Chapter 5: The Game

SAVERNIA

TRAINING HALL, THE CAPITAL.

"I couldn't imagine what happened. Only if one bad thing happened, we would have lost Jade forever!" Lucas spoke when they met at lunch.

"No one knows what happened that night. Even I can't remember it clearly. Lets not talk about it anymore. Drop it. I am fine now. So it doesn't matter what happened." Jade said.

With a bell ring, everyone packed their boxes and went inside to meditate. The rest of the day went uneventful.

While returning Izan observed Jade was exceptionally silent, which was something Jade didn't know. Izan didn't ask him why, but continued to monitor him. Beside them, Sasha and Lucas walked. Lucas said a funny story for which everyone laughed except Jade. He just grinned.

"What happened to you?" Lucas suddenly stopped laughing and asked Jade.

"What? Nothing happened!" He replied.

"You would jump to irritate me in this situation but you are quiet." Lucas asked. Izan stepped forward to save Jade but Jade already replied.

"I am not in mood, that's all." He said in a monotonous and sad way. "Consider today to be your lucky day!" Jade changed his tone and teased Lucas.

"Hmmm! You will never change, will you?" Lucas shoke his head and continued the story.

Jade frowned, while looking on the ground when he thought no one was looking at him. But, no. Izan couldn't be quiet or ignorant. He always had his eyes on Jade.

ROYAL PALACE

                 EVENING IN DINING HALL.

Once again, all four of them met at the dining hall. They sat around the glass table on which tasty delicious dishes were placed.

Jade looked more of his normal self than in the morning. His actions and speech returned to original tempo. By the end of the day, he was smiling, cracking jokes and irritating others as usual. Other three friends were relieved on seeing Jade like that. On seeing the delicious, very well decorated dishes infront of them, they forgot everything about yesterday.

Servants came forward to serve the dishes but Izan stopped them.

"Thank you for your work. We will serve ourselves tonight. Please take rest!" Izan said especially for the sake of Jade. Jade never liked when someone was secretly observing him. Even though Izan reassured that without his orders no one would pry on him, still he couldn't trust. He never liked crowd nor public speaking, unlike Izan who didn't mind. 

"Your highness is kind!" The serving lady praised.

"Thank you. You may leave now!" Izan turned to take the cutlery to serve food.

"Your highness only helps other people! He doesn't help his friends!" Someone clicked his tongue.

"When did I not help you?" Izan argued.

"That time!" Jade said. He didn't had any incident to bring up, because such a thing never happened. Izan was very kind to put friends first.

"Oh really?" Izan snatched the chicken from Jade's plate.

"No! My chicken!" Jade was dramatic, like someone asked him to walk naked! He snatched his chicken back. "Take that." He showed his hand, the fingers were curved in a shape of snake, teasing him.

Izan grinned and tried to snatch Jade's chicken.

"Nah! This is mine!" Sasha joined them. Later Lucas also joined. They fought with each other snatching each other's food.

After having dinner, they moved onto fruits. Jade put all the fruits from wooden basket, on the table, like he was serching for something.

Izan called for his servant.

"Bring me some custard apples." He ordered the servant, who bowed and left the room.

Jade was surprised at Izan's actions.

"How did you know that I am serching for custard apples?" He asked.

"I know everything about you!" Izan grinned.

"Oh! I am scared!" Jade was sarcastic.

After sometime, the servant came with a full basket of custard apples and placed it on the table. Jade grinned and dug in to find the biggest one. Rest of them took one custard apple each and started to remove the light green skin.

"Shall we play?" Jade asked while grinning.

"Yes!"

"Wait! Wait! What is the punishment?" Lucas asked.

"Chicken dance!" Jade yelled.

"Okay. I am eager to see your highness do that dance!" Sasha teased.

"Okay, then!" Izan chuckled.

They popped a seed into their mouths and removed the juicy coating with their tongues. After chewing the fleshy part they didn't spit out the sead, instead they kept them in the mouth and walked to stand behind a row of marbles on the floor. 

"Shall we start?" Jade asked for which everyone nodded.

He tiptoed and raised his head up. He brought the black seed at the top of his mouth, holding it between his lips. With one blow, he spat the seed into air. Everyone's gaze followed the flight of seed till it landed very far away from them.

"Ooooo!" They 'o'-ed when they saw how far it fell. "Hahaha! That's nothing. Wait till you see mine!" Lucas laughed at Jade.

"You can't! I practiced this every night! No one can beat me!" Jade declared, throwing his hands in air.

Lucas took a spoon and placed it on the place where the seed fell, marking Jade's seed.

"Next it's my turn!" Lucas shouted. He took a seed between his lips and spat, like how Jade did. The seed went and landed just behind Jade's seed!

"Hahahaha. You lost! You lost!" Jade laughed with one hand on his stomach and other hand pointing Lucas. "Someone said something about defeating me! Where is he!" He added. Izan and Sasha also laughed. Lucas couldn't reply anything as he was sulking.

