by Aaron Hicks
Riu started to walk towards Charis, who took a step back in fear, then gathered his courage and readied his weapons. Once Riu was within his weapons reach Charis made a desperate attack that aimed both sticks at Riu’s head. With a snap that was heard around the arena. Charis was again on his back. This time he didn’t stand. “Did he kill him?” asked Larut.
“No.” said Uktesh more hopeful that sure.
Charis sat up and looked at his broken sticks and shook his head in wonder. He stood, bowed low to Riu, and walked back to where he and Riu had waited previously. Soon it was Larut, Repus, and Esolc’s turns. Larut and Esolc won their matches. Repus lost when he didn’t get any of his choice weapons; sword, axe, or a pole weapon. He angrily left to sit with the girls, Tylor, and Basam. It was Uktesh’s turn to fight and his opponent was Sorn, Dekan’s father, who had already picked his weapons and had a huge grin on his face as he held the, “magic,” mace that Li had sold him. Sorn towered over Uktesh my more than a foot and he had even more muscles than his son. But compared to a minotaur, Uktesh wasn’t too worried.
Uktesh drew sword, knives, and his own giant hammer. Sorn walked confidently to stand six inches from Uktesh and made sure that Uktesh had to stare up to talk to him, and said, “Now, boy, you’re going to be beaten with the same magical mace you sold me.”
“Wow, you had it enchanted! How?” asked Uktesh.
“What? No, I bought it from you. It already had magical properties.”
“Not when I had it. It was just a mace.”
“But when you sold it to me you said that it had magic!”
“No I didn’t.”
“Then your girlfriend did. I don’t care who said it, you lied to me.”
“No, she didn’t lie either. You said something like, ‘How else could a boy like me beat a minotaur’ and we just didn’t clue you in to the idea of skill.”
“We’ll let our weapons do the talking!”
“Really?” Uktesh asked incredulously as he wondered if Sorn hadn’t watched any of Uktesh’s past fights.
Uktesh nodded and as soon as the announcer shouted for them to begin. He allowed Sorn to attack first and, as slow as it was, he simply side stepped away from the attack. Sorn slowly halted the weapon’s progress when he realized he’d missed. Again Sorn slowly brought his weapon around to swipe at Uktesh. Again and again, Uktesh barely needed to move to avoid the hit. This time, though, he kicked it as it passed to add speed to it, which was too much for Sorn to be able to hold on to and his weapon spun away. Sorn backed up to where his two other weapons waited for him. Uktesh said, “Giving up on your weapon of choice so easily? Go get it, I’ll wait.”
Sorn walked to where his weapon was and as he bent to pick it up Uktesh Rushed, then Soared, and attacked in the perfect Woodsman’s Work. He brought his hammer down on the mace and with a crack like thunder split the mace head in two. Sorn backed away holding the remains of his mace and then threw it on the ground and shouted, “I yield!”
Uktesh won, rejoined his friends, and watched as the fights continued. After two fights, it was Riu’s turn against another person with a gun. He attacked Riu, who again seemed not to move, but the ball missed him. Riu started to walk forward and the man dropped his gun and pulled, what looked like a much longer gun that had been hanging over his shoulder, “A rifle? Where are these people getting the money for these weapons?”
“How much are they?” The man fired and again missed, but this time Riu clearly sidestepped, and the others gasped. “What? What did I miss?” asked Uktesh.
“He blurred!” they all exclaimed.
“Maybe he’s Afflicted,” said one of the other contestants as they watched.
Uktesh couldn’t discount that possibility, but said, “I don’t think an Afflicted would flaunt himself so publically, most likely he’s just really good at fighting.”
The man who fought Riu, knew that he had no chance to win, so he unsheathed his knife and threw it to the ground in a clear gesture of surrender. The round progressed until it was Larut’s turn again. He won and up next was Esolc who also won. Uktesh’s opponent quit and the next fight was Riu against an opponent with a ball in each hand. When they started the fight Riu’s opponent threw them both at the same time, one overhand and one underhand and Riu blurred to avoid them. But the man flicked his wrist and both balls came back to him and Riu did not know an attack had come from behind him until it was too late. He only was hit by one, the other narrowly missed, and the man was the first person to gain a point against Riu.
