Hide-N-Seek

Gonyaul (11), Qualestrel (11), Myrcelni (9), Adwenln (10), Jaewyndl (10), Xaveltis (12), and Taewyln (10) were all sitting in the center of one of the cleared dinner platforms regaling each other with their experience playing the hide and seek game. They were all animated and even Taewyln was carrying on more than usual, expressing how very much Gonyaul and Qualestrel acted like how he imagined jagoons would move by the way they carried on all fours.

Xaveltis had been the winner in the end. He had somehow successfully daringly made his way over the edge of one of the farming section platforms and hidden up under the structural supports securing it to the thick tree trunk. Even after everyone else had been caught and turned into jagoons, which meant they got to put on leaf-ear headbands, their combined efforts couldn't find him. It wasn't until they had to make special bird whistles to coax him out of hiding. He clearly was the victor and for his victory, Gonyaul gave him the full-head detailed jagoon mask that the original two pursuers each wore.

Myrcelni was the first to be caught. As soon as Qualestrel and Gonyaul neared her location, she couldn't help but start giggling. Her nervous titters cost her the pretty good hiding spot behind some larger crates. She gasped as her attention was actually on Gonyaul, but Qualestrel pounced on her from above. After her wiggling to get free subsided, she proudly put on the extra pair of jagoon ears and enjoyed mimicking a beast along with her older friends. Now there were three jagoons.

Taewyln was next to be caught. He was hiding behind the underside of a set of stairs spiraling up a tree. He was spotted well before they arrived, since he did a poor job of concealing his left shoulder. Qualestrel and Gonyaul, quietly snarling and growling, intentionally crawled up the staircase like two wild animals in order to give him false hope; he did not yet know that there was a third jagoon on the prowl. Suddenly, he was pounced on from behind by Myrcelni and gasped in surprise. She held onto him tightly. Even when he stood up, the smaller Myrcelni, was still attached to him playfully. Now there were four jagoons.

It took a while longer; however, next to be found was Adwenln. The four of them found her on the martial arts platform, curled up tightly inside a chest. They had almost missed her and continued onward, perhaps to her victory, if it hadn't been for Taewyln noticing that there were a series of training apparatus that should have been in that chest neatly stacked off to the side. That was not how anyone was to leave the equipment and he just happened to find her when putting them back where they belonged. He jumped in surprise when he opened it to find her inside, especially since she intentionally popped up at him like a jack-in-the-box. Now there were five jagoons.

Jaewyndl was the next to be found after another long stretch of looking. It was rather anticlimactic. The extrovert thought he probably had won since it had been a long while since he started hiding. So he had gotten up and started looking for everyone else. The five jagoons paused in disbelief as he simply appeared at the other side of the bridge they were starting across. Jaewyndl blushed in embarrassment. He couldn't believe he forfeited his chances of winning due to a lack of patience. Now there were six jagoons, leaving Xaveltis the winner.

Eventually the merriment from the game and the affirmations to each other began to lessen. They were all laying back on their backs in relaxed poses looking up at the darkening sky through the random gaps in the treetops. They were listening to the sounds of the nocturnal animals and insects waking in the jungle, the wind through the trees, and the sounds of the village preparing for night.

Xaveltis suddenly sat up and gathered their attention. With all eyes on him, he asked <So what are your thoughts on the question from Orohc Vandlwn?>. He wanted to measure what he had considered against his peers to see if he was on the right track with his thinking, especially since he rarely would ever volunteer to answer in class which meant he was sometimes chosen by the instructor due to his silence.