Begonia Chapter 1: The Approach Part 2

“The skill required to produce a form with even half the ability of the real thing is already a feat. Do you specialize in horses, or can you make other animals?” she asked.

I thought for a moment. It had been a long time since I made anything besides a horse. I had made a dragon, a moving mannequin, and even creatures that only lived in my head, like moving tree stumps which shot hot goop from their tops. In the end I knew that I should settle on something simple. It would be a shame to fail at something because I was out of practice.

“I can make cats.” I said.

“Cats?”

“Yes. Let me show you.” As I imagined a black cat in my mind’s eye, the ribbon on my right arm unraveled and twisted, knotting itself over and over. It wove over itself again, and soon a small black cat, no larger than a carrier swallow sat in my hand, as if sleeping. It soon sprang alive, hopping about my shoulders and head on spindly legs, and making attempts to scratch at Delanor, in spite of its lack of claws.

“What a cute creature.” Delanor said. Her eyes were wide with amazement.

“Yes, we get it, Anastasia’s ribbons are really cool but I still lost my butter so let me go to sleep so we can buy some more tomorrow.” The captain called out from inside one of the tents. She had turned in for the night not ten minutes earlier, but the irritation in her tone was clear.

“Understood, captain.” I said back.

“Speaking of which, I don’t see Canary or Kirill anywhere. Did they take the other tent?” Maria asked.

“No, I’m sure they are still awake. We needn’t wait for them. I can take the left tent with Maria and you can sleep with the captain, Delanor. How does that sound?” I suggested.

“Why do you two get the empty tent?” Delanor asked.

“We normally got the second floor of the old wagon to ourselves, so it is tradition. If you would like to object, you can complain to my hand right here.” Maria wiggled the fingers on her left hand. They appeared cold and blue, giving off a faint cloud of condensing water vapor. The threat was clear.

“Fine, I get it. Good night, you two.” Delanor relented.

“Good night, Delanor.” Maria and I responded in unison.

—

Margaret’s Welcome’s sheer size was far more daunting up close than it was from a distance. The roots alone, snaking in the grass and embedded deeply in the ground, were as wide as a large castle gate. Several entrances tunneled into the Great Tree; gently sloping inclines were carved into the roots themselves to allow for entry and exit. Far in the sky, wispy clouds obscured my vision of the treetop. Swarms of glowflies patrolling the massive trunk appeared like specks of dust emanating from the wood.

The gate entrance was fashioned from the same material as the tree itself, engraved with a depiction of a thousand-tailed snake. It was the object of some sarassin legend, as Delanor had put it, but I couldn’t recall the specifics. This was the first time I saw Delanor speaking sarassin. She snapped her tail and twitched her ears and made a pawing motion with her hands as she spoke short but emphatic words. The guard, his green scales gently reflecting the evening sunlight, nodded along without saying anything. A moment later, the thousand-tailed snake split down the middle and the gate swung open before us.

The inside of the tree contained almost the entire city. While we had passed some areas of farmland on our way here, it was clear the bulk of the population resided within the gates. The architecture was an image of the old imposed upon the new. Most of the buildings were simple constructions of wood, sliding doors, and gridlike windows fitted with thin white coverings. Towering above them were a scattered group of grey brick constructions fitted with glass windows. Those were much taller and blocky with flat roofs and little to meet the eye. This was in contrast to the low-lying wooden structures which often displayed a tiled roof and paper charms suspended below an overhang.

The foot traffic for an evening was enough to slow our movement. The flow of passerby quickly forced us to the right, as the left side had been overtaken by movement in the other direction. Men and women dressed in well-cut, tailored clothing drifted along, blocking our advance. My thoughts turned back to Delanor, who was staring at the mane of her godsteed.

“What was that, Delanor?” I asked with a giggle.

“What what was?” Delanor’s face, red with embarrassment, scowled at my question.

“The little dance.” I pawed the air with my hands “And this.”

“The reason no one outside of this place wants to speak sarassin, that’s what.” Delanor said. “Those stupid lizards can make sounds which are impossible for the feline mouth. The rest of us are stuck using something else in place of those.” She pointed at a couple in front of us. They were both feline, and one waved her tail in a slow, relaxed motion as she spoke. “Let’s find a map and a place to stay the night. I’m tired and thinking of a bite to eat.” Delanor motioned to a wooden post some twenty meters away.

“We will need a place to keep my godsteeds.” Kirill said.

We approached a map post. It was a large wooden board with the general layout etched into its surface. Standing out on it was a large black circle with an unfamiliar word scrawled on it.

“That circle looks interesting. Do you know what it is?” I asked.

“It translates roughly to ‘arena’ or ‘colloseum’, if you want to be fanciful.” Delanor answered.

