Chapter 3 THE ALFE-BEE MATCH

THE ALFE-BEE MATCH

As instructed by Mamadiya after dropping her off at her place, Maranna happily arrived the next morning with a notebook and a pen. She got to the shed beside Mamadiya's house and saw the three players in a cheerful discussion. She happily joined them and everyone muted.

"A pretty morning," She said with a smile.

"Hello, dear. You must be Maranna," Mamadiya's son said. "My mom said alot about you last evening."

"Thought you were instructed to teach her some basics, Koko," the bald boy said.

"Mamadiya wasn't specific on whom to teach her," the girl said.

"And you alfes are in a better position to teach her. You know all the rules better than I do," Mamadiya's son said.

The bald boy and the girl exchanged brief glances.

The girl turned to Maranna and smiled. "Sorry for seeming a little -- unorganized. I'm Uwa." She turned to the bald boy. "He is Bala."

"You know my name already, right?" Koko winked.

"Heard it a minute ago -- Koko," Maranna said.

He grinned heartily.

"You two look familiar," Maranna said to Bala and Uwa.

"We know where the familiarity comes from," Uwa said. "But that's not why you're here. We need to get down to business at once."

She took up a black marker and walked to a white board in the middle of the shed. It had some diagrams and a few writings on it.

"Mamadiya must have explained a few things to you the previous day. So, I'll start by telling you why we play Alfe-Bee." She cleared her throat. "The portal that leads to the world of thought-forms is called the Infonix Portal. The Infonix Force needed to open up this portal is one that needs to be honed, coaxed, and strengthened. This is achieved by a mechanism called Aether Flexing. We flex the Infonix Force by playing Alfe-Bee. Understood?"

Maranna nodded.

"Mamadiya has taught you how to see into the thought ribbons, right?" She said.

"Yes, we tried it yesterday," Maranna said.

"Okay," Uwa said. "Each time you see into someone's thoughts you become open to a mild version of the Infonix Force."

Maranna readied her pen.

"This Force opens up the aether whorl; a portal to various regions in the world of thought-forms. These regions are where distinguished species of thought-forms live."

Maranna scribbled.

"Alright. Our next focus would be on the regions," she said. "When Alfe-Bee kicks off, the ball --"

"Point of correction," Bala said, "the Bee."

"Whatever." She rolled her eyes. "When the game kicks off, the Bee is thrown into a random region and we all create our respective aether-whorls leading to regions of our choice. If you aren't lucky to find the Bee in the region you entered, you enter another region, but if you got out of the region and you found that someone else already got the Bee, you tackle."

"Not the tackle you are used to, though," Koko said.

"Yes," Uwa said. "Your aim while playing Alfe-Bee is to gain the highest point, so that you'll be awarded the sequined ankara wear." She looked at Bala and smiled. "And alot of Infocoins."

"That's if she'd even second the highest," Bala said.

"Infocoins," Maranna said. "Mamadiya never mentioned that to me."

"You'd learn of that a few days to the tournament," Uwa said, rolling her marker. "Tackling, here, means jumping into a particular region, from which you could emerge in front of your opponent having the Bee while he or she tries to reach the net." She allowed Maranna scribble a little. "Still on the tackling technique, each region you enter would determine the wing on the field you'd emerge to tackle your opponent; the east wing, west wing, north wing or south wing."

"And there are intermediate wings, too," Koko said.

Maranna kept scribbling.

"But, before going too deep in that, look here." She pointed at the board. "Here is a list of things to do in order to get to the considered regions."

Maranna peered at the board, but she couldn't understand what she saw on it.

Region of illusion-forms - the illusion fork.

Region of wish-forms - the floating castle.

Region of grotesque-forms - a goblin.

Region of ghost-forms - transparent ribbons.

She wrote them down anyways.

"To open up a portal to the region of illusion-forms, you see into Koko's thoughts and picture the illusion fork," Uwa said. "As you can see here." She circled the image of the illusion fork. "The fork appears to have three prongs, but when you get closer to the image, you won't be able to decide if it's three prongs or two."

Maranna stretched her neck to squint a few seconds. She saw three prongs at the tips, but going down, the prongs appeared to be two. The illusion buzzed her mind so well that she took her eyes off and shook her head.

They all laughed. Maranna also studied the other three regions and tried to master them.

"Alright, it's time for a little practice," Uwa said.

When they all came out of the shed, Bala ran into the house without saying a thing, but everything seemed to be in order.

"Koko here will spawn thoughts," Uwa said. "You see into the thoughts with your smoke glasses and you picture the illusion fork. Hope you've got the image in mind."

"And where are the glasses?" Maranna asked.

