Chapter Nine in The Rise of the Shar

THE RISE OF THE SHAR

CHAPTER IX

Razalon dug through the items provided and found that he had two large pieces of cloth, a long rope and several sticks of wood.
Pulling out his dagger he set to work by carving the fat end of one of his sticks into a spike. Next to him, Derek was measuring his length of rope.
Ridiah was trying to think of a design for her tent as she watched some of the other girls.
Several of them seemed to be entangling themselves in the rope and cloth.
Ridiah decided that she needed a shorter piece of wood for the front of her tent.
Picking up a long, straight branch, she pulled out her dagger, dreading the time it would take her to cut through the branch. Ridiah was surprised when she accidentally cut the stick in half at the wrong place. Her dagger had cut through the branch as though it was made of bread.

She cut several more sticks the height of her shoulder. Then she measured the pieces of cloth to see how big they were. Placing four of the cut sticks into the ground, she contemplated which cloth she should use. One of the cloths was thinner and smoother than the other. Ridiah was puzzled the clothes must be different for a purpose. Choosing the thicker and rougher cloth she cut off a wide strip and fastened it over the top of the sticks and over the two sides.
After finishing the entrance, Ridiah sat down to carve some of the larger sticks into stakes. Already an hour had past without anyone having finished his or her tent.

Just as Ridiah finished carving her tent poles, there was a muffled cry followed by a scatter of laughter. One of the boy’s tents had collapsed on him when he had entered.
He emerged with his face bright red from embarrassment but he laughed along with everyone else. Ridiah felt sorry for him, but was too busy with her own tent to see if he needed help. Glancing at the sun, she saw that they had about three hours left to complete their shelters.
Ridiah paced out the area for her tent. Then, she pushed the eight poles that she had finished into the ground. She leaned them in at an angle so that the tops of the poles came together in the center. Carefully, Ridiah lashed the ends tightly together with some rope.
Looking around the camp, she saw that a few people had finished their tents. Most of the finished shelters were simple, a couple of poles running down the center with several shorter sticks on either side. On this they had laid one type of cloth and fastened it to the ground. Ridiah struggled struggled to fasten the cloth over her tent.

She had to cut lengths of rope before threading the sections through holes she had made in the cloth.
Ridiah was about to tie these around the poles when she noticed the smooth cloth sitting next to her pack.
An idea came into her head. ‘I could use that for water proofing.’
Quickly, she cut the cloth into the right shape and made holes that lined up with the holes in the other cloth.

Threading the rope through both cloths, she tied them to the top of her tent.
As she wasn’t tall enough to reach the top of her tent, Ridiah was forced to lean her tent to the side so that half of the poles came out of the ground.
It took Ridiah over half an hour to tie the cloth on tight enough for her to be sure it wouldn’t blow off. Straightening the tent, Ridiah pushed the poles back into the ground. She then put both layers of cloth over her entrance.

Busy with her own tent, Ridiah had forgotten to check on how Razalon and Derek’s tents were coming.
Looking at their shelters, Ridiah saw that Razalon’s was similar to hers in that the tent rose in the center. His tent however didn’t have the extra room in the entrance.
Derek’s was a large lean-to tent with a square section in the back where he would be able to store his equipment. A scream told her that another persons’ tent collapsed, this time a girl’s. Ridiah looked over in time to see several people offering to help the girl untangle herself from her dismal shelter.

Bored, Ridiah decided to set a trap around her tent. Carefully, she started unraveling her rope until it was no larger than a thick thread. Under the pretense of placing stakes on all sides of her tent, Ridiah tied a piece of thread six inches above the ground to trip anyone who passed too close.
Unknown to her, Razalon was doing the same thing around his shelter.
Ducking as she entered her tent, Ridiah placed her pack near the entrance. She unrolled her blankets and laid them on one side of the larger section.
Ridiah slipped her dagger into her belt. Although she was tired from the hard, Ridiah went outside to see if Razalon had finished.
She couldn’t see him. Wondering if he had gone inside, Ridiah decided to check for him.
Razalon emerged as she approached. His eyes widened and he started a warning. “Ridiah, look out! There’s a…”

