Copyright (C) 2009 Jenna Elizabeth Johnson
All Rights Reserved
The Legend of Oescienne - The Finding is posted for your reading enjoyment only and not to be reposted anywhere else. Thank you and happy reading!
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CHAPTER FIVE
TRICKS AND TRAPS AND FIGHTING BACK
Jahrra's first day of school was definitely not what she'd expected it to be, but with the encouragement of her parents, the companionship of her two new friends, and mostly from the promise that Hroombra would teach her on her days off, she willingly faced the inhospitable Resai twins day in and day out.
To Jahrra's great relief, the school week only lasted four days, leaving the last day free for her lessons with Hroombra. The old dragon would help her refine her writing and reading skills and teach her about the history of Ethoes through stories of times long past. Jahrra always looked forward to these lessons; at the Castle Guard Ruin she didn't have to fear the laughter and taunting of her classmates.
On weekends, Jahrra would either help out at home or go over to Gieaun's and Scede's ranch where she would learn how to ride horses. Learning to ride quickly became Jahrra's favorite thing to do, especially since it meant spending time with her two best friends.
Wood's End Ranch was the largest piece of land on the western end of the Sloping Hill, easily a hundred acres if not more. It was called Wood's End Ranch because it backed into the Wreing Florenn on its southern side. Jahrra didn't hesitate to mention that her own orchard met the feared forest and asked her friends if they'd ever seen the terrible beast that was said to live there.
"Father has told us many stories about the monsters of Oescienne, but we've never actually seen them," Scede said matter-of-factly.
Jahrra looked at him with wide eyes, too distracted by the fact that there were many monsters living in Oescienne to be disappointed that he already knew about the one in the Wreing Florenn.
"Don't worry, if you ever get to go camping with us I'm sure father will tell you all about them," he continued after seeing Jahrra's reaction.
Jahrra crossed her arms and squished up her face, "I would like to hear about them," she claimed. "I need to know what exactly is in the Wreing Florenn. I'm going to go looking for the monster someday when I'm older and braver."
Gieaun looked simply terrified at this comment but Scede, surprisingly, looked as if he'd nurtured the same idea for a long time. After much pleading and teasing Gieaun said that she'd only go with them when they were much older and only during broad daylight. The children laughed at their bravado. If only they could be so bold at school. The schoolhouse was Jahrra's least favorite place to be since it had become a place of both emotional and physical conflict inside and outside the building.
Her first few months studying with the other children had proven a challenge, especially with the twins and their devotees. They always had something negative to say to her and the younger students dying to be part of the popular crowd would chuckle and snigger in support of a recent slight to prove they disliked Jahrra just as much as the twins did.
Eydeth and Ellysian often tried to corner her on her own, but luckily they often failed since Scede and Gieaun were always at her side. Jahrra was able to ignore them most of the time since she wasn't completely alone, but they always found a way to get to her. She was convinced that if Eydeth and Ellysian hadn't been part of the class her other classmates wouldn't be so eager to ostracize her.
"It's because they're afraid of Eydeth and Ellysian," Gieaun often told her. "Not because they don't like you."
Jahrra tried to take this to heart, but with or without supporters, the twins were always looking for ways to ruin her day. Very early on they noticed that Jahrra, Gieaun and Scede liked to sit in a far secluded corner of the schoolyard. Before the first week was over, the twins had made it their place to sit during recess.
When Jahrra and her friends moved to another location, they followed. At first Jahrra had been intimidated by this tactic, but soon she learned to avoid her classmates by lingering inside after class had been dismissed. Once she saw where Ellysian was going she'd head in the opposite direction with Gieaun and Scede.
"Thank goodness Ellysian is so snooty," Gieaun whispered as they headed for their favorite corner of the yard for the first time in weeks.
"I know. She's so busy talking about how wonderful she is that she didn't even notice us!" Jahrra said, unable to conceal a smile.
Scede merely nodded, trailing after the two girls quietly as they crept across the yard. He may have opened up at home but he barely ever said a word at school.
Jahrra knew that if she remained in the shadows and didn't draw attention to herself, she could usually make it through the day. But no matter how hard she tried she never could quite shake them off for good. If Ellysian ever came down from her imaginary castle or if her horrible brother had the notion to realize they hadn't tortured Jahrra and her friends in a while, the tables would turn.
