228 Field of Dreams

"Do you smell that, Luca?" I asked him. 

I took a deep breath and sucked in the cold night air. It was quite refreshing. 

"Are you referring to the stink of way too many excited bodies?" Luca asked. 

"Dude, don't ruin it for me," I was grinning from ear to ear at the sight ahead of us. "This is what a sports meet would look like back in Mudgard. It's the kind of stuff that makes a man's blood flowing, don't you think so?"

"I do," Luca chuckled, although his eyes told a different story. 

To Luca, the hundreds gathered in this field might have been a reminder of days that he could never get back. Those days when he was still the freshman star of Midtown High's basketball team. 

"Come on," I patted him on the back, "let's go cause some trouble." 

It had been a week since the secret meeting with Lord Rah, and at that time, Darah had begun to prepare our side for the upcoming war.