“So they do prize fighting here. This place looks so modern, I wouldn’t have imagined they still engage in such a practice.” the captain said.

“It doesn’t matter to us. We should find an inn and hurry up, I’ve written down a few places that might work.” Delanor hurried us along.

—

“That’s the last of our money. We’ve got two days to find some funds, or else we’ll be on the streets.” Delanor solemnly dropped a few copper coins on the table after delivering our meals to us.

Maria raised an eyebrow. “Did you really spend all of our money on six plates of noodles and two nights at an inn?” she asked.

“Not just those. I also convinced the keeper to let us borrow a few reading rings.” She dropped three dull metal rings on the table. “They will let you understand sarassin while you are here. We will need to cough up some more money when the two days are up or return them. I also bought an earful of information.”

“What did you learn?” Maria asked. She adjusted the braids in her hair, pushing them behind her shoulder before she began eating.

“A few things. For one, the secrets of the Great Tree are sold at a price by most of Exia’s information dealers. Remember him? The governor. Second, we need a way to earn some quick money if we want to afford the stay.”

“Spit it out then. What are we doing? If you suggest anything stupid, I’m icing your bed.”

Delanor removed a rolled up piece of paper from her shirt pocket. It was an alert of sorts. I had never seen such a thing besides official notices. “A tournament. That arena we saw on the map? They hold prize fights for spectators monthly. And we’re in luck: the next one starts tomorrow afternoon. Registration closes at noon tomorrow. If we win the whole thing, we will have enough money for more than just information. We can stay at the most expensive inn for a month with this kind of prize.”

“And second prize?” Canary chimed up from the corner of the table.

“Nothing. You win, or you lose it all. Each participant can have a maximum of four members. I would suggest we take advantage of that. You all enjoy fighting, right? Being former soldiers.” Delanor suggested.

“Not every soldier enjoys fighting. I’d say most of them don’t.” Maria said. “But I do. It sounds good to me. Anyone else?”

“I would be your teammate.” I said.

“As would I. I can’t fight, but I’ll know enough about who you're fighting to give you an edge” Delanor said. “That is three, now for a fourth. Any more volunteers?” She looked among the captain, Kirill, and Canary. The captain shook her head violently, as if shaking her hair free of invisible spider webs. Canary similarly pretended not to hear her, and continued slurping his noodles loudly. With a slightly unamused half-frown, Kirill reluctantly spoke.

“I will. If you would have a fourth member.”

—

I quickly turned my head to the left and right to make sure I was alone. The inn we chose was one of the larger of the old wooden buildings, with its first floor dedicated to serving food and the second for housing patrons. I found myself in a small changing room, its floor wet against my bare feet, and my body covered in nothing but a white towel. As I tiptoed into the bath I was surprised to see Maria waiting for me. Her long hair was bundled up atop her head. Its ball-like shape was vaguely similar to an apple balanced on a head. Maria’s eyes were closed, but the bubbles her mouth made

I stuck my toe in the water and pulled it back out. It was as hot as a freshly brewed cup of tea. I tried again, this time ignoring the discomfort of the hot water and soon plunged my entire body into the water. As I surfaced and wiped the water from my eyes, I saw Maria’s yellow eyes looking at me. Her plain expression was often mistaken for discontent, but it was what she wore most often.

“I’ve been waiting for this. The opportunity for a hot bath.” I told her.

“You have? What a coincidence. So have I.” she snuck a smile. “The hot water feels good on my body. It is far more often that I feel cold than warm.”

“We did grow up in the north. Your body also runs cold with ice. There is no helping it,” I replied. “Are you nervous for tomorrow?”

“Not at all.” Maria said confidently. “If there is one thing I am sure of, it is our victory. You have not forgotten the last time we fought together, I am sure.”

“I feel safe hearing that. Too much is at stake for us to lose.” I said.

“That has always been the case for us. Victory, and we continue. Defeat, and we either die or fade into the shadows. The path we took is a narrow one.” Maria said. “It was the same in our last battle.”

“They had no reservations at ending our lives when they could have.”

“And so, I ended theirs. It was a close battle, too.” Maria said. She lowered her mouth below the water’s surface and blew bubbles from her mouth.

“Mine ended in a draw, but you were victorious. Was it a close match?” I asked.

“Very much so. My opponent burst back to life when I was certain she was dead. If she hadn’t sacrificed her defenses for her reckless assault, I could easily have been defeated. Even someone as unremarkable as her reached a high level under the right conditions. However, whoever we fight will not be the same.” Maria voiced her thoughts.

“I believe we will win if we work together.” I felt for her hand under the water, and grasped it with my right hand. It was icy cold, even submerged in the porcelain bath.

—

I had another dream. In the dead of night, it was snowing. I stood in the middle of a plain dotted with shrubs and grass. Everything was encased in frost, and as I walked forward, reaching for a place that I might take shelter from the cold, I felt a tug at my waistcoat.

