Tala brought me early the next day to an older man. He had forced me into a longer skirt to cover more of my glorious body. Even my bust was more heavily covered. I had stood firm on the fact I would not wear anything to cover my head and face. It had been quite the argument, however I did not budge. Next to me was Bongani, who would also be taking these lessons.
We were brought into a small hut and immediately I felt shame creep up my spine as I looked around. Well dressed children were seated around with slates and white sticks of chalk. I was supposed to be learning along with children.
My ears burned with anger as my hands clenched, it took a monumental amount of effort to keep calm. The teacher smiled at us and motioned towards larger chairs in the back. “Have a seat, the slates are there beside you. We are going over the basics of letters and numbers.”
I walked stiffly to the back of the room with my male following in my shadow. Reluctantly I sat down in the seat and looked at everyone around me. So many small eyes were plastered on me. I wanted to let out a growl and force them to look away but instead I swallowed down my pride. This was necessary.
Bongani sat without worries next to me. His eyes were bright and interested. With a deep breath in I focused my mind and started to pay attention to the lessons.
By the end of the day I was filled with frustration. I had been chastised and treated like a child by the teacher. It made me want to throttle him and beat the information out of him. I even checked my feats for any quick ways to get past all this and just have a blessing from the gods. Instead I was met with nothing but the chance to upgrade my intelligence, or wisdom. But with the hit to my experience gain deficiency it would be a waste.
I was left with a slate and some of the chalk to practice with. I looked at Bongani who was more than fascinated by the whole thing and had paid close attention to every word. Where I had struggled he had been able to work through it quite easily. I swallowed a thick lump in my throat. “You will help me go over everything again.”
He nodded instantly and smiled to himself. “Y-y-yes, I’d-d-d be happy to.”
We returned to my hut and we sat down, I spent all night feeling more and more frustrated. Bongani was not very helpful, he was too afraid to correct or be forceful with the lesson. I couldn’t blame him either as it was far too easy to growl at him in warning.
Banishing him to the floor I had no desire to touch or feel him. He had taken to these lessons better than I had. How dare he surpass me in something. Laying there awake I was burning up with shame and anger.
With a deep breath I rolled over throughout the night barely getting any sleep. Over and over I went through the lesson trying to figure everything out. How different every letter was seemed almost like it was complicating things just for the sake of doing so. That everyone of them stood for a sound, or part of language that wasn’t even my native language made it even more frustrating.
I longed for another fight in the arena to take my mind off of things. Anything that helped me not feel like a dunce amongst children. Some prideful part of me wanted to say it was because I was too smart for the lessons. That they were too simple for a mind as smart as mind. It would be lying to myself though. Even after two days I was barely comprehending the way things had to be structured to make things flow right on paper.
Tala approached me as I was doing more self study the next day. “Your next fight is today. Come with me.”
I almost sighed with relief as I put down the slate and grabbed my fighting clothes. Pressing a purse of coins into Bongani’s hands I dragged him behind me as we walked. “Bet two silvers on me. No matter the ratio.”
Guided into the waiting room I changed into the clothes and armor to be ready for the battle. Grabbing a club and shield I did some stretches and warm ups to get ready for the fight. When I was given the signal I marched out into the arena and raised my arms to a mix of cheers and boos.
“The Savage! You have seen her dismantle an opponent twice her size! How will she fare against the serpentine dancer, the flying bird, the slippery gecko, Tariq!” The announcer was blasting his voice through a horn as a lithe slim figure with two short swords in their hands walked through the other door.
The crowd erupted in an explosion of cheers as the person walked inside. She had soft looking green skin, large pure black orbs for eyes, with no hair anywhere on her. Two soft small breasts sat on her chest. She wore minimal armor like myself.
I felt a chill go down my spine with how fluid she moved. Gliding across the sands of the arena while barely disturbing it beneath her. Tariq had a long skirt that flowed around her legs. I could feel a radiating calm from her.
The announcer climbed his small ladder and got out of the way. Seated easily on the wall he raised his horn and shouted for us to start.
I lunged and was met with nothing but emptiness. Where she was a moment before was empty before she appeared to my open side with a whirlwind of shortswords chopping and dancing. I was only able to parry one of three blows as the other ones smashed down on my weapon arm. With a twist of my hips I tried to protect myself from a flurry of attacks before my opponent danced back.
Suddenly unsure of what I was fighting I longed for a spear to be able to keep my opponent at the edge of my reach. Tariq was a blur as she hooked a weapon around my shield and wrenched it out of the way to land a shortsword across my head or collar.
I twisted staying behind my shield to keep him at bay. Desperately I reached into the earth and called forth magic to try and tangle up her legs but it was almost like she felt it and leapt out of the grasping vines with a gliding backstep.
My heart was pounding as I noticed that this person was indeed ascended like myself. Just like I could she let a blast of blinding light into my eyes. If not for my shield covering one of my eyes I would have been totally blinded as my right eye went blind with the flash. I had to drop my shield and swivel my head around as Tariq dashed to my right.
She leapt through the air with another gliding movement. Turning I rammed my shield towards her trying to knock her from the air but the quick hammering of two swords against my shield seemed to almost send her twisting and flipping over me. Another blow landed upon my head knocking me silly and stumbling.
Channeling some healing magic through myself I did my best to keep aware of my surroundings. Tariq was on me from behind, barely missing me as I stumbled out of the way of her flurrying shortswords. Lashing out I sent a vicious kick out behind me trying to tag my opponent and my leg was instead battered by her weapons knocking it aside. Unbalanced, I fell forward into a roll. Trying to twist and face my opponent at the end of it.
Just as I was getting oriented Tariq kicked a cloud of sand into my eyes and I hissed in discomfort as I raised my shield dropping my club to try and clear my eyes as my ears worked overtime to listen to where my opponent was.
More and more blows were slipping through my guard. No matter how I twisted or turned it seemed like my opponent was a step ahead. All my magic channeled into healing was dwindling out quickly.
Desperately I lunged forward in an attempt to tackle my opponent to the ground and use my strength and hand to hand abilities to defeat this slippery foe. Instead I was met with nothing and a sharp powerful chop to the back of my head that brought darkness into the edge of my vision.
I tried to roll out of the next blow but my body wasn’t listening. With everything swirling around me there was barely anything I could do as my opponent straddled my back and sat her weight down on me. Helplessly I could not stop the pommel strike to my skull to knock me out. In an instant darkness flooded through me and took me out of the world.
Shame, burning shame was the last thing I felt. I thought that no one but Ade would have been able to stop me. Instead someone far more skilled than I was worked me over like I was a child.
