Back at the tent Anders was thanked and congratulated by the others working alongside Maija. He glanced over at Maija, who was staring at him, but looked away embarrassed when he noticed. After shaking the hands of Maija’s co-workers, Anders finally completed what he had come to do in the first place. He registered for the Grandwood Games. They told him to return in the morning to go over the rules before the competition began. He smiled brightly at Maija, who smiled back, before he left the registration tent.
After meeting up with his family, Anders told them what had happened.
“Anders, that’s amazing,” Kirsten said in admiration. “Maybe now you’ll have an advantage in the judges’ eyes.”
“It certainly won’t hurt,” said Thomas in a hopeful voice.
“Good job, Anders. No matter what happens tomorrow, I’m proud of you,” Theodor said as they climbed aboard the wagon to leave the Grandwood Festival.
He’d left out the part about meeting Maija, the beautiful Kewian girl who he now found himself thinking about.
The sun set over the horizon as the four of them rode up to their home above Highborn Bay. Anders and Thomas unloaded supplies from the wagon while Theodor went inside to start a fire. They warmed themselves by the fireplace as darkness fell, drinking warm tea and speculating how Anders would fare in the upcoming games. After placing several wagers among themselves, Anders wished everyone good night and went to sleep thinking about Maija’s beautiful brown eyes and enchanting smile.
Chapter 2
The Grandwood Games
The morning of the Grandwood Games dawned with a clear blue sky. Anders had been training for this competition for almost a year. He’d taken a shot at it two years earlier when the judges had made an exception for him at the age of seventeen. The rules were clear; no one under eighteen could compete.
While not typically a rule breaker, Anders had wanted to compete so badly that he persuaded Uncle Theodor to lobby the judges with him for an exception. Reluctantly the judging committee made an exception for him. Theodor had served alongside several of the judges during The War of the Magicians and was able to talk them into bending the rules for Anders.
Unfortunately, after all of that effort, Anders failed to complete the last event of the competition, the mountain race. While he was running back down the side of the mountain, one of the other contestants pushed him off the trail and down into some jagged rocks. He fell out of control and broke his leg. On top of the pain, he was forced to show an incomplete time and forfeit the games as well as miss several months of work on their family farm. Theodor regretted helping Anders compete illegally and in the end paid a price for it. With his hardest and most valuable worker unable to help during the busiest part of the harvest, their family was hardly able to make ends meet.
Since recovering from his broken leg, Anders had been training hard for all four events in the competition. The events required performance of a special skill, a demonstration of strength, a test of knowledge, and finally, completion of the challenging mountain race. He wanted to make sure he would be prepared for anything the games could throw at him this time around.
Between working on the family farm and pulling in waterlogged fishing nets with his cousin, Anders had grown very strong for a nineteen-year-old. His work routine took care of his strength training. He spent the evening hours studying books his uncle kept in his private library. An avid reader and lover of knowledge, Theodor helped Anders sharpen his mind. For his specialty skill, Anders had been practicing knife and axe throwing. From an early age, he’d been a natural at throwing any object with remarkable accuracy, so it seemed like his best option. As for endurance training, Anders often spent any free time he had hiking far into the mountains behind their house. The winter months made it more difficult to hike great distances in the snow, but he did his best to fully prepare for the competition.
After eating smoked salmon and freshly baked bread for breakfast, Anders and his family traveled to the registration tent on the beach where the Grandwood Games were to begin. Upon arriving, Anders joined the long line of contestants outside the tent waiting for their information and placement in the games’ different heats.
Anders stood in line behind a young man who must have had his eighteenth birthday only a few days before. The young man seemed to be in especially high spirits and spoke loudly to anyone around him who would listen to his jokes, many of which were inappropriate for children’s ears. Anders stood behind him and heard every word, often laughing at the comic relief he was supplying. He found the jokes amusing; they took his mind off the competition, settling his nerves. Anders introduced himself.
The dark-haired lad replied in kind, “Hello, Anders, my name is Max. Glad to meet you. Where’re you from?”
Getting a good look at him face-to-face, Anders noticed Max had several inches on him in height. At around six feet tall, Max had a more slender frame than Anders’ toned muscular body. Max’s black hair was tied tightly into a bun near the top of his head.
“Grandwood. How about yourself?” Anders asked Max, curious of his origins.
“I come from the Riverlands of Westland. Just outside a town called Brookside. I came here with my younger brother, Bo, who’s in the crowd somewhere,” Max said in perfect Landish, humankind’s most common language. Squinting as he looked over Anders, he scanned the gathering crowd for his brother. Not able to locate him, Max shrugged and continued, “We heard people talking about how difficult this competition was, and, well, I had to come try it. I love a good adventure, and it’s not like me to turn down a tough challenge.”
“You seem confident and in good spirits. I’m sure you’ll do well. Best of luck to you,” Anders said with a smile and Max returned the sentiment.
One by one contestants filed into the tent. Soon Anders heard someone inside shout, “Next.” He entered, searching the room for the amber-haired girl he’d met the day before. She was standing near the back of the tent sorting through some parchment. He approached the table where a man sat scribbling into an open book.
“State your name, age, and where you’re from,” he said swiftly.
“Anders Valgner, nineteen, of Highborn Bay, Grandwood City.”
The man raised his head when he heard Anders’ name. He leaned back in his chair and looked to the far end of the tent where Maija stood with her head down, concentrating on her task.
“Hey Maija,” the man shouted. “Is this the lad?” he asked, pointing his quill in Anders’ direction.
Her head perked up. Upon seeing Anders, she smiled brightly and Anders weakened in the knees, “Yes, it sure is. Thanks to him we can offer prize money.”
Anders blushed through his already fading sunburnt cheeks and shrugged bashfully.
The man was not among those who’d been in the tent the day before. Otherwise he would have thanked him yesterday. He rose from his chair and grasped Anders’ hand, shaking it. “Well thank you kindly for getting that money back for us. It would’ve been a terrible loss if you hadn’t chased that thief down.” The man reached down and pulled a pouch out of a box next to his chair. “Here you are, take this.” He handed Anders the pouch. Anders took it hearing the coins inside clink together. “A little reward for your generosity.”
Surprised, Anders said, “Thank you,” putting the pouch in his pocket and looking over at Maija who was smiling at him.
The man sat back down and grabbed a piece of charcoal and stuck it out toward Anders. “Take this and write your number on your left arm and right leg,” he said. “Your number is forty-three. Then make your way down to the shoreline and the judges will explain what to do from there.”
Anders did as he was told. As he left, Maija shouted, “Good luck, Anders!”
He smiled and waved to her as he left the tent. His family emerged from the crowd to wish him good luck. They met him near the group of men and women waiting for the judges to provide further instructions.
“It looks like you’ll have some stiff competition this year,” Theodor said eyeing the diverse group of contestants.
“Yeah,” Anders agreed. “I can tell from the tribal tattoos that quite a few Rollo Island warriors are here.”
The battle-tested warriors of the Rollo Islands were known to be very hard to beat in physical competition. Anders suspected one of them had shoved him off the trail during the last Grandwood Games because he’d heard a string of Native Rolloan words as he fell into the rocks.
“Just remember your training,” Theodor said reassuringly. “Many of their warriors lack the ability to think for themselves and don’t know how to perform when they aren’t given orders. It could give you the advantage during a battle of wits.”
“Thanks, I’ll do my best,” Anders replied.
Standing on a large rock at one end of the beach, a judge announced that he would be describing the rules shortly. Thomas, Kirsten, and Theodor all wished Anders good luck one last time as he joined his competitors for their meeting.
The judge stood tall on top of the boulder calling for them to gather around him and listen.
