“Why not? I told you! Where you go, I go!” She was getting tired of him trying to leave her behind.
“It’s not that.” He said, grabbing her shoulders and looking into her eyes. “I know what I need to do and you won’t be able to help. I need to know that you will be safe, that you both will be safe.”
She gaped as he moved a hand to rest on her belly.
“How did you know?” She asked, completely stunned.
He laughed his beautiful, full laugh and pulled her into his arms, hugging her tight. As much as she could feel his joy, she also sensed a sorrow, a fear.
“I pay a lot of attention to you, and you haven’t gone an hour without looking down and rubbing your belly in weeks.”
She laughed nervously, still pulled tight against his chest. “I’m sorry I didn’t tell you.”
“No, don’t. I don’t care. I know and I love you and that’s all that matters.”
When he released her she saw tears on his eyes, then realized she was crying as well, both tears of joy and something else. He pulled her head in and kissed her long and deeply and when he pulled back his face was hard.
When he left; quickly scaling the steep rock face, she could feel him, like she had first felt that tiny spark, but stronger, far stronger. He was connected to her so deeply that she almost felt they were one person. She could feel his fear and his calmness, his doubt and his determination, but most of all, his love.
Leif
He put all other things aside and focused on the rock. He still felt emotion, he just chose to separate his consciousness from it and concentrate on the task at hand. The climb was not necessarily hard, just treacherous. A wrong step could break his leg. Well, maybe not his leg, but anyone else’s. The sun had been just past noon when he started and by the time he reached the top it was turning orange.
The distant noise of hundreds of people going about their day had become so much a part of the experience that he had ignored the sound for most of the trip, but as he ascended the rounded summit and looked out on the town below him, he noticed its absence for the first time. In its place was an undulating roar that reminded him of ocean waves, yet not quite. He began descending the other side and as he neared the source of the sound, it became clearer, or rather, more recognizable. It was the roar of a thousand voices shouting in unison. He had never heard such a thing before, but somehow knew it for what it was.
The cacophony seemed to be coming from a large empty circular section in the northeast corner of the fortress, so Leif altered his descent to head towards the object of interest. As he continued to descend, the angle far more treacherous than that of the ascent, he began to make out individual people and was stunned by the vast crowd that had gathered in one place. He also began to notice erratic movement from the center of the light tan circle spattered with red and dark brown.
He stopped where the rock dropped off completely, at least fifteen strides up. He wasn’t sure no one had spotted him, but when he had realized what was going on, he felt reasonably sure he was safe and had crouched behind a small bush to watch the show. For that was what it was, a show. It was a bloody, deadly, gruesome display for the entertainment of others. He wasn’t surprised.
Three different matches played out before him, the thoughtless slaughter of animals making him sick almost enough to revel in the moment that two wolves ripped a man to pieces, but the stray feeling made him just as disgusted in himself. He looked across the arena at the crowd as they cheered and jeered, switching easily from one to the next, and was even more revolted by what the women were doing. Trying to distract himself, he began searching for someone who might be the leader, it didn’t take long. The man was huge.
He felt sure that if he could defeat this giant of a man the others would fall in behind him. Then he could deal with them more politically. He had seen it happen before on a smaller scale. Whenever he and his father had encountered bandit groups, Cal had always gone straight for the leader. Once he was dead the others either ran or tried to make Cal their new leader. Either way his father slaughtered them all.
He hoped that this method would still work on such a huge group. But even if it didn’t, once he had their head the body shouldn’t be much of a problem. Either they would all attack him, making his task all the easier, or their command structure would collapse into chaos.
As he contemplated the possible outcomes, two new contenders entered the dirt ring. He noticed them but was still lost in thought until one of the men sitting next to the giant stood and leapt down into the arena, completely startling Leif. Why on earth had he interrupted the match?
Alec
Alec walked out onto the dirt not exactly sure why he was there. His head felt muddled, but every time he tried to focus on his surroundings they just slipped away. He continued to walk forward, stumbling slightly as he did so. Something familiar was ahead of him, painfully familiar, but he couldn’t remember why. Thousands of voices shouted at him, the noise whirling around him, disconcerting. Then the familiar something came into focus and he saw Grey padding toward him; the feline’s deeply intelligent eyes bleeding with worry and fear. That emotional transfer gave him a foundation of sorts and he remembered something that helped him focus, something someone had told him about losing everything.
The voices changed then, the tambour switching from excited and encouraging to impatient, then to angry. Someone else had jumped down into the arena and was walking towards him shouting something, though he couldn’t quite focus on the words. Alec shook his head then squeezed it with his hands, trying to shake off whatever was fogging his mind. He looked back up to see the man pull out a sword and run at them and Alec transformed immediately.
Years of fighting had trained his body to respond independent of mental commands, so when the man went past him toward the retreating Grey more than ten strides away, Alec leapt at him, fangs and claws bared. In the periphery of his senses he heard the crowd go quiet and felt something there was something odd that he was running on all fours, but he ignored his muddled mind and finished the charge.
