5 - To the ring

Axena looked deep into the fierce sharp eyes which were a component of a sturdy face that belonged to a figure with drawn-back shoulders, sturdy small breasts, muscular arms with convoluted heaping six and an apparently impregnable torso - the voice came from this figure.

"What are you called and which forest fire you hunt?" Xylin questioned and took copied the same stance as the woman did. 

"That does not matter. What matters is what I want and who wants what I want, then we step up to the wanting," she replied and stepped closer to the women. 

"Somba, the contest, what is it?" Axena turned to face Somba and inquired. 

"You've seen the ring, haven't you? The sands were gotten from sea beds around Tipotha. Over the years the colours have changed from the colour the sun gives to the colour of the dark hours. These are the blood of the fallen," Somba said and utter silence befell the women as they listened. 

"After the farm, I and my brother signed for a post in the prison, this post. We were placed in the same category and we have to fight it out. In the ring, one thing happens, a deduction in population, where the weak fall and the strong rise - Tipotha needs the strong. So if ten goes in, five are coming out. It's the survival of the wicked as we've seen the fittest fallen."

Axena could hear hearts throbbing behind her. She could tell that she wasn't the only one feeling the fear that was laced in Somba's words. Earlier on, there was a way to raise her standards, but the ways on further elucidation was not a way that seemed accessible, death was involved in it, an avoidable death which wouldn't tag whoever falls in it a hero or heroine. She wanted to see things and follow routes that would see that she survive just as she was sure that Culix would do too. Now she understood why it was called a contest.

"What happened. You and your brother?" Mowe asked, awakening Axena to the moment and tugging her from her thoughts. 

"I am here. You should know. I bit off his throat. If someone else out there wants a life and wants this post, I will have to do the same," Somba returned. 

"You hear that?" Mowe turned to the woman with death in her eyes and stepped close. "You want that, you fight one of your own. I suggest we stay together."

"Yes. You stay together. I want it. We are enslaved and endangered. Something must bear the difference and he said it all. To live, you have to stake your life on the odds," the strange woman answered. 

"Aye bitch. You are right. What if you lose?" Mowe spoke back and the strange woman scoffed, scowling as she stepped closer. 

"I am Lixxini, the daughter of Waxx, the chief of the plain. Never call her a bitch. If you would give a nickname, call her the beast," she introduced. 

"Oh. I've heard about you. But I've never seen you. Whatever you're called, whoever bowels carved you, wherever you've lived and fare, that's all in the past. In here, you and the waxy Waxx whose penis made you are nothing but a minnow in the ocean called Tipotha," one of the fighters said and stepped forward, her name was Ix. 

"You want a cloth around your girth?" Lixxini laughed and spoke, her face turning to face Ix.

"I will kill you and bury you with the cloth, you ill-bred mangy piece of poop," Ix blurted. 

"I see the tension, and I shall perform my rites," Somba said to kill off the silence in the scene. "It's the eighteenth hour of the day and while we thought it was over, the sand will have another taste," he said and walked away. 

Axena sighed and looked at Ix. She could tell that she was not a match for Lixxini. Lixxini and the stories that were written of her described her as a beast. At puberty, she hunted the valleys of rebels alone and survived. Just like her father, death was their shadow. 

Just then a shout livened her ears. The shouts from the ring have never ceased since they had been confined in the cell. Here she wondered if the need for strata and place was surging among the men too. She was sure there would be, as they would fight on a sweat dripping onto another's feet. A part of her held that Culix was alive, and she prayed that he survives. 

Moments passed and the distant creaks that told the exit of Somba announced an entry. Axena was not the only one awakened by the sound, all the women were and they stepped backwards, away from the iron bars. The whip guards were having a long-lasting expression on their minds. 

Somba showed up and smiled. He spoke as he walked closer, with eyes filled with dread as though he was the one stepping in. "This tells you how hungry the ring is. There is a god beneath the sand. It is insatiable. Blood gets vouched faster than honesty. Petitions never go to the officials. Cries of torment from the masses do not meet the favour of the chiefs. But the need for death and gory is the fastest thing that gets approved."

While he talked, Axena knew the ultimate end. She looked deep into Somba's eyes while he spoke and there, she realized the message. 

"It has been approved. There is a fight with the royal bull going on. Next, there will be another, and then yours will rap the day," Somba said and nodded. 

Again, Axena checked out Ix and shook her head. She finally resolved to consider the fight an insight into knowing how things are done. Her choice was to watch how the system works and with the fight and its aftermath, she thought she would know. 

"There are tips. I am ordered to give all. Bow to the royals when you step out there. If you don't, you will be killed on the spot. Bow to the crowd when you step out there, their thumbs down may get you killed. Be merciless, they need to be entertained with blood. If they are satisfied with your dealings, your name may be chanted in the nearest future, as in a nomination. One last rule, if two steps into the ring, one comes out," Somba concluded. 

Shortly after his words, the whip guards showed up and snickered at the women. The one that gave orders looked around and made a triplicate 'tsk' when he looked in Mowe's direction. "You're my meal for tomorrow," he said and giggled evilly. Mowe stepped back, heaving heavily. 

"It's not too early to compete for a better life, is it? Now, do y'all want to see the demise of one of you, perhaps both?" he asked and this to Axena was a yes. She wanted to see the ring, she wanted to see the people. She had been there but she didn't look carefully at the setting. 

"We do," Plinx said and this suited Axena. She was hiding, keeping herself away from the whip guards. But something told her she wouldn't hide forever. The whip guards opened the lock and they ordered the women out. Here she snuggled herself within a crowd of women that walked by the cell and not close to the guards. As she walked, she heard patting sounds and laughter, the women that were slapped and touched couldn't utter a word, else they would be marked next like Mowe. At the reminder, Axena became scared for Mowe.