ELEVEN

Imogen wouldn’t look at Rufus. He sat at his table with Jimmy and Biggie—picking at his lunch. There was a low roar in the cafeteria that day. It had been a couple weeks since Rufus was first allowed to go into the arena.

“I don’t understand her.” Rufus gave her table a side glance. “She won’t even say hello to me out here. In there she won’t leave me alone.”

“It isn’t real to her. It’s like trolling.” Biggie answered absentmindedly.

“Trolling?”

“Yeah, or cyber-bullying. If people don’t think it is real or doesn’t have real consequences then they are happy to do whatever fancies them. A troll is a person that makes disperaging comments about something on the internet, just because.” He took a bite of his mac and cheese and continued around a mouth full. “She doesn’t think it is real so the consequences out here are not reflected by her actions in there. Don’t fall into her trap.”

Her table stood up and she walked past Rufus. “Hello Rufus. See you in the Arena?” She smiled and winked.

Rufus smiled back, his heart fluttered a bit and he bloomed red. “Ah, yeah, sure…” He would have said more like “Your eyes are real pretty”, or “I don’t mind kissing you right now”, but none of that happened. She just smiled and walked a way.

He always got scared around attractive girls.

Admiral Ackbar was screaming in the back of his mind “It’s a trap!”

…

“Get your watergel! See the most amazing game ever played! Get your watergel! Only one decoin!” A tout was shouting his wares to the trio’s left. Rufus had met back up with Imogen and Lillyfrond. They were going to spend a day at the beach.

The tout was a short creature, with goat legs and horns and a human torso and head. His face was slightly elongated, with a short goatee on his chin. Slung across his back, he had a panpipe, and in front of him was a stand and barrel that looked to be full of water.

“Come on! Rufus. Let’s go see what hydrochess is.” Imogen grabbed Rufus’s hand and pulled him over to where the tout had his stand. “Lillyfrond, do you want to come with us?”

“Yes I will come. I usually enjoy the sport. It can be a bit barbaric for my tastes, but the creatures and beauties of the deep are a welcome reprieve.” The fairy flew over and, from a pouch, she pulled out a decoin the size of a pinhead. As she released the coin to give it to the fawn, its size increased to normal proportions. She then flew to the barrel of solidified water and submerged a finger. The surface tension of the liquid held against her finger but eventually she was able to slide it in up to her wrist. The watergel quickly crept up her finger, hand, and arm until her whole body and clothing had a slight shimmer to them.

“Good sir, are you next?” The fawn asked Rufus.

Rufus took out a coin and gave it to the tout and then submerged his index finger. Moments later he too was covered in a shimmering sheen of gel.

“Just a few things to go over. You need to come out of the water once the match is over. You won’t be able to stay much more than a couple hours after that. If you stay down there longer, the watergel will stop processing the air for you and you won’t be able to breath. We’ll have to tell Merlin, the game will be shut down, and no one will ever like you. Ever. That will ruin the fun for everyone, including you, because no one will like you. So please come to the surface immediately afterwards. Okay? Have a good day.” The fawn had sold his product and was anxious to get the three of them away from his stand so he could attract more customers.

After Imogen had put on her own sheen layer, the trio moved off of the boardwalk and onto the beach. They passed the sunbathers and the polo match and walked through the waves, toward the breakers.

The watergel allowed them to submerge directly into the water without getting wet. The gel actually maintained the environment they were in when they first touched it. It processed the seawater into air and left them as warm as they were on the boardwalk, with the occasional sea breeze to cool them down, and the sandy ground under their feet felt as hard as the boardwalk’s wood planking.

The underwater world gradually changed from the rolling plain of sand into sweeping mountainous coral reefs. Rufus, Imogen and Lillyfrond continued to walk and fly through the water as if it were air. No heaviness, no water-logged clothing, just a blue-tinted picturesque view.

Fish of every color, size, and variety swam by them. Rufus even spotted two mermaids swimming past. Their hair was stark white, and the skin of their shoulders, face and arms was very pail. Large fish scales covered their bodies from their chests down. One of the mermaids had a caudal fin that stuck up behind her back like a shark’s fin, and the other had a symmetrical caudal fin like an eel.

The mermaids were both carrying tridents and steel nets. Apparently, they were hunting for something, but they weren’t trying for any of the passing fish, as they had swum by many schools without any attempts.

