockingly, like what they were saying was gibberish. “That’s bull crap. You can’t be Raya. Or what, does she think you’re some . . .Raya reincarnate?” Zina shrugged.

          “That’s why she’s particularly fond of you, Warrior Z. Because you remind her of her old best friend.”

          “Look, it’s not very weird if vulture reminds her of this Raya person. But to say that Raya is alive . . .through Zina?! That is so creepy.” Amare shuddered and ran his hands up and down the goosebumps crawling up his arms.

          It was a little creepy for Zina. She recalled her conversation with the Princess. How she slipped her hands out of the Princess’s after she said she was Raya.

          “It can’t . . .I can’t be Raya,” she stuttered. “I am not Raya,” she said more certainly

          “But you are!” Princess Haile nodded vigorously, tears pooling in her eyes. I met Raya when we were 18, and you are 18. She cut off all of her long hair, she wasn’t bald, but her hair was so low, it was as good as completely shaved. She looked just like you, everything about you reminds me of her. She was raised by her grandfather and never met her parents. She had little sister who died of pox. I know that yours is alive but you remind me so much of her. the way you wield and fight with your sword, your stance when shooting arrows. The way your eyes narrow when you listen, the way you walk and talk. Your style of fashion. Your undying love for beef. You are her. You just have to be,” the Princess had said, like she was convincing the both of them, and Zina couldn’t believe how much the Princess had studied had to know all these things about her.

          “But then,” Angel broke through her thoughts. “Even if you do share a lot of qualities with Raya, that still doesn’t make you her. Everybody gets only one shot at being alive.

          “Exactly!” Amare threw his arms out. That was what he had been saying “Maybe you should stay away from her, because this is obsessive behavior and for all we know, she could kidnap you and flee to Orca or some small town. She would expect you to be there for her the way Raya was. And you can’t do that.”

          Angel sighed. “Don’t be dramatic, Amare. She’s not going to abduct her. But you do make a fair point. You can’t be the person Raya was to her.”

          They were right, Zina thought. She couldn’t be Raya. But, maybe if she remained Zina, she could be of a little help.

          “I don’t want to stay away from her. She’s hurting . . .and needs company.”

          Amare scoffed, “She has PJ. What happened to all that anger that consumed you whenever she called you?”

          “It vanished? When I saw her cry, when I heard how broken she sounded when she said her mother didn’t love her. I felt bad. She said the Palace brings her nothing but pain, that she’s been wronged her entire life. I can’t just leave her alone. The sore of losing Raya is still fresh and alive. I have to help.” The boys didn’t say anything for a while.

          “Well, you can’t love her as much as Raya did. You’ve already shared your love between us,”—he gestured to himself and Angel—” so there’s not so much to go around anymore.”

          “Oh my goodness, Amare! Who said I love you?” Zina made a face at him.

          “You don’t have to say it. I know you do,” his cynical smile appeared and Zina rolled her eyes at him.

          “You’re very thoughtful, Warrior Z. Ignore Amare with his stupid theories about being abducted—”

          “They’re not stupid,” Amare rebelled.

          “—and just help her as much as you can. That fight within their family and for the throne, it’s not your place to help her fight it. We can’t even jump into conclusions until she actually tells you what it’s about, so till then, just observe boundaries and do what you can. Hmm?”

          Zina gave a single nod and smiled. Angel was so smart and well put together, she admired him so much.

          “My theories are still relevant though. Don’t forget,” Amare said and both Asters swatted his shoulders.

          “Team leaders, please come forward,” Master Poja called and Angel and Marjani went.

          “Yesterday was a fail,” Amare spat his words the minute Angel left, he had been waiting to say it.

          “Big one,” Zina replied. “These games, and clan meetings, they look like they may take up so much time.”

          “And they would last for an entire week. Do you think that would be wise, to not check through the other points for a week?”

          Zina bit her lower lip, considering it. “Let’s not take chances.”

          “I think so too,” Amare agreed. “Immediately today’s game is done, we leave.”

          “That works,” Zina said. “I’d have to go get my sketchbook, and the other things though. Then we’d meet you up and we’d leave.” Amare nodded, he had to get his stuff as well.