Bala came out of the house. "Here." He gave her the smoke glasses and stood aside.

Koko's ribbons began to flutter.

"You will be visiting the region of illusion-forms. So you need to picture the illusion fork," Uwa said.

"And, to get out of any region, think of ribbons. Just ribbons," Bala said.

"Okay," Maranna said.

She peered at Koko's ribbons and saw him plucking coconuts. She pictured the illusion fork, and the images dissolved into a fuzzy image of the fork. Then a spinning whorl of pink smoke appeared beside her.

"Woah," she said, looking at it.

"Go on, enter," Uwa said to her.

She looked at three of them, then she shut her eyes and entered the whorl.

She found herself in front of a rock along which she tried grazing her fingers, but all she touched was air. Then she realized the rock was far away from her, and she was actually standing on a large meadow. She gasped at the illusion and chuckled, but the echoes she got back sounded like chatters in a market place. She shuddered and quickly thought of ribbons, and she found herself back at Mamadiya's place.

"How was it over there?" Uwa said.

"It's really a world of illusion," Maranna said and giggled.

"In the region of illusion-forms, if you search for the Bee with your eyes you might get lost. You just have to swish your racket in the air until it picks up the Bee from wherever it is," Koko said.

"How possible is that?" Maranna asked.

"The Bee is magnetic," Uwa said. "It clings to the racket at any given chance."

"Rubber, magnetic?" Maranna said.

"Yes, and due to this clinging property, you swish the racket with all your strength to shoot the Bee into the net," Uwa said.

"Could imagine how that feels," Maranna said.

"From what you took down, you already know things to picture to get to the next three regions," Uwa said. "So, we'll just move to the next thing." She walked back to the shed, and Maranna joined her.

"Now, each of these four major regions listed here have specific wings on the pitch they could land you," Uwa said. "And the aether-whorls that lead to them have characteristic colors."

"Like the pink one I saw," Maranna said.

"Though, there's a sterile aether-whorl -- no color" Uwa said. "The one Mr. Karibi creates during the Alfe-Bee tournament."

Maranna laughed. "To leave us clueless."

Uwa began linking the regions to the respective wings and their colors. Maranna quickly took note.

Region of illusion-forms -- pink - north wing

Region of wish-forms -- grey - south wing

Region of grotesque-forms -- scarlet - east wing

Region of ghost-forms -- purple - west wing

"The aim of everyone playing Alfe-Bee is to score the highest point," Uwa said. "You could see someone with the Bee going towards the post at the north wing, but you are far from the person. All you need to do is picture the illusion fork in your mind, you enter the region of illusion-forms and emerge in front of the person, pulling out the Bee from the person's racket. Remember the Bee is magnetic."

"Noted," Maranna said.

"And to emerge in front of the person, you need to jump out of the region. Don't just walk out like you did here. It'll take you nowhere. You need to jump out to change bearing," Bala said from outside.

"Sweet," Maranna said.

"Not sweet yet," Bala said. "If you succeed in taking the Bee off your opponents racket, you need to score somewhere else."

"That's one good chip for you," Koko said.

After all was said, Koko went into the house and came out with three rackets, one of them having the Bee. He handed the rackets to each of them, and they went to the field.

During the training, Uwa wasn't as gentle as she seemed. She taught like an army commander.

"Hey, not like that, don't you have bones?" She shook Maranna's arm vigorously. "Swish that racket like you are alive, come on!"

At the end of the day, after sessions of exhausting, vigorous trainings, Maranna mastered the game to an extent. But it didn't end after that day. She kept visiting the field daily, except on Sundays. She participated in the trainings until she fell in love with the game. Two days to the main tournament, which would unlock the Infonix Portal, she was given her own ankara wears and a racket, and after that, she was told of the Infocoins. They were coins given to the players on scoring points. A point was worth ten Infocoins, so Maranna needed to score as many points as possible.

A day before the tournament, Maranna deliberately had a fight with Helen, and the next day, she told Helen she would be staying away from her for two months, which Helen agreed to.

The day of the tournament finally came. They were outdoors doing some exercises at the field while waiting for Mamadiya and Karibi, the referee, to arrive.

Mamadiya came out an hour later, accompanied by a whistling from Karibi, who wore the smoke glasses. He hastily walked before Mamadiya, towards the middle of the court. Mamadiya sat at the stand to watch.

Maranna sniggered when she saw Karibi. He was a middle-aged man who seemed to love dressing in a mix of disagreeing colors. He wore a yellow T-shirt, a green face cap, and a pair of red shorts.

"Alright, alright." He jammed his hands in the air.

