Boon dismounted and patted his zenzen’s sweaty and heaving flanks. “So, what happened out there?”
“I messed up,” Kasha snapped.
“But you never mess up,” Boon pressed. “You just stopped out there! Inches from the gar!”
“I lost focus, okay? It won’t happen again.”
“It better not,” Jorsa said as she walked into the stable. “I took a chance on you, Kasha, putting you in these final games. You’re a new player. But you have always been so strong, so intent on winning—”
“It was one game!” Kasha insisted. “One error.”
“An important game. At the critical moment.”
“I know! I let you all down. I won’t let it happen again.”
“You are right you won’t. I will not let you have the chance,” Jorsa said.
“What do you mean?” Kasha asked.
“I’ll have to think about whether or not to put you in the next game.” Jorsa stalked out of the stall.
Kasha stared after her. She felt terrible. She’d let the team down. And her father had watched the whole thing.
FOUR
One week later Kasha held very still in the Blue Team’s area, waiting for Jorsa’s decision. She had been tense all week, anticipating this moment. She didn’t have the right to insist on being put in the game; she knew she’d let the team down last week. But she hoped she’d be allowed to prove herself.
“Give her another chance, Jorsa,” Boon said. “Kasha will play better today, I know it.”
Jorsa looked from Boon to Kasha. “Do you know it?” she asked Kasha.
Kasha gave a sharp nod. “Yes. I think I know why I faltered. I—I made sure it won’t happen again.”
Kasha was convinced it was concern about her father’s reaction to the game that had distracted her. So she asked him not to attend any more games and—not surprisingly—he agreed. He still wasn’t a fan of wippen. He just wouldn’t budge on it. At least he wasn’t going to try to get her to quit—he acknowledged he was in the minority opinion on the popular game. And, as Kasha reminded him, he raised her to make her own choices.
Jorsa studied Kasha for a moment, then said, “All right. I will start you, but I might not keep you in.”
“Thank you,” Kasha said. “I won’t let you down.”
Boon and Kasha headed for the corral to get their zenzens.
“This is great!” Boon declared. “She’s putting you in!” Boon was full of energy, practically bouncing as they walked. “Remember to keep the scoop high,” he said. “And when in doubt, pass—even to a gar. Also—”
“I know,” Kasha snapped. “I have played before. I only messed up that one time.”
“Sorry,” Boon said. “It’s just that this game is really important and—”
“I know that too!” Kasha picked up her scoop and then hoisted herself up onto her zenzen’s back. She leaned forward in the saddle and urged her zenzen onto the field. All of Boon’s chatter was only making her nervous. She knew he meant well, but she was having a hard time keeping herself from knocking him with her scoop.
The rest of the Blue Team trotted onto the field. A few glanced at her then looked away. Kasha tightened her grip on her scoop. She knew she had to earn back their respect. She would.
“Boon!” Jorsa called. “Face-off.”
Boon grinned and trotted toward center field. The game master tossed the ball and Boon and the Red Team player raced toward it. Both players stood in their stirrups holding up the scoops. The zenzens thundered toward each other.
Kasha held her breath—she had to be ready to respond. Focus, she told herself. Focus and—
The Red Team got the ball!
Boon used the handle of his scoop to try to knock the ball out of the Red Team player’s net, but the player flung the ball to one of his own team’s gars. A Blue Team gar intercepted it and threw it to a Blue Team klee.
Kasha flicked the reins and raced her zenzen to a forward position. “Open!” she cried.
The player looked around the field and tossed the ball to a gar. The gar took off running. A Blue Team player rode up next to the gar, who dropped it into the net of the scoop.
Three Red Team gars and a Red Team klee raced after Kasha’s teammate. He was surrounded.
“Over here!” Kasha shouted.
Her boxed-in teammate glanced her way, then threw the ball to Boon.
That makes no sense, Kasha thought. He just sent the ball backward. “Boon!” she called.
