The Tadories were huge, rising to seven feet tall on average, and the statues were no different.
I had to start from a stooping statue, using its limbs as foot-holds as I rose. I rested one of my hiking boots on the statue’s crouching knee, then the other boot on the base of the thigh, and grabbed onto the inner elbow of its left major arm. Pushing myself up, I managed to climb over its upper left shoulder and stand on its back. Then, from there, I hopped to the circle’s second level.
I took a long breath before I continued. The next one was going to be a bit more of a challenge, but I was sure I could pull it off. I hugged the leg of a standing statue and clambered up it, as if it were a pipe. Then, once I was high enough, I reached for its minor hands, which were clasped together below its belly, and gripped them tightly, pulling for counterbalance, while pushing against the side of the statue’s body with my legs. Lifting my grip up its right minor arm as I went along, I eventually managed to land a foot on its clasped hands and use it as a step ladder to advance up to its lower shoulders, then the upper. Climbing over its face, I eventually managed to stand on its shoulders and leap to the third inner layer of the circle.
I was breathing heavily now, but remained determined. This was the last layer of the circle, and it only had one statue. If I managed to climb up it and stand tall, I’d win the challenge.
The statue was of a woman, her back straight, minor hands pressed together between her breasts, and her major arms arched over her head, hands forming a diamond between index fingers and thumbs. I stood before her, hands on my waist, plotting my way up.
Her legs were spread wide… If I hooked my belt over her minor hands, then used it for leverage, pushing against her calves, then knees and thighs, I could slowly make my way up. Yes… that could work, and I even started undoing my belt, but never got a chance to try it.
“Hey, you!” I heard the shout and turned. There was a crowd of people gathered around the garden, all of them looking at me, horrified. “What the heck do you think you are doing?” The man yelling was a Rolnic, red-skinned, with sharp scales covering his head and arms, and wearing a Judicant Ranger uniform—blue, with white and black vertical stripes at the sides.
I scanned the crowd, searching for the Tadori—my friend. He could explain it to them, tell them I had permission, but I couldn’t spot him. I wanted to call his name, but… I never asked for it.
The name tag! He pointed it out to me, but it was written in Zandri, and I barely knew how to read Ensyn, so a language as complex as Zandri was way beyond me. I was screwed!
“Wait, you don’t understand, I had—”
“Get down from there, this instant!” The ranger yelled.
I pursed my lips, pouting. I was so close to the top; if I went down now, I’d have to start it all over again.
“Listen— you don’t— the Tadori, he gave me permission—”
“Don’t argue with me, boy! Get down, now!”
“Lorrian?!” My dad’s voice.
I followed it and found him and my mom pushing their way through the crowd. They both wore dark overall flight-suits, except Dad’s was fully unzipped—top half hanging over a belt-harness heavy with tools and gadgets—while Mom’s was partially unzipped, enough to expose her neckline.
“What are you— how did you get all the way up there?” Dad asked.
“I climbed,” I pronounced proudly.
“Really?” He smiled.
“Berk!” Mom pressed her elbow into his side.
“Ah,” he cleared his throat. “Look, buddy, you gotta come down from there.”
“But—”
“No arguments, just come down.”
I sighed, defeated, and began scheming my way downward.
Stepping on a statue’s head, I slid down its back to the second layer, and a gasp rose from the crowd.
Mom hid her face in her hands. “Oh, stars, Berk! He is stepping on them.”
“Yeah, well… he needs to come down somehow.”
I leaped—drawing another murmur of gasps—caught a stretched major forearm, and used it to control my direction and momentum, flinging myself down to land on the purple grass, which cushioned my fall.
My parents came toward me, and I started walking to meet them halfway, back hunched over, hands deep in my pockets.
“Nice landing,” Dad said.
“Don’t encourage him,” Mom said.
“Bad landing,” Dad quipped. I snorted.
“This isn’t funny!” Mom insisted.
“No, it isn’t.” The ranger said grimly. “Are you his guardians?”
“Yes, that’s my son,” Dad said.
“Not something to be proud of at the moment,” Mom frowned.
“You are aware that what he did was—”
“Abhorrent.” Mom glared at me.
“But Mom, I had permission.”
“What are you talking about, Lorr?” Dad asked.
“There was this guy, a Tadori, he—” I searched for him again in the crowd. “Him! He told me to climb, and said he would give me a ride in the grav-hauler if I managed to get to the top.”