          “Asters! Gather around!” Princess Haile called and they all huddled together. “Stand according to your clans.”

          “Get away from us, you fiery ball,” Zina stuck her tongue out at Amare who feigned anger as he went to stand with the members of the Fire clan.

          “Okay. Welcome to day 1 of the games!” Master Poja said and the Asters cheered. “Our first game is the animal pretend.”

          “Don’t worry guys, I make the best imitation of animals you’ve ever seen,” the boy with the Afro whispered to the Water clan and they laughed.

          “Animal pretend with a twist.” The Asters started to mumble and Master Poja raised his hands for them to be quiet. “There are a pair of 10 animal figures hidden around the Palace, making 20. The task is for a member of each clan find at least one animal, and the first clan to retrieve all 10 wins.” The Asters chattered excitedly again.

          “The animals are hidden within the habitats you would originally find them. So, if you’re looking for, let’s say a frog, you’d have to go to a pond.”

          “But there’s no pond in the Palace,” a member of the Fire clan said.

          The Princess grinned, in her sinister way. “Wisdom, you have to think, apply every knowledge you can.”

          “Can we get like a hint; on the animals we’re supposed to find? There are so many animals, how do we know where to look?” this time, a member of the Water clan asked.

          “Think big, but also think small. The animals are all around you, even a part of you. To make your search area smaller, we’ve hidden the animals in just the West and East wings of the Palace, you don’t have to go North and South. The games start now. When you’ve found all 10 animals, meet us back here. May the best clan win, but may all clans have fun!”

           One of the Royal guards shot a hunter’s gun in the air to depict the start of the games, and the Asters shrieked in fear. They hadn’t been expecting it. They all fled out in different directions, every one of them single-mindedly searching for animals. Which ones? They didn’t know. But they would search far and wide, high and low.

                                                                                 ****

          Zina and Angel stuck together, the boy with the Afro close behind them. He had found a snake, lying somewhere around the grass. Another member of their clan had found a buffalo. They had 8 more animals to find.

           The Fire clan found 3 already; an elephant, a cheetah and a lion. They weren’t so far from each other.

          “I don’t even know where to look or what to look for. I just found the snake by chance. This is hard,” the boy with the Afro whined, and he was right. If they didn’t know what they were to find, where to look was going to be a problem.

          “Okay,” Angel said. “Let’s stop and think. We all ran off immediately after the gunshot because this game is time sensitive. But it also needs us to think. So, let’s calm down for a minute. We’d pass across whatever we come up with to the other members when we see them.”

          “You’re right,” Zina concurred. “What animals do you think we should be looking out for?”

          “I got a snake already. Any other grass animals?” the Afro boy tried to think.

          “Uhmm . . .Zebras?” Zina guessed. “Not like they live there, but they eat grass.”

          Angel nodded. “You’re right.” He scanned the environment for a bit. “The Palace has mostly trees, gardens, and some very sandy areas in the East wing. Let’s think, what animals can we find in these places?”

          “Monkeys,” Zina said

          “Hyenas?” the boy with the Afro added.

          Angel nodded again, like he was beginning to realize something. “The Princess also said something about a pond.”

          “There are no ponds here,” the boy with the Afro reminded him.

          “Yes, but . . .there could be a substitute,” Zina said slowly and the two boys gaped in realization.

          “That’s it!” Angel snapped his fingers. “Apply knowledge, that’s what the Princess said.”

          “If they want to include sea animals, then they have to make substitute for water,” the Afro boy caught on.

          “Exactly!” Angel beamed. “Let’s split up, Zina, go find any sign of water, but keep looking withing grasses and on short trees. They can’t hide a monkey or squirrel on a tall tree, we don’t have climbing tools. Niko, you check areas with sand. We just may find something. Tell this to other members of our clan that you see. I’d do the same. Let’s go!” They all moved with speed, excited at their deductions. The game should be a lot easier now.

          Their folks at the Fire clan were also racking their brains trying to find direction.

          “The animals are a part of you. What could that mean?” Marjani tapped her feet, wondering.

