Chapter Forty Six: Taking a Step Back

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Late that night Andrew was summoned to bring Adimniss the Glass of LyrAndal. He ran to retrieve the relic, and quickly returned rushing into the room.

"Kneel! Bow! On the floor when you are in my presence!" She commanded Andrew.

He felt a sharp pain that did not subside until he was kneeling and lowering his head. He lifted the glass above as high as he could for Adimniss to look into it.

"Show me the foolish child that scratched me!" She commanded the Glass of LyrAndal.

What the glass showed her was a blinding light and then the image of Sam's current appearance was revealed. Adimniss shrieked and then let out a horrible scream.

"It's Siamisha!" She shouted in fear.

"Andrew did you know of this?" Adimniss asked, she kicked and then hit him with her shadow vines until he screamed out in terrible pain. 

But Adimniss felt no satisfaction from his misery, she was trembling in fear.

"Show me his champions!" She commanded.

The images of the days failed training session were shown to Adimniss. All of the embarrassing moments of a team lacking discipline and unity appeared within the glass, she burst out in laughter. She showed the images to Varnaulk who was sitting in a desk that was close by with pen and ink jotting notes.

"This is amusing! Varnaulk! I believe this will be your greatest comedy!" Adimniss laughed as she ordered Varnaulk to write down the events.

The next morning started the same as the day before with Sam waking up before everyone else but this time was going to be different he thought. He started everyone off with some warm up exercises instead of having Rufus read the rules over again and quizzing everyone first thing in the morning.

Sam had asked Papi and the other Olliniqu to stand back and watch for the morning. He already placed the three flags in a triangular formation at the edge of the training grounds.

"When I was little. . . Coach had us running on the ground first. No Hover Bikes! So that's what we are doing this morning," Sam explained.

"Hey little guys can you hop instead of using your wings today?" Sam asked the small Olliniqu, the three little ones hopped up and down happily in reply.

"Carlyle, Candillice! Come here a sec!" Sam called to them, they ran over to witness him opening a can of fish that had come from Knogra's cellar.

He dipped a small ball of string into the fish juice and sewed it to the edges of the flags.

"I think this will help you guys focus better on catching the flags today," Sam told them, he waved it back and forth in front of them watching as their eyes followed. Sam almost became entranced himself by the smell of the fish and the ball of string but he quickly got a hold of himself.

"Weird!" he whispered to himself.

"June come here. You were in little league on Earth so that's how were playing today."

"Like the little kids?" June said with sarcasm.

"Yes Juniper I believe I have deduced what Samuel is eluding to. . . ." Rufus said.

"HAHAHA we got a ahead of ourselves yesterday, way ahead!" Reegan exclaimed.

"Ya today we are taking a step back," Sam replied.

"Did you get the suit changes ready?" Sam asked Reegan.

"Yep righto Sam sure did! OK! Lets see what we got, Elbow and Knee pads to avoid scrapes, cuts and bruises. I put thrusters in the boots for short jumps and falls so nobody gets stuck in a tree like June did yesterday!" Reegan explained.

"Hey mister guy who kept dropping the flag yesterday!" June scolded.

"OK you got me there Juny. . . That's why I added some extra grip to the gloves!" Reegan replied to June as he was revealing the new gloves they would all be wearing.

"Oh one last thing and this is top secret so huddle close," Reegan said and everyone came close to hear his whispering.

"I can't believe nobody thought of this before! But I added gliding wings to our suits. This will be our secret weapon simply push this button on your wrist here and we can glide back to our mounts if we get knocked off!" Reegan whispered very carefully.

For the rest of the day, the little league version of Droneflag was played until they learned to work together. Sam would alternate the teams several times so they each had a chance to work with and against each other.

"Tag you're out!" Candillice shouted after sneaking up on Sam.

Sam dropped the flags and headed to a sitting area on a log at the edge of the training grounds. Rufus, Reegan and June were already out, they watched the small Olliniqu's hop in and pick up the flags as Candillice and Carlyle chased them. It was Candillice against Carlyle and they were doing very well with no sign of any of their previous mistakes.

