Chapter 6

“DRAKOCARR!!!” BEEP – BEEP – BEEP – BEEP – BEEP – BEEP “DRAKOCARR WAKE UP YOU’RE GOING TO BE LATE.” Drakocarr sits straight up in bed rubbing his eyes.

“What’s going on?” He asks groggily.

“You’re going to be late, you have to go. The combine starts at nine-o-clock and it’s already 8:45” explains Antigor.

Drakocarr jumps out of bed and starts throwing on his clothes haphazardly. He grabs his bag and runs out the hotel room door and down the stairs on to the sidewalk. Drakocarr runs a full sprint through the 3 city blocks back to the ice rink the boys visited yesterday, through the doors and right up to the booth where the same man is the day before is packing up his belongings.

“You’re too late, we’re closing up.”

“Please sir, you have to let me in. This is my only chance at making an SHL team and that could mean the difference between breaking a 2,000 year curse or allowing my people to suffer for eternity!” Drakocarr blurts out in a panic, “Please sir I’ll do anything!”

“Easy kid calm down, I’m just fucking with you. You registered yesterday, you're good to go in. Just put on that bib I gave you yesterday” the man responds, gesturing toward the locker room doors.

“Oh.” Drakocarr sighs rubbing his temples, “Sorry it’s been a rough morning.”

He scoops up his bag and speeds off into the locker room with a beet red face. As he steps into the locker room he notices it is full of the SMJHL draft hopefuls. Some he recognizes from walking around town for the past few days. Drakocarr looks around the locker room searching for a secluded place to change. Just as he is about to give up he finds an empty cubby of lockers with a bench down the middle. Drakocarr breathes a sigh of relief and throws his bag down on the bench, quickly changing into his workout clothes. Just as he finishes lacing his skates up he is joined by another prospect.

“Hi I’m Rolf!” Exclaims the man, enthusiastically sticking out his hand.

“Hi Rolf.” Drakocarr awkwardly shakes Rolf’s hand looking him up and down. He can’t be taller than 6’2” and is significantly more muscular than Drakocarr. He is wearing a unique practice uniform compared to everyone else, a golden rod yellow jersey with a red stripe around his midsection and bright blue breezers. He has red and white skates on and purple hair.

“And your name is?”

“Oh sorry I’m Drakocarr, but my friends call me Drako.”

“Nice to meet you Drako, are you excited for the draft? I’ve been waiting my whole life for this, I’ve been practicing every day on the farm for this for two years. Have you ever practiced on a farm? What team are you most excited to go to? Hey, do you know any players in this draft? OH do you know any players that already play in the SMJHL? Or the SHL? Man wouldn’t that be cool to play in the SHL someday I mean I can’t wa-“

“Rolf, give him a chance to breathe, Jesus Christ. Or at least a chance to answer your first question. Hi, I’m Ergo Nomic. I play left defense, Rolf here is my partner today for the skating trials. What position did you say you played again?” A tall blonde woman with blue eyes introduces herself. Ergo has to be at least six foot tall and is quite muscular herself. She is wearing a black and gray hockey uniform with typical black skates.

“Uhm I also play left defense, do they let girls in every locker room in the SMJHL?” Drakocarr asks looking around and realizing there are a few other women hockey players lacing up their skates.

“Oh yeah absolutely, everything SMJHL and SHL is fully co-ed. It’s why it’s the best league in North America in my humble opinion. Where did you say you were from again, Drako?”

“Bael Turath,“ Drakocarr answers mindlessly.

“Oh is that like Latvia or something?” Ergo asks innocently.

Drakocarr winces realizing that of course, no one here will know his hometown, “Yeah, something like that.”

“That’s cool, so if you’re also left defense, who is going to be your partner today?”

“Uh how do I find out?” Drakocarr asks, suddenly realizing how unprepared and anxious he feels.

“Let me show you, my new friend! It is right up in the front of the locker room on the bulletin board, come with me!” Rolf snatches Drakocarr by the arm and yanks him up off the bench and over to the bulletin board. He runs his finger down the printed out page that is stapled to the board. “Aha! Right here you are, it says you are partnered with. . . Brent Ashe II!”

“Someone say my name.” Drakocarr and Rolf turn around to see a monster of a man, standing almost seven feet tall and having to weigh around 250lbs give or take the man is a monster. He has a very long unkempt beard and long hair, having almost a caveman like look to him. He is wearing a custom San Jose Sharks jersey and black breezers. Brent is missing his two front teeth.

“Oh hi you’re Brent? This Drako, he is your D partner today! You guys are going to be so good together, I’ve been watching you both practice, Brent is great offensively Drako and I’ve seen you playing some hot defense lately, you guys will do great. I’ve got to go find Ergo though, nice meeting you both, good luck out there and in the draft. Hope we all land on the same team!” Rolf spins around and takes off back across the locker room leaving Drakocarr with his new D partner Brent.

“That guy is kind of crazy, right?” Brent asks to no one in particular watching Rolf throw a little jump skip into his walk as he rounds the corner.

“Uh yeah, he seems nice though. I think he is not used to being around so many people, he mentioned something about a farm.” Drakocarr responds, “So uh how do you like to play the game?”

“Look I’m a big guy, I can skate fast but it takes me a while to get up to speed. I like to pass the puck a lot getting out of the zone and also take the quarterbacking role on the powerplay. If I pass it to you, take a shot, I saw you firing bombs away from the point yesterday when that little guy you were with was setting you up. You do that, we’re bound to get some offense drummed up, okay? Also I need you to cover my back on defense when I’m up ice. If you can handle that basic shit, I will make us win, got it?”

“Uh yeah, I got it.” Drakocarr looks around the room looking for any excuse to disengage from this conversation. His excuse comes, the man from the registration booth walks through the door.

“Hello everyone, if you haven’t found your linemates yet, please do as soon as possible, the combine will be beginning in five minutes. If one of your linemates isn’t here come see me.”