“They’re attached by string!” exclaimed Larut.
Uktesh looked more closely and saw that Larut was right, but also saw that Riu was aware as well. This time when the man threw them, Riu caught them both and threw first one then the other back at the man. They both hit him. One on each shoulder socket, and Uktesh heard the sound of bones being broken, the man fell to the ground unconscious. “Holy crap! You know you have to fight him next time right?” jeered Larut.
Uktesh nodded and said, “Yep.”
“After this fight I have only one suggestion.” Larut said.
“Yeah?”
“Don’t score a point against him, he seems to dislike it.”
Larut and Esolc won their matches and ensured their spots in the quarter finals. Almost before he knew it, it was his turn to fight Riu. His random weapons were; bow, sword, and staff. His heart was racing in his chest. Riu again chose not to use any weapons and when the announcer shouted, “Fight!” Uktesh emptied his entire quiver of twenty arrows at Riu in as many seconds as it took his hand to grab place and fire. They were slightly slowed down by the rubber ball on the end, to ensure non-lethality. Even still, they were grouped so closely together, and with such accuracy, that by the fifth Riu could no longer only dodge, he had to start blocking as well. By the eleventh, they had started to brush past his body, not enough to score a point, but the last arrow slipped his defense and hit him square in the chest!
Riu looked at his chest and back to Uktesh, who had thrown the now useless bow at Riu and grabbed his staff, “Boy, you show great skill. The man before earned a point because of my ignorance and his trickery, but you earned it through great skill,” he bowed low at the waist, “You have earned my respect.”
“I hope to do more than that by the end of this fight. I know, that being one point ahead, has only made it an even fight.”
Riu acknowledged the compliment with a nod of his head, “You have my respect, unfortunately for you, you’ve shown the dragon clan to be weak, first by beating Charis, then by scoring a point against me. For this insult, I will break your body.” Then, for the first time, sprinted at his opponent; Uktesh.
Uktesh spun his staff defensively and blocked the first three attacks, even as they blurred towards him, but the fourth hit him in the same shoulder he’d just been shot as he tried to dodge away. He spun and fell to the ground, his staff flew away. He continued his spin, unsheathed his sword, and attacked in the imperfect Leaf Falls. Riu jumped over his attack kicked out with his foot, but Uktesh dodged with the defensive perfect Thunder Rolls in the Hills. He came to his feet and there was a momentary pause before Riu and Uktesh attacked again.
The balanced defensive Dove on the Winds, met the imperfect Lightning Flashes, and turned to the perfect Farmers Scythes the Wheat, back down to the balanced Glide Under the Fence. As fast as Uktesh could think, and sometimes faster, his body moved through the forms balanced, imperfect, perfect. He used all the styles he knew, adapted some to fit his needs, and by the end, was forced to create some of his own. How long the fight went Uktesh didn’t know. He just knew that, even with his endurance and stamina, he was tired quickly. But he had also begun to learn Riu’s patterns of attack. Riu’s breath was also coming hard by the end and with a sudden blur of lethal intent, Uktesh rolled with the attack and still found himself on his back.
He lay there, his breath came hard, and he looked up to see Riu glaring down at him. “You are very talented
for one so young, I enjoyed that.”
“You’re talented too. That would have been fun if you weren’t trying to kill me.”
“I will one day, and I too will enjoyed that, you learn quickly, I believe the next match will be even more interesting, try to survive it too.”
Uktesh stood and the crowd erupted with cheers. With that, the second day of the tournament ended, and when Uktesh walked back into the waiting area Larut said, “That was a close one!” Esolc nodded. They met up with the rest of the group and, after a few more words about the closeness of the fight, they went out to eat again after stopping first at the bank to drop off their winnings. It was quiet most of the way there and, except for when they ordered. They sat silently too. Even Li was quiet which, was the biggest clue that something was wrong. So he asked, “Ok what’s wrong?”
