The contests of strength between the hunters continued.
The next competition was weight pulling, which involved running five meters while pulling boards with multiple children riding on them behind you, their weights adding up to around seventy or eighty kilos. Naturally, in this competition, large and powerful hunters had an advantage. All of the Liddo hunters who had lost in the first round of the target shooting ended up doing very well. They and the Deen men tended to have the most robust builds among the six clans.
Unsurprisingly, it was none other than Radd Liddo who emerged victorious. Despite looking like he probably weighed a hundred kilos or so, he was a swift runner, just like Dan Rutim. And once again, none of the hunters had been able to overcome him.
Being at a disadvantage because of her build, Ai Fa barely managed to survive the first round and lost in the semifinals. Still, she didn’t look as frustrated as she had been last time. She must have resolved herself to yield the title of champion to another hunter, at least in this contest.
Following that was the tree climbing competition, which Ai Fa specialized in. However, there was a bit of an upset in the results. Ai Fa made it all the way to the finals without much trouble, but even though Jou Ran had put up a fierce fight against her last time, he actually lost to Toor Deen’s father. Jou Ran had a handsome face and a gentle nature, which made him very popular with the young women, so a lot of them cried out when he lost. While they were bemoaning his defeat, though, I whispered to Toor Deen, “That’s amazing. Your dad’s in the finals again.”
“Y-Yes, but Ai Fa’s with him, and she’s amazing too,” Toor Deen said, tearing up with joy once again. From what I had heard, her father had really been throwing himself into his training in order to atone for the depravity of the Suun clan. It was only natural that she’d be this happy to see the results of his efforts being made so apparent.
The lineup for the finals was Ai Fa, Raielfam Sudra, and Toor Deen’s father. Cheem Sudra had also been a finalist last time, but he had lost to Ai Fa in the semifinals.
“The people of the forest’s edge can climb trees rather quickly too. I didn’t think they would bother with that sort of thing, since they hunt giba, which stay on the ground,” Tia remarked, still looking elated.
The finals kicked off then, and as I had pretty much expected, Raielfam Sudra emerged as the champion once again, the same as last time.
“That older hunter seems kind of similar to us red people. Especially since he’s not as big as the others,” Tia muttered.
A question came into my mind, and I decided to go ahead and raise it with her. “Speaking of which, I’ve been thinking that you’re pretty small from your age, but are the red people small in general?”
“Hmm? I’m not big or small. I’m normal for a girl of twelve.”
“I see. Then, it is also normal for your grown men to be around the same size as Raielfam Sudra?”
“Yeah, that would be normal too, I’d say.”
Raielfam Sudra was shorter than Reina Ruu, probably less than 150 centimeters tall. If that was the average height for a grown man, then the red people were clearly rather diminutive on the whole.
“All right, now let’s take a bit of a break! I ask that the women please prepare a snack for us!” Radd Liddo called out, and we went to get to work on that, myself included. We were going to be cooking until half past the third hour, and in that time, the hunters would be treated to a simple meal and some chatchi tea in order to restore their energy.
Today’s snack was something akin to a hotdog, prepared with sausage and poitan bread. The hunters all sat down in the plaza and started enjoying the food, and before I headed back to the kitchen, I went over to see my clan head.
“Good work, Ai Fa. You got real close in the target shooting and tree climbing contests.”
As she sipped on her chatchi tea, Ai Fa nodded and replied, “Indeed.” And then she glared at the girl by my side. “Tia, you haven’t gotten up to any trouble, have you?”
“No. But watching all of you compete is making me feel kind of antsy. If my leg wasn’t injured, I’d probably be climbing a tree on my own right now,” Tia answered with a smile. As the days had passed, she had been smiling more and more. My clan head had the same strict expression as always on her face, though.
“Just make sure you don’t get in Asuta’s way.”
“I know. And I’ll be hoping that you become a champion, Ai Fa.”
My clan head gave a small sigh, then turned toward me and said, “The other chefs seem to have returned to their work. You should get back to your tasks as well.”
“Yeah, I know. I’ll see you later, then.”
Whenever Tia was with me, Ai Fa didn’t really smile, which meant that I hadn’t seen her look truly happy in four days. That left me feeling a bit sad as I headed back to the kitchen.
