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The General of Gaia weighed the weapon in her hand. It had a reassuring heft. Her opponent took a few steps to one side, dancing backwards as the General mirrored her. Soon it would come to a lunge, and the General had to pick just the right moment to strike…
The weapons clashed. The General struggled against her foe, but they seemed evenly matched, and she suspected that her strength would give out first. She couldn’t allow that. This had to end now.
A voice called across the clearing, distracting her opponent for the merest fraction of a second. That was all the General needed. She suddenly broke from the clash, stepping neatly aside to let her foe stumble forward, and as she recovered the General drove her shoulder into the other woman’s side. She toppled to the ground with a satisfying thud. The General of Gaia turned and flourished her weapon for the benefit of her audience.
“Ow!” Miriam pretended not to hear the voice behind her, but she reluctantly turned around when she felt a light punch on her shoulder. Galadriel was pointedly gesturing to where her erstwhile opponent, Emily, was being surrounded by a handful of other children, grumbling.
“What was that for?”
“We were fighting, Gal,” Miriam said cheerfully. She proudly swung the stick that represented her sword. “And I won!”
“That wasn’t fair,” muttered Emily, now sitting up. The children around her nodded as she added, “I wasn’t ready.”
“You’re not supposed to be ready! It’s a swordfight!”
“I think we should play a different game.” The assembled children voiced their general agreement. All eyes turned to Galadriel, who, as the oldest, had something of a veto in such matters. The girl sagely nodded her head, like a dryad acknowledging a pilgrim’s offering.
“I agree.”
The village clearing immediately filled with the sound of argument. As grown-ups went about their day, carefully avoiding the dense knot of children in the center, the debate raged on. Miriam, for once, found herself in a minority of one – even her usual allies in these kinds of struggles seemed to be tired of her constant winning. Eventually, she retreated to the well where the orchard’s tender, Liliana, was watching the drama unfold from the shade. Miriam sulked beside her for a while. The argument seemed to be in no danger of winding down.
“What’s wrong, Miriam?” The girl huffed and turned away, tightening her crossed arms. Liliana tried again. “Is something making you upset?”
“Mumblemumblewithmemumble.”
“Do you think your mother would like to hear you mumbling like that, Miriam?” She scoffed, but finally turned to face Liliana.
“They don’t wanna play with me,” she muttered. The two of them stood for a moment in silence, watching the beginnings of a consensus develop, until finally Miriam added, “It’s not like I always win, anyway.”
“I’m sure,” said Liliana. “But don’t you think it would be fair to let your friends pick a game sometimes?”
“But they always pick the boring ones!”
“I bet it’d be a lot more boring for you not to play with them, though.”
Miriam watched the rest of the orchard settle down. There were several glances in her direction. Eventually, at a gesture from Galadriel, she trotted over to rejoin the orchard.
“What did you decide on?”
“Elladan thought we should do the castle game.” Miriam glared at the boy in question out of principle. A boy shouldn’t get to decide these things. His cheeks burned red, but Miriam stopped paying attention when she realized that Gal was still talking. “I think it’s a good idea.”
Miriam rolled her eyes, in the exaggerated way she’d seen her mom do whenever she returned home at night dirty and in desperate need of a bath. It was an easy expression to mimic. She saw it almost every night. But with Galadriel’s endorsement, the castle game was inescapable, and so Miriam made a spirited attempt to at least earn herself the most coveted role to play.
“I want to be the ranger!” She hadn’t expected, upon her declaration, to be swarmed by all the other girls. Emily poked her in the chest.
“No,” she said. “You’re always the ranger. It’s somebody else’s turn.”
“Then I won’t play!”
“Fine.” Emily turned around and stomped away. Miriam hurried after her.
“Okay, okay, I’ll play. Who am I?”