Ridiah was about to talk to him when her foot caught on the string and she tripped.
Landing hard on her knees while Razalon laughed at her. Her apparent clumsiness was embarrassing, but luckily no one seemed to notice.
“I can’t believe you fell for it.” Razalon teased her.
“Ha, ha very funny.” Ridiah said irritably.
“I see you finished your tent.” She commented. “Can I see it?”
“Sure, just don’t knock over the walls.” Razalon replied.
He followed Ridiah into his tent. She looked around. Noting that he had put the smooth cloth on the interior of his tent with the rough cloth on the outside.
“How long did it take you to finish?” Ridiah asked.
“I finished about twenty minutes ago.”
“Really? Me too.” Ridiah told him.
“Let’s look at your tent.” Razalon suggested.
“All right.” Ridiah agreed, and she followed him out.

Ridiah walked behind Razalon, hoping that he would fall for her trap. Disappointed she saw that he was studying the ground as he walked. Ridiah looked around for a distraction that could draw away Razalon’s attention.
Her eyes settled on the tent next to hers.
Concentrating on a post that held up the front corner of the tent, Ridiah pushed against it with her mind. The post gave way and fell to the ground causing the occupant to let out a muffled scream. It worked. Looking at the tent, Razalon forgot to watch where he was going. Ridiah gave a whoop of triumph as her brother face planted at her entrance.
“I can’t believe you fell for it.”

Feeling guilty, Ridiah offered to help the girl in the tent next to her secure the post that had fallen over. In a few minutes they had the tent standing firmly again.
“I can’t figure out how it fell over like that.” The girl said.
“I double checked all my posts and knots before I went inside.”
“Well maybe the wind blew it over or something.” Ridiah said lamely.
“I suppose, well thanks for your help.”
“I’ll see you around.” Derek was talking with Razalon when Ridiah returned.

“Has Eron come to inspect our shelters yet?” Ridiah asked.
“No, but he should be here soon, the sun has nearly set.” Derek replied.
“What do you think we are going to do tonight?” Razalon asked them.
“I don’t know. Go to sleep is my guess.” Ridiah said.
Silence fell on the upper end of the camp. Seeing that Eron had arrived, Ridiah went quickly back to her tent. She wasn’t sure if being in the boy’s section was allowed or not and didn’t want to get in trouble on the first day of camp.
Eron and the rest of the staff walked up and down the rows of tents. Looking at them closely. Ridiah watched them nervously as they drew nearer to her end of the camp.

The boys and girls stood beside their tents and watched in silence as some of the staff inspected certain tents but always came out shaking their heads as though they were disappointed with what they had found.
Eron stopped in front of Ridiah’s tent.
He lifted the tent flap and stepped inside. Ridiah waited impatiently for him to emerge but he seemed to stay in her tent longer than anyone else’s.
Finally he excited her shelter and headed up the row of tents to where the staff was grouped together talking in hushed tones. Then they broke apart and started checking the tents that they had not already inspected. Upon lifting the flap on one of the boy’s tents, the entrance collapsed, causing the boy’s face to flush as a couple of people around him started to snigger. Ridiah could not help feeling pleased, she had noted that Eron had not shaken his head when he left her tent.

After they had finished looking at the tents, the staff gathered back in the center of the camp to speak among themselves.
Ridiah noticed one or two of the staff look up at her then lower their heads to listen.
A few moments latter, Eron started to speak.
“While you are here, you will be judged by the staff on how well you perform. The reason why we did not tell you how to build your shelters was to test your knowledge on this matter.” He told them. “This is only one of the many challenges you will face over the next three months. After looking over your shelters, we are somewhat disappointed to see that only a few of you built them the way we had hoped you would. In fact only one of you built a sturdy tent that will withstand most storms the correct way. Many of you failed to use both the clothes provided.”