Lillyfrond noticed the mermaids also and said in a hurried voice, “Please stay close to me. It seems like the mermaids have not enough players. If they spot us, they most likely will attempt to force us to participate. I’ve done it once and would not that I should do it again.” Lillyfrond said as she shot forward. “Keep up. They won’t force anyone from the audience, if we make it to that cave there, we will be safe.” She pointed ahead of her to a yawning cavern opening into one of the coral mountains.

Rufus looked back to see where the mermaids had been swimming and could no longer pick them out. That made him uneasy, and he guessed that the trio were most likely now the mer-hunting party’s prey.

Rufus and Imogen hurried after Lillyfrond as quickly as they could. They ran as if they were running on the hard surface of the boardwalk above, unhindered by the weight of the water around them and the soft sand under them.

Rufus saw a lot of possibilities with this watergel. He could essentially go wherever he wanted, the Labrynth, the forest, the Arena even, and obviously the ocean. Once he got back on the boardwalk he was going to become real buddy-buddy with that fawn.

As he was having these amicable thoughts, he noticed movement in his peripheral vision. He turned his head towards the movement, still running behind Imogen. Ever since the mermaids disappeared he had felt edgy. His wariness and the running were making his heart beat faster. Looking to the side, he expected to see a mermaid, but all he saw was a school of ocean pike swimming in a tight formation.

He was about to turn his head back toward Imogen, when a heavy net fell over his face and tripped him up. As soon as he realized what had happened he started to thrash his arms and legs trying to get the netting off himself. He struggled, but eventually he could see that it wasn’t getting him anywhere. Especially, when the shark-tailed mermaid placed her trident against his face. He had no way of protecting himself, no sword, no gun, nothing. He made a mental check to rectify that by promising himself that he would always carry something with him.

“No fight? Nothing?” Shark-tail’s voice was like water being poured into a glass, smooth and continuous. The school of ocean pike shimmered, and Rufus could now see that it wasn’t fish at all, it was the eel-tailed mermaid. She swam up to where Rufus was pinned to the ocean floor. She pulled his hands behind his back and tied them tightly with some rubbery cording.

Imogen looked back and saw the mermaids capturing Rufus. “No!” She yelled as she ran towards Rufus. She held her hand out to her side and a black sword magically appeared in it. She brought together her hands in front of her, but the sword was sluggish in her grip. If she had had the sword on her person when she had put the watergel on, then the weight of the water around her wouldn’t have been consequential, but as it was, she was struggling to wield it. She hadn’t told Rufus, but she had split her essence into one part Aphrodite and one part Athena—win any man’s heart with either looks or ability—at least that’s what she thought she was doing.

Shark-tail withdrew her trident from Rufus’s face and slowly a white hard encrusting grew from her skin to form a coral-like plate armor around her shoulders, neck and arms. Imogen, paled for a moment. Her Athena senses told her that she was in an impossible battle with this creature, especially because of her inability to use her sword underwater. She rushed on nonetheless, her Aphrodite desire to love a man and her own personal desire to focus that love on Rufus, sped her forward. She meant to run straight at the mermaid and sever her head with the unwieldy sword she was holding, but instead Imogen ran in place as if an invisible hand had a hold of her and wouldn’t let her go. She looked around trying to locate the source of what was stopping her and saw Lillyfrond floating past her and into the path between her and the mermaid.

Shark-tail slowed down and said “Lillyfrond, it is offensive for a landwalker to draw a weapon in this realm. She should be punished for her lackadaisical attitude towards our laws.”

“Yes, your majesty, but she is fond of the man and meant to protect him. As you can see he has no means for himself.”

“Aye, I would rather have had her be our catch, than him. Strong spirit. He seems to be weak. But we only need one more participant and, per our laws, we cannot release one we have already caught. Daughter,” She addressed Imogen. “He will be safe, as safe as one can be in the Hydragame. Maybe you can join us next time, dearie.” Her liquid voice cackled as she and the eel-tailed mermaid swam off with their prey in tow.

Imogen was fuming, and completely immobile as Rufus watched his two friends recede in the distance. He thought that she had drawn a sword but wasn’t sure. He turned his head forward and watched as the ocean floor sped past underneath him. He could see fish darting every which way to get out of the mermaids’ path.

They eventually stopped above a hole wide enough for the three of them to swim through. Rufus was towed into the hole, which opened up into a large cavern. The room was split in two by a gigantic row of barnacle-encrusted bars. One side had a group of what Rufus could clearly see were the unwilling participants. The side of the cavern he had entered into had creatures who had volunteered or had been requested to participate. The shark-tailed mermaid opened a small gate in the middle of the wall of bars and Rufus was unceremoniously dumped onto the floor of the cavern. With a muted clang the gate was shut.

