Isolation Play (Dev and Lee)

I
solation
P
lay

by Kyell Gold

Also by Kyell Gold

The Argaea stories

Volle

The Prisoner’s Release and Other Stories

Pendant of Fortune

Shadow of the Father

The Forester Universe

Waterways

Out of Position

Bridges

Edited by Kyell Gold

X

This is a work of fiction. All characters and events portrayed within are fictitious.

ISOLATION PLAY

Copyright January 2011 by Kyell Gold

All rights reserved, including the right to reproduce this book, or portions thereof, in any form.

Published by Sofawolf Press

St. Paul, Minnesota

http://www.sofawolf.com

ISBN 978-09832652-8-3

Printed in the United States of America

First trade paperback edition: January 2011

First electronic book edition: December 2011

Cover and all interior art by Blotch

For my husband

At the end of our engagement

And the beginning of the rest of our life

The first thing you need to know about this book is that while it is the second book to feature the characters Dev and Lee, it is perfectly enjoyable on its own. The first book,
Out of Position
, details many events only alluded to herein, but the story of
Isolation Play
is self-contained.

The second thing you need to know about this book is that it is not about football. That said, there is football in it, and so I have included in the preface two short guides to the game from the first book. I hope they will be helpful in understanding some of the context of the story.

The third thing you need to know about this book is how grateful I am for all the support and love that has led to it. I was worried about the response to a book that included football in such a prominent role, but my friends and fans embraced my first story of a gay activist fox and football-playing tiger with a fervor beyond anything I could have hoped for. So as a meager token of my very great appreciation, I present this new story.

If you are new to this world, welcome. If you already know Dev and Lee, welcome back. You will see some familiar faces and, I hope, make some new friends (there is a listing of characters in the back, should you have trouble remembering names). And thank you, thank you, thank you, for giving me the opportunity to share their story with you. Your continuing support and enthusiasm is a gift I will never be able to repay sufficiently.

The last thing you need to know about this book is that the story begins on page one. I’ll stop talking now.

-Kyell Gold, January 2011

When I was seven, I had a bunch of classmates ask me whether I wanted the Devils or the Firebirds to win the championship. I didn’t know what they were talking about. My dad liked football, but I liked stories, and I may have said a couple things I shouldn’t have about people who liked to watch thugs run around on a field and hit each other. So while my mom was combing the playground sand out of my face and chest and tail, my dad started to explain football to me.

Even though I was still at that age where I wanted to be like my dad, I didn’t have much interest in football. But with the championship coming up, he thought it was the perfect time to get me started. Whatever else he’s done in his life—and I’ve run through the list more than once—he got me into football. So if you’re one of those kids who likes chess and books, listen up, because reading this story you’re in the middle of is like growing up in Nicholas Dempsey Middle School. You don’t have to like football to get through it, as my dad told me, but it helps.

See, what I always hated about football was that I was bad at it. I’d only played one football game up to then, at camp. I didn’t understand the rules. To me, it was just a stupid excuse for big kids to beat up little kids. What my dad told me is that football is actually like a chess game.

Hang on. Stay with me. Imagine you’ve got these eleven guys. Each one can move in a certain way. You want to advance your position (symbolized by the football) up the field, either by giving it to a piece and having him carry it forward, or by passing it to a piece down the field. The guys who line up right at the boundary are the offensive line—like a bulwark. Behind them stands the quarterback, and behind him the halfback (or running back) and fullback. They’re the ones who will carry the ball if you choose to run it. Out to the edges are the speedy guys whose job is to run down the field and be ready if you choose to throw the ball: the wide receivers and tight end.

Your quarterback is like a queen (and believe me, more of them are than you’d think). He’s the most powerful piece and he directs the offense. Wolves and lions make good quarterbacks, because they have this inbred pack mentality. The offensive line is like pawns: they only move a very short distance, and their job is to protect the queen. You get big, aggressive guys in there, like bears and boars, because they also have to move the defenders in such a way as to leave room for the running back to run through. This is harder than it sounds, but I’m not going to get into it. The tight end (yes, we’ve all heard the jokes) either helps block or runs a short way down the field to act as a receiver. Then you’ve got the running back and fullback, wolverines and horses most often, who are like the bishops: they have to move through the spaces cleared by the pawns. The knights would be the tight end and the slot receiver, who can either help defend or jump short distances down the field. And wide receivers are rooks, who take advantage of long open columns to run down the field. For all those last ones, you get deer, cheetahs, and foxes. And what you have to do with these pieces is design a strategy that will help you gain ground, program a series of moves in advance, and watch them go. Meanwhile, our opponent has his own eleven guys, and he’s trying to figure out what your guys are going to do so he can stop them.

If you’re defending, your aim is to stop the progress of the other team. This is the part of football I hated, by the way, because I could never tackle, and they could flatten me with one arm. The QB starts out with the ball, so you go after him. You look at the situation on the field, you look at the way the pieces are set up, and you set up your guys to hopefully disrupt what the offense is doing. Your defensive line, setting up across from the offensive line, is actually attacking, which is why the best ones tend to be large, fast predators, like big cats. Then you have a bunch of guys that stay behind the defensive line to mess with the wide receivers and tight end if they get back into that territory. The best ones there are medium-weight predators, like coyotes, bigger foxes, and cheetahs. And because it’s such a big field, you have to decide things like do you assign one defender to each specific offensive player, or do the defenders just cover sections of the field, and so on.

And then, not to make things more complicated, but there’s everything else, which is called “special teams.” If a team doesn’t move the ball well enough on offense, they end up kicking it, either to the other team (a punt) or through the goal, if they’re close enough. Horses and rabbits, of course, usually do the kicking. On the other side, you need someone quick and slick to catch the kick and try to run it back, and while you get a couple rabbits who are good at this, the best ones have always been weasels and otters.

The thing that makes football more interesting than chess is that the pieces can actually think (well, some of them) and make decisions on the field. They know what they’re supposed to do, but if they see something that’ll block them, they can make an adjustment and change it. Sometimes they do really stupid things, which is fun, and sometimes they do amazing things, which is even more fun.

Also, I mean, it’s guys in tight clothes. There are closeup shots of the quarterback sticking his paws under the center’s tail (with some definite touching). There’s muscles galore, occasional tail-grabbing, and after the plays, there’s butt-patting. What’s not to like?

QUICK REFERENCE: Here’s how the players line up on a typical play.