Great Burning : 23

Towards the end of the afternoon there were some trials with weapons. The Season Of Innocence could be dangerous as much as we might imagine it to be an age of bucolic simplicity today. Across the whole Earth, the great mixing of alien and native species, known as the Gene Sea, had brought much that was wondrous, strange and sometimes terrifying to roam the wild lands of the quiet planet. There was the occasional aerial threat of the alegoyle, the silent death brought by the forest mystish and the hot teeth of the black spider wolves, to name but three of the more common hazards and much else besides that was rare, unique and deadly. So Riders carried weapons to protect themselves and their tribe and that was well understood. Until the sacking of Kalonia, however, no Rider had ever taken up weapons against another, let alone against an Enclave. Klane’s last major success of the day came in a spear throwing contest where he was able to achieve the longest distance and it won him another dodecahedron. By that time he’d decided to enter anything he felt fit enough for, just to give it a try, and although he won no more, he collected a couple of tetrahedrons and a disk for achieving minor placings in a scramble climb, a kind of bowling contest and a hurdling race.