by Scott Beith
They tried and tried but none of them ever reached within a fist of distance to him. The floor was as slippery as ice, but the prince nimbly skid and slid over it. Nothing could be done to improve their odds against him, as one by one they were alienated into a corner before Arlo struck them down with his ridiculous strength and speed.
The prince possessed reflexes too quick for time and sight. It was as if he was always in the future, impatiently waiting for the rest of the world to slowly catch up.
The very thought of having to talk to him was already making my stomach churn, and I hoped I’d be able to find his legion commander first so I could talk with her instead.
As ruthless as the fighting looked, I couldn’t look away. The fight was only a demonstration for new eager recruits, but something about such senseless violence was strangely entertaining, with the shock factor too appealing to alter my stare. When Arlo struck others’ swords, his blunt training blade fluxed under the pressure of his own heavy but hypnotic sword swings; brute force tactics simply disarming his opponents by powerfully smacking the weapons out of their icy gripped hands.
When fellow trainers saw the current handicap was still not fair enough, more professionals decided to help, joining forces against the prince. One man crept behind Arlo and thrust his wooden lance towards the prince. Arlo spun around and deflected it before kicking the man, sending him swimming through the air, unaffiliated to gravity.
His powers were similar to his mother’s when it came to pushing air through sound. His strength and speed coming from an unseen field of sound waves that he seemed to be able to imbue all around himself – something that makes him capable of flexing gravity and becoming a fighter truly unparalleled in power – strong enough to have made him the future King of The Borderlands, had he not already been in line to receive the title.
I couldn’t help but continue to watch him as I entered the short grassy lawn of that muddy cliff side arena. I watched Arlo lunge backwards, leaping directly towards a wooden sword, knocking down his last opponent by landing feet first on top of him and walking off the man like a plank of timber that he cared nothing about. Never so much as looking at this perpetrator. He just leaped, and that was his style: disarming the other man’s blade with just a flick and twist of his heels while he stood victoriously above a group of winded adversaries.
Curiously, he paused at the strange sight of me. Probably already sensing my upcoming dread. His eyes were uncertain, no doubt assuming the worst about me and realising the dire situation I must be under in order to grovel enough to seek this hellhole out.
Disengaging from his fight, he graciously helped the closest opponent back to his feet and they walked off together to their grand trainer: a woman with a frayed gold crown standing by a marble pillar, with all the aspiring junior recruits beside her. She was the former queen and current legion commander – Lady Camilla.
There was a warmness in her eyes as she gave feedback, coaching the recruits about Arlo’s unique fighting style. The recruits stared, still mesmerised by the fight they had witnessed, believing they too could become as strong as their prince.
Today must’ve been an important induction day for Camilla, as this brown-eyed brunette was wearing her flashy overhead banners: two long giant steel poles wedged into the back of her clothes, protruding out of her backside and up high into the air to show our crown’s gold and red rimmed flags. Many people mocked her for wearing these banners, but I always found them cool to look at. She proudly carried these flags to boost morale and show her presence on the battlefield, should any cavalry need to find her.
Sometimes I used to overhear the guards crack jokes about those banners, saying she only wears them to cover up her lost wings. It was an insulting remark about her fall from grace, as she had once been queen and was now only a high ranking army officer. Of course no one would dare make those quips to her face.
I was almost up to them, unhindered by the crowds now training all around me – some nymphs glaring at me as I pushed between them, forcing them to stop their training.
My back foot snagged on something in the mud and I stumbled to the ground, landing in a pool of mud as a cold wetness splashed across my face.
A girl stood above me, covered in mud herself. Ebony extended her hand to me, her tail discreetly uncoiling from around my leg as she helped me back up. Releasing it with the slightest flicker and splash as it resubmerged underneath the puddle before it climbed back up her side inconspicuously. A failed attempt to conceal it when she was the only possible culprit here that even had a tail.
Ebony began wiping away the mud on me, acting if I was too dumb to know she’d been the one to trip me. I shoved her back, angrily wiping the mud off myself.
“You should be familiar with how slippery mud is, Kya,” Ebony then proceeded to mock, seeing herself as the hero seeking justice for my intrusion into the recruits’ first lesson. The other recruits around her laughed as she leaned in to whisper. “Gotta watch your footing when you’re more uphill than you’re used to being,” she then added, the quip referring to my lack of rank.
Ebony flicked the mud from her short tied up ponytail, the dirt’s black colour matching the short black natural fringe of this skimpy dressed warrior as she contested my angry stare without concern or fear of recoil. Patiently just awaiting my next course of action. She was a fit and gorgeous little jungle vixen to all her friends; this description was accentuated by the fact she went out of her way to seem sexy, yet uninterested.
She wiped mud from her arms with both hands. Squiggly tribal tattoos ran down her arms and along the left side of her chest and side, radiating that bad girl vibe that all these rough boys seemed to crave.
She was the narcissistic daughter of Doctor Maxwell and Judge Delphi. Two of the highest authorities within the kingdom, and two of the most gracious and devout of all the nobles present here. And yet in their heated passion they somehow managed to spawn the most spoiled and selfish feline to ever exist.