The surprised man flung a hectic swing at him but he dodged effortlessly, bowling him over an instant later and ripping into his flesh as he screamed.
Leif
If Leif was surprised by the second man entering the arena, he was completely dumbfounded when the first man, tall with long, red hair and beard, went almost full lion in defense of the other animal. He quickly ripped the other man to shreds amid his horrified screams.
The redhead, Bloodmane was what the crowd had been chanting, had seemed drugged at first, and by the second man’s disregard for him, Leif would have bet that he knew and was counting on it. The Bloodmane was obviously out of favor with the leader then, if not the group. He would probably be either the best man to help Leif or the second most dangerous rally point after the leader himself, though his drugged state would inhibit his organizational potential.
The redhead quickly reverted to his former loopy state after the heat of the battle left him, then two men entered from gates on either side of the arena and loosed arrows at the man and the beast. The tips must have been coated in some other drug because they both dropped quickly though the wounds weren’t at all serious.
As they were being dragged out, the giant rose and made his way down to the arena floor.
“It seems,” he began in a deep, oddly flowery accent, “that we once again have a vacancy. And so, to fix this, we will have a competition!” At this every single man roared. “And your ‘Alec the Red’ will from now on be my personal champion.”
Leif knew his moment and leapt from his perch, misting as far as he could to slow his fall, then rolling on impact and coming to his feet, taking a few steps forward.
“Not until you face me!”
The giant’s response was what Leif had expected. Four or five guards rushed him from each of the two gates. They died quickly. He hadn’t even needed to mist.
“It seems you have some skill.�
�� The giant said, obviously stalling. “But why do you wish to fight me? Why do you seek your own death?”
“I find your leadership repulsive. I’m here to end it.” He said simply, taking another few steps forward. The multitude seemed to be holding their collective breaths, save for a few hecklers.
“Why must the strong and intelligent always oppose me?” He said, as if thinking aloud. “Well come then, let us get this over with.”
Leif walked slowly toward him. The man didn’t move. Something wasn’t right about this man who stood a full two heads taller than Leif, he could feel it. He waited, staring him down, but the man did nothing. So he did nothing either.
“Are you going to hit me or not?” The giant asked finally, sounding more amused than frustrated.
qLeif began circling the man. “You look young, yet something makes me think you are far older than you should be.”
“You are very perceptive for a boy. I am fifty two years old.”
Leif frowned. “How are you still alive then?”
The giant had been turning to keep Leif in front of him, but stopped at this. Leif saw his beard twitch as he cocked one eyebrow. “Perhaps if I tell you, you will see the futility of your cause and join me.”
Leif knew he would never do such a thing, but his curiosity was peaked so he played along, standing still a few strides away.
“This place,” The giant began, spreading his arms wide, “Was once a military base, before the disaster. They hollowed out the mountain. Here they conducted human testing. I was a subject of their tests.”
“I’m not sure I understand.” Leif said, trying to draw him out. “What do you mean by human testing?”
The crowd was beginning to become restless and Leif could see more men gathering at the gates, unsure of what their leader wanted them to do.
“I was the child of a rebel family, fools who thought they could defy the government. When they were killed, I was taken here. I had no rights as a rebel, so they tested new technologies on me. If I died, they would alter their experiments and try it on someone else. But I didn’t die.
Because of these experiments I survived. I survived when no one else did, and I still survive. And I will survive you.”
When the monster attacked Leif was ready. The telegraphed uppercut seemed almost glacial in its slowness and Leif easily sidestepped it, delivering his own quick jab to the exposed armpit. At first he felt the blow sink home but a split second after impact the giant’s flesh changed, becoming hard as stone.
Leif’s surprise almost cost him his life when the man brought his left around in a hook, but Leif was able to duck under it at the last moment, once again delivering what should have been a devastating blow to the spot between the ribcage and spine that had so often crippled men in pain. But, once again, he stepped back feeling like he had hit a rock wall. He misted his bleeding hand and returned it to normal; a trick he had learned recently then went back in faster than he had ever attacked.
He felt the next three blows hit home, their sheer speed the only thing forcing them past his defenses, a kick to the inner thigh and then two punches to either temple.
Then man took a few steps back, holding his head after the temple blows. “You are far better than I expected, but you cannot win.”
Leif had guessed what he was doing. Somehow the man had discovered a way to shift into stone as Leif did into air, perhaps that was what his babbling about experiments was all about. It would be worth looking into after he dealt with this.
Then, out of nowhere, an arrow came flying at him. Without thinking he knocked it aside, looking for the source and seeing that the men who had gathered at the gates were now inching their way toward him, probably worried at seeing their leader take an obvious blow.
“Stop!” The giant bellowed. “He is mine! Get back to the gates!”
Leif charged forward while the man was still shouting and ducked under his wild swing, coming out behind him and delivering multiple lightning fast blows to kidney’s and neck. Only the first hit flesh. He would have to be faster. The giant whirled and swung again. He was obviously not martially trained, nor had he spent much time actually fighting, he probably relied wholly on his strength and rock skin in battle.