Boon turned to look at her. He raised his scoop for the throw, but a Red Team player knocked the ball out of Boon’s net. A pile of gars threw themselves onto the ball. Zenzens stomped around them until a Red Team gar managed to extricate himself from the pile. As the gar stumbled away, Boon knocked the ball out of his hands. Boon couldn’t reach the ball to stake it, but he managed to hit it with his scoop hard enough to roll it to another Blue Team player. She scooped it up and yanked on her zenzen’s reins, making it turn sharply.
“I can take it!” Kasha cried. She was just yards from the goal.
The Blue Player ignored her and galloped toward the goal. Gars scattered to avoid being trampled.
Kasha blinked. She couldn’t believe it. No one would pass to her! If they’re not going to use me, there’s no point in my being in the game. She didn’t know if she was hurt or furious.
She kicked her zenzen’s flanks and raced into center field. Since no one would send her the ball, she’d have to go and get it.
She heard a snort and a whinny behind her. A gar had spooked the zenzen heading toward the goal, throwing the Blue Team klee rider. The ball fell from the scoop and Kasha saw her chance.
She galloped toward the ball. A Red Team gar grabbed it, and Kasha used her scoop to knock it out of his hands. He clung to the ball and she swung again. She heard him cry out and felt the dull thunk of her scoop hitting flesh, but she kept her eyes on the ball. The gar dropped it and Kasha quickly scooped it up.
“Yah! Yah! Yah!” she shouted, kicking her zenzen hard. Her shouts spurred on her zenzen, but it also startled the gars—they flung themselves out of her way.
Kasha forced the zenzen to run straight at the goal—and the gar goalie. At the last moment, the gar threw himself out of her path. Kasha yanked on the reins sharply, pulling the zenzen to a sudden stop, its hooves sending clumps of dirt flying. Kasha hurled in the ball.
Score!
She trotted back to the center field. Maybe now they’ll pass to me, she thought.
“Ball in play!” the game master shouted.
The Red Team took control of the ball. Kasha saw where the pass would happen. She raced her zenzen in for a block. The ball went high, and Kasha stood in the stirrups to reach it. She miscalculated, and the ball hit her in the head with a loud thwack.
Her body slid sideways from the force of the blow, but she managed to stay in the saddle. She shook her head to clear it and was pleased to see that the ball was being carried by a Blue Team gar.
The gar tossed the ball to Boon, who neatly swooped it up and threw it into the goal. Another score.
“Ball in play!”
Kasha tossed the scoop from paw to paw. Her muscles felt warm from exertion, fluid, strong. Her senses were alert, acute. Nothing but the game. Total focus.
“Pass!” she cried, as she watched gars chasing the ball down the field. A Red Team gar threw the ball, but Boon intercepted it. He threw it to Kasha. The two friends galloped down the field tossing the ball back and forth as gars raced after them. Red Team players rode hard between them, but Boon and Kasha were able to keep control of the ball.
A Red Team player rode up beside Kasha. When she aimed her scoop to throw the ball back to Boon, the Red Team player knocked it out of her net. Kasha tried to catch it again, and she and her opponent fought it out. Gars from both teams also tried to steal the ball. Kasha and the Red Team player knocked into the gars as they struggled for possession of the ball, but finally a Blue Team gar wrestled it away. He
ran with it and threw it to Boon….
And score!
The horn blew, and it was time for the break. Panting nearly as hard as her zenzen, Kasha rode off the field.
Jorsa stood smiling at the water station. “Well, you certainly made up for last week.”
“Thanks,” Kasha said. “Boon is playing well today too.”
Boon rode up beside her. “I liked that special block you did. That was really using your head.” He slid sideways, mimicking being hit in the head with a wippen ball.
“Ha-ha.” Kasha grinned at him. “You should try it. Knock some sense into you.”
As she gave her zenzen water, she watched injured gars being pulled off the field. “The Red Team lost a lot of gars.”
“Good,” Jorsa said. “It weakens their team. They won’t have as many as we do.”
“They may try to take down ours. Even up the odds,” Boon said.
“Do we defend them?” Kasha asked, trying to figure out a good second-half strategy.
