Chapter 5
Braid
~Dragon Dancer~
“OUCH!” yelled Aaron.
“Hold still!” hissed Gret, “It’s hard to fix broken bones when you squirm like that!”
I watched as Gret tried to mend Aaron’s ribs. Fixing bones was excruciating, I’d been through it a few times myself so I know how it feels. Because it’s so painful many people usually just wait until the bones heal by themselves but in this case we had to be ready for tomorrow.
We were all in a room we could barley fit all of our bed rolls in, it was the space we were given to sleep in and prepare for the next day’s fight. The place right now wasn’t so great but the further we advanced the nicer it would get. There was a cot where Aaron was being treated on, a small table, and a small stool that Brand was sitting on. Overall it was pretty meager living space.
Gret was doing a pretty decent job, medical magic was rather difficult and taxing to do and though he was not very strong at magic he was still able do such a complex procedure of mending bones.
At the moment, Aaron didn’t quite care about that. “Sheesh! Are you breaking them again?” Aaron said through clenched teeth. Gret ignored him and kept his eyes closed, concentrating. His hands were on Aaron’s rib cage, trying not to move with Aarons writhing, you couldn’t see the magic working because the magic wasn’t on the outside. Unlike the magic in movies there was no flash of light or pretty colors, just like how breathing doesn’t make lights, magic just did what it was supposed to do (unless of course you wanted to make it glow).
Rook was curled in the corner of the room on his sleeping mat, trying to get some sleep; he was tired from using magic and cranky. Murmurings of “shut up” could be heard every minute or so from that corner. Rook had already been treated, there wasn’t much to do, he just had a few scrapes and bumps from hitting the gravel hard on the arena floor.
I sat on the ground with my back against the wall. Dark was getting restless and was trying to peak out my hoodie, I’d have to sneak out or excuse myself from here to give him some air.
“I have to say, I did pretty good out there,” said Brand proudly. I had the feeling that he was just a bit happy that Aaron was the one in pain and he just got hit in the head. I was also pretty sure that he got a concussion and wouldn’t be feeling so smug in the morning. “I’d say that I killed at least six dragonets. Five with a little help but one I got all by myself. Right Rook?” Rook said something not very nice, Brand went on undaunted. “Well you see, everyone was down, including Rook, and I stood there all alone…”
Really, you do not want to hear the rest of the sermon he launched into. To summarize it he, with the help of a few others and Rook took down some dragonets. With his story you’d think he took on 100 by himself with nothing but his fists. Of course how he got his hit to the head took around an hour to explain but to put it simply he tripped over his own legs and hit his head on a shield.
I, unfortunately, had to sit through that but had nothing to tell to be honest. I told the group the same thing-all I did was run around. What I didn’t say was that I wasn’t running away from the dragonets but that they were running away from me. I really was disappointed; I was looking forward to some violent combating. But sadly the dragonets didn’t dare to go near me, either they recognized who I was or they smelled Dark. It was probably the latter, dragonets were terrified of dragons.
Gret had finished up with Aarons ribs, he didn’t totally heal them; that would take too much needed time and energy, but rather healed them just enough to get him through tomorrow. He turned toward me, exhausted, “Are you sure you’re okay?” he asked me, though we were practically strangers he was still a doctor at heart.
“I’m fine,” I said for the fifth time.
“At least let me check to see if you’re hurt,” he was trying not to fall asleep, rubbing his eyes.
“Really, I’m okay,” I said, “What about you? That scratch looked bad.”
He feebly shook his head, “I’ve closed it up, it’ll be fine.” He gave up trying to stay awake at that point and collapsed onto his mat, unconscious. I looked at him a little concerned, he would be a problem. I could easily keep up my disguise with the others but as a doctor he’d have a valid reason to examine me. I could try not to get wounded but to be perfect would add more suspicion toward me. However, if I did get wounded and I didn’t let him treat me I’d be even more suspicious. I looked at a candle on the wall, contemplating the problem.