“You can be the evil captain of the Guru. Niniel”—the girl in question grinned—“can be the ranger.” The other girls nodded their agreement. Miriam and Niniel divided up most of the other children between their teams, with Galadriel and a few others stepping aside to play the dryads. There was, however, a problem.
“Why do I have to have all the boys?” Miriam, seeing Galadriel roll her eyes, instead wheeled around to pick on Niniel. “It’s not fair.”
The other girl mildly pointed out that, technically, only two of the boys were actually on Miriam’s team; the other three were unwary hunters that had the bad luck to be locked up by the tyrannical Guru’s forces and had to be rescued by Niniel and her rangers. Only a word of reproach from Gal kept Miriam from stomping off again. She was a dryad’s daughter, and although that didn’t mean she was necessarily going to be a dryad herself one day, Galadriel had inherited some of her mother’s charisma. Miriam didn’t think of it like that, of course. She just knew that if she didn’t listen, she would be lucky to get to play at all.
With a huff, Miriam relented, turning about and ordering her villainous army to bring the prisoners as she trotted off to find a good place to set up an evil fortress. Niniel and her rangers likewise found a suitable starting position. All that was left was to begin the game.
“ARE YOU READY?!” Galadriel’s voice carried through the village. Miriam looked up from where she was haranguing her captives. Niniel called back that her team was ready. The Captain of the Guru bent down to the nearest hostage. It was Elladan.
“No trying to escape,” she whispered, “or… or else.” He nodded. She was faintly aware of a tightening in her chest, but soon busied herself with dispatching her minions to their positions. That, at least, was fun. She liked bossing people around. With all ready and completed, the Dark Lady planted her feet and cupped her hands around her mouth. “READY!”
The evil Californian horde waited. Then they waited some more. Miriam began to tap her foot. Some of her soldiers were starting to draw in the dirt with the sticks that represented their bows. It seemed like there might be some action when one of Niniel’s girls trotted up, but she just took a look around at the vast armies of the Guru and fled back to her captain. Eventually, Miriam decided that this was getting boring.
“Dougie!” The boy hurried to his commander’s side. Miriam had once sent him running to his momma for not listening to her, and he was not eager for a repeat of the experience. He hopped up and down in anticipation as she went on. “Go see what’s taking them so long. If they don’t come on we’re going to go play something else.”
It wasn’t long before Douglas returned. His fellow soldiers of the Guru crowded around to hear his tidings.
“They’re still talking with the dryads, um, your guruness. They say it’s”—and here he said the word as if its taste was unfamiliar—“about stra-te-gy.”
“Ha!” Miriam had a wicked grin on her face. The children around her joined in the evil laughter that followed. Miriam always preferred to be the good guy, but somehow she had developed the perfect maniacal laugh. It was infectious. “No strategy can beat the armies of the Guru! Let’s go!”
The Supreme Commander marched off in the direction of the enemy, her gaggle of minions behind. The prisoners hesitated for a moment before following. None of them wanted to sit back here and miss the fun.
A brief reconnaissance patrol revealed that Niniel and her rangers of – ugh – good were hiding out with the dryads in the space between two buildings off the village center, with only a single sentry. As soon as she saw the Californian horde approaching, the sentinel rushed forward to stop them.
“Hang on! You’re not supposed to come and find us!”
“Why not?” Miriam watched with glee as her army surrounded the helpless watchwoman. She suddenly seemed to notice that her means of escape was now blocked. “You guys are taking too long!”
“You’re not the boss! You don’t get to decide what’s too long!” The Captain of the Guru crossed her arms. “Besides, you can’t find the dryads’ grove. They have magic.”
“Oh,” said Miriam. This was worrying. Her minions were looking to her for leadership. “Well… we have a dog that can see through magic!”
“Says who?”
“Says me! It’s… uh… Dougie!” Douglas obligingly dropped to all fours and began sniffing around. His bark made the rest of the children giggle, but the rangers’ sentry rallied quickly.
“Yeah, well, you can’t find them. So there.”