“No,” Jarsa said. “Gars play defense for us, not the other way around. We use them that way as long as we have them.”
“The Red Team is going to play even harder to try to catch up,” Boon said. “We will need to be ready.”
Jarsa pulled two players out who’d been hurt in the game and sent in two fresh replacements. “What about me?” Kasha asked.
“You up for it?”
“Yes.”
“Then you’re back in.”
Energy surged through Kasha, thrilled she’d proven herself. She was ready. She paced the break area on all fours, eager to get back into the game.
“Kasha, face-off!”
Kasha mounted her zenzen. This round would determine everything. If the Blue Team lost the game, the championship would be over today. The Red Team would have won two out of three. Both sides were going to play hard. Kasha had no doubt the second half would be a lot rougher and result in any number of injuries—klee and gar alike.
Well, Kasha thought as she trotted the zenzen onto the field. We’ll just play smarter.
Kasha faced her Red Team opponent. It was the same green-eyed klee she had faced before. Her ears flattened when she saw she was going up against Kasha. She sat high in the saddle, not even holding the reins, keeping both paws on her scoop.
Kasha smiled. She liked how fiercely her opponent tried to stare her down. That meant she viewed Kasha as a formidable player—a powerhouse. Exactly as Kasha wanted to see herself.
Kasha heard the Red Team player let out a low, throaty growl. “Don’t be so sure of yourself,” she snarled at Kasha.
Kasha just continued to smile. She was determined to prove Jorsa hadn’t made a mistake putting her in, despite the loss last week. The other team’s aggressive stance didn’t scare her, it only fueled her confidence.
“In play!” the game master shouted, tossing the ball. Kasha swooped it up in her net. The Red Team player’s scoop came down hard on Kasha’s, but Kasha didn’t lose control of the ball. She angled her scoop, deftly keeping the ball from falling out of the net, and yanked her zenzen’s reins. It made a hard right turn and took off.
Kasha was instantly surrounded by Red Team gars on foot and klees on zenzens. It was as if they knew she’d win the face-off. She scanned the field. She had to pass—and fast!
Boon had Red Team players shadowing him; she’d have to look elsewhere. The Red Team had clearly indentified her and Boon as the major threats here.
I’ll have to change strategy, she thought, pulling her scoop close in to her body to protect the ball. This was risky: Klees determined to knock the ball out of her net could easily whack her with their scoops, and it wouldn’t be called a foul.
Kasha glanced over her shoulder, then twisted in the saddle. She hurled the ball toward a Blue Team gar behind her.
Startled by the surprising pass, the Blue Team gar fumbled and dropped the ball. Luckily, none of the Red Team was nearby—they had all raced into position near the goal. The gar quickly recovered and ran the ball into a good position to pass to another klee player.
Before the ball made it to the goal, a Blue Team gar was pulled out due to an injury after a Red Team zenzen stomped on the gar’s foot as the klee player frantically tried changing direction. The ball was sent back into play, and the Blue Team scored.
Keep them confused, Kasha decided. Never let the Red Team predict where the ball will be.
Ball after ball went into play, and each time the Blue Team scored, the Red Team fought back even more aggressively.
The Red Team was down in gars, so the klee players were doing most of the blocking themselves. This was an added danger as the huge zenzens barreled down on one another. This gave Kasha an idea.
It was down to the winning point. Kasha’s muscles ached, and she knew she’d be bruised tomorrow. A nasty scratch across the top of her paw had left blood on her fur. She wasn’t even sure how it had happened.
Kasha gained control of the ball. Make it count, she told herself.
Over and over she passed the ball to the gars in all directions, forward, backward, right and left. Her teammates followed her lead, and they, too, passed the ball right back to the gars. The Red Team couldn’t play offense or defense; they were having too much trouble figuring out where to look next.
Zenzens reared up, snorting and whinnying as Red Team klees crisscrossed the field. The Red Team hadn’t just lost control of the ball, they were losing control of their zenzens as they forced them to continually shift, turn, stop, and charge in sudden, surprising bursts.
