Prisons & Police
Jaqil’s Gem
His fist crashed into my eye like a freight train. My vision instantly got spotty, but I didn’t let that distract me. I wrestled to center myself just to have a swift kick to my thigh. The pure intensity of the hit made my leg turn into jello.“Get up!” he said sharply. I was skeptical that my leg would understand his command. It had just be liquefied by that bat he calls a leg. “Are you gonna quit when your opponent lands a heavy shot like that Jaqil?”
“No sir!,” I managed to mutter.
“Well stand up.” He looked at me with dead eyes. His stare didn’t register disdain nor empathy. “So you’re a quitter? That’s what we do, Jaqil? We quit when things get difficult?” He grabbed me by my uniform and hurled be straight up in the air as if I was a piece of paper. Flying through the air gave me a second wind. I don’t know if it was an adrenaline induced boost or I got some fresh air in my lungs, but I regained my bearing. I landed on my feet and slid back like a polished stone on a placid lake. “And there he is,” he said smugly.
In a flash he was right in my face. I managed to use his momentum to push him into the wall. A cloud of dust filled the wall he hit, and I could hardly see him besides his silhouette. As the dust settled he stood there for a moment and just stared at me. A slight grin formed on his face, and in an instant he pushed off the wall with one leg and leaped into the air. Then his foot got real acquainted with my solar plexus. The air rushed out of my body as if it was scared to get hit by him.
My lungs looked for air but it was just too afraid to enter my body, and I hit the ground like a sack of dirty laundry. The world went dark. My eyes creaked open and saw Coach standing over my limp body. “Let’s call it a day Jaquil. Maybe tomorrow you’ll be more alert and ready. We have two days until the games, and you are making me doubt that you’re ready!”
“Coach, I — I will be ready,” I said as I forced the words out of my lungs. “I — I think I just need some time to rest.”
“Rest? I have trained 5 fighters in my life, and made champions out of all of them. Do you think they rested? No. They fought. When they got tired, they fought it. When they got hungry, they fought it. When they doubted themselves, they fought it. If you want to be a champion you have to fight like your life depends on it.”
Coach picked me up by the collar of my uniform with one hand. He stared at me pitifully as his brows furrowed. Coach was a tower of a man. His face was battle worn. He had a deep scar stretching from his eye brow to the edge of his nose. He hardly ever showed any emotion. The only time I ever see him smile is when I land a solid hit. It’s as if he loves the pain. I hated seeing him smile because I know that what I ever I hit him with would come back at me 1000 times harder. “We aren’t going to train tomorrow. Instead I want you to meet me at the top of Guardian’s Peak when the sun is at it’s highest point. Is that understood?”
“Yes Coach.”
“Clean your uniform tonight. Make sure you get the blood out of it. I don’t want to see a drop of it on your uniform. Is that understood?”
“Yes Coach!”
I wanted to know what he had planned so badly. I knew if I asked him he would chop my throat and fling me out the training pit in one swift motion for questioning him. I was never told to clean my uniform. Hell I remember, when I first started training with him, I cleaned my uniform before the session and he beat me bloody. My uniform was bloodshot red. He told me that the reason he was so ruthless was because I didn’t deserve a clean uniform. He said I was so pitiful that I belonged with the Orcs. I was 12 years old. So, even though the mystery is killing me already, I don’t want Coach to kill me before I figure it out what we’re doing.
Before Jaqil left his house he inspected himself once more. His uniform was cleaner than the day he got it. He managed to get all the blood stains out by using a cleaning technique Coach taught him. Jaqil lived with Coach since he was 12 years old. His parents were rumored to be kidnapped by the Orcs. Coach was already training Jaqil for 4 months prior to their kidnapping, so once his parents disappeared Coach began to look after him.
When Jaqil turned 20 years old, Coach helped him build his own quaint home not too far from Coaches training pit. Coach made an agreement with Jaqil that if he would tend to the training pit he could live on the grounds. So, Jaqil’s only job was essentially a groundskeeper for Coaches land. He never had to leave the grounds for anything. Coach had a farm on the grounds and every month a care package was brought to Coaches house full of essentials. Since Coach was a trainer for the Unification Games, he never had to make that day long trip into town.
Jaqil wrapped his dreads in a top bun, put lotion on his face, and took a deep breath before he walked out the door. He didn’t know what Coach had planned for today. It made him slightly nervous because Coach was a hard-ass, but the fact that he told him to clean his uniform made Jaqil think it wasn’t a rough training session.
An hour later, Jaqil made it to the top of Guardian’s Peak. Coach was sitting on the ground with his legs crossed. It was chilly and foggy on top of the peak. The sun disappeared behind the clouds. The air was so still that you could hear the the ocean from all the way up there.“Come sit down right here,” he pointed to the side of him.