Eydeth had taken up the sport of hunting the "Dragon Dung Dweebs" as Jahrra, Gieaun and Scede had come to be known. While his sister sat at the lunch tables crowing about her six white ponies, Eydeth would sneak off, leaving the main crowd of children in order creep up on Jahrra and her two best friends. He would sneak up behind the great granite rock they sat on and listen quietly to their conversation, waiting for them to say something he could tease them about.
One particularly awful incident occurred the day Jahrra told Gieaun and Scede about the nightmare she'd had over the weekend.
"It was terrible! Strange men came to the Castle Guard Ruin and started teasing and throwing things at Master Hroombra," she said, her eyes filling with tears. "I had Nida and Pada take me to the Ruin first thing the next morning to make sure he was alright."
Jahrra was sitting on top of the flat, cold granite, her arms wrapped tightly around herself as the chill of the stone combined with the chill she felt from the image of the dream. Suddenly, Eydeth jumped out from behind the stone, nearly causing the three of them to tumble to the ground from fright.
"Ha-ha!" the evil boy chirped, pointing a menacing finger in their direction. "The Dragon Dung Dweebs are over here crying about that stupid lizard!"
Before the stunned friends could comprehend what was happening, Ellysian had them surrounded by her band of followers. With tears streaming down her cheeks, Jahrra watched and listened helplessly as the entire class, except for maybe five or so students her own age, closed in and maliciously chanted, "The Three D's the Three D's, nothing more than babies!" over and over again.
Jahrra turned bright red and Gieaun and Scede moved in closer to her. This wasn't the first time that Eydeth had snuck up on them, but Jahrra decided right then and there it would be the last. After Mr. Cohrbin came out to break up the commotion, Jahrra and her two friends remained on the rock for a little while longer.
"I've had it!" she fumed. "How dare he? I only wanted you two to know about that dream!"
Jahrra allowed one last tear of anger to run down her face, burning her skin like acid. Gieaun and Scede put their arms around her to comfort her and Jahrra took a deep breath.
"I know what to do," she said stoically after calming a bit. "I'm going to trick Eydeth, just like he tricks us. I'm going to build a mud trap and see how he likes to get caught!"
Gieaun was surprised at Jahrra's sudden thirst for vengeance. "Oh, Jahrra, do you think that'll work? What if he tells on us and we get in trouble?"
"It has to work," Jahrra insisted. "And I don't care if we do get in trouble!"
During the next week they worked quietly on Jahrra's plan. They dug a hole behind their granite perch and slowly filled it with water from the school's well, making a muddy, boggy mess at the bottom of it. Gieaun and Scede even gathered some rotting vegetables from their garden to make the mud even nastier.
Finally they covered the gaping hole with branches and leaves and simply waited for Eydeth to taunt them again. They didn't have to wait long. Two days after they finished their trap they got their chance. Eydeth snuck up on them again and started teasing them, but this time the three friends were prepared.
"That's right," Jahrra said, shaking nervously, "we are the Dragon Dung Dweebs, and here's some dung to prove it!"
She scooped up a prepared blob of muck off the top of their granite slab and launched it at Eydeth, watching in delighted horror as it splacked against his white uniform shirt. Eydeth looked down at the black muck sticking to his chest in hollow shock. He turned his squinty eyes up at Jahrra, his alarm slowly turning to anger as his face flushed red.
"You'll pay for that Nesnan!" he breathed and rushed at the low stone.
"Quick, down the other side!" Jahrra hissed giving Scede and Gieaun a shove.
By now the whole class had noticed that something unusual was going on in Jahrra's corner of the yard. Eydeth wasn't chanting like he usually did after scaring the Dweebs. Instead, he was shouting and scrambling up the rock. Jahrra, Gieaun and Scede slid down the back of their boulder, side-stepping their mud trap and secretly hoping that Eydeth didn't notice.
As they clambered up the trunk of the nearest oak tree, Eydeth heaved himself on top of the rock and it wasn't long before he jumped down the side to follow them. He sprinted to catch up to his prey and as he made the last leap to snatch at Gieaun's ankle, his own feet went crashing through the thatching that hid the mud-lined hole.
The angry boy made a strangled screaming sound as he tripped face first into a trough of sticky, smelly mud. Jahrra watched breathlessly from a high branch in the tree as the boy started screaming and crying, his own sister reluctant to help him up out of the trap. Jahrra had to stifle a laugh as Eydeth dragged himself out of the filth, looking like an angry, muddy rat. The class sniggered and laughed at the fuming boy who was carrying on and on about how Jahrra and her friends had thrown mud at him.
