The Chronicles of Tenroha

Chapter 2

Chapter Two

Jäkob had finally arrived at his party. The townsfolk gathered around him and began cheering for the birthday boy and they all wanted to give him a hug. Jäkob was surprised to see that the whole town had come to his party. He saw Jonah, Jessie, and Joel, Mrs. Kiltzka's children, over by the food, so he went over to talk to them. "Did you know about this?" asked Jäkob. "Yep," said Jessie and Joel at the same time. Being twins, they rarely said anything that wasn't in unison while they were together. "Why didn't you say anything?" asked Jäkob. "We were told not to," said the twins. "By whom? Jäkob asked. "Your sister," said Jonah, the eldest of Mrs. Kiltzka's children as he walked over to Jäkob.

Jonah and Matáo had grown up together and over the years had become best of friends. The twins were the closest things to friends that Jäkob had. They did a lot of stuff together. Being that Jäkob wasn't as active as they themselves were, they spent most of their time playing by themselves. When Jäkob was feeling strong enough they would go fishing or maybe go for a swim, but they had to be careful not to tell Nìa or Matáo.

The party was a success, although they were unable to play many of the games that Matáo and the others had worked so hard to build. A few of the townsfolk had brought their instruments and had begun to play some music. Some of the younger women began dancing, some were singing along, while others just clapped their hands. Jäkob loved his party. It lasted long into the night. Everyone was having so much fun that when they got tired, some fell asleep where they were and when they awoke in the morning they were ready for more. Others, who had gone home, returned the next morning when they heard the commotion that the party was causing. Around mid morning they decided to play the games that Matáo had planned for the day before, after a hearty breakfast of the food leftover from the night before.

They began the games with a horse shoe throwing competition. After some time and some very close matches, the contest came to a tied match. Matáo hadn't anticipated a tie and had not planned a tie breaker. He asked the contestants who had already lost if they could decide a fair way to determine a winner. They thought about it for a while then they talked amongst themselves and decided on a tie-breaker that would be fair. One member from each team would throw three shoes. The most ringers would decide the winner. Jäkob was chosen to represent his team and threw two ringers and left one leaning against the stake that was in the ground.

Matáo threw his first shoe and it hit Jäkob's leaner and changed it to ringer before it bounced out of the scoring area. His second shoe was a ringer. With one shoe left and only one ringer he had to knock out one of Jäkob's shoes in order to tie again. He threw and missed completely leaving Jäkob and Nìa the champions. The townsfolk cheered and decided that they needed a prize for winners so they set out to find a prize fitting for the event. The blacksmith came back after a short while with two tiny horseshoes made of copper that he had fashioned into necklaces and gave to the winners.

After a while the adults let the smaller children have fun with a greased pig run. It was fun watching the little ones chasing a pig around and around. It took the children about half an hour to wear the pig down before one of them could get it. It was Mrs. Porter's son Peter who finally caught it.

It was a cool, fall morning, and there was still plenty of food left over from the night before. No one went hungry. It was after midday when Nìa had realized that the presents hadn't been given out yet. She went around to tell the townsfolk that they would be giving Jäkob his presents at the big table, and for everyone to get their gift, if they had one, and meet them at the table in one hour.

Jäkob was excited. He had thought that the party was his gift. He had no idea that they were giving him presents too. Nìa was the first to give him a present. She gave him a new shirt and a pair of pants. It wasn't much, but Jäkob was happy to have them because he was out growing his old clothes. Mr. Kiltzka, the town butcher, gave him a hunting knife that he and the blacksmith had fashioned for Jäkob. It had an eight inch blade and the handle was made out of an antler from a deer that Matáo had killed the previous winter. The twins gave him an old compass that they had found in the woods, and it still worked. Other folks gave him presents too, mostly clothes and such. The cobbler gave him a pair of shoes that were a little too big for him, but he figured that he would grow into them soon enough. Lastly it was Matáo's turn to give him a gift. Jäkob was excited now. He always liked Matáo's gifts the best. He couldn't wait to find out what it was this year.