“So, Aaron,” Brand said, “How exactly did you kill that huge dragonet?”
Aaron cringed as he moved his sore muscles, trying to stretch out the lingering pain, “I’ve already told you, someone threw an ax at it then took the ax away.”
“You know Aaron, you can’t tell a good story if you’re so boring. Could you stop being so modest all the time?”
I listened in, secretly smiling. I knew Aaron was telling the truth, someone did throw that ax, and I knew who threw it. But where would the fun be in telling them who it was?
“I’m not lying, and for your information I did kill a few dragonets.”
“You did? How many?” Brand leaned in, listening intently now.
“Uh...” Aaron moved his fingers, counting, “one.”
“Ha ha ha! You certainly showed them!” Brand laughed hoarsely.
“Hey! I helped kill another one,” said Aaron just digging his hole deeper.
“Sure, sure,” said Brand.
There was a knock on the door and we all looked over excluding Rook and the sleeping Gret. Rook grumbled and stuffed his pillow over his head. “Who is it?” called Aaron.
“Sean,” said a lighthearted voice on the other side.
“Come in,” said Aaron. The door opened to admit in the young man in the red official shirt, the one that snuck us in.
“Hey,” he said with a small wave, “Congrats on making it through.”
“Thanks,” Aaron said surprised, “No offence but, why are you here? Don’t you have official duties or something?”
Sean shrugged, “I don’t know. I guess I feel a bit responsible for you guys since I’m technically the reason you’re here.”
“Ah…” said Aaron, unsure whether that that was a good thing or not.
“Anyway, I thought I might as well tell you the news. Ten groups made it in your round, seven in the third, three in the fourth, zero in the fifth, and six in the sixth. You add those to the four groups that made it in the first round and we’ve got thirty groups that made it, a pretty nice number.”
“So that means there’s fifteen fights tomorrow,” said Brand nodding as he counted.
Sean clapped a few times, “Good job. And that also means I only have to go to work for five days,” he looked very happy at that concept, “Oh, and guess who was chosen at random to be in fight number one?”
“You’re kidding right?” moaned Aaron.
“You’ve guessed it, you and group Three Knights are battling out first thing tomorrow morning at sunrise.”
“Ugh,” said Aaron laying down on the cot.
“You guys are either really lucky or really unlucky huh?”
“You have no idea,” mumbled Rook.
Sean started toward the door, “I guess I should let you guys get your beauty sleep. Just to remind you I’m expecting my cut when you make it to the finals.”
“What?!” protested Aaron, sitting up.
Sean turned away from the door over his easy going smile and appearance an evil shadow appeared, “What? Did you think I was kidding? Do you know how hard it was to get you into the tournament officially? Do you know how many strings I had to pull? Do you know how easy it would be to get pulled out of the tournament?” He said the last sentence slowly, letting each word settle in the room.
“You’re blackmailing us?” said Aaron.
Sean shrugged again, “I wouldn’t call it that. It more like a bet, I’m gambling it all on you. All I’m doing is telling you not to lose.” Then with a wink Sean walked out of the room.
“Greedy bastard!” yelled Brand who grabbed the closest thing, Rook’s journal, and threw it against the door. Rook happened to look up at that time and proceeded to hit Brand muttering a stream of curses.
Aaron said nothing and just lay on the cot, no doubt stressing over his situation. I wondered if any of them got Sean’s underlying message. The pulling of strings, how easy it would be to be pulled out, gambling, Sean was hinting that what could happen to us could also happen to him. A slip by us or if Sean loses his “bet” then Sean could lose his job and possibly his life.
I guess in Aaron’s mind we had a pretty bad hand. It wasn’t too bad, he just didn’t see the wild card. Me.
Morning came unwelcome to the other four in the room, especially Brand who said he had an unbearable headache. An official woke us up telling us that our fight would start in an hour and gave us five small loaves of bread for breakfast. Sluggishly they got ready, eating slipping on chain mail, and haphazardly stuffing clothes into their packs and into their own private corners of the room.
