Challenge!

[tptb_in_ltsh]

I promised a surprise. Here it is. Or not, for some. It's a challenge, as the title says. We've also decided to make this regular.

The challenge will be monthly in future, if we manage to come up with enough topics.

Comments

[norseloki]

"Darling, contrary to popular belief, natural food is neither harmful, nor does it taste bad," I pointed out. "Bryne, the bottles!"

He had stopped to watch our exchange instead of collecting some. With the party just starting, it was no mean feat to find a bottle that was already empty. I started wondering if I should have brought some, or waited until later. Weren't fireworks supposed to go off at the change of the year anyway?

"It's not proven it's not harmful," Sandy claimed. "And it tasted horrible."

"You loved it until you learned what it was," I retorted. "And in case you haven't figured, I was raised on natural food."

"That," Sandy pointed out, "is hardly proof that it's not harmful."

Bryne spared me having to come up with a witty answer to that by bringing me a bottle that was near empty. He finished it off and held it out.

"There," I said, pointing at a patch of ground a bit off to the side that looked still soft enough to dig into.

"What are you making a hole for?" someone asked from the side.

In fact, I had no idea. The people in the video had, so I figured I better make one as well. "The bottle goes in there," I told him.

"Why?"

"So that it won't fall over when the rocket launches," I said the first thing that came to my mind and seemed plausible enough to get away with.

Luckily, no further questions followed.

I glanced at the chronometer. Half an hour to midnight. Sandy was kept well in hand and busy by the twins, so the danger of someone coming to break up the party for handling of dangerous items was low. "Let's wait a bit before we shoot these," I suggested.

Bryne nodded and went to help himself to some more mulled wine, while I stayed a little aside from the others, guarding my fireworks and dug-in bottle.

Had I believed I'd get accepted when I registered for the examinations and took them? I found myself unable to actually answer that question. It had seemed like a good idea at the time. History was nice. As long as I could remember, I had wanted to go into history. My life had always been about times past, after all. I'd defied my uncle for it.

Well, that latter wasn't that special. I'd defied my uncle pretty much every time I rounded a corner during the time he had been by guardian.

But still, I had wanted to become a historian. I had made plans.

So why was going down another path even looking remotely interesting to me? Oh, who was I kidding? It didn't look remotely interesting, the thought of it made me feel as excited as if I was six years old again and being taken to Egypt for the first time by my father.

"What's the solemn face for?" Bryne asked, shoving a bottle at me. "Cheer up, man. We're at a party!"

I flipped the bottle open and took a swallow, hardly noticing the flat taste that came with synthetic food this time. I'd been told time and time again that you couldn’t taste the difference, but I could have sworn I'd be able to tell syntho-food from the real thing any time.

"Never mind," I said. "Here, hold these." I handed him the rockets, keeping only one for myself. Apparently he had gotten over his fright from earlier, because he did take them. Maybe the fact that the rockets had been good so far and not meanly exploded on their own had helped.

I stuck mine into the bottle and pulled off the cap that protected the fuse.

"How do you light that?" Bryne asked, sounding slightly amused.

I dug in my pocket and brought out a small, equally historic device - or rather, a replica of one. "Lighter," I said, sounding deliberately cheerful.

The fuse took a moment to catch fire. When it did, it made a hissing noise.

"Is it supposed to do that?" Bryne asked me slightly concerned.

I shrugged. "How should I know?" I told him. "This is my first fireworks."

"This is your what?" he yelped.

The next moment, we were both jumping back. The plastics cone was shooting a jet of sparkly downwards, and the noise got more frightening by the second.

It didn't take long, though. With a pained screech, the rocket took off and shot upwards, to explode in a brilliantly colorful starburst in the dark far above us.