          Amare was there too, and he let his mind brood over the statement. The animals are around you, part of you, even. Why the heck would animals even be a part of . . . wait, wait, he got it! Animals are part of you, every North Ogazaian has a birth animal according to the year you were born.

          “That’s it,” he whispered.

          “That’s what?” Marjani turned to him with furrowed brows. He stared at her like she was inconsequential, and turned to the other members of the fire clan. Marjani scoffed, what did she expect, they had bad blood anyway.

          “The animals are a part of us. It’s simple, our birth animals. That’s what we should be looking out for. Every Aster here is between the ages of 18-22. That’s five birth animals.”

          “That’s right!” a girl with long hair squealed. “We already found a lion and elephant, so we need a buffalo, a hippo and a zebra.”

          “Brilliant!” the shortest Aster clapped.

          “Now that we know the animals to find, our search has been narrowed. Let’s split and find the habitats of all these animals. Quick!” They dispersed, happy that their search had been made easy.

          It was almost 3pm. They didn’t have much time left. The Fire clan hadn’t found the snake yet, and the Water clan hadn’t found the lion. They were both going crazy.

          “Okay. Uhm . . .let’s think. What haven’t we found?” Zina paced.

          Angel was in a crouch position, staring at the ground.

          “We’ve searched everywhere, found the pond substitute. What could be left?”

          “Animals that are a part of us,” Angel said, one word at a time.

          “Birth animals, we’ve found that,” Zina dismissed. “Except . . .my birth animal.” She said with a laugh. “How did I miss that?”

          “And animals that are around us.” Angel stood and pulled Zina and Niko into a big hug. “Lion. That’s the animal we haven’t found. The North Ogazaian symbol of Royalty, and Warrior Z’s birth animal. Let’s go find that lion.”

          Niko sniffed and wiped his eyes. He wasn’t actually crying though. “Damn, I love you guys.”

          Zina giggled and the three set out to find the lion.

          Two minutes left, they had found the lion, and Niko was a fast runner, so he was sprinting towards the fields with the lion in hand. The other members of the Water clan were waiting in the fields with the rest of the animals. Someone in the Fire clan had screamed when she saw the snake as she searched the grass, but it wasn’t a real snake. Her fear helped them find their last animal and Marjani ran toward the fields.

          She was also a swift runner and was so close to Niko, but his lankiness and years of practice gave him an edge. He got to Master Poja some seconds before Marjani got to Princess Haile.

          “The Water clan wins the first game!” Master Poja announced and they jumped and hugged each other. They were ecstatic, they couldn’t actually believe the fun they were having, and it was just the first day. None of them would have thought they would be looking for animals in the grass or sand ever again.

          “Good job, everyone. See you tomorrow.” And the Asters went away, feeling an adrenaline rush, they were so eager to find out tomorrow’s game.

          Zina sped off to her room as agreed and went to get her stuff. She picked her knapsack (the dagger was always inside) and then her cloak. She reached out for her sketchbook on the table, but . . .it wasn’t there. She furrowed her eyebrows in confusion.

          “It was here,” she mumbled, going on all fours to look under her bed. It wasn’t there. She disheveled her wardrobe, pulled out her bed spread and checked the bed, went to search the bathroom, even guiltily checked through Marjani’s things. It wasn’t there.

          “Amare, he must have taken it.” She convinced herself and went to meet him. She stared at the floor as she walked, hoping to see it. Of course, Amare was there already, leaning against the white star apple tree.

          “Vulture, ready to go?”

          She shook her head. “You’re with my sketch book, aren’t you?”

          His smile faded. “Your sketchbook? No, I’m with the actual map. Did you . . .did you lose it?”

          “It was on my table this morning, and it magically isn’t there anymore.” She panicked, every part of her body suddenly becoming hot.

          “Vulture,” Amare was doing that calm voice thing again. “You’re joking, right?” She didn’t need to answer. He saw from how frazzled she looked that she was anything but joking.

          “You know what this means, right?” He had become panicky too. Of course, she knew what it meant. Losing her sketchbook, along with loosing every sketch she had ever made, meant that they would soon be figured out. And all their plans, all the progress they had made, everything they went through would go to waste. Would all turn to dust.