A loud knock shook me from my sleep. Even my bed within the abandoned wagon could not compare to the modern comfort of bedsheets and the bounciness of a spring mattress. Maria remained quiet beside me, seemingly unbothered by the knocking. Another knock, even louder than the one before.

“Anastasia! Breakfast!” Delanor yowled from the other side of the door.

“Ugh. Anastasia, tell her to leave us be. I would rather go hungry than leave this bed.” Maria rolled over and looked at me, her eyes still half-closed.

“Good morning Delanor! Can we have thirty more minutes?” I shouted as nicely as I could.

“You’ll miss breakfast, but it’s your choice! I’ll bring you back something!”

“Thanks!” I yelled again. Delanor’s footsteps disappeared down the hall. I thought I remembered something about a limited-time free breakfast, but I was too tired to think about it. I closed my eyes and returned to sleep.

—

“Right this way! Any last-minute fighters, right over here!”

An orange-haired feline with a striped white tail spun a sign in one hand and passed it to the other. Her voice was squeaky and she was no taller than my shoulder. I couldn’t understand what was written on it, nor could I muster a reply. The ring on my index finger made audible sarassin into words I could understand. It was limited, however, in that I could neither speak nor read the language, so I was only a little less helpless than I was before. With Delanor’s help, however, we navigated the colosseum.

The arena itself was little more than a hollow ring of the same stone bricks I had seen. Pillars supported it from the inside, and as we snaked our way in the direction the orange feline had directed, a sarassin dressed in a red uniform sat silent inside of a wooden box. Its hat poked out above its head, and small golden bells hung from several pointed ends falling to the sides. I was unsure if the blank expression it held was a sign of indifference or if all sarassin carried themselves this way. Their mouths were longer than ours, and their teeth naturally made any of their expressions appear threatening.

“Oh. Another parrrticipant.” The voice was unmistakably male. The sarassin spoken by him seemed different in sound from the felines, as he seemed to roll his tongue on certain words.

“We’d like to enter the tournament this afternoon.” Delanor said, shaking her hips.

“I underrrstand.” He reached a compartment inside his box and removed a document. It was printed paper, black ink neatly set on the page. At the bottom, four empty lines waited for a signature. “Sign here. While you do so, I will explain the rrrules. No killing your opponent, no maiming them either. Wins are eitherrr by admission of defeat or by incapacitation of your opponent.”

Delanor removed a thin piece of charcoal from her breast pocket, and the four of us took turns etching our names on the page, careful not to break the thin writing implement. Canary and the captain stood back, watching our affair.

“One more thing. No prrrojectiles. We have had one too many incidents of a spectatorrr being hit.” the sarassin said.

—

“I can’t believe we’re fighting in this thing, and they still made us pay for tickets.” the captain huffed angrily. “Delanor, how’d you get the money for this?” she shouted across the row, as Delanor was seated the farthest from her.

“I pleaded with the innkeeper to let us borrow a few coins. If we lose this, we will be in pretty deep trouble.” Delanor sighed. “Informal debt is the worst.”

We were seated in one of the backmost rows of the colosseum. Where we were, there were no seats, only pillows to ease the discomfort of kneeling on the large stone steps containing our party. Our turn was scheduled for later in the evening. We were the last group of participants to enter, so we were granted the privilege of having the final time slot of the night.

“The lowest seeded. What a joke.” Maria said.

“We are the only new fighters. It is only natural that you might be ranked last. There are sixteen fighters this time, right?” the captain asked.

“Yes. matchings were determined by the drawing of lots. We are not facing the top seed first. We are facing the ninth. Good fortune.” Maria answered. “Single elimination, so we have to win four times in a row. It should be easy. Tomorrow we face the winner of the fifth against the sixth seeds.”

A wave of thunderous cheering erupted from the stands as fighters stepped out. A sarassin, his skin red-orange, the color of fire, wore a suit of black armor. It was smooth and cleanly fitted to his body. Alone.

“Please welcome…ourrr defending champion and governor, Exia!” An announcer called from a high seat across from us. It was the same man who’d manned the fighter registration. His call was accompanied by the beat of drums far below us, immediately to the side of the ring. A drum band, largely composed of green-skinned sarassin, pounded bulbous wooden drums the height of their own bodies.

“And, challenging him, are the Blue Feline Group! Let’s welcome them too!” the announcer shouted in a booming voice. Cheers and drumbeats followed, but not nearly at the same intensity as the ones that had played a moment earlier. Four felines, each of them donning a sea-blue colored cloak, entered the ring. The ring was little more than a dirt pit, with high walls on the sides. Spectators sat far above the fighters, able to see the action clearly from any angle.