“Fine.”
“Can I go now?”
“Yeah. Um, I mean,” Miriam added as her army opened ranks to let the girl pass, “tell your captain that the Dark Lady is waiting for her! Ha ha ha!”
There couldn’t be much time now. She watched her erstwhile captive scurry back to the rest of her team and began ordering her minions to their places. Miriam liked playing war. It was all so simple, and of course, she almost always won. One of the hostages came up and asked her if he could join her team. She sighed and rolled her eyes, but let him join in. The other two seemed content to stay where they were and watch.
Miriam looked down. Douglas had trotted up beside her.
“Mir—um, captain?” She indicated with a tilt of the head for him to continue. “Do I have to be a dog still?”
“No, you can be a soldier,” she said generously. Douglas returned to a standing position and drew his stick-sword. Miriam was about to remind him that they were using bows and arrows when…
“Aha!” She spun around to see Warden Niniel lead her band of rangers out from their grove, imaginary arrows nocked. Her own army drew their bows and took aim, except for Douglas, who contrived to stand a little more menacingly. The Captain of the Guru stepped forward.
“You come to face me?” The Warden gave her own laugh, a heroic expression of defiance.
“We have magic, rotten guruist! Surrender!”
“Never! We got magic too, and it makes us invincible!”
“Nuh-uh!” Niniel stomped forward. “You can’t be invincible! That’s not fair!”
“Yeah-huh!”
“Well… then our magic makes you not invincible anymore! Ha!” Miriam flourished her sword. Niniel likewise produced hers. “Come at me!”
The battle was fierce. Galadriel and her dryads wandered the fields, settling all the disagreements about who killed who, until at last it seemed to come down to Miriam and Niniel. They clashed again and again, each refusing to give ground, until a voice rang out across the village center.
“I’ve got them! We won!”
Miriam turned around to see Emily, weapon held high above her head, beside the two remaining hunters. She opened her mouth to shout—
And was caught by Niniel’s shoulder right in the center of her chest. The Captain of the Guru fell heavily on the ground. The battle was over. The rangers of good had won.
Most of her army gathered around to congratulate Niniel on her victory. A few trotted off to play their own, smaller game. Miriam herself, eyes blurring, ran around a corner and sat with her arms around her legs.
She wasn’t crying. Boys cry, because they’re too stupid to keep control of their feelings. Miriam knew this, because it was what all the other girls said and what she’d told them on many occasions. But girls knew better, and could handle themselves. So Miriam didn’t cry. This didn’t count. It didn’t.
She let her head fall forward onto her knees. She hated losing. It wasn’t fair! And—ow—her chest hurt. She wasn’t ready. If Emily hadn’t shouted out when she did, Miriam would have won. In the relative gloom between two houses, Miriam worked out her anger by squeezing herself into a tighter and tighter ball. It wasn’t fair, she should have won, she wasn’t going to play with them ever again, she would—
“Miriam?” The voice was a boy’s. She didn’t look up until he was right beside her, kneeling. It was Elladan. His brown eyes radiated sympathy.
“What do you want?” she managed, eventually.
“Are you okay?”
She didn’t answer. The tears began to stream down her cheeks again. She barely managed to whimper, “’s not fair…”
Elladan darted forward. Miriam raised a hand to her cheek, sobs slowing. She looked at him. He was smiling.
“You’re fun to play with, Miriam,” he said. She let him pull her upright. “You want to go pretend fish?”
“No,” she breathed. He gave her a hug. Suddenly the world didn’t seem like such a terrible place. “Maybe. What kind of fish?”
Liliana watched them trot back into the village center together. That’s cute, she thought. A minor crisis (a dispute over whose dirt drawing was better) demanded her attention, but half an hour later, when she finally had a quiet moment again, the orchard tender once again caught sight of Miriam and Elladan, now racing together back and forth across the clearing. Funny, she thought, the way he always slowed down right before the finish line.