Gift of Gold (The Year of Churning Bloods) (49 page)

The other boy didn’t seem to hear me however, as he had already fallen back asleep. My lips trembled into a small bittersweet smile as I realized he would have no recollection of this discussion ever happening. I reached in my pockets, and found that I still had a few uneaten chocolate wrapped in the silk sack that Preston had given me. Without any second thought, I carefully placed the bag onto the open hand of the Ickle-Bit, and left without a sound.

              “You’re ridiculous,” Umber said with a strange mixture of amusement and irritation.

              “Who isn’t?” I responded with a smirk. Together the two of us walked back into the silhouetted image of the school while I tried not to think about the daunting task ahead of us.

              ***

              A couple of hours later and I found myself resting in one of ten champions tents just outside of the Etaporium. I suppose I expected something grand and lavish after hearing the term ‘champions tent,’ however all I got was a small above ground mattress to myself and a couple bottles of water which I graciously accepted. Despite the fact that my tent was the furthest away from the colosseum, I could still hear the excited chatter of trainees swarming to the competition scene. I plugged my ears and tried not to think as anxiety began to build.

“Whsssssooo...” Without even realizing it, I had begun to make ocean noises. “Pshooooooo...” Despite the fact that everything was muffled by my fingers blocking my ears, I could still hear my ocean noises with perfect clarity. I imagined I was floating gently on a bed of water, too happy to sink and too competent to get carried off. I found myself thinking about the images that the penelopis had shown me in his dream. The way that the cliff overlooked the vast body of water and the way that it seemed so far away. “I’m closer now.” I thought to myself happily. “Soon, I’ll be free, and I’ll get to explore places like Ocean with Preston.”

This dream was suddenly interrupted by a strong gust of air which opened my tent flap and allowed a single elder Grimlar to stride through. He flinched at the sight of me, as if he couldn’t quite believe how young I was before he corrected his stance and gestured outside.

“Erm... The competition will take place momentarily,” he said, obviously unsure how to address me. “Exit out into the Etaporium within the next five minutes.” The elder left so quickly, I almost wondered whether or not he had said anything at all. Despite this, I carefully strung Pride’s Grip underneath my armour and set out for the roar of the crowd. I entered the colosseum and was stopped by the jolly looking elder from yesterday who had helped judge the semi-finals.

“Hurry! Hurry! I’m about to give out the instructions,” he said before squealing slightly and dashing off around a corner. I trailed behind uncertainty. Forming a tight half-circle were the nine remaining semi-finalists, who each glared at me with either shocked or bemused expressions. I locked eyes with Gregor, who had darkened immediately. He flashed his sharp while teeth in a deep growl, but fortunately for me could do no more than that at the moment. I steadied my trembling hands and gripped them behind my back as I tried to divert my attention to the elder facing us. As soon as the group was silent he launched into speech.

              “Congratulations young men! You have all made it to the final round!” He then lead a round of loud applause which no one
followed. Ignoring this, he continued to speak. “
I have your instructions here, and will be reading them out now. Please pay careful attention.
” The dull gazes of the finalists all suddenly sharpened
as they focused in on the paper clutched in the elder’s hand. “Finalists will make their way up a seven metre tall platform which they will stand on as they try to avoid the creature attacking them. The last one standing above the ground, or the first person to kill the creature will be the champion of the competition.” The bright face of the judge suddenly turned somber. “As such, you will need to think carefully about how you want to proceed with strategy. Do you want to play aggressively to try to kill the creature? Or defensively hold your ground in the hopes that other people will also fall off?” One of the trainees hands shot to the sky. The elder pointed to him and tilted his head politely.

              “Can we force other people off of other platforms? Or does it have to be the creature that does this?” The face of the elder perked up immediately.

              “Ooh! Clever!” he said, beaming at the thought. “Yes, you may use any means necessary to remove your opponents from the platform.” Gregor looked at me and smiled knowingly. I immediately broke his gaze and felt my insides lurch. “Any more questions?” the elder asked, holding his arms out to either side of him. He chuckled to himself and straightened up his robes. “In that case gentlemen I’ll ask that you advance to your dedicated standing spots.

              I closed my eyes and exhaled as I strode out to greet the deafening roar of the crowd piled up in the ranks of the Etaporium. I self-consciously opened a single eye a bit and gasped at the tremendous scale of the scenery surrounding me. Ten incredibly tall wooden poles had been deeply set into the gravel ground equidistant from one another. With closer inspection, I could see that there were a set of handles fastened up the length of each pillar.

              “Start climbing!”
t
he obese judge giggled before
jumping back aways and scuttling off.
I stared skyward, completely dumbstr
uck by this order. I considered staying on the ground briefly, however the voice of Umber forced me to the first handle. Leaving my thoughts below me, I began to climb, struggling to ignoring the cold air clinging to my thighs. I soon found myself standing high above the earth on a platform no more than two metres across.

              From a distance, I could see I was almost eye level with the people on the middle most row of the colosseum. I might have been able to describe more, however the only thought that was going through my mind was a perfectly reasonable fear of falling. I rooted my feet to the post as a large gust of wind shook every nerve in my skin. My head began to swim. To steady myself, I focused on a large crate on the ground which was identical to the one that held the penelopis, but nearly four times larger. Much to my distress, this crate was shaking and rattling quite violently. The sandworm inside clearly wanted out.