“If I recall correctly, that should be the Sarassin Academy formal wear.” Delanor said. She was sitting to my right. She had her reading glasses on. It may have been because we were so far away. “They’re scholars, like you and Miss Maria.”

“I do not feel good about their chances.” I said. They were male, the oldest among them likely around the captain’s age. Exia’s imposing confidence alone was enough to make me feel pity for the four.

As the starting horn sounded, the smallest of the four dropped one hand to the ground, raking the floor in purple-blue lightning.

“Is that not against the rules?” I asked.

“As long as whatever you are using remains connected to you, I suppose it is not a projectile.” Delanor supposed. I nodded along, satisfied at her explanation.

Exia didn’t move from his initial position. Upon contact with the lightning, he grabbed it. It was an arc of pure electricity frozen still in his hand. In a swift motion, he speared it back into the ground. At this point, the lightning had lost its blue-purple hue and was pure black. Exia’s lightning took only a moment to overtake his opponent. With no chance to react, the youngest of the four fell to the ground, remnants of his efforts still buzzing and snapping about his clothing.

“There it is. True power. I knew it could not have gone far.” Kirill said something cryptic, and his eyes gleamed with joy.

“Maria, what is that? I have never seen such a technique.” I asked.

“I am unsure. But I have no doubt that he will be a troublesome foe.” she said.

The rest of the Blue Feline Group fell, one by one. Their offensive attempts were quickly taken and turned back upon them. Exia stood triumphant, his hands empty.

“And ourrr winner is…Exia! Our governor advances to the next round!”

The crowd cheered again.

“Is this system not a little unfair? I presume he is the one who built this colosseum, who sells the tickets. If he wins the prize money, is he not simply lining his own pockets?” I exclaimed.

“Sorry, but that’s how it works. If you do not like it, beat him and take it for yourself.” Delanor said offhandedly. “You can do it, right? He doesn’t look like much.”

—

“What a wash. All these matches have been a beating.” Maria complained from her seat. “Sixteen is far too many. I only see four or five that could even come close to being a challenge.”

“Do not be impatient. It will be our turn soon. Our opponents are a group of martial artists; if we keep our distance and stay out of their range, they should fall easily.” Delanor said. “I asked around about these ‘Sword Masters’, and they are less so masters of the sword, and more big guys who swing big chunks of metal around.”

“Uninspired. They’ll learn what it means to be crushed by superior skill..” Maria said.

“I am nervous.” I whispered. We were inside of a tiny waiting hall, directly adjacent to the arena. When the doors opened, we would come out, and it would be time to fight. I hadn’t used the bathroom yet. While I was confident in Maria’s skills, my knees would not stop shaking, and my thoughts circled around the possibility that we might lose.

Kirill put his hand on my shoulder. It was warm and firm, and reassuring. “Be careful with your ribbons. If they are destroyed, you will not be able to use them again.” he offered a piece of cold advice.

As if taking advantage of my weakened state, the rumble of levers and pulleys shook the hall briefly. The doors swung upon and we were quickly exposed to a huge number of onlookers. I turned around. I spotted Canary with the Captain, far above us in the back. I did my best to wave to them, but even my arms felt weak. It was a strange sensation. Now that I was with Kirill, the prospect of failure felt much more frightening.

Our opponents were every bit as large and intimidating as Delanor had described them. Four of the largest sarassin we had seen up to now sneered at us from the other side of the ring. Each of them stood about two and a half meters tall, resting two-handed swords longer than I was tall on their shoulders. Their open mouths revealed curved, pointed fangs, dripping with hot saliva.

Maria was relaxed and methodical as always. Fingers of frost crept across her whole body as she prepared for combat.

“Remember, no projectiles.” Delanor reminded Maria.

“I know. I got an idea from watching those blue felines.” Maria confidently stated.

As the opening horn sounded, our four opponents rushed at us, raising their two-handers far above their heads in preparation for a single killing blow. This seemed strange to me, as I doubted I could survive such a strike. I was fortunately never granted the opportunity of finding out.

Maria sprung to action as soon as she could. With a cold breath, she stamped one foot on the ground. A fissure, filled to the surface with jagged ice crystals, opened in the ground. The fissure grew until our opponents stood on nothing but ice, and it rapidly spread across their bodies, first through their scaly feet and tails, then their legs, up to their abdomens, and then their arms, shoulders, and necks. It was over. The enemies who had seemed so frightening a moment earlier were encased in a frozen hell, and their only option was surrender or watch as their flesh cracked and hardened from the cold. The largest of them, after struggling for a few seconds, finally succumbed to the cold and fell unconscious. It was our win.

“A surprise victory! By none other than the Sveshen Ruler!”

“Could you have picked a better team name?” Delanor shouted angrily.

“You let me choose a name. I chose a name.” Kirill responded.