"Honestly, Eydeth," Ellysian said, her arms crossed and her face twisted in disgust, "you fell into the mud, you didn't have it thrown at you!"
Ellysian and the rest of the children slowly moved away, hiding their giggles as the filthy boy gaped and bellowed at them.
Jahrra, Gieaun and Scede were beside themselves with glee.
"At least he should leave us alone for a while," Scede said between giggles.
"Or he'll be twice as mean," Gieaun added nervously.
"Either way," Jahrra laughed, "it was worth it!"
Though the attack on Eydeth hadn't completely ended the assaults from either of them, it had put a dent in their dominance over Jahrra and her friends. They seldom ever came around the boulder any longer and only harassed Jahrra if she wandered too close to their side of the schoolyard. Whenever their behavior was particularly nasty however, Jahrra simply recalled what it had felt like to throw the ball of mud at Eydeth. That pleasant memory was usually enough to get her through a tough day.
Jahrra gratefully welcomed the winter break when it finally came, thrilled to have a long vacation away from the tension at school. She was able to enjoy her very first birthday party with her two best friends, and Gieaun and Scede were even allowed to stay the night.
"I can't believe she is already seven years old," Lynhi commented to Hroombra as they watched the three companions chase each other around the orchard pretending to hunt the wild beasts of the forest. "It seems just yesterday she was a baby."
"It's amazing how quickly the time goes by," Hroombra agreed solemnly. He'd dropped by for the day to wish Jahrra a happy birthday and to tell her a special birthday tale, one about unicorns.
Like all good things, however, the much appreciated time away from school eventually came to an end. The first several days back at the schoolhouse went well but it wasn't long before the twins were back into the habit of tormenting Jahrra.
"Nesnan girl," Ellysian chirped the second week back, "we hear that you live in a house that's as small as a dwarf's basement."
They'd dropped the phrase "Dragon Dung Dweebs" and were singling Jahrra out by simply referring to her as the 'Nesnan', ignoring Gieaun and Scede completely. Jahrra couldn't possibly imagine why two seven year olds, who should be more concerned with playing tag and hide-and-go-seek, would put so much effort into tormenting someone else. Her mother and father and Hroombra had always said that all the peoples of Oescienne were equal, but for some reason the twins didn't think so.
When the name calling started to wear off they moved on to more cruel tactics. For instance, they still found it shocking that Jahrra was being tutored by a dragon and didn't hesitate to make their disapproval known, in less than kind terms of course.
One morning, Jahrra was telling Gieaun and Scede about her lesson with Hroombra the weekend before.
"Have you ever heard of semequins!" she breathed excitedly, thinking she was out of earshot of the evil twins. "Master Hroombra told me all about them. They're the most amazing creatures! He told me that they're horses that have a unicorn mother or father!"
"You mean you didn't know about semequins?"
To Jahrra's great annoyance, Eydeth had heard her. "How dumb can you be!" he laughed. "My father owns over a hundred of them, the best in the land!"
Gieaun and Scede gave Eydeth an annoyed look and swiftly made efforts to ignore him, but it was what he said next that captured their attention. He was irritated that his initial insult missed its target, so he tried a different tactic.
"Don't you dummies know that dragons are evil creatures that steal treasure and set whole towns on fire!"
Many of the other girls and boys who had at first ignored Eydeth's usual tirade gasped at this remark and stepped away from Jahrra as if she were sick with the plague. Jahrra tried to remain cool and tried desperately to think of a good retort, but all she could do was hang her head low and walk away with her two friends. She tried so hard to enjoy school but the silence one day and laughter the next truly disheartened her.
A few weeks later Ellysian made another nasty comment about Nesnans right in front of Jahrra, but this time she reacted. Just as Ellysian finished telling a group of girls how the Nesnan people never did anything worth praising, Jahrra shouted back without thinking, "I don't care what you say! Master Hroombra told me that we're all the same!"
Oh yes, that showed them, Jahrra thought to herself bitterly as the laughter around her strengthened. She flushed terribly as she once again became a spectacle.
Eydeth had been right across the yard and quickly joined in the foray.
"All the same?" he squeaked with delight. "You? The same as us? That dragon isn't only horrible, he's stupid too!" The evil boy could barely hold back his laughter.
Jahrra just stood there, frozen in frustration and anger as the entire class laughed at her.