"It's my turn." Izan said and spat a seed. It landed between Jade's and Lucas's seed.

"I won! I won! I won!" Jade jumped and hopped around the dining room. Lucas was pissed!

"Sasha is left. Wait till you see where it lands! Hehehe!" Lucas laughed, imitating Jade.

"Lets see!" Jade said to Lucas's face and showed his tongue.

Sasha stood at the line and spat a seed. All four of them widened their eyes and followed it's flight. It flew lower than Jade's and landed farther than his seed. Everyone's laughed, jumping up and down pointing fingers at Jade. While corner of his lips turned down and he yelled. He was pissed like a cute puppy! More than anyone, Lucas was happy.

"You practices everyday? Where is all that?" Lucas laughed.

"That is wrong. You cheated! You cheated! She stepped outside the line!" Jade blamed Sasha.

"No! She didn't cheat! You lost! You are a sore looser! Now dance!" Lucas yelled at the top of his voice. They surrounded Jade and hopped, while chanting "Dance! Dance!"

"NO. THIS IS JUST ONE ROUND. LETS DO BEST OF THREE. LET ME SHOW YOU WHAT WINNING IS!" Jade pulled out his tongue and teased Lucas. Everyone rolled their eyes.

Izan didn't initiate any teasing but he was enjoying enough. He was always the matured, smart but needed entertainment types.

"Okay! LETS DO THIS!" Lucas took and put in a piece of custard apple.

"You are laughing too!" Jade said to Izan and Sasha, turned down his corner of lips and put his upper lip inside his lower, imitating a small baby's cry.

"No. I am enjoying!" Izan replied laughing.

"Don't act! 'cause you can't!" Lucas yelled at Jade.

"Let's start the round!" Sasha said. "This time I will start first!" She spat a seed, that didn't go beyond her seed last time she spat.

"See! Sasha also lost. She threw closer than my seed!" Jade yelled pointing it out.

"That was previous round. It doesn't count!" Lucas yelled at Jade.

He went to spat the seed. Next  Izan and Jade continued. After three rounds of childish game,   Sasha won the first one, Izan won second and last one Lucas won. Jade was pissed, sad and angry. He just crossed his arms to lean on the wall as the other three laughed at him.

"Dance! Dance!" Everyone chanted, hopping around Jade.

They were so involved in the game and played it like their lives were at stake. Only if anyone saw this, they would think these teenagers closing twenty are retarded immature brats.

Jade liked such activities. He liked to tease other and pull pranks on them..

As per the Savernian traditions and customs, from young age, Izan should go on country tours to socialize and engage with people inorder to strengthen his position as future King. Izan would take Jade with him everytime to not get bored. But Jade loved to explore the country. He loved making new friends, playing with them and roam through out the city they visited, leaving Izan to do his boring stuff alone! Izan had to drag him away, with his guards, as Jade never wanted to return.

When the kids were eight or nine, Izan took Jade on a country tour. They stopped in a village. Everyone greeted Izan and pulled him to sit under a tree, while they sat on the ground infront of them. The conversations started. Few people sang folk songs, while few people told stories. As long as it was entertainment, Jade liked it. Once the conversations drifted to the villagers problems, Jade was bored. As Izan had to stay there and listen Jade slowly slipped through the crowd.

He ran through out the village and landed on a sheep farm. Without the owner's permission, he opened the farm gate and stepped in with a huge grin on his face. The bleating of numerous sheeps was like a melody to his ears. He widened his arms and ran towards the flock of sheep, which were running away on seeing him. He didn't care. He ran faster and caught one. He hugged it closer to his chest with a bright smile plastered on his face.

He started playing with the sheeps. And soon he befriended all the sheeps and was playing in the mud with them.

Later in the evening, Izan and his guards came searching for him. He saw Jade, smiling widely while sitting in the mud at middle of the farm, with all the sheeps rubbing their heads onto his body. His hair was dishelved, clothes were muddied. If anyone saw him like that, no one would believe him to be a son of kingdom's greatest scientist.

Izan called out jade but Jade was too busy to reply. He was enjoying the ' meh's of sheeps around him. So, Izan ordered his guards to pull jade away from the farm.

"I don't want to come! I want them! I love them! Let go of me!" He cried while being dragged away by Izan's guards. Izan didn't give what Jade wanted, as they had to leave for the Capital next day. Jade cried the whole night, disturbing everyone in the house they were staying.

Next day, they returned to Capital. But Jade didn't go home. He went to the Palace and silently, sneaked into the King's office when it was empty. He stole King's seal and stamped it on a paper he unfolded from under his coat. He went straight to the shepherd and gave the paper.

After few days, when the King was returning to Palace, his world turned upside down on seeing the huge flock of sheep 'meh'-ing at the entrance of Palace. He dropped the tea cup he was holding, which broke into million pieces. The guards around him widened their eyes in shock and looked at each other in fear of what was going to happen next.  The King was boiling in rage as the sheeps destroyed the Palace gardens.

