Chapter - 29

BANG! The loud sound of the door being flung open at the top of the stairs awoke me and I groaned a bit while quickly getting to my feet. I had not missed Silvan's trademark way of waking us up in the morning. By the time he had descended the stairs Beetle and I were both on our feet and bowing low in the direction of the door. When he got to the bottom, he looked irritated and so I prepared myself for a beating but to my surprise he simply set down the bucket of gruel on the floor and said "Hurry up and eat Dung. There is no time to lollygag, today you will accompany me to the arena, and we will see if you manage to stay alive another day." After which he walked back up the stairs without saying anything else.

Beetle looked at me and then gestured to the bucket. "Best not to keep the master waiting. Hurry and eat like he says. If you manage to keep the fight going at least five minutes, then maybe we will have some protein tonight." Hearing this and being excited for something more sustaining than gruel or the bread and cheese that I had received in the arena I hurriedly shoveled down some gruel before heading up the stairs to where Silvan was waiting for me.

When I got outside Silvan was standing by the side door of the house with an impatient look. The leather tunic that Teka used to wear was laying by the door on the porch alongside the twin daggers and belt that Teka had used to fight in the arena. "Hurry up and get ready, that trash tunic they gave you in the arena you may as well discard." I decided not to say anything and pulled the tunic over my head and reached for the one on the ground. It was much heavier than the one I had been wearing and it looked like it would stop a knife thrust or a weak sword slash. The daggers were of decent quality steel and sharp. It looked like I would at least be properly equipped for my next fight. "Looking disgusted when I pulled off my tunic and tossed it on the ground Silvan further added "If you manage to survive a few more fights we will see about getting you some pants, so you don't embarrass me."

Without waiting for a response or likely expecting one Silvan turned around and began walking up the path that would take us to the road and eventually to the arena. Hurrying up, I followed him, matching his pace when I was a few feet behind him and walking with my head down so as not to seem presumptuous.

When we got to the arena my master once again went to talk with the goblin by the smaller entrance towards the back. It seemed like the same one from before but other than the one who was smarter and more verbose than his fellows they were all much the same except for what they were wearing. This time, as the arena already had my information registered it only took a few moments for my master to sign me up to fight in the day's events. We had to wait a while because there were a few matches going on for those within their initial ten days but then after only a couple of hours it was finally time for me to fight again.

This time when I went to the room with the smart goblin, he recognized me and adopted a pleased look as if he was happy to see that I had returned. "Welcome back," he greeted me, "although I would hazard a guess that you aren't yourself overly pleased to be here. You are here for a normal ranked fight today?" As soon as he started speaking, he started flipping pages on a book in front of him until he came to the right page. "Ah here, this will do, we have a fighter who has only been here a short time so the pairing will be fair."

I looked at him unsure if I was supposed to answer or not as he seemed to keep asking questions and then going forward as if the answers were already known to him. "Um yeah, here for a fight at the normal rank, I guess that would be fine, I don't know that I have any options." I told him with a weak attempt at a joke. He looked up from his book at me in surprise and then gave me a beaming smile when he realized that I was attempting a bit of levity. "That's the spirit, a good attitude will help you stay alive." He then went back into a businesslike mode and I surmised that there was not much time left for conversing. "Proceed through the fourth door and it will take you straight to the gates without need to go to the waiting room, there will be a goblin at the crossroads who points which way to turn."

Thanking him I proceeded towards the fourth door which was all the way on the right, it was the only door that I had not previously gone through. When I went through it, I found myself within a narrow stone corridor which after a few moments came to a forked hallway where I could either go left or right. As the smart goblin had told me I saw another goblin there at the intersection. When he saw me, he just pointed towards the right side and so that's the direction I went in. After a bit I came to another door which let out right behind where I was used to standing behind the bars of the gate.

The rhythmic drums began to play and the grating of metal on stone began to sound as the gate began to raise in front of me. I gripped the handles of my two daggers and drew them out from their sheaths and then ducked under the rising gate to rush out to meet my opponent. I had to drag this out a bit if I could, the more time Beetle had for hunting the better my dinner would be later tonight. As I entered the stadium, I heard cheers coming from the spectators. I don't know if they had recognized me or if they had recognized my opponent as he entered the arena at the same time, and they did not call any names. Maybe the simply were eager to see blood being spilt. In either event it didn't matter, there was an opponent in front of me and I had to defeat him if I wanted to get out of here without being badly hurt or killed.