Despite being born to a house of the highest nobility, Ebony did, fortunately, lack all the typical snobbishness that most upper class dignitaries had. She was happy to be soaked in mud, just like all the other bottom dwellers typically found in the pits – recruits, who spent their nights with bedbugs in hay beds and linen hammocks, dreaming of honour and glory. Meanwhile she slept in pink silk sheets, dreaming of nothing else but having the prince by her bedside.
I was quite impressed with her persistence through all this discord though. In the beginning, I figured she’d only last a month here with all the sweaty nymphs she had to pretend didn’t repulse her just so she could make herself the next future queen. Befriending all these boys and girls was the only way for her to belong with Arlo’s faction. I think some of them must have at least realised her friendship was all a ploy, but were too encapsulated by her beauty to accept it as harsh truth.
Even Arlo, our half-witted prince, must have at least suspected such selfish motivations in Ebony choosing to train with him when she’s already a princess of her own right. Slumming it down here with his infantrymen, convincing them with a pretty face and a pleasing smile that she wants the same thing as the rest of them.
I pushed her from me with a big huff. My hair was covered in foul smelling mud, and some of it had got in my eyes and blurred my vision. I didn’t dare wipe it away though, not wanting to appear weak.
Still fuelled by the desire to please her audience, Ebony said, “Guess your mother never taught you to mind your surroundings.” She snickered, too obnoxious to even grasp the gravity of what she’d just said to me – an orphan girl.
I looked away, considering what to do, my anxiety in overdrive as my senses blackened into none. My fight or flight instincts failing to reach any conclusion once again, and then I saw my own dim shadow jump across the corner of my sight and make that poor choice for me. Looking backwards towards all those faces, I watched them chuckle briefly only to see their faces dropped with surprise, excitem
ent and shock. My shadow lunged from beside me, hitting Ebony like a tidal wave, knocking her down before hurling her into a puddle across the courtyard, only to rapidly dissipate in the bright sunlight. Surprising all, including myself. A mood and environment changing just as rapidly, once those who were initially mocking me began cheering me on...
Arlo’s gaze shot to Ebony and me, and he smirked as he left Camilla with her newest soldiers, winking at me as he joined the spectators on the sidelines. His stare deterred my focus, allowing Ebony to get back to her feet; she was already three steps shy of me, pacing on all four legs like a wild animal. She was just as fast as the prince was – too fast for an ordinary person to react. Her feet hit my chest, making me feel as if a wagon had smashed into me, and she back flipped of me as I crumpled to the mud.
Ebony’s tail coiled around my leg, yanking me along with her, beating the breath out of me as she dragged me, kicking and screaming, from puddle to puddle, splashing muddy water across the crowd. She tried to pin my arms. “Alright, calm down now,” she said, smiling before her appeased crowd. “It’s over, Kya,” she emphasised to me, waiting for me to stop struggling and submit.
I should’ve stopped there, but something inside me had already snapped, with the very mention of my mother setting me most alight. Ebony’s own shadow was now gripping her like a tangling vine, appearing almost like a constricted cape around Ebony as it tried to pull her off me. I kicked free and got to my feet, watching her locked in a wriggling struggle with her own shadow.
She attempted to appear unfazed amidst it all, simply waiting for this next shadow to diminish under the sun, wrestling her own infatuation of still being in control while she was now in the direct presence of her prince. “You really think you can play at my level?” she then sniped to me, fighting to gain control over her shadow. “Your shadow is your only friend, and it happens to be as useless as you,” she smugly insulted me as she stopped fighting, no longer attempting to break free. She knew her skills and experience were much deadlier than mine. While I was cleaning tables and dishes, she was up here battling the best this castle had to offer. But at that particular moment, I just couldn’t have cared less. I felt as if I wasn’t even the one in control. My shadow was. And I knew that aspect was scaring her just as much as it was me.
“But yours isn’t,” I snapped back, enraged as, for the first time, I maintained an unyielding focus. Sucking in what was left of her shadow and funnelling the crowd’s shadows towards me as I enlarged and fortified my arms. The crowd flinching and jumping at the sight of their shadows slithering across the floor towards Ebony and taking hold of her legs.
Shadows moulded across my hands like giant pillow cuffs, increasing the size of my fists as I rampantly threw them into Ebony like a prize fighting boxer.
It was my fault the fight had escalated this far. Just as I knew I was the true bully in front of all these junior soldiers, suddenly finding myself possessed with some absurd lust for blood that needed to hear Ebony cry ‘surrender’.
And so, releasing her out of a squashed confinement, breaking apart as I flung one last shot at her, my shadows took over, pushing her about. They disintegrated in the sun, only for new shadows to take their place. Ebony was left to block and cower as she tried to back away.
The sight, for me, was nothing short of astonishing, as I was the one winning. Only two shadows remained beside her, holding her down as she tried to slither for freedom.
I turned my head away in a smug premature victory, not realising Ebony had freed her legs. She sprung up, kicking at me. I hit the ground hard, feeling the throbbing pulse of instant karma coming back to burn me. I stared in a daze at the recruits tightly circled around Ebony and me. They were shouting out some kind of profanities too hazy to hear, and smiling in amusement at the conclusion of this cat fight.