Kasha raced her zenzen on the outskirts of the field to the goal. The Red Team still saw her as the primary opponent and flanked her. She got the ball and threw it to a gar, who threw it to another gar. And another. The ball was heading back toward the Red Team’s goal.
Kasha kicked her zenzen hard and raced back down the field. She knocked the ball out of a Red Team gar’s hands. She abruptly turned the zenzen and headed back the way she’d come. “Stay with me!” she shouted to two gars. They ran alongside her as she thundered toward the goal.
She shut out the sounds around her; the crowd’s cheers and boos, the zenzen’s snorting, the shouts of players, the thudding of powerful hooves. She shut out everything but the path opening up before her to the goal. She urged her zenzen to gallop faster, straighter. She was breathing hard, in time with her zenzen’s hooves hitting the dirt.
She was aware of other zenzens stomping toward her, of bodies all around her, but she kept her eyes straight ahead, her only focus on the goal and protecting the ball. No more passing now—she was bringing this one home.
She heard a loud cry and a shout, and some kind of commotion in the stands just as she hurled in the ball.
Score!
She did it! Kasha took in a deep breath and slumped in the saddle, the tension easing out of her. That was it. That was the winning goal. They were still in the championship.
She slowly turned her zenzen around, allowing it to settle into a walk.
She joined the rest of the Blue Team’s victory circle around the stadium. Although her teammates were holding their scoops high in victory, and the crowd was applauding, what caught her eye was the gar holding pen. There was something going on.
Gradually she understood what she was seeing. A gar was being dragged off the field, but he wasn’t injured, he was dead.
Trampled by a zenzen, Kasha figured. That was the cause of most of the more serious gar injuries. The klees were all riding in close quarters at the last point and zenzens had been getting spooked all around her.
Although uncommon, the death wasn’t the surprise. What struck Kasha was the reaction of a female gar in the holding pen.
A female in filthy rags was wailing as if she herself were in tormented pain. She flung herself onto the body of the dead gar. Her deep anguish was palpable; Kasha felt tears sting her eyes even though she didn’t really understand what she was watching. What was clear was the death of this ga
r had unhinged the female.
A klee guard grabbed the female to remove her so that the field could be cleared. The female kicked out at the guard, and her obvious grief transformed into rage. The guard hit her with a stick, and several gars ran to her, pulling her away from the dead gar. Her shrieks chilled Kasha, and she found herself needing to look away as the female wept and screamed, her pale, thin, and dirty arms reaching desperately for the dead gar.
How strange, Kasha thought, disturbed by the scene. It’s as if the gars have feelings just like the klees.
FIVE
You were amazing!” Boon gushed as he and Kasha left the wippen stadium after the game. They stepped into the elevator headed for the monorail that ringed the city of Leeandra. They’d take it to city center, and then from there, they would walk the rest of the way to Seegen’s home for their weekly dinner.
“I guess….” Kasha watched the small wooden houses dotting the gigantic trees as the elevator brought them up to higher levels. It stopped, and they stepped onto the crowded platform.
“What’s wrong?” Boon asked. “You’ve been awfully quiet ever since the game ended. Are you injured?”
“What?” Kasha turned to look at Boon. The thick canopy of foliage above them cast shadows across his face despite the warm glow emitted by the streetlights. She realized she hadn’t heard a word he had said.
Boon frowned. “Are you all right? You should be purring with pride. Thanks to you we’re still in the running for the championship! You tied us with the Red Team.”
“I—I am just tired.”
They stepped into the monorail.
“Of course, you’re tired,” Boon said. “You played a powerful game. Here, take this seat.”
Kasha sat, her haunches aching from the earlier exertion. She’d worked her muscles hard, clinging to the zenzen, reaching, throwing, twisting. But it wasn’t fatigue that had her so quiet or distracted.
Kasha stared at the leafy branches brushing the monorail window. She couldn’t get the image of the distraught gar female out of her mind. The screaming. The weeping.