They were silent and each found somewhere else to look other than at him. All except Basam, “Basam thinks you’re Afflicted.”
With sudden dread, he realized that the others thought so too, or maybe were ashamed that they had thought it for a moment, or possibly something else that Uktesh couldn’t think of. “By your reactions you all think so too? Why? You’ve all seen me fight and shoot before. I killed a minotaur by myself! You know I’m skilled! Why now?”
Heathyr laid her hand on his and said, “Honey, you blurred, Riu did too, but you both blurred.”
“What does that mean?”
“You know how Riu sometimes blurred to avoid something?” said Laurilli. “When you were fighting, you both were just blurs. I couldn’t even see your hands moving.”
“Really?” Uktesh was torn between excitement that he’d moved that quickly and fear that maybe he was Afflicted and didn’t know it.
Larut spoke up, “And then there was how long you two fought at that speed.”
“How long did we fight?”
“That last point took nearly an hour before he beat you.”
“An hour! No wonder I’m so tired. Maybe I should order some more meat to eat.”
“But when it was over the crowd cheered. If they were scared, why didn’t they run?”
“Scared? I think we were all spell bound by your fight, or I guess a better way to put it would be mesmerized by it. When you were fighting I couldn’t look away.”
“Isn’t there a fifteen minute fight limit?”
“How could the announcer stop you two? Plus the crowd needed to know who was better.”
Their food came and Uktesh ate in silence before he asked, “So what do you think? Do you think I’m Afflicted?”
“No.” said Laurilli and Heathyr immediately.
“Basam thinks you are, but Basam doesn’t care. Basam wants to learn from the best. Basam believes that is you.”
“Even though I lost?”
“Basam doesn’t want to fight with fists. Basam wants to fight with swords and axes, spears and halberds.”
“Oh,” said Laurilli with a blush, “then I change my answer to ‘maybe, but it doesn’t matter cause you’re a good person.’”
“Changing your answer on me?” asked Uktesh.
“Well, I …” she started.
“You what?” He asked with an evil grin. “Did you, by any chance, lie?”
She scowled at him, “I change my answer again! This time to, ‘maybe, but it doesn’t matter, even if you’re a big jerk face.’”
“I’ll agree to that.” said Tylor, the rest nodded their heads, as they tried not to laugh.
“Well, I guess that’ll have to do. But you’d think I would know if I was Afflicted, right?”
“Not if you’ve been Afflicted for a long time and are now used to the added speed it gives you.”
Uktesh thought about all the things that he could do that others couldn’t and thought that it was his training that was the reason he could do it. But if it isn’t my training, I would have to be Afflicted. I would need to fight some Beletarians to find out if training alone is enough to do what I do. Especially that run from White bridge.
The rest of the meal passed peacefully with light banter, but everyone was nervous about their matches tomorrow. They walked back to the contestant’s sleeping area and a contingent of guards were outside their barrack. They had waited for them, or more specifically waited for Uktesh. The old guard leaned on his halberd again and watched with half closed eyes. “Uktesh these boys seem to think you be Afflicted,” the old man said. “I told them that you was a right kind boy, who didn’t act against our laws and even if you were Afflicted, they got no right to arrest you.”
“You’re here to arrest me?”
The captain glared at the gatekeeper, “We are here as a precaution. We’re here to ensure the safety of those sleeping here, and we have no orders to arrest you at this time. Do you wish to confess a crime?”
“Nope.” Uktesh said and walked through them, but not before he nodded to the gatekeeper. With the extra security they didn’t post a guard and soon they were asleep.
Final Day
The first thing Uktesh knew next was the soft feel of Laurilli’s lips on his. He reached up and pulled her to him, and deepened their kiss. She straddled his hips and pulled back from him, her blue eyes mischievous. She raised a golden eyebrow as she slipped off the left shoulder of her dress. Suddenly nervous Uktesh looked around and saw all the beds were empty. She reached for him again and he started to kiss the area she’d bared for him. He felt her hand under his shirt as his mouth found hers again. She grabbed his big toe and started to shake it. How’d she get off me so fast. She let go of his toe, and instead started to unbutton the front of her dress. She stopped and again started to shake his toe, “Lad, wake up,” he heard Tylor’s whispered voice.