"Remove every sheep. If you can't drive them out, kill them and have a feast tonight. But I want this bloody disgusting smelly sheeps out of my sight!" The King was furious so much that he could kill anyone just for looking at him. His tone made every guard around him shiver. Within few seconds all the guards went on to do their mission.

As the Palace was getting cleared, he heard a loud laughter from his right side. He stomped on the ground towards the source as guards cleared the area infront of him, holding their lives in their hearts. A boy in dirty smelly clothes cuddling a sheep came into his sight. On seeing the King, Jade stood up and bowed.

"Your highness!" He bowed. "Does your highness want to cuddle a sheep?"  Jade laughed and extended his arms, giving the sheep to King.

The King became furious. His breathing fastened and the nostrils flared in anger. But Jade was ignorant. He was too ignorant that he walked to stand infront of the King, specifically to place the sheep in his arms!

"HOW DARE YOU!"  The King yelled at Jade, with such an enraged tone that, if the tone had form and power, it would have killed Jade in an instant.

Only after listening to this tone, did Jade realise that King was furious. He stepped back and the sheep jumped away from his grip.

Soon, the guards brought a thin, meek looking man in half torn clothes. He was the shepherd. He begged the King to not kill any of the sheep and explained everything.

Once the King realised that the shepherd was innocent and Jade was culprit, he let go of the shepherd and took Jade inside the Palace.

After one cheek numbing, ear tinging slap, the King banished Jade from entering the Palace for two years. Jade cried hugging his mother. Cried alot, till his eyes became dry. No one could oppose the King, not even his parents. So, since then, for two years, he wasn't allowed to enter Palace. After the swelling and redness of his cheek subsided, he forgot about everything and found a way to sneak into the Palace.

Jade was pissed. He didn't take the defeat maturely. He went back to grabbed a hand full of custard apple seeds and threw few at Lucas.

Lucas bent down covering his head with his arms while shouting Jade to stop. "YOU IDIOT!  STOP!... OUCH! YOU ARE HURTING ME!" The rest of them laughed at these two kids in adult bodies.

Sasha took a handful of seeds and joined Jade. Lucas could shout, curse at Jade but not at Sasha. He was too shy to say anything. So whenever Jade threw, he cursed but, blushed whenever Sasha threw.

Jade rolled his eyes at this and yelled, "WHAT THE....! I THROW, YOU CURSE ME BUT NOT AT HER!? WAIT....." He bent down and with one swipe he gathered as many seeds as he could. Taking them into his fists, he threw all at once on Lucas.

This action gave Lucas enough time to gather a group of seeds to counter Jade's actions.

Izan was laughing his stomachs out seeing his best friend's fight for silly reasons. He thanked God that Jade became normal after everything that happened. With one blink he snapped a picture to transplant into his memory. Then went to join the fight.

Sasha was already throwing black soft seeds at Lucas. While Lucas defended. Finally, he gathered enough strength and fought with Sasha. This brought them closer, destroying the shyness and awkwardness built after their confessions.

In the mist of chaos, the door to dining room suddenly opened. The moonlight shot into the room displaying a silhouette of a tall stout man with a sword hanging from his waist., Making everyone freeze. He scanned the entire room and stepped inside.

"Wah! Look at this nonsense! I bet Jade started everything." That man turned to face Jade with a disgusting expression. "Now you are playing with food!" He held his forehead on his hands and shoke his head.

Jade didn't like that. He would take no shit from anyone. "It was wastage. Not food. We already ate all the juicy part!" He raised his tone.

"Well, we can't expect any manners from a kid like you. I am letting my son befriend a kid like you only because of respect for your father. Otherwise, I would have thrown you out of the kingdom." Jade didn't like his tone. It was melancholic and rude to Jade. He felt uncomfortable standing in the presence of him.

"Yeah? Lay a finger on me and see!" Jade raised his arms and placed one foot back, ready to puch the man, if he moved his lips. He stared into the man's eyes without any fear or trepidation. After all this wasn't the first time the man tried to discipline or threaten Jade.

The man glared into Jade's eyes, provoking him subconsciously. Jade firmed his stance and fisted his finger, ready to dodge any blow and counter punch.

"Stop it!" Izan yelled with a loud tone, that resounded through the dinning room. "General, it wasn't his mistake. And you can't decide who will and who can't stay in the kingdom. Only the King, his highness has the authority to banish anyone! I will order you to refrain from saying such words in future!" He ordered the General with an authoritative tone.

The general had no option other than to respect the Crown Prince's orders and restrain himself.

"But, your highness, if we encourage such behaviour our youth will end up without manners!" The General bent his head and raised the point.

"Do you say that I am mannerless?" Izan arched an eyebrow at the General. Jade scoffed from behind the General, which only made General more angry.

"No! Never in my seven lifetimes will I say such thing!" The General bent further to express his respect.

"Then don't accuse like that again!" Izan walked past the General and took Jade with him.