In all the 8 years I’ve known Coach I’ve never seen him look like this. His dreadlocks were not in a bun. His sliver locks dangled inches above the ground as he sat there looking over the cliff toward the ocean. He was dressed in a very intricate looking robe. It was bright red with gold stitching. The back had this huge symbol in the center. I’ve seen it before. It was etched on some of the trees in the woods. It was a triangle with arrows pointing north/south, east/west, northeast/southwest, and northwest/southeast; and the arrow seem to be coming from the middle point in the triangle.
I sat down beside him and look over the cliff at the endless ocean beyond us. “Do you see when the ocean meets the sky? It doesn’t end there,” he spoke very calmly. “I thought that it did when I was a child. I would come up here with my mother every day at midday. We talked about going to the edge where the water met the sky. We imagined that if we got there we would be able to fly. We would fly just before night fell so we wouldn’t get trapped in the heavens.”
“One morning during the sunrise, I was sitting up here alone, and I saw smoke and some tiny boats coming toward land. I never alerted anyone that I saw that. Mainly because I didn’t know how to explain it. I was only 7 at the time. The Guardian’s Forest is all I knew about. Well 7 hours later those tiny-little boats turned into huge ships and they were floating right off shore. We got attacked by the Orcs. They raided our villages. They had weapons we never seen before. They wielded red fiery swords that could cut through anything like butter. Flesh. Wood. Stone. Iron. It cut through it all. It burned horrible images in my mind. Our hand crafted weapons were useless.”
“Our elders knew of a secret weapon. It was beneath us all along. A secret order of warriors. They tattooed this symbol that I’m wearing on their backs. It represents unity. They also wore this gem around their necks.” Coach opened his robe and beautiful red gem gleamed at me. “It gives the person wearing it incredible power. My mother wore it before she sacrificed herself to save me from the vicious Orcs.” Coaches voiced cracked. I never heard this stoic man crack a day in my life. I looked over at him and tears hugged both of his cheeks. He continued to stare out at the ocean.
“20 years they had a grip on our islands. Tomorrow’s Unification Games is a celebration of the day we all came together to run them out of our islands. Every 20 years we celebrate our triumphant victory.”
“Excuse me Coach,” I interrupted, “but did you say every 20 years you celebrate the Unification Games?” His eyes glanced at me without even turning his head. “Yes,” he responded shortly. “Uh — didn’t you say you trained 20 fighters?” He sat there quite as I stared at him. He inhaled deeply, “Yes, I did.”
“I never seen them, or hear you talk about them.”
“Unfortunately they all disappeared.” Coach sighed deeply as his head sank into his chest. “Your parents were my students, Jaqil. They were smart and they were tough, so I had them go on a mission to investigate all the fighters who disappeared throughout the islands. They never came back.”
Wait. What did he say? “So my parents worked for you and you lost contact with them?” I felt my whole body start to get numb. My ears got hot and they started to ring. My hands felt like static.
“I am sorry, Jaqil.” He looked so fucking pitiful. “Something strange has been happening on these islands ever since we drove those bastards out of here. The Order of the Isle is the organization I am a part of, and they provided me with some information about Orc spies on this island. I sent your parents out on a mission to gather more information.” Coach stood up and paced at the cliffs edge. “They weren’t ready,” he snapped. “I sent them out earlier than I should have, but I didn’t know they would…”
“You’re a fucking coward Coach,” the words just fell out of my mouth. “For years you yelled at me. You said I was worthless. You’ve beat me to an inch of my life.” A lone tear fell to it’s death as it jump off my cheek. “But you’re the one whose really scared. You don’t even leave this goddamn forest to go to town. You’re the worthless piece of shit! What, are you afraid that the Orcs will take you too? Are you afraid of what people will say about you in town?Maybe they left because you’re an abusive asshole! Maybe once they had a little bit of freedom from you’re ass they escaped! Listen to me closely you old miserable fuck; once those games are over, I’m never coming back. I’m going to disappear just like everyone in your life did, but I want you to know that I’m leaving to get away from an old miserable, sad, pathetic, abusive man.” I don’t know how those words got past my filter, but it felt good.
Coach stood at the edge of that cliff as still as a sturdy tree. The sweet words that came out of my mouth instantly became salty. My tongue was as brittle as bark. My legs felt like static. Coach turned to look at me and his face showed no emotion. His eyes pierced through my skull like an intense beam of light. He took off his necklace and dropped it at my feet. “Take it. Don’t take it. The choice is yours Jaqil.” He brushed past me and disappeared in fog.