“The games will soon start, my young friend.” With that the two mermaids swam away.

Rufus stood up and looked around him. There was a spider with a body the size of a grown man crawling on the back wall, a couple of men and women, a large serpent creature coiled in the corner, and next to him on the floor was a small cage. He started for the cage when a bright bolt shot out and made contact with his outstretched hand, the shock knocked him to the ground.

“She’s a bit testy right now. You might do better if you wait ‘til afterwards. Sprites don’t like being caged, ‘specially sea-sprites.” A husky voice from the group of humans called out to Rufus. “Name’s, Jeremiah.” A large man walked over to where Rufus was splayed on the ground. The man had a green fin on top of his head that twitched between being opened and closed as he spoke. He had gills and webbed hands and feet.

Rufus stood up and held out his hand. “Rufus,” he offered his name to the fish man.

“They catch you sunbathin’?” Jeremiah asked.

Rufus struggled to understand the man’s accent, but answered with a shake of his head. “We were on our way to the Hydrachess match when those two caught me with one of their nets.”

“Did the eel use the ocean pike mirage on you? She’s real good.” The man laughed and directed Rufus over to a bench in the wall, right under the spider. As they walked over the spider protectively crouched its back end against the wall.

Several swords made of a type of crystal lay on the cleft in the wall. They actually looked as if they were just the skeletal remains of any sword Rufus had ever seen. The swords had an outline of the edge of a normal straight sword but there was intricate lacing that connected the edges together—giving the sword a bit more structural integrity. Jeremiah pointed to them and told Rufus that he should pick one out. “If’n you want to I would like to spar a bit…Just to get loose and warm up.” The fishman drew a sword from his belt. It looked more like a regular sword, but as he drew it Rufus could see tentacle-like arms reach out from it.

Rufus grabbed one of the swords off the wall. It wasn’t much to look at, except for the intricate crystal lacing. He held it in his hand and could feel that it would have been well balanced if he had been holding it on shore, but here on the bottom of the ocean its weight didn’t feel right in his hand.

“Why do you want to spar?” Rufus questioned the gilled man.

“You need to be ready for Hydrachess. Do you feel ready?”
“I don’t know, I don’t really know what Hydrachess will require of me.”

“Ah, you are new. Hmmm. Hydrachess is about endurance and the will to win.” The fishman tapped his blade against Rufus’s. The tentacles of his blade lazily wrapped around Rufus’s—clasping and unclasping as the fishman moved his blade away. “There are the players—two merfolk who sit in the center of the battle controlling the chess game and then there are the played. You, me, them—” he paused and pointed to the group of humans on Rufus’s side of the bars “—and then there are them.” He then pointed through the bars at the willing participants.

“Who are they?” Rufus and Jeremiah walked towards the bars. Rufus could see that the creatures were bulky, quick and almost all of them were ready to fight. Since Rufus had come into the cavern several unfriendly fights had broken out between the willing participants. To Rufus they looked hungry for blood.

“Half of them will be on your team. The other half will be on the other. We stand on our side of the field of battle and wait until the one of the two players—the merfolk moving the pieces—move your piece into a space occupied by the other team. That is where Hydrachess and landwalker chess differ. In landwalker chess the attacker takes the space, but in Hydrachess the two participants represented by the competing chess pieces must fight to take the contended space on the board.

“So if you aren’t any good at fighting, well you’ll not do too well.” Jeremiah released a huge amount of bubbles from his mouth as he said this. Rufus was alarmed by all the talk of fighting and by the fact that he hadn’t projected any particular fighting abilities. Seeing the look on Rufus’s face made Jeremiah say, “We could spar and at least you’ll get some practice in.”

Rufus hefted the sword in his hand. The crystalline blade reflected the ambient blue phosphorescence from the rocks around him. He slung the strap of his knapsack across his shoulder so that the bag hung on his back. He looked up at the fishman and raised his sword at the same time. “Seems like I have no choice.” Rufus said.

“Fantastic, I’m a bit rusty, so this should help me out, too.” His gills flared and shut as he exhaled some of the surrounding water.

Jeremiah shuffled forward toward Rufus and made a soft jab. Rufus easily parried it away from him. “Nice. Not bad.”

Jeremiah stopped and looked over Rufus’s shoulder there was a commotion on the other side of the bars. A group of mermaids were swimming amongst the participants. Two of the mermaids had black shoulder and arm armor with matching tridents.