              The
t
able of judges resumed their seats and the crowd
began to cheer
even louder
than than before
. The wide man
waved happily
and seemed to be enjoying the attention more than he should have
. The sly
and
elegantly dressed figure merely inspected his fingernails with distaste
while the rat like figure looked somewhat disturbed by the amount of noise around him.
The chatter of the crowd
slowly faded into a
loud
buzz
,
before trailing off into silence as the elders
raised their hands for attention
. When the large judge spoke, his
used the same enchantment that had previously magnified his voice.

              “I now present to you, the moment everyone including myself has been waiting for
,
”
h
e said with glazed eyes. “
K
now that despite only one
champion being named
, all of
these men are
winners in my eyes.” Loud sniggers shot through the air, like a sudden
upturning of a snake nest. The sly looking judge arched an eyebrow, however the large elder seemed oblivious to these snippets of laughter circling the Etaporium
.
“
Allow me to re-clarify the rules once more for anyone unfamiliar: Last man standing, or first person to kill the creature wins. Touching the ground is instant disqualification.
”

My shaking intensified as another
frosty breeze seemed to
turn my skin inside-out
.

“Champions!
” The large elder roared unexpectedly.
“
State you are ready
!
” Everyone thumped their chest.

              “AYE.”

              “On my
count
!”
h
e decl
ared pointedly.
I suddenly felt
the
need to vomit.

              “Three...” I looked around me in a blind panic,
searching for anything in the empty space that could provide me support. I wondered if it was worth my energy to distort the platform to a more manageable size, but eventually decided against it.

              “Two...”

“How likely is it to survive a fall from this height?” I wondered while feeling myself lapse into panic. “What are the other trainees planning to do? Should I try to kill the sandworm?”

              “One!” I never actually heard the sound of the final command, because it was completely swallowed by the noise of the locks breaking. An opening emerged on one side of the crate, however for a painstaking couple of seconds, nothing moved but the dust far below my feet.

              After realizing that it had been freed, the creature inside suddenly took to the skies like a hooked arrow. Looking up from my pedistal saw the sandworm for the first time. It was as long as a footpath, yet the body of the beast was no more thick than a single bed mattress. Six pairs of expansive leathery wings were stitched onto various locations of the snake like figure, with large plates of exoskeleton wrapped around the base of each wing. The strange head of the sandworm was completely masked by its own armour like growths. The only thing you could see of it were two blood red eyes, and an angular mouth with three or four rows of sharp teeth.

              The creature screeched like a knife against a chalkboard before zooming up above our eye level and whirling about in agitation. From beside me, I could see a few fire warlocks trying to throw flaming projectiles at one of the wings of the beast. Aqua Grimlars did everything in their power to pierce the leathery wings with flurries of ice shards. A fire ball made contact with the lower half of the creature, causing it to swim down and writhe in agitation. The sandworm thrashed a barbed tail against a nearby trainee’s pillar, causing him to stumble but unfortunately not fall. The sandworm swam a little higher though and recoiled, hitting the trainee square on the chest and sending him flying to the ground. I watched with an inhumane lack of emotion as the trainee hit the earth with a sharp snap, before being carried off by a team of elders.

The Grimlar trainee next to me suddenly withdrew a simple looking knife. I glanced briefly at him and frowned. What kind of damage did he think he was going to do with a silly little weapon like that? I recoiled in confusion as the trainee soundlessly brought the blade down upon his own arm and began to gush with blood. He slowly began to glow a maroon red, as if his insides had been rendered translucent. I shook my head slightly as I suddenly realized that this was a blood warlock.

With a feat of superhuman strength, the trainee jumped upward, leaping nearly three stories up. He landed softly on the pillar next to him, and with a reaction time sharper than anything I had ever seen, effortlessly forced the other trainee off of his pillar. He jumped to the next column to do the same, however before he had even landed, the sandworm charged at him, knocking him off course, and sending him tumbling to the ground.

From across the yard, I could see Gregor holding his arms out, with eyes half closed in concentration. Whatever he was doing, I was pleased to see it seemed to have no effect on the massive creature. Opening his wide mouth, the sandworm unleashed a cloud of a dark green gas, engulfing three of the competitors. Two limply fell to the ground, however the other had made a conscious effort to try and leap onto the flat surface just past the head of the beast. He ended up missing completely and screamed as he desperately tried to cling to thin air.

              The sandworm,
sensing success,
weaved its way in and out of the pillars, snapping and blowing
poison
wherever it went. One contestant raised his hands up in fr
ight
and
shot a bolt of fire
that engulfed the creature around the base of its head. The toxin residue floating
around its body
suddenly turned
bright orange as it ignited,
sending waves of blistering heat crashing down
upon
my body. The sandworm thrashed about
viciously in an attempt to
somehow to shake off the flame, in turn almost knocking down a pillar with its massive tail.
A distortion trainee to my right suddenly malformed his column so that he could easily leap over to mine. Anticipating an attack, I reached under my armour and twisted the head of Pride’s Grip. Although I couldn’t see it activate, I could feel the sudden strangely pleasant surge of breathlessness from before.