To the Slaughter - Part Five

 Who knows where you're actually at in this story. If you need to, use these links to head back to Part One, Part Two, Part Three, or Part Four.

If you're ready, then read away. I'm impressed that you're still reading, but this story kept me reading when my son brought it to me too.

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To the Slaughter - Part Five

By David Zaragoza and Dianna Zaragoza

The next rise, the Crown Prince looked out for the signal that the fighters were ready. 

The guards appeared, ready to open the gates. The King gave the signal for the audience to silence themselves as he approached the balcony railing.

“Citizens of the six cities, you have seen many fight each other to the death in spectacular fashion. Now we will see the outcome of the four remaining champions!”

The eruption of applause accompanied the King’s outstretched right hand, giving the silent order to let the combatants out. 

 

Ana stumbled onto the field, a little less awkward than before. Now without a buckler, she changed her weapon preference to dual gutting knives in case she ended up losing one. With a little push, she also managed to bring a pocket-sized medkit for her injuries, even though the guard had tried to dissuade her. She turned to her opponent with a watchful glare.

Her opponent on this second cycle was Fortune, a crowd favorite from what she heard from the commentary last night. Ana watched her wave to the crowd with a bright, happy smile. She found it hard to believe that this girl was capable of killing people. Her strange appearance did not help things either. Her hair was large, pink and puffy, like the legendary delicacy from her home region of Yrsting its citizens called cotton candy. Turns out she originated from the same town. 

She giggled as the crowd applauded her, and greeted Ana with a gracious smile and an outstretched hand. 

“I’m pleased to meet you at last, Ana. My name’s Fortune.” 

Ana drew back from her hand, and Fortune’s sun-bright smile fell.

“Is something wrong? Is my hand grimy or something? I don't think I had a chance to wash off the blood from the last battle. That must be it. You'll have to forgive me. It's honestly hard to get in the habit of showering every rise.”

Ana stared agape at the garish grinning creature in front of her. 

“Why are you staring at me?” Fortune asks her. “Don't tell me. You think I'm touched by the second moon, right?”  Fortune pouts at Ana’s lack of response.

“Well, that's too bad. I thought we could be friends, but you're just like all the others.” She sighed, pulling out a black orb with a lit fuse from behind her back. Her smile returned to her mouth, but not her eyes. “Guess I'll have to kill you, too.”

Ana's eyes widened, and she braced herself to fight. Fortune threw the bomb with an improbable speed. Ana fell backward, missing the blast. 

Fortune laughed, and pulled out three tiny firecrackers from behind, tossing them like throwing knifes towards her target. Ana, in retaliation, jumps back and knocks each firecracker out of the air with each knife swipe. The crackers sail onto different parts of the floor, causing sand to jump with each explosion.

More bombs came out, and Fortune started juggling them like an acrobat, jumping around as she threw each bomb. With no choice but to dodge each one in turn, Ana ran as fast as she could in different directions, trying to work her way closer. Fortune sees her coming, tossing bombs in ways to keep Ana on her toes.

The King and the Prince kept a close eye on both fighters. 

“You see the little one?” the king indicated with one finger. “She’s got no chance against such a hit-and-run strategy. That fight’s not balanced, and what’s not balanced is just not entertaining.”

The Prince walked up to the balcony, pulled a small mirror from his armor, and waited.

Before the fight, the clouds covered the sun. As the clouds parted, Fortune looked up.

 

“Ah, the beautiful sun has come to shower blessings upon my victory! Die now, hag, before he loses his interest!” She scattered three more bombs in Ana's direction. Just as the bombs went off, a white flash covered her vision, blinding her. 

“Ah, too bright!” She barely had time to shake off the sun's 'blessing' before Ana gutted her in the side.

Fortune fell to her knees, bleeding and retching. 

“What have you done?”

“What I had to. I’m sorry.”

In a moment, a javelin flying off from above skewered poor Fortune's head, leaving her body to squirm for a split second before collapsing. This time, however, Ana knew exactly who threw it. 

Ana dropped her weapon and ran, ran as far away from the point of impact as she could. She flung her body against the smooth wall as if to climb it, but she only fell instead. The guards picked her up and dragged her staggering behind back into the blackness of her jail.

“So disappointed in this one. Her indecision, her squeamishness…,” the King pointed out as he chewed on a piece of celery.

“It is over, Patre. Nothing more to be done.” 

“If you say so,” the King muses. “I was rooting for Fortune, but oh well. The crowd needs somebody dynamic to cheer for now, though. Our sponsors need their ratings. The last fight…will it draw the people?”

“We shall see,” the Prince said.

 

A steady downpour chilled the cells to uncomfortable levels; Ana shivered under her dragon-wool blanket, and tried to sort things out in her mind. One final match. Five innocent girls in their burial pods, feeding the roots of the forests as they completed their mysterious transition. 

Meanwhile, she sat shivering, and not always from the cold. 

One more fight. He made her give the sacred oath. No escape.

“Are you okay?”

Ana heard a tiny voice coming from the cell just across from hers. In front of her bars stood the last remaining combatant – a small girl, hardly a woman at all, or a warrior. Her short black hair tied back gave her a doll-like appearance.

“How did you get out?”

“The prison doors aren’t locked anymore. There’s only the two of us now.”

“Don’t talk to me. I don’t want to know you.”

“Do you need more warmth? You’re shivering.” Another dragon-wool blanket fell across her shoulders, and the warmth filled her body.

“Aren’t you cold?”

“I come from the upper lands – it’s usually much colder than this there,” the girl said. She seemed almost like a living puppet as she talked. “I don't mean to make you uncomfortable. It’s our last night, and I have to talk to someone or I’ll…”

“Where are you from?” Ana couldn’t help but take pity on her. She seemed so small and vulnerable, but she had to remind herself at the same time that this girl had already killed at least one person, maybe two. Just as she had…and she might not have received any help from the prince as she did.

Or…maybe she did. This contest didn’t seem fair in the slightest.

“I was born in Fordwick, but when my father got into trouble with the law, he used me to bail him out. I was taken to Hervak, the prison capital, as a scapegoat for crimes against humanity. From there I was recruited for the Slaughter.”

“What did your father do that was so bad?”

“He shared body with my mother. He never should have done that,” the doll said. 

Ana almost chuckled from the irony, but the doll just smiled. “Go ahead and laugh, I know how ironic it is. They’re both gone now.”

“Sorry.” Ana figured there was no point in beating around the subject now. One of them would die at the next rise.

The doll turned her eyes to Ana in earnest. “We have a lot to talk about tonight. A lot to plan.”

“Like what?”

"It's nothing too hard. I just need you to kill me."

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The end is in sight! Part Six coming tomorrow!