Arthur: When A Tree Falls

Chapter 8: The Fight that Turned too Real

Professor Grassling started to explain the class what they were going to do. The idea of the game was that there would be two teams, one attacking, one escaping. Arthur, together with tree others, Aimee, a boy from Wulix, and a girl from Vinchman, were the escaping team. They had to hide in the small forest, and then, when Professor Grassling whistled - which she had done an example of and was very loud - the other group would attack and then Arthur and the others would have to save themselves by means of escaping, so no defensive violence. When Arthur asked what the Attacking team would attack with, Professor Grassling reached in a cupboard in the wall they were standing near. She took out four wooden sword, with round edges, so they wouldn't hurt if you were merely touched. She also warned the attack group that they were to be careful, and not hurt anyone.

When the first whistle chimed, Arthur ran into the forest. He decided to hide in a tree, then jump from tree to tree. He chuckled as he realized that he was running through a forest, while in a tree. He picked the fullest tree and put his foot on one of the knobs on the side, and threw himself inside. If there was one thing Arthur was amazing at, it was tree climbing. Well, if the trees were normal-sized, as Arthur still had quite a lot of trouble with Arboria, the tree they were in. He pulled his weight into the middle of the tree, where the most branches split from the stem, and climbed up one of the branches. He moved a couple of twigs to look through them, focusing on the people that were still standing next to Professor Grassling.

He could see Professor Grassling whistling and heard it, and the four others ran towards the forest, quickly. Arthur focused on one that was nearing him and froze, the way he used to do when the cool kids at his school were preparing to throw him in the lake at the day out. The scrunchy girl who was running towards him ran past him, when Arthur felt an itch in his nose. He was going to sneeze. Now he had always tried to sneeze without making a sound, but that never really worked, so he just hoped it was one of those I-feel-like-a-sneeze-but-I'm-a-yawn things. But, it wasn't. After a couple of seconds Arthur sneezed, and the girl turned on her spot and looked straight at the tree Arthur was in, like a hawk. A corner of her mouth curled up into a sneer, and then she moved to the tree.

Arthur realized he was not allowed to fight back - although even if he was he couldn't - and started to move on his feet to reach out of the tree, in the hope he'd be able to jump to the next tree like a monkey, regardless the craziness of the idea. However, when he got on his feet and started to shift to the edge of the tree, the girl had grabbed one of his feet, and Arthur slipped. He fell down, one of his feet still held by the girl, and quickly approached the stem of the tree, although it felt like seconds. He braced his head by putting one hand across his face and another with the back on his elbow, to break the fall. He banged his hands against the stem and hissed in pain. The girl suddenly let go and Arthur fell down, then rolled out of the way, before moving to his feet. The girl had jumped down effortlessly and was still sneering. She then reached in her pocket, and pulled out a small pocket knife.

"Umm, It was the wooden swords on-" he started, but the girl dropped the sword. "-ly." he finished, then broke into a run, which was more like Arthur flailing his arms while moving forward with wobbling legs, screaming.

He ran towards where Professor Grassling had been a moment before when he tripped over a branch that had fallen as someone had tried to climb in it, probably. He was lying down and the girl loomed over him, sneering, the pocket knife glistening in the light of the christmas lights. He swallowed, then reached for a loose part of the branch above him, but the girl was quicker. She moved her hand and stabbed with the knife, blocking Arthur's movement by holding his army jacket with the knife. Arthur had no idea what to do, so he decided to pull his hand back into the jacket, roll over, hit the girl with his hands and then leave his jacket, then call for help. Obviously, with Arthur's luck, that was so not going to work.