Slowly but surely we eventually made it down through the hallway, yawns passing around like a plague. Others passed us by, some people in the red shirts, others waking up combatants getting ready for their own fight and eating breakfast. We found our way to the floor below the stadium there an official was waiting for us. He led us to another entrance to the arena.
“Your fight will start as soon as the horn sounds,” he said.
“Where’s the other team?” asked Gret looking around.
“They are by the other entrance opposite of this one.”
Gret nodded and chewed at what was left of his loaf. Brand stretched and cracked his knuckles, his headache showing on the grimace on his face. Aaron practiced a few strokes on his sword while Rook and Gret stretched their arms and legs. I pulled out my crystalline sword Blood Eclipse, as I did a strange wave of nausea and energy rolled through me and I suppressed a shiver. Cursed swords did that to you, you wouldn’t have guessed from it’s clear and pure appearance that this rod-like sword was one of the bloodiest weapons in existence. Its name only hinted at its dark nature. Still it was easier to go easy with this on as it was than my other sword with its razor sharp edges. This one wouldn’t even cut, it really wasn’t considered a sword at all actually, but that was at the moment, there was a reason it was called Blood Eclipse. Rook glanced at my sword skeptically then looked away, it’s your life, said his body language.
Suddenly the sound of a horn blasted through the air and the hatch covering the entrance started to be pulled up, its chains being drawn by some mechanism. The sound of the crowd swelled, they knew what was coming.
“Let’s go,” said Aaron, unable to keep the anticipation out of his voice, he was fully awake now. The hatched grinded to a stop and the entrance was now totally uncovered. Aaron started up the stairs and the rest of us behind him. The audience got even louder as soon Aaron stepped out into the light, he didn’t stop this time, already getting used to the crowd. Pink sunlight washed over me as I walked to the surface, looking across the field I saw the other group stepping out. The “Three Knights” had nothing knightly about them their piercings, unkempt hair, and overall felonious kind of aura made them look more like a band of thieves. There were four of them; one was a medium sized man with oily hair, another one was taller than Brand, at least seven feet tall and had a braid on his beard that I just wanted to cut off. The other two were weasels, they were the kind of people you worried would steal your wallet or stab you in the back.
“My most entertained ladies and gentleman!” a loud voice boomed over the noise in the stadium, hushing the crowd into quiet whispers. The voice came from the north side of the stadium where the king and the wealthy part of the audience sat. From this distance no one, except probably me, could see the announcer. “Welcome to the second day of the 107th Angelmark City Tournament!” some applause, “Today the real fighting begins, where the real monsters clash, and the winner takes all!” some applause, “But enough talk, please welcome our first fighters of today, to the west, the Dragon Seekers!” there was some more applause, Aaron raised his hand awkwardly to the crowd, “And to the east, the Three Knights!” I wondered at the applause, I mean there were four of them and it said three knights, their creativity was worse than Aaron’s suggestion “the Five”. Unlike Aaron though, these four welcomed the applause, waving back to the crowd, the tall one spun around with his hands in the air.
“Fighters ready!” the announcer yelled, Aaron and Gret drew their swords along with a few of the other team, “BEGIN!”
Both teams charged at each other, except for Rook and the greasy haired man, both which stood in a fighting stance concentrating on the other team. The air became electrified as both of their magic’s collided, it was invisible but the hairs on my arms rose with the power. Good magic users were essential for both teams, without one the other team could easily cast a small spell knocking the other team unconscious. Magic in combat wasn’t used to summon meteor showers or make huge fires, it was used to cripple the other team. When one magic user found a weakness in the other or if the other magic user was cut down it determined the outcome of the fight.