Then holding up the smooth piece of cloth he said, “Those of you who used this for their tents thought about staying dry in the rain.”
Then holding up the thicker piece of cloth, he continued, “Those of you that used this cloth thought about staying warm.” He overlapped the cloths with the smooth side up.
“It takes both to stay dry and warm. The outer cloth to repel waters the inner cloth to keep the heat from escaping. Only one student built their tent in this manner.” He told them. Ridiah looked away as she felt her blood rush to her face.
“Dinner will be in one hour, I would suggest that you get to now your neighbors tonight, you’ll find yourselves very busy tomorrow.” Eron said turning to head back to the main building.

“Let’s go see Ridiah.” Razalon suggested to Derek.
“Okay, what do you think she’ll say about being the only one to build her tent right?” Derek asked.
“I don’t know, but we’ll find out, won’t we?”
Ridiah turned when she saw them coming and walked over to greet them.
“What should we do now?”
“We could stay and meet some of the people.” Razalon said.
“How about taking a walk instead? I don’t feel like being around a bunch of strangers tonight.”

Derek who had been watching the crowd was about to agree with Razalon, that they stay and meet their neighbors, when he saw Riley headed their way with a couple of his friends.
“I agree with Ridiah, let’s go.” He said, then without waiting for them he hurried away.
“Hey! Wait up.” A girl’s voice came from behind them.
They stopped and looking back, Ridiah saw the girl whose tent she had helped fix after knocking it down. She had golden brown hair that she had put in a long braid which reached to the middle of her back. When she got closer Ridiah noticed that the girl was slightly shorter than she was.

“Hi, my name is Erwinia. I saw you leave and thought I’d ask if I could come with you.” She introduced herself.
“All right, that’s fine with me.” Razalon said, and Ridiah agreed.
“So where are we going?” Erwinia asked.
“For a walk.” Razalon said, looking around for any sign of Derek.
Seeing him walking down to the stream Razalon led the others in that direction.
“Thanks again for helping me with my tent.” Erwinia told Ridiah.
“It was nothing.” Ridiah told her, once again feeling guilty and looking away.
Derek waited for them by the stream.
“So where are you from?” Derek asked Erwinia.
“I’m from Milos, an island to the west. My father runs a trading business.” She answered.
“Really? What is it like there?” Razalon asked.
“Pretty much the same as it is here, just with fewer mountains and no horses.”
They fell silent for a moment, each of them consumed in their own thoughts.


“How many youths came to this camp?” Ridiah asked no one in particular.
“I’d say about fifty.” Derek replied.
“I wonder what we’ll do tomorrow.” Erwinia thought aloud.
“Who knows? But we better head back soon; dinner should be any time now.” Razalon said.
When they arrived at the gate to the outer wall, they found two members of the staff directing the group towards the dining hall.
The room was large with several tables set at random. Derek, Razalon, Ridiah, and Erwinia chose a table that was away from the main group. Dinner consisted of bread, freshly picked fruit, and some roasted bird. The room was soon full of conversation and laughter as the students started to feel more at ease. Razalon watched Riley who was laughing at something someone at his table had said. Riley noticed Razalon and quickly looked away. Razalon shook his head. He did not think Riley was really as mean as he let on. He was obviously used to being the one in charge and liked bullying other people. Still Razalon thought his behavior came from something that had happened to him earlier in life. Perhaps his parents avoided him and he picked on others in hopes of getting some attention.

Razalon was forced to listen to what was happening at his table when Erwinia asked what classes he was planning on taking. Razalon didn’t think you had a choice, which seemed to worry Erwinia. When they finished eating, a member of the staff told them that they had one hour before they should go to bed.
Derek was surprised. He thought they wouldn’t have a choice when it came to going to bed early. But the member of the staff said that it was up to each individual to choose when they retired. The man then warned that the students weren’t to complain if they woke up tired. Ridiah was the first to excuse herself, she had gotten up early that morning and hadn’t slept well the night before. She had dreamed of being lost in dark tunnels and hearing strange voices that she couldn’t place.

“Well I’ll see you in the morning.” Erwinia told the boys as she went to her tent soon after Ridiah.
“I think I’ll go to bed as well.” Derek said leaving Razalon without much of a choice with everyone else going to sleep.
Most of the students went to bed at the suggested time but a few of the boys decided to stay up late and Razalon was woken up more than once when they became rowdy.