James stood angrily, his hands in his pockets, muttering to himself. ‘It was my idea to play. It’s not like I’d tamper with the ball.’

Jellyfish Rugby is a very important event. We do play it pretty much every day, though we spice it up sometimes by playing Jellyfish Football instead. We used to have leagues and tournaments, but it got out of control and some people are still bitter about it. I’m not going to go into the details, but let’s just say it wasn’t just balls that were tampered with back then.

The whole crowd was quiet now, the only sound the gentle lapping of the Jellyfish’s tentacles. Soldier John held the ball up in the air again for another look. There were a few indrawn breaths; the tension was mounting.

Soldier John started, ‘I think—’, but then he suddenly paused. Slowly he zoned in on a small patch on the underside of the ball. He gave it a scratch with his finger, peering in even further. The crowd held their breath. Then he pulled back again. ‘I think it’s fine,’ he said.

‘Yay!’ cheered a few people, and there were sighs of relief from others.

‘I know it’s fine,’ said James. ‘I told you it was fine.’ His face had an expression of infinite sadness, like somebody who has known the unfairness and discrimination of mankind, has fought for justice but has lost, losing both his faith in the world and in humanity. Which was unreasonable really, because last week James did try to cheat by covering the ball in a layer of slippery jellyfish slime when the other team were allowed to start instead of him. He’s more than happy to sabotage his own team if it prevents the other side from winning.

During Jellyfish Rugby, those of us who are sensible stay round the edges of the pitch, where we’ll make an effort sometimes to get the ball, but only if it’s actually coming in our direction and then lands in our hands so that we can’t really avoid it. Quite a lot of the people on the Jellyfish aren’t sensible though, and they like to arrange themselves in a sort of crazed fighting mob in the middle. That’s what happened this time.