Disclaimer: I did not invent solitaire. All rights belong to whomever invented the card game. If you're talking about the computer version, I'm thinking Microsoft. They made just about everything computer-related.
chp. 2
"C'mon, soldiers!" Ace's voice carried well over the training field. "Give me fifty more pushups without complaint and I'll do twice as much as you've done today!"
Ace smiled as the soldiers quickly stopped complaining and started their fifty pushups in unison. "One! Two! Three!"
Ace flexed her muscles and readied herself to do three hundred push-ups. Suddenly one soldier in front collapsed onto the ground. "Ten! Soldier Ten! Are you alright?" Ace strode over to her weakest soldier, a nine year old girl who, like the others, was only called by her rank. Ten was the lowest. Ace had argued with Prince Jack many times over her enlistment. She was the youngest soldier in the rank, twice as young as the second youngest, an eighteen year old boy with a rank of seven. She called to said soldier. "Seven! Get Ten to the Medic, fast!"
The boy was grateful for the rest and jumped up. "Yes, ma'am!" He saluted, then ran and hoisted the girl up onto his shoulder. Ace winced but said nothing as Ten's head bounced as Seven ran. The nurse at the Medic was the Queen herself. She had some basic practice in medicine, and was certified to do simple things like mend wounds and nurse the sick. If anyone were to get seriously sick, the kingdom of Hearts' soldier Three had advanced skills, and was able to help broken bones and prescribe medicine. But seeing as how they were training for a war, it would be bad if anyone more than passed out.
Ace blew a whistle around her neck. "Okay, soldiers! I'll let this slide! But because of this incident I'm taking off fifty pushups for myself!" She knew it was heartless, that it wasn't Ten's fault, but if she showed a soft side, they'd walk all over her. The remaining soldiers, all men except for soldiers Five and Six, held in their groans and continued their pushups.
When the last soldier had completed his one hundred and fiftieth pushup, Ace put her hands on her hips. "Okay, soldiers! I'm all set to do two hundred and fifty pushups! That's one hundred more than you had to do! Now give me two laps around the the castle while I'm doing that! You should all be done by the time I've gotten to two hundred! Move!"
Ace watched for about a minute as the soldiers groaned and started jogging. "You can go faster than that!" As Ace dropped down and started pushing herself up and down from the wet morning grass, she thought of the people's predicament. The few people besides the royal family, including herself, had come to the Kingdom of Spades because of the total equality that was promised, and given. But most found it to be a bad thing, after they had arrived. This was not a democratic kingdom. People were forced into the army, and because of the equality, age and gender were simply not considered. In the other kingdoms, too, if there was an infant, it would be put into training. Gentle training, such as lifting stuffed animals as if they were barbells, but training none-the-less.
In most of the four kingdoms in the Territory of Cards, most of the people (once again, except the royal family) had no family (except two elderly people, Two and Six). The nine year-old girl, for example, had run away from a different land, and came to find herself here, in Spades. She lived, like the rest of the people, in a little tent on the outskirts of the castle. She lived in a tent with soldier Five. Five was around thirty years young. She had lost a little girl of her own, back outside the Territory of Cards, outside the whole Land of Games, who would have been nine as well, had she survived. She cooked for Ten, and made sure she got plenty of sleep, and taught her basic reading and mathematics.
"If you don't learn to read or do math," Ace had heard Five telling Ten, "you'll never make it out of this place or even live to be my age."
That wasn't exactly true. Ace herself, already twenty-five, couldn't do either very well. She knew enough to read and write her own name, and she knew her letters. But she couldn't read the many books in the library that soldier Two ran. And she could add well enough, at least to double digits, and sometimes higher. But she couldn't multiply or divide at all, and could only subtract single digits.
She had once sat in with Ten and listened to Five teach. But by then Ten was far ahead of Ace, and Ace had gone home little more than confused.
After her push-ups, Ace stood up and looked toward the castle. If they won this war, or even lost it, they would be part of a bigger kingdom, in all likelihood all four of the smaller ones put together. Hopefully there'd be someone in the other kingdoms who was a certified teacher, and could teach Ace as if she were a first-grader.
To be continued...
Okay. I've gotten one review. But seeing as how it's Solitaire...that was two more than I expected. Yes. I expected a negative review.
--L.A.!