"I think we're ready for flying lessons now!" Sam said to Rufus and Rufus agreed.

Sam called Papi and the other large Olliniqu to come. He had a special flying lesson prepared for his team mates, a lesson on dive bombing and how to avoid being dive bombed. Dive bombing was against the rules of Droneflag on Earth. However in Extreme Droneflag just like Ronduel anything goes. Sam expected his cousins team would be dive bombing and he needed his team ready for that.

"Guys follow me and do what I do!" Sam explained as he hopped onto Papilliowalayo's back. He waited for the others to do the same with their Olliniqu's that had chosen them. Sam waited patiently for everyone to be ready and safely seated. He took off slowly and they started low to the ground as he wanted for everyone to learn how to properly fly and communicate with the creatures they were mounted upon.

They followed Sam into the forest, everyone slowly swerved between the trees, rocks and bushes. Sam watched his small computer screen attached to his fore arm. He had a route planned for them to take and he sent the map to the others.

Sam Gradually brought them all to a higher altitude as they were flying up the mountain side. It was a slow ascent that Sam had picked out with a big surprise at the end.

A steep drop.

When they reached the drop, Sam continued flying to give the others a brief taste of what it was like to fly high into the clouds. But suddenly Sam dropped into a dive. Candillice was already having a hard time with the heights but her Olliniqu did not hesitate to follow Sam and Papilliowalayo.

"Oh! Hold on tightly!" She shouted at everyone behind her as they plunged below the clouds and down into what looked like a quarry.

Everyone lost sight of Sam.

"Where did Samuel go!" Rufus shouted in a state of panic after noticing their leader drop out of sight and off the computer radar.

"Prince Siamisha!" Carlyle yelled.

"Sam where are you!?" Candillice screamed into the computers microphone.

A red alert appeared over their screens and new instructions showed them a three dimensional arrow asking for immediate change of direction.

"Sammy's there on the rock wall!" June exclaimed and pointed at Sam. He had a shocked expression and made a gesture to keep quiet as though his mouth had a zipper.

This was confusing to the Tigris.

"What hand signal is this?" Carlyle turned to June and Reegan and asked.

"Shhhhh!" June placed her finger to her lips. She headed over to Sam on the rock wall where Papilliowalayo was silently clinging. Sam was looking off into the distance steadily without blinking. He turned to tell his team mates something very important.

"Ken's team is training over there!" Sam whispered while pointing to some activity that was taking place at a fair distance away down the quarry.

"I see them!" Reegan replied as he was looking through his binoculars.

Candillice and Carlyle had no need for binoculars to watch the intense training session that was taking place. It was the freedom fighters playing Droneflag with White Knight.

"Those Tigris still ally themselves with the White Knight? They betray our people!" Carlyle said. He shook his head as he watched how the other team manoeuvred through the air in their large powerful Hover Bikes.

Candillice gasped in shock as she watched one of the players throw a large boulder at Kenneth to stop him from obtaining a flag. What happened next was the most terrifying sight for her to behold as she watched Kenneth swing a large hook and split the boulder in half. 

Candillice was very afraid, she felt a sudden reluctance to play against this team as she watched the pieces of the boulder fall to the bottom of the quarry below.

"Oh my gosh look!" Candillice pointed where the pieces of the split boulder fell. 

Down below in the depths of the quarry were thousands of Tigris slaves toiling in the heat of the sun.

"We should get out of here!" Reegan suggested and Sam agreed. They lifted off from the rock wall and flew silently back into the trees. But Candillice could not look forward, her eyes looked behind to see the suffering of her people, she did not look away until her Olliniqu carried her far away from it being in view.

When they returned to their camp for dinner Candillice could not shake from her mind the sight of the suffering of her people, Carlyle continued to worry that they would not stand a chance against Kenneth's team. But they were both determined to try their best. 

When the next morning came they were prepared to take full advantage of their final day of training.

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