Meanwhile, as Arash was facing the most critical junction in his career that afternoon, our carefree aunty was having the time of her life,. Keeping a serious face while enjoying the acrobatic performance of marine freshwater spirit beasts was really ‘challenging’. It had dragged so long until the aunty herself had lost focus of the real reason for the 'competition' just so that she could observe the cute antics of the animals more. If only her beloved knew how happy she currently was, he would've been in mixed emotions! Such a difference in treatment in a story!

 

"Congratulations to the top four! Excellent moves!"

 

Hana wasn't stingy when it came to praises, after all, it only took a few drops of saliva.

 

The four marine animals were so happy with the compliments, they blushed slightly. However, they were quite confused since there were three Lords present to be ferried, but there were four of them. Obviously, everyone wanted to be Hana's mount and didn't want to carry the notorious serpent, if possible. Who knows if a tiny mistake from their parts would costed them their lives. They heard that he was as strong as the highest Lord of the Crystal-veined stream, Lord Tittua!

"You must be thinking, who will carry who at this moment, right? Tsk-tsk, not just yet. The Zumba competition is just the first round! In the second round, we're going to let you play another amusing gam.. ehem trial! Why there is four of you here? You had to fight each other. The winner will have to fight another winner, and the last creature standing will be my mount today! Passing this heavenly trial will make you rise to the heavens!" Hana joked while explaining in a lighthearted mood.

Saras, Mata, Kolo, and Gramps Alpy’s eyes brightened as they looked at each other. No one wanted to fight Gramps Alpy because they knew how hard his shell was.

"Relax. It's not that kind of fight. You will play a little game instead." Hana chuckled.

She called for both Kuro and Shiro and taught them about 'Lat-tali-lat". It's a simple game where you fan one of your palms while singing the simple rhyme and stop on either the palm-side or at the back of the hand side. Since there were only two choices available, the chances to get either one was as high as fifty percent. The ones who got the same position will then fight each other. It was that simple. Originally, the simple game was for choosing a single person for something, but Hana improvised a little.

Kuro and Shiro faithfully followed Hana's instruction to show how the game was done.

 

"Lat-tali-lat-laili-lai-tam-plom!" They worded the rhyme awkwardly and played three times, with two different outcomes.

 

"So easy, right?! Come on, try it out before you guys truly battle it out! Everyone play together!" Hana ushered all four of them into a circle and started singing the nonsensical no-meaning rhyme, "Lat-tali-lat-laili-lai-tam-plom!" (1)

After testing it out a few times while being witnessed by everyone, the four freshwater marine animals showed off their prowess!

 

It was pretty easy for Kolo and Gramps Alpy to play the game since they had limbs in the form of paws. Mata had it easier too as he only had to swish his long pectoral fin to show which side was up and which side was down. However, Saras had to resort to an acrobatic performance to show which side of her flippers she wished to choose with a bitter feeling. Imagine a dolphin the size of a mini whale flipping about just to show the upper side or the bottom side of her flipper. The rest of the marine animals could only sigh helplessly as they witnessed Saras' extreme efforts to score brownie points in front of the main Lord.

Nonetheless, Saras’ efforts were not in vain. Hana had been giggling with stars in her eyes from the very beginning as she observed the pink dolphin's antics. She did feel a little guilty, but just a little. She felt that the struggling dolphin was the cutest among them all, either in terms of color and appearance, or its efforts.

 

Unbeknownst to even the pink dolphin herself, she had caught Hana's heart. <3

...

Crowds were divided into two in the middle of the clearing, as tens of marine animals encircled around two groups of contestants. However, no loud noises were heard. Only occasional serious-sounded whisperings discussing something resounded from the crowd, which will be followed by a loud 'shuuushhh' sounds from the rest.

 

"Is that alright?"

"Shushhh... You are too loud! I think that's about right!"

"There's a trap in three more steps. I could see it!"

"Preposterous!"

"You are wrong. There's a way to counter the trap. I can see it! I'm sure he noticed it too."

"True. It seems that he planned to navigate around the trap."