“The Choosing.” Jeremiah explained. “The two mermaids in black will be the ones playing the chess game. They get to choose their players and what chess pieces will represent those players on the board. You don’t ever want to be the queen. Mermaids are ruthless, and you have to be a good fighter to keep up with the demands placed on their queens.” The fishman looked back at Rufus and said, “Here, try to block this attack.”

Jeremiah pushed off the floor backwards to where he had started and as he floated to the ground his webbed feet positioned themselves to immediately spring towards Rufus. At the touch of the ground the fishman pushed off in the water and shot towards Rufus with a speed that Rufus couldn’t come close to. Jeremiah’s sword moved so quickly that Rufus’s inability to match the speed of the fishman’s sword was painfully evident. With Jeremiah’s sword less than an inch from Rufus’s neck and the sword’s razor-sharp tentacles outstretched trying to cut Rufus’s skin, Jeremiah’s body froze mid-leap and a silver light momentarily encapsulated him.

Rufus was in shock for that moment. He came to, and slowly moved away from the reaching tentacles.

“What was that?” Rufus panted a bit.

After the momentary paralysis the fishman floated his feet under him and smiled, “That was the DeathStroke paralysis. When anyone can actually deliver a death stroke the silver light occurs and they will freeze before they can complete the action. In other words, if we were in the Arena or in the Hydragames, like we will be, I would have won the match.”

“You mean like a knockout in boxing?” Rufus’s true self drew upon his knowledge of the real world.

“Yes or like a pin in wrestling.”

Jeremiah came forward and attacked in a slower motion. Rufus parried and counterattacked. This went on until the group of mermaids came to the gate of their cell.

The crowd of participants on the other side of the gate had dispersed. Rufus assumed that they had left to take their places.

Two mermaids slipped into the gate and made their way over to Jeremiah.

“You have been selected as a Rook for the white.” The mermaid had a bifurcated caudal fin, giving her a more approachable persona, however when she turned to mark the fishman with a white rook brand Rufus saw a row of black spikes jutting along her back and down her tail. This immediately canceled out any of the amicability that he had mentally given her.

As the fishman was swimming out of the gated holding area, he turned to Rufus and said, “Remember, the Queens are the Hydras. They will be the hard ones to beat.”

All of the other creatures and people were given a brand and marched out of the cell and up a sandy ramp to the right, except for Rufus. He was left for last. By default he was assigned to be a white pawn as that was the only position and team left. The two mermaid guards branded him on his left shoulder with the indicating mark.

The mermaid whose team he had been assigned to was obviously disgusted. “Don’t disappoint me, landwalker. I will destroy you, if you do.” She had an eel-shaped caudal fin, with silver smooth skin—no scales. Rufus could see slight electrical jolts lighting up the water around her.

“Don’t worry, Marge. This imbecile won’t be the only reason you loose!” said the other mermaid in black, cackling as she swam towards the participants.

“Nice to be wanted.” Rufus muttered as he walked by. He had two mermaid guards guiding him onward.

They moved up the ramp into a cavernous room. The cavern was so large that a ten-story building could have easily fit inside it. It was shaped like a partially inflated football. The roof curved high in the center and a sandy bottom was all along the floor. All along the walls were arched cutouts that contained the spectators. In the four would be corners—if the room had had corners—hung four square, open bartizans where mermaids sat. Rufus looked around the room at the spectators ,trying to find Imogen. A low recurring thud reverberated throughout the room as the crowd chanted and banged on the arches in time.

In the center of the room was an ornate white cage. Rufus could see two coral throne-like seats and a seaglass table through the carved whalebone screens. A chessboard was engraved on the table and pieces made from what looked like coral and obsidian were in place and ready for the game.

Each half of the cavern had a set of huge symmetrically sized gates. Rufus saw that each of the participants that had been in the staging area was now confined behind a gate, with their representative chess piece intricately carved into a white or a black plaque hung above their gate. All of the gates were full except one. Above its gate was the symbol of a large white pawn—this, Rufus knew, was reserved for him.

The real Rufus—the all-american teen—was squirming like a fish trying to get back to water. This mindset put the teen at odds with his projected blacksmith. Rufus almost ran, he almost gave into the fear that the teen was feeling, but the blacksmith was sure that he would be safe. He knew that, not only would he be safe, but that he might be able to do well in this contest.

The real Rufus wanted to run, hide, leave the Arena and its terrifying denizens and never come back. There was a moment where Rufus had to be prodded by his guards due to this indecision, but that lasted only for a moment. The blacksmith took hold of the fears that were plaguing his mind, submerged them, and walked forward ahead of his guards—with his shoulders back and his head held high. He decided that he was going to survive—no matter what.