Leif easily dodged the swing and jumped to elbowed him in the eye. Pain shot up his arm, but he ignored it and misted the arm, quickly shooting out his leg to catch the man in the thigh he had already hit. In that instant everything changed. The giant grabbed his leg mid kick and sent him sprawling, then took two steps and stomped. Leif just barely rolled away before the gargantuan foot crushed his head and tried to get to his feet, but the giant swung a kick of his own, sending him sprawling again, this time with a ringing head. Had the man been playing at first to lower Leif’s guard?
The crowd, completely forgotten by both men, was roaring its approval. Leif once again tried to get to his feet, but he couldn’t get his head to stop spinning. Suddenly he was floating in the air with something rock crushing his throat. He tried for the first time to mist completely. Nothing happened. He tried again, but the more he tried the more tired he got. Something was inhibiting him and his efforts were only draining his limited energy reserves.
“I told you I would survive. Did you truly think I could have made it this far on brawn alone?” The giant’s voice was horrifyingly calm, as if he had expended not an ounce of energy in defeating Leif. Then He felt something sharp stab into his stomach and looked down to see the giant yank the arrow back out in a spurt of blood, and then everything went black.
Gerard flung the body to the dirt, disgusted with the waste.
“Feed him to the fish along with the rest of trash.”
Five
Alec
The drug was wearing off quickly and the more he regained his faculties, the more furious he became. It was not a hot rage, but rather a cold, reserved, and obsessive spite. All around him people were in a semi-organized rush, so he just stood there, near the arena gate between two guards, listening to what was happening, waiting for his opportunity.
“Hurry,” one man said, slightly out of breath, as he came to a stop by the leader of the Alec’s guard. “Send everyone out to the cages! The Master wants every man out looking for whoever came with the blond guy.”
“What about him?” The leader said, shoving a thumb over his shoulder toward where Alec was crouched on the ground.
They both looked at him as he did his best to appear drugged out of his mind.
“He isn’t going anywhere, just leave those two there and go get the rest.” The first man replied, obviously a superior to the guard leader.
As the leader went off toward the hidden passage with four of his six men, Alec continued to wait. Everyone was organizing into small groups and dashing toward the gate. Something had obviously happened after he had left the Arena. Whatever it was, it had given him this opportunity so he would take it. He waited until no one else was looking in their direction, then stood up quickly, wrapping a massive, hairy arm around each of their necks, gripping their chins and twisting sharply. They fell without a cry.
Remembering bits of how he had killed Marcus, he turned some of the icy hatred into an energy he could use and bounded forward on all fours, quickly and silently working his way around the arena. It took little time at all to weave through the support structure of the stands and come out on the other side near the opposite gate, where he pounced on the nearest of the two guards holding long stick leashes around Grey’s neck.
Sometime since entering the arena his single strip of clothing had fallen off, so he stayed on all fours. The thick fur that had grown from his already hairy body was warm and comforting in the winter evening air; though he thought his blood and adrenaline would have kept him warm anyway.
Grey looked ok, despite a bit of grogginess. It was strange seeing him on that level, feeling more like a brother than ever before, though Alec was almost twice his size. Alec looked back and was only slightly surprised to se
e a long, red tail extending from the base of his spine. He lifted his incredibly acute nose to the air and inhaled, then let out a deep, powerful roar. It was the greatest feeling in the world, like he was finally himself.
He had caught the unmistakable smell of Mandy; rich cinnamon and roses and sweat, and began following it.
Ria
The shock was almost physically painful when she felt him die. She wasn’t sure he was dead, but she could no longer feel him at all. She sat down against a tree and sobbed. The immense sorrow slowly hardened and something new formed in her chest. It was very cold. She rose, threw off her pack and strung her bow, then began slinking through the long shadows of the woods, face expressionless.
With the sun casting its last and longest rays across the twilight sky, she came back to the cave entrance. Something about the smell of the place had intrigued her on her first visit and she smelled it there again; wolves.
She got close enough to hear every word the men spoke. Apparently they were supposed to go find her. She waited until they moved off into the woods, leaving six men behind that she could see. Still she waited, looking for her opportunity.
“How do they even know there’s anyone out there? How do they know he did- GAArgggl…”
The first two fell quickly, arrows through the throat before they knew what was happening. She missed on the third as he ducked behind a tree stump, but the fourth wasn’t so lucky, catching a metal tip in his shoulder. She loosed one more at the stump, sending the man behind it back down as the last two charged at her. Dropping her bow, she unsheathed her sword right into a block and then ducked between them, using her small stature the way Leif had taught her. A spinning slash sliced open one man’s back from shoulder to waist as the other turned, swinging, and she heard footsteps behind her. She backed toward the cave entrance to get them both in front of her.
Of Wind and Waves - Chronicles of the First Age, Book One Page 13