In the middle of the crowd, two groups were battling with great concentration! However, they were not moving at all as they stared daggers at each other, imaginary electrical currents sizzled from each others' eyes. In front of them, something akin to two flat-surfaced large boulders was placed with square 8 x 8 grids on top, serving their functions as gigantic 'tables'. The two 'tables' were five meters from each other, while the grids were colored with black dye alternately. 

 

Kolo and Saras were confronting each other with a 'table' between them. At the same time, Gramps Alpy and Mata inhabited the other one. They were moving tiny flattened black and white pebbles across the table. Some movements were a single diagonal move within the blackened grid. In contrast, some jumped in between each others' pebbles to capture the opponent's pebbles.

 

Mata was struggling under Gramps Alpy's assault! Although Gramps Alpy was old, he wasn't senile yet! In fact, he was the most shrewd old miser among the marine spirit beasts! 

Sometimes, the marine animals gasped collectively!

Sometimes, they nodded in understanding in unison.

Sometimes, the tension was so unbearable, some marine animals swam away in their own bubbles to whisper at a safe distance away as not to disturb the contenders, "That is really intense! I couldn't take it! Let's snack a little, guys." while flapping either their limbs, tail ends or pectoral fins exasperatedly.

Obviously, this unique game will be quite popular amongst the marine animals once it was brought back to the clan's main grounds later.

...

Time was moving ever so slowly.

 

Hana swiped her phone to see the time. She had an idea of letting the animals contend each other in a game of Malaysian checkers, Dam Haji (2). Supposedly, the rules for the 'Haji' which had the same role as a 'King' were quite lax in this one; hence, these cute animals could finish it up rather quickly. But she had overestimated their seriousness in winning over her heart. Therefore, each movement made by the contender was done after a thorough observation. No one had even produced a 'Haji' yet even after two whole hours of playing. She could only smile helplessly with their overcautiousness. It was just a fun game and nothing more to her, yet to the others, it could become the ticket for them to change their lives. Hence, they did their very best. 

 

Only the tortoise looked quite poised and confident. Hana could almost predict the winner even before the game ended.

 

However, what was more precious was how these animals behaved in front of her. They were just like highly intelligent human beings but in the shape of animals. Their expressiveness was one-in-a-million, Hana felt like she was in an animation with talking animals starring in the movies.

Sometimes, she sneakily took a few fun pics and short videos of how the freshwater animals interact with each other. They were like children seeing toys for the first time, having a picnic, under fair weather. Except that, she knew that these animals were spirit animals; most of them were stronger than her and could pose some kind of threats to her. That was why she knew that her two doted ones were not leaving her side even for a single moment. Little Pi-chan was snoring upon her lap. She occasionally caressed its fluffy brown head as it 'piii' contentedly in its sleep.

"HAJIII!" A wizened cracked old voice resounded loudly, startling all the spectators, including Hana. Everyone started to cheer for him as if he had already won. She could almost feel that the air was charged with fervor!

 

It turns out the tortoise had the highest intelligence among the rest. Surprisingly, he is also the most popular one!

Hana nodded while smiling at the tortoise to give him some encouragement.

...

It was already a long time after noon. The sun had tilted more than it intended to from its axis. Mekong had been waiting for more than eight-hours under the harsh sunlight. Even his supple and moist skin had started to dry up from prolonged exposure.

"Where are they?!"

...

 

Authors' Note:

1) Lat-tali-lat-laili-lai-tam-plom!" = it's an old method to single out someone prior to playing or doing something just by flipping the hands. The chance of winning (or being singled out) is about 50% and was a favorite for everyone around here. It is even easier than 'rock-paper-scissors'.

Examples of how it was played can be seen through these two video;

A commercial electrical appliances vid by Panasonic (0:22 - 0:30) In this short vid, this method was used to choose who's going to do the house chores. The rest were just eye candy (chuckles)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iJ__rWaIsUE

A Malay song by a young singer, Wafiy (0:12 - 0:30) In this song, the one who is singled out will be penalized with the soot from a wok for fun. Another part was when they did the method to choose who will go talk to the little girl (0:53 - 1:00).

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zPcTofbMjxQ

2) Dam Haji = a game of checkers that is slightly different than the normal checkers. The king, "Haji", when being upgraded had the power to move forward, and backward on the board. They can even jump far as long as there's a space after the opposing contender. Basically it's an overpowered King. haha.