The sun soon set on the village, with darkness covering the whole landscape of the Parched Lands. Yet, there was one single patch of land in this desolate territory that was shining brighter than the stars in the sky.
As soon as the night came, the village turned on the switches for the lights. The lamps by the side streets and the bulbs on the porches of houses illuminated everything for the inhabitants of the village, making it easy for them to go where they wanted even in the night.
Lolo led Thrain and the rest of the dwarves, including the seniors and the children, through the crowded streets full of excited HobMankeys.
As they walked alongside the HobMankeys, Thrain heard their excited conversations about the upcoming match.
“Who do you think will win? I bet it’s the Braniac Engineers. Kong is really good at batting!” said an excited kid.
“Tsk, tsk, tsk. You know nothing, my man. Don’t you know that our Boss will sub in as the pitcher for the Cleavers? They’ll win for sure!” refuted the other kid.
“Either way, I’m excited! It makes me want to play baseball again!”
“Let’s do it tomorrow! I’ll invite the others.”
Anywhere the dwarves looked, they saw excited and expectant faces on the HobMankeys. All they seemed to talk about was baseball and everything related to it.
Michael taught them everything there was to know about baseball, including its rules and regulations. So, they would easily be able to follow the upcoming game.
However, they knew nothing about the two teams playing, the Cleaving Chefs and the Brainiac Engineers.
“Everyone formed a team based on their specialties,” Lolo explained. “For example, Kong and the rest of the engineers formed their own baseball team called the Brainiac Engineers. They pride themselves on being the most strategic.
The Cleaving Chefs, on the other hand, is almost full of butchers, who boast a really heavy hand perfect for knocking the ball into the air.
This has led to the teams, as well as the fans that are rooting for their team to win, to become extremely competitive against each other,” Lolo explained.
And just as he said that, a group of HobMankeys wearing some kind of similar blue uniform faced off against another group of HobMankeys with a different red uniform.
“You guys should go home now! Our Engineers will cleave your chances of winning!” said the blue-uniformed HobMankeys.
“Hah! We’ll make you eat your words! You won’t be able to calculate where the ball ends up once our players knock it out of the park!” answered the red uniformed HobMankeys.
The two different groups continued to answer taunts back and forth, livening up the energy of the night.
It came to a point where even the dwarves ended up getting caught up in the debate between the two groups.
“Ahh, our new comrades!” said the group rooting for the Chefs. “Give them the fries! Give them the hot dogs!”
The dwarves were suddenly given all sorts of food and snacks from the group in an attempt to get them to their side. They were each given the same red uniform the group was wearing, with their names etched on the back along with a random number.
“Hot dogs and fries are essential in a baseball game!” said the red group. “If you side with us, you can eat all you want!”
The blue group answered by giving them their own blue uniform. “Well, if you side with us, we can adjust your homes to your liking!”
“That’s cheating!” answered the red group.
“You were bribing them!” replied the blue group.
The debate continued and was only stopped after Lolo sent the two groups to their own designated spots on opposite sides of the bleachers.
Lolo escorted the dwarves to their seats in the middle, which were considered the best seats in the game.
Thrain looked around and felt as if he was in a fever dream. Everything felt surreal.
The skies were dark, yet the whole field was lit up by huge, bright, lights that illuminated the whole field and the bleachers.
Everyone was at their seats, talking excitedly while eating snacks and drinking water to pass the time.
Somehow, the dwarves felt like they were in another world. They had never experienced something like this before or even dreamed that this was possible.
In a place of survival, they would have never thought that a past time like this could even exist.
…
After a few minutes, the players began taking their places on the field, with a HobMankey at the pitcher’s mound, tossing the ball in his hand.
Opposite him was a batter, who readied his metal bat and swung it a couple of times to keep himself warm.
FWEE! FWEE!
The whistle sounded out through the field, signaling the start of the game.
On the first pitch, the batter swung his metal bat hard, barely missing the ball that whizzed past his body.
Groans and sounds of disappointment rang out within the crowd.
On the second pitch, another wild swing from the batter would let the ball crash at the catcher’s mitt, garnering another groan from the audience.
“That means he has two strikes, right? Why isn’t he hitting the ball?” asked Thrain, with a little bit of frustration showing in his bushy beard.
“You’re not looking at the pitcher,” answered the dwarf next to him. “The speed and curve of the ball is not so easy to hit,”
“It doesn’t seem so,” answered Thrain, feeling as if the ball was quite easy to knock out of the park.
Just then, the batter swung his bat on the ball again, this time making contact. However, the ball flew in the other direction, making it a foul ball.
“Aww!” Thrain shouted a little bit too loud, making himself feel embarrassed.
“I just don’t understand how he’s missing these,” he said. “I think he should position his shoulders a little bit more to the left, like this.”
Thrain started to copy the batter’s pose and swung his hand as if he were the one on the field.
“That won’t work, my dear friend,” answered the dwarf on his side. “If I throw the ball fast enough, I doubt you’ll be able to hit it as easily as you think.”
“Ahum…ahum…that’s right, that’s right,” answered another dwarf.
“What are you guys talking about? As long as you keep your eye on the ball, anyone can hit it, no matter how fast it is!” replied another dwarf.
“But what about a curve…”
The dwarves began to argue to themselves, leaving Lolo to chuckle to himself.
The dwarves had taken a liking to the sport, it seemed.