While both of our magic users fought their invisible battle Aaron, Gret, Brand, and I charged forward in that order. Aaron was heading toward the tall one when Weasel A intercepted him and nearly lopped off one of Aaron’s arms; Aaron deflected the stroke with his sword and quickly became engaged in a sword fight with the weasel. Gret went around them, also heading for the tall guy but was also intercepted, this time by Weasel B. Brand ran forward now, smiling with anticipation of a good fight with the tall guy but his smile was wiped clean off when Weasel A kicked in his knees from behind. Brand turned and started to swing his sword at the weasels. Three against two, Weasel A and B were outnumbered but they seemed to read each other’s minds and were able to handle three.
And that left just two people, me and seven foot three. He didn’t even run, he just walked leisurely in long strides. I stopped and looked up at him, allusions popped into my head-David and Goliath, Jack and the Giant. Tall guy didn’t even pay attention to me and just put his hand over his eyes as if looking for something, “Who’s the weapons master in this group?” he asked, not really asking me but just musing,
“Me,” I said.
He looked down surprised, “You?!” he said, the laugh evident in his voice, “You?! You little Dragon Squeaker? I don’t even have to-,”
He didn’t get to finish his sentences as I rapped my sword across his shins; he dropped to his knees with a surprised grunt.
“Lesson #1 in fighting: No talking, more fighting,” I said and not really trying swung my sword at him. This one I’d have to go easy on, I wouldn’t even have to take out my other sword, and didn’t even think about having to go all out with Blood.
Infuriated, he got up and swatted my sword away as it nearly hit his face. He then pulled out a hammer about the size of a small bull and swung it at me, taking my advice and not talking. I dodged it easily and tapped it with my sword as if parrying it. Now even angrier with the fact that he didn’t hit me, he swung madly trying to hit me from all sides. I didn’t want to end the fight too quickly so I just evaded all the swings, twisting this way and that. Rather bored, I maneuvered myself so that I could hear the low whistle of the hammer blowing past my ear.
Using my peripheral vision I watched the others fight, Rook seemed to be having a better time than the greasy magic user who was starting to sweat profusely. Aaron, Brand, and Gret were still busy with the two weasels but they were starting to gain the upper hand and the weasels moves were getting more and more desperate.
Suddenly the tall guy did a particularly long sweep with his hammer; I saw it and decided to do an elaborate move to avoid it. As I did a rather hard step my foot slipped on some loose gravel and I fell to the ground.
“Ha!” said Tall guy and he swooped in on me. Quickly I rolled to the side, but one of my feet didn’t move fast enough and the hammer hit one side of it. Pain stabbed at where it hit, I was lucky, my muscle was pretty bruised but if the hammer had hit my leg straight on my shin would have broken.
I quickly pushed myself up with my other three limbs and hopped to the side as Tall-guy tried to smash the hammer in my face.
“You know what,” I said, looking at my sword, “I’m getting pretty bored. Let’s end this.”
Tall-guy smiled and laughed, “I was thinking the same thing!” as he said it he lunged at me about to do one final, devastating swing.
Like a matador I sidestepped him and brought my sword down on his fingers as he passed, they met with a resounding crack! Automatically he dropped the hammer and clutched his hand to his chest. He turned toward me angrily, “You little-”
It ended rather quickly after that. Lighting fast I grabbed a rock off the ground and threw it at him, the rock hit its target, right between his eyes. Mechanically he closed his eyes and raised his hands to his face. Distracted he didn’t see me or move away as I lunged at him. I promptly grabbed that annoying braid on his beard and roughly tugged it. His head was pulled down and I brought up my knee slamming it into his windpipe. There was a strangled noise as his windpipe was crushed. He dropped like a sack of potatoes, trying feebly to breathe.
I let out a small huff and sheathed my sword and took out my other one. I then twisted my wrist and let it swing in a large circle like I was testing it out. The blade narrowly missed Tall-guys chin and with a snip it cut off that obnoxious braid. Satisfied I turned around, some ways away the greasy haired man lay face down on the ground and a few meters away the weasels were on the ground knocked out. Standing by the weasels was Rook, Brand, Gret, and Aaron, all four of their mouths agape.
So much for being the weak guy of the group. My face expressionless I waved at them, “Hey.”
