Collision - Alyx D. Vacca (best reads of all time txt) 📗
- Author: Alyx D. Vacca
Book online «Collision - Alyx D. Vacca (best reads of all time txt) 📗». Author Alyx D. Vacca
Chapter Four
The Tournament
A week after that all the drama and me and Tobi still were not talking as comfortably as we used to. On Thursday we were all told to bring sleeping bags, tents and anything we would need for ten days because the next day we all piled in to the buses and drove to Washington DC for the Tournament. On the bus people laughed and talked for the first few hours and then everyone got sick of each others company and started bickering. Tobi and I sat next to the other but said nothing. I have no idea how to make up for the truth, but I tried. "Hey Tobi?" He grunted as a response. "Um... Why do you want the worlds separated so badly?" "I do not." I stared at him. He was angry at me for no reason!
"Then why are you mad?"
"I am not."
"Then how come all your sentences are short and you voice is clipped?"
"I am nervous, besides, I thought that you were mad at me." I looked at him, puzzled. "Why would I be angry with you?" I asked him. "How should I know? You just seemed to not want to talk to me." "Oh... Well I was just giving you space, you seemed to want it." We lapsed in to silence. This time it was more of companionable silence. When the bus finally pulled to it's last stop, every one yelled with joy. As everyone piled out of the buses and started looking for the bathrooms Tobi pulled me in to a shadow and said, "Jayd there is one thing that I have to tell you." "What?" I asked. "Is it about the Tournament?" "Yes and no, it is and it is not." He looked nervous, he had said that he was in the bus. "Well?" "Um... See, I wont be participating in the normal Tournament." I stared at him in disbelief. "Why? Are they separating the Treahians from the Earthlings?" I joked. He looked completely serious when he answered. "No, the reason is that I am biologically a Noble." I must have looked really surprised because of what he said next. "It does not really change anything, it is just how they have ordered me to attend. Which really makes no since. I have been raised as a peasant's son all these years." "Why did you not tell me?" "Well I asked you if you wanted to know how my dads got me did I not?" Also I was asked if I wanted to bring someone to the Nobles tournament with me and I said maybe, that I would have to ask that person first. So do you want to come?" He said the last part very fast. "Um... What exactly does that entail?" I was suddenly cautious, this should not have needed to be a secret. "If you go to the Nobles Tournament instead of the Commoner Tournament, you have a better chance of being chosen for the Prophesied Fellowship. Please say yes!" "Why is it that you are so eager for me to join that Tournament? Why do you have a better chance?" He grinned. "You Earthlings sometimes, I have noticed, refer to us Treahians as Fairy Tale People. And there is a good reason for that. Our ways are very similar to the ways of those stories, and if you notice that in the stories the royalty usually are the ones who have to go on a quest and whatever. So come with me." "You still did not answer why you want me to join." He sighed. "Because you have to join the Tournaments in pairs." "Oh... OK. I will do it!" He grinned and hugged me so suddenly that I lost my balance and fell against him. We both fell to the ground and started laughing. He picked him self up and dusted himself up than held a hand out to me. I took it and he helped me to my feet. Now that I was not in the middle of an important conversation with Tobi nor being dragged by him I could look around. I looked up at the White House which is were we were obviously. And saw that it was very big. I guess that I never really realized just how big it was. It always looked kind of big on the postcards but nothing like what it really was. The lawn was perfectly cut and green, and all the cars were fancy and shiny. For all there were children that lived here it sure did not look it. Tobi and I ran to catch up to the rest of the Raytown people. When we got up the steps we slowed to a fast walk. Once we caught up to the others we got in line to sign in so that they would know that we were there. When me and Tobi got to the front they asked us our names and if we were competing together or with someone else. "Together," Tobi answered. He nodded and pointed to the door that said Nobles Tournament. We thanked him (might as well use good manners if you have them) and moved through the doors.
My first impression of the room that I was in was that the designers and builders had way to much time on their hands. The walls had intricate patterns embedded in to the smooth stones. "I had wondered what had happened to the palace during the Collision," Tobi whispered. That was when I realized that the modern White House would not have stone walls like this. The Royal Palace of Calsablin had erupted and conformed into the White House!
A richly dressed woman with a crown stood up and Tobi and every other person who was not on the dais bowed, I hurriedly followed suit. She had coal black hair and bright green eyes, her skin was a creamy brown just like Tobi. She must be one of the Queens, all the rest of the people did not look like they shared the same ethnicity with Tobi "Rise," she commanded. "You are Nobility and the friends of Nobility, and I welcome all of you. I have but one request for you." She stared at us all, measuring us up as if she could tell just by looking at us who would win so that she could place her bet on us now. "Try your best to save your respective worlds by separating the two and by keeping your individual thoughts and feelings out of the picture and putting others first." She seemed to be looking at me and Tobi for that last bit of her speech. I remembered what that one recruiter, what was his name, Sir Allan of Horicine, said that I was the only one who was close friends with some one from Treah. Was that true? And if it was, what would that mean for them in the competition? "Now when you go through these doors," she gestured to some doors inlaid with mother of purl behind the dais. "You will began the first challenge of the Tournament. All will be explained by the judges of each Contest." She motioned for the doors to be opened. "I wish you luck." As everyone walked through the doors from the back of the line of Noble Teenagers, all me and Tobi and me heard was applause. "Hey Tobi. Am I the only one here that is not of high decent?" He looked at me amused. "Even if you were I might as well be. No you are not, for every Noble person here there is one Commoner." "Why is that?" "Because all the Noble personage here is partnered with a Commoner." He explained while trying to see over the heads in front of us and in to the room where all the applause were coming from. "Than how come everyone is staring at me? Is it because I am from Earth?" He shrugged and nodded, "Probably, all these people are from Treah now that I think of
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