Fortunately, the preparations for the banquet were going smoothly. We had been practising for tonight’s meal for the last several days, and the results were clear. We had split into three groups of chefs, with me, Toor Deen, and Yun Sudra taking charge of the teams. In the meantime, Radd Liddo’s wife was running all around, making sure there were no problems.
“It’s impressive how Ai Fa seems to have grown even stronger. I’m proud to call her my friend,” Saris Ran Fou said from the workstation beside me, her feelings clearly visible on her face.
“You were watching the contests of strength too, right, Saris Ran Fou?” I asked. “Oh, but you were in charge of watching over the young children for part of the first half, weren’t you?”
“Yes. I volunteered to look after them during the weight pulling. I was sure that target shooting and tree climbing were going to be the contests where Ai Fa’s true strength would be on full display,” Saris Ran Fou replied, breaking out in an embarrassed smile. Unmarried women were given the priority when it came to watching the contests of strength, but she had probably been watching Ai Fa with just as much passion. “I hope that Ai Fa manages to become a champion again. She’s most skilled at combat, isn’t she?”
“Yeah. But she’s great at target shooting and tree climbing too, and those events still went to other hunters.”
“You’re right. The Sudra are very skilled at those contests. Actually, I wonder who the pole tugging champion will be. Jou Ran won last time, but I imagine it’ll be a lot more difficult for him this time around.”
Jou Ran had done very well in all of the competitions during the last festival, but he had only won at pole tugging. However, I remembered part of the reason for his victory being the fact that he was left-handed. I didn’t think that the other hunters would go so far as to specifically practice to counter him, of course, but he definitely wouldn’t have as much of an advantage as before.
“Well, Jou Ran is still young, so there’s a lot he can learn from losing. It all comes down to the forest’s guidance,” Saris Ran Fou stated, speaking as Jou Ran’s cousin. That was the last thing either of us said on the topic.
An hour and a half later, the contests of strength resumed.
The fourth event was pole tugging, in which the hunters each grabbed the end of a pole with one hand and competed to steal it away from one another. The participants each stood on top of a thick, square wooden plank, thirty centimeters on each side, and if they stepped off of it, they lost. In order to win, you needed good reflexes, a lot of strength that you could use in quick bursts, and the ability to read your opponent’s breathing.
The pairings were decided with lots that were made using vines. How hunters matched up against each other made a huge difference here, so they were very strict about making sure the pairings were properly randomized. It only took a moment for the seventeen pairs to be assigned, with the Ran clan head getting the bye.
The women and young children watched intently as the first matches got started. Ai Fa, Baadu Fou, Radd Liddo, Raielfam Sudra, and Cheem Sudra were all people I was close to who easily advanced past the first round. Meanwhile, the skillful archer Masa Fou Ran faced off against a burly Liddo hunter and ended up on the ground in no time.
The final match of the first round was between Jou Ran and Toor Deen’s father, a matchup that we had seen in the semifinals last time. Since this was a one-on-one event, the semifinals wouldn’t be until the fourth or fifth round. The two of them had gotten that far last time, but were facing each other immediately now.
As the two hunters faced each other on top of their respective boards, Toor Deen watched them with a prayer in her eyes. When Jou Ran had beaten her father as the only left-handed person in the tournament before, the young girl had called it unfair. I almost never heard her criticize others, so it had left a strong impression on me.
How will things go this time, though? I’m sure her father’s mentally prepared to fight a left-handed opponent now.
Personally, I wanted to cheer for Toor Deen’s father too. It wasn’t like I had anything against Jou Ran, but I felt a strong need to support the person who was most important to the young chef I was so close with.
And then, the match began...only to quickly end in a truly unexpected manner. Radd Liddo shouted, “Begin!” and Toor Deen’s father immediately pulled with incredible strength. There was nothing odd about that in and of itself. He was just launching the first attack. What was shocking was how the pole instantly flew right out of Jou Ran’s hand. He clearly hadn’t been prepared for his opponent to take such quick action.
“It’s over! What splendid skill! You’ve improved quite a bit, haven’t you, Zei Deen?!”
Apparently, that was the name of Toor Deen’s father. I turned toward the young chef and found that she was stunned by the outcome. After a few seconds, though, joy crept across her face, and she threw her arms around me and cheered, “He did it!”
✦ ✦ ✦