The players, equipped with their smoke glasses and rackets, stood at designated points, away from the center, while Koko walked to the center and stood before a platform. His ribbons began to flutter. Karibi took the Bee from the platform and looked into Koko's ribbons, creating the sterile aether-whorl, then he threw the ball in there and stepped back.

The surrounding players all created their aether-whorls, waiting for the whistle to sound. Maranna held her racket with both hands and looked at Uwa, who gave her a nod. The whistle sounded a second later and they all jumped into their respective aether-whorls. In a split second, they jumped out, and it was Bala who had the Bee, racing towards the west wing. Uwa stayed still while Maranna entered the region of ghost-forms and emerged in front of Bala, pulling the Bee off his racket. She headed for the east, but Uwa refused to tackle her. It was Bala who did. He took the Bee from Maranna and went for the west. Uwa emerged in front of him, pulled the bee off his racket, and shot it into the post at the north. Bala gnarred and angrily swished his racket.

The game continued. Seven minutes later, Uwa scored another goal, from Bala's racket once again. It made Bala grow furious. He began playing roughly, shoving off anyone who emerged in front of him. He approached the goal net at the east, which led to the region of grotesque-forms that Uwa hated. Uwa stood still and allowed Maranna to tackle him, but he shoved her off and she fell to the ground with a yelp. The whistle sounded immediately and Bala was given a yellow card.

The first half ended twenty five minutes later, after Uwa had scored two more and Bala had scored twice. They all went to take a rest at the stand, including Koko. They looked at the board where Mamadiya recorded the scores, and it appeared as follows:

Uwa - 4

Bala - 2

Maranna - 0

Bala snorted. "Looks like someone would sit broke in the institute."

"Maranna, what went wrong?" Mamadiya asked.

"I'm surprised, as well. She beat me during the training last week," Uwa said.

Maranna shook her head, looking down at her shoes. "I guess the scoring would come in the second half."

"Maranna scored nothing because Bala went rough with her," Koko, who sat behind, said.

Bala turned to him. "That's what she gets when Uwa wouldn't stop giving her a hand."

"I watched you, Bala, you were being unnecessarily rough and bitter. I wish you were given a red card," Uwa said.

"That's not possible." He laughed. "You know."

"I saw the whole thing, Bala," Mamadiya said. "They aren't wrong. Please take it easy on her in the second half. This isn't a win or die game."

Mamadiya's interference made him accept he really went rough on Maranna. He sighed and focused on the court.

Mamadiya turned to Maranna. "You need to score a point, at least, so you'd gain some Infocoins and get yourself good stuffs in the institute, okay?"

"Okay." Maranna nodded.

The second half started ten minutes later. They all assembled at the court and, after the whistle was blown, the game began. Maranna hoped to score this time.

Maranna and Uwa coincidentally entered a forest in the region of illusion-forms. They smiled at each other and began looking for the Bee together. They couldn't find it and they got out of the region. No one had the Bee yet. Maranna and Uwa created grey and purple aether-whorls respectively and jumped in. Uwa got out of the region with the Bee, running towards the net, but Bala emerged in front of her and took the Bee from her, striking it into the net at the east. Maranna still had no score.

When it approached the end of the match, everyone got paresthetic. Uwa wanted Maranna to score a point, at least. She waited for Bala to get hold of the Bee. When he got it, she closely watched him run towards the east. He was certain that she wouldn't tackle him, because it was the wing of the grotesque-form region, but Uwa took the risk. He was taken by surprise when Uwa blocked him and pulled the Bee away from him, running to Maranna and setting her racket before her so she could pull it out. Maranna did as expected and rammed the ball into the south, scoring a point.

In two minutes, the whistle that marked the end of the game sounded. Bala swished his racket furiously as they retired to the stand. After an hour's rest at the stand, they all assembled in front of Mamadiya's house.

Uwa, who had the highest number of points, was given the sequined ankara wear. It was beautiful, having designs of colorful stars and ribbons on it. She happily showed gratitude before everyone. She said it was her first time scoring the highest number of points. Moshood used to be the highest.

At the end of the day, they were told they would be passing the night in the Infonix Room with their ankara wears on. The portal would open before them at 10:00 pm. It sounded frightening to Maranna, but she prepared her mind for it.

They slept on mattresses laid out for them in the room, and Maranna dreamt of a floating whistle that looked like that of Karibi's. It began to spin with a high speed, creating a vicious whorl that violently tugged her clothes until she woke up, gasping. She looked to her sides and saw Uwa and Bala gasping, too. It seemed they had a similar dream. They got up from bed and saw a large, silvery portal before them. Uwa, who had the sequinned ankara wear, went before them.