He woke up slowly, and tried to cling to his dream, “No.” he heard himself moan.
“Lad, you better calm down before the women folk wake up, or there will be some embarrassing questions for you.”
Uktesh stood and left to find the latrine to relieve his bladder and also to try to calm down. Why couldn’t he have waited two more minutes! After he relieved himself, he walked back to his bed and smiled to himself. Tylor sat on the steps, his sword and a sharpening stone next to him, “A good dream then I’m thinking?”
Uktesh could feel his cheeks heat, but just said, “Yeah.”
“Well everyone’ll be waking up in a few minutes anyway. I thought you might want to wake up Laurilli yourself.”
Uktesh smiled and was suddenly wide awake. He knew she woke up violently, but it was worth the risk. He walked to her bed and knelt down. He stroked her hair and leaned forward to kiss her awake, only to be kneed in the armpit. He was jostled forward and head butted Laurilli in her head. She woke up, sat up quickly, and hit him again, this time he fell to the ground. With a startled “Ow!” she put her hand to her forehead and said, “What’d you do that for?”
Slightly dazed he said, “Morning,” as cheerily as he could, “just trying to give my fiancé a kiss.”
He sat up as she said, “Maybe you should wake me up first, then kiss me good morning, like this.” she said and leaned forward to back up her words. As she backed away, her shirt opened and he caught a glimpse of something that he wouldn’t forget for the rest of his life, but was also instantly excited again. She backed up quickly and closed her shirt, “Did you see anything?”
He nodded stunned, “It looked like heaven.”
Her brow furrowed as she made sure she hid herself from him. She opened her shirt and looked down at herself, then remembered her indignation, “Hey that’s not fair! If you saw me. I get to see you!”
“Deal.” he said, and threw off his shirt, “Your turn.”
“What? That’s not what I meant! You have to show me your-”
“Please don’t finish that sentence!” shouted Heathyr. Uktesh realized that everyone was awake, that he and Laurilli were the center of attention, and that they all fought back laughter.
Laurilli turned a shade of red that couldn’t
be healthy and ducked under the covers with a squeak. Uktesh had nowhere to hide, so he settled it for himself when he put his shirt back on, and asked, “How long have you been awake?”
“I think since your ‘head butt of wakefulness,’” said Larut.
“Ha ha,” Uktesh laughed sarcastically, but his sarcasm had no heat as he couldn’t get the image of Laurilli out of his head. Then he realized he was staring at nothing and had a big smile. He knew they knew what thought had occupied his mind and now it was his turn to blush.
“You two have been engaged for three days! Three! At this rate, you’ll never make the year and a day before your wedding!”
“Year and a day?” asked Uktesh, “What’s that?”
Larut laughed and said, “Yeah, Heathyr, what is this mystical year and a day you speak of?”
“It’s the allotted time you have to be engaged before you can get married.”
“Really? Why? We don’t have anything like that in Beletaria. We just wait long enough for two people to be ready for marriage.”
“How long does that usually take?”
“I don’t know about a month, maybe three, a day or two if they’ve dated forever.”
“A day or two.” Heathyr seemed ready to faint.
“That’s rare, though. So I guess another three hundred sixty two more days won’t be so bad.”
Tylor said, “Well, as much fun as this is, we should get our gold from the bank and be prepared for a fight to get to the betting tables. Today’s the day they let you wager as much as you want to really break the bank of the unlucky and win back some of their loss from those who have been lucky so far. The rule is if you bid more than five gold, you have to bid that every time afterward. So if you start at ten gold, every other bet is ten, and if you bet ten then raise it to twenty, every bet after the raise would be the raised price. Here’s the kicker, you have to bid on every match today, and if you’re a fighter you have to bid on yourself.”