"Stop it!" Gieaun shouted, seething with rage. "Master Hroombra isn't horrible or stupid! You're all just too afraid of Eydeth's lies to believe anything else!"
The laughter, if at all possible, grew louder. Jahrra felt like vapor being spread thin throughout the air around her. Gieaun quailed in shame. Almost every last person in the class was now surrounding Jahrra and Gieaun, pointing and making faces.
"Dragon Dung Dweebs! Dragon Dung Dweebs!" they chanted again and again, resurrecting the old phrase once more. Eydeth and Ellysian stood back and watched with malevolent grins of satisfaction on their smug faces.
Then, without warning, Scede did something no one was expecting. He'd been sitting on the great granite boulder beneath the oak tree when all of this had started. He'd watched helplessly as Jahrra walked over to defend herself and remained seated in fear as his sister joined her. But as the cacophony unfolded before him, his fear slowly turned to rage and he just couldn't stand it any longer.
"Stop it! All of you stop it right now!" he screamed as he jumped off the stone slab, looking as dangerous as an angry wasp.
Scede's sudden outburst caught everyone off guard and the laughing ceased instantly.
"Master Hroombra is much smarter than any of you, and he's nicer too! We know you don't like us or him, and we don't care. So why don't you just leave us alone! And you had better watch out," he pointed a shaking finger at Ellysian, "or you'll end up getting a mud bath just like your brother!"
Scede was breathing hard and his teeth and fists were clenched. Even Gieaun and Jahrra backed away, slightly afraid he might explode. Ellysian had turned white and the smile on Eydeth's face became a hard frown as he recalled the memory of falling into the mud.
Scede darted his eyes around, trying hard to think of something else to say, but nothing came to mind. Every child in the schoolyard, oldest to youngest, stood still as if waiting for him to strike at them like a snake.
When he finally spoke again everyone cringed, but the only words he could muster were, "Why don't you all go wait for your stupid wagons over there!"
He pointed furiously towards the front of the schoolhouse and surprisingly, everyone obeyed.
"Yeah, we will, and you can go wait for your hay cart over there," Ellysian said, sounding like a deflated balloon as she and her brother turned and headed towards the front of the yard.
Gieaun, Scede and Jahrra slowly walked back to their oak tree, the two girls keeping their distance. Like the victims of a massive earthquake, they waited for Scede's aftershocks but they never came. They sat a long time, watching as all of their classmates quietly climbed into their respective carriages or rode off on their own horses they kept in the school stables.
Finally, after what seemed like ages, the mail cart came creaking up the path. Gieaun, Jahrra and Scede climbed up next to Mr. Dharedth as if under a spell, content with riding all the way home in complete silence. The two girls had no idea what to say to Scede, but finally Dharedth, sensing the strange tension surrounding the three friends, spoke up, "What seems to be the problem? Ever since I started taking you to and from school eight months ago, you always talked up a storm on the way back. Why are you all so silent?"
Scede was the one to answer, his voice strangely calm, "The other children were saying some mean things about Master Hroombra and Jahrra, so I yelled at them."
"Is that all? Well, 'tis about time those ruffians get told a thing or two. Don' worry," Dharedth said seeing the look of dread on the children's faces. "I won' tell anyone you did it."
He smiled, and the icy silence surrounding the three friends melted away.
"Did you see the look on Eydeth's and Ellysian's faces when you yelled at them? It looked like they'd seen a ghost!" Jahrra said, relieved Scede wasn't going to erupt again.
"I know. I was so afraid of you Scede! I've never seen you so mad, even after the time I kicked apart the sand castle you made at the beach," added Gieaun, stifling a giggle.
By the time they reached the crest of the Sloping Hill an hour later, they were their normal selves again. Dharedth pulled the cart to a groaning stop and the three of them jumped out, waving goodbye as they began walking towards the Castle Guard Ruin. The school week was over and Jahrra had invited Scede and Gieaun to stay over for the weekend. But before they went home for the night, Hroombra had asked Jahrra to stop by after school on her way home.
They trekked down the narrow dirt path leading from the main road to the Ruin, engrossed in a discussion about what had happened at school that day. Jahrra looked up and saw Hroombra standing beside the crumbled building and her heart leapt. She was hoping that the old dragon had a special story to tell them today, for why else would he ask them to stop by after school? She waved vigorously at her mentor's figure and got back to her friends' conversation. What Jahrra hadn't noticed, however, was the other dragon waiting patiently just inside the Ruin and out of view, his eyes fixed entirely on her.