Their mocking chants blinded me from the true dangers of battle, with the crowds’ cheering war cries suppressing the rational side of my mind. I got back up, but it took me too long to realise something in my opponent had changed. She was not only fighting me, but also another version of herself, struggling to maintain control over her anger as she convulsed on the ground. Roaring and swiping at my incoming shadows as I piled more and more on top of her, trying to keep her locked down.
The crowd stopped shouting, watching in silence as Ebony’s skin shed with the fur of a vicious night-prowler, losing control of herself as her repressed power took over.
I was so startled by what I saw that I took the shadows off her, hoping the small act of compassion might prevent her full fury from attacking me.
“NO! Don’t release her! Hold her down!” the prince then yelled to me in a panic, pushing through the crowd at the risk of alerting Camilla to this unjustly feud.
Ebony released a final roar as the crowd jolted backwards along with me, some members bravely coming in and attempting to pin her down. Her body becoming black as she burst out from the mess as a completely new four-legged creature. A beast Ebony tried to spend her whole life holding back, right up until I provoked it out of her.
Upon the realisation of my mistake, I was too late to do anything about the beast. I tried to hold her down with my shadows, but she literally clawed through them. Springing out into the crowd before knocking a shadow down and rolling towards me like one powerful bowling ball. Sharp claws extending out from thick nails as she struck at my chest with a flurry of lashing swipes.
A quick improvised shadow shield of cloudy black feathers failing do anything to save me as her primal pounce tore right through it, the intense physical impact of her charge whacking me and her down. Knocking me out of my own head, all but a few sharp distant stinging sensations left binding me to the earth. Feeling a numbness and feverish heat weighing me down as I recall sensing my untimely end.
2
Brawl
I had lost my sight near completely. I felt sick from being hurled around like a ragdoll. Ebony relentlessly clung on to me as she jumped and slammed us down and about, digging her claws deep into my sides as she tossed me from puddle to post. Around us the crowd’s cheers of enjoyment had turned to stunned silence.
“She’s had enough,” I heard one brave person stammer.
“It’s ok, you can stop now. You’ve already won,” said another scared cadet with a similar frightful panic to his tone.
Voices I couldn’t put an exact face to, due to the murky greyness of my own mud-drenched hair completely blocking my eyes.
There were a few brave souls working together in an attempt to drag Ebony off me. My skin burned as she bit my leg, resisting the others’ tugs to pull her away. She kicked them with her furry-black back legs, pushing them away. Her head appeared above me, her teeth retracting slightly as two giant canine fangs prepared to pierce my neck.
My head was spinning too much to do anything. This was the first time I’d ever come close to knocking on death’s door. And for what? A fight born out of anger? Ebony’s temper had simply bested my own, leaving her with hairy unflattering cheeks across long protruding blood-hungry jaws. Her deadly eyes glowed yellow with rage as she hesitated, doing her best to fight her own fur-covered transformation.
And then her teeth snapped down for my neck. My eyes closed in a cloudy terror, foreseeing the reaper’s deadly scythe readily approaching me…
I waited and waited but no stabbing pain came.
I opened my eyes and saw that the prince and his own senior friends had successfully pulled Ebony away, dragging her by her hind legs. Saliva dripped from her mouth, running along my chest and legs like a leaking water tap, while I laid on the floor, frozen in fear. I lifted my head as much as possible to watch her get dragged away, seeing her kick and claw at the ground, struggling to escape.
She broke free, charging back towards me.
The prince dived on top of her, twisting and spinning her onto the ground, where he pinned her legs as best he could. “Ebony, look at me. LOOK AT ME!” he yelled, trying to wake her from a
primordial world. His intervention only seeming to enrage her further as she slashed him across his shoulder and chest, madly wrestling for her freedom once again.
I couldn’t stop my eyes from blinking shut as I laid there, too dazed to move. I felt like a spinning compass on top of a magnet unable to find its north, merely waiting for her next pending attack. My head fell backwards, collapsing to the blinding light of a heavy sun gleaming directly into my face, as I phased in and out of consciousness, time journeying onwards without me.
I opened my eyes, reminding myself I needed to stay strong and aware if I was to survive. I could see the sun had travelled a small distance across the sky and realised I’d been passed out longer than I’d thought.
I looked across to see Camilla holding down Ebony right beside me, puffing and panting as this girl slowly reverted back to her former civilian self. Everyone stood perfectly still, silently quaking from Camilla as she started to preach to the spectating crowd.
“I should have let her end you all!” she said to the crowd circled around us, an atmosphere of unanimous regret. Her golden diadem crown bouncing light off the sun and glaring it back into everybody’s eyes as if it too were mad at them and wished them to bow their heads in a shared blinding shame. A battle circlet given to her by her late husband. It was all cracked and dented now, its only purpose these days being to protect her forehead from downward battle thrusts. “Is this what we are all here to learn? How to beat down those who have never raised an arm in their life? To attack the civilians you swore to protect?” she snapped before combusting into a thin white cloud of smoke and vanishing.
The crowd all smirking and snickering happily, content with the lack of punishment based on her furious departure.