"Hey Eleanora, what took you so long?" The little girl walking alongside of Lex asked innocently. Lex could only assume that it was the bitches sister.
"Leave me alone, Cecilia." Eleanora whined.
"You were probably being a baby again, weren't you? Little baby, daddy's never going to let a little baby like you take over the throne," she snickered, "who would. You're so frail, and you're a scaredy-cat who is afraid of her own tail."
Lex could feel the heat rise to her face. "Shut up, I am not!"
"Are too."
"Am not!"
"Girls, girls. What's going on here?" Asked their father, looking back at them.
"Eleanora is being a baby."
Lex felt the hot tears begin to roll down her cheeks, and the conflict over the fact roared in her ears.
"NO, I AM NOT!"
"Hey, now." He said sternly, raising a hand stopping the advance of his royal guard. They stood in a well lit passageway that had a view of the water above. Two of the royal guards were stationed outside the dome floating there and watching for any sign of.. whomever would waste their attack on such a minor ruler. A few weird looking fish jetted by, but if the guards had noticed, they didn't show it. They were like floating statues.
"Let me rephrase that. Whatever is going on stops right now. Syphon, come and walk between my daughters, and if he tells me that you two are still at it." He gave them a look that Lex interpreted as his, "try me and see what happens." Look, from the way that Eleanora shut up her crying, and lowered her head.
A pair of Feet came into view, and then a young man about Lillian's age, kneeled down in front of her smiling, holding out a handkerchief.
"For your tears, my lady." He said, bowing his head, keeping his arms extended, and making her heart skip a beat.
"Syphon is so nice." The voice in Lex's head spoke again.
Eleanora took the offering and wiped her face with it. In the corner of her eye, she saw Cecilia roll her eyes.
"What would a princess do in this moment?" The voice that Lex had attributed to the child Eleanora's inner thoughts spoke again, (a sentence Lex had never thought she'd ever say in her life, but she had just decided to roll with whatever happens).
Eleanora smiled brightly, making a show out of her next actions. "Thank you for that, Syphon. As a reward, I, princess Eleanora Vitania The Fourth, will give you a kiss on the cheek."
"What?" Cecilia exclaimed, looking at their father. Syphon followed her example, looking at the giant of a man, clearly not sure what to do.
The old man gave a hearty laugh, which quickly turned into a nasty cough. When the guards tried to approach him, he held up a hand, and they stopped immediately.
"Go ahead and accept your reward, boyo, you've earned it if not for putting up with them, than for putting up with me." He said, catching his breath and added. "But I'm not going to kiss you." That got a laugh from the guards, including Syphon.
"That's a reward for the both of us, sir." Syphon smirked, earning another round of laughs from the guards.
Syphon smiled at her. "I would be honored to accept this kiss."
She smiled back, leaned in, and kissed him on the cheek. The guards applauded, and again, from the corner of her eye, she saw Cecilia roll hers.
"Okay." Her father declared the voice he used when he was being kingly. "We will be late if we do not get going."
Part 2
The Arena
She looked around in awe, and it wasn't only Eleanora who was amazed by the sight even if they were amazed by two different things. Eleanora seemed to be looking at the number of people in the stadium. (All of which had gone bananas the moment their king and princesses had taken their places on their thrones on the balcony looking over all the action). Lex couldn't help but notice the empty seat next to the king where the queen would sit. On the other hand, Lex was taken aback by the fact they used Purple Coralstone to build the entire stadium. It was both out of place for a place where blue was the color for almost every building, and Coralstone was a very difficult stone to find and even more difficult to mine, and even more rare than that, was finding colored coralstone. The amount used to make the stadium had to have been worth somewhere north of buying this country, giving it away for free, and then repeating that action 100... thousand times. Where had they gotten it all from, and how come they weren't selling it?
The people roared their excitement as a giant of a merman slammed his spear through the sand, baiting his (not so giant) opponent.
The moron took the bait and charged forward, holding his knives out in front of him. Lex felt bad for the poor guy. Even with the speed and exceptional technique. His opponent was going to mop the floor with him.
As "knives" (the title Lex had given the brave fool) approached, his opponent "Mr. Muscles" laughed and clasped his hands together hard, and the sand underneath the pair began to move.
"What's he doing?" Eleanora asked, looking up at the obviously bored Syphon who was examining his dagger.
He looked up from his task, took one look at the match, yawned, and then spoke. "He is a wielder of sand, a very powerful one I hear."
Lex wished that the girl would pay attention to the fight. She had heard that the mer folk were born with a single gift beyond the ability to be both male and female. Kaeron had told her of the mermaid he had once hunted that had the gift to conjure lightning with nothing but her mind, and ever since then, Lex had wanted to see the gifts in action, but she had met very few mer folk in her life, and the ones she had hadn't been cooperative.
"This fight was over before it even started." Syphon continued. "Big boy over there doesn't stand a chance."
"What?" Lex exclaimed.
Eleanora thankfully turned her attention back on the fight where "Mr Muscles" was now bleeding from multiple superficial cuts and using his sand as a type of shield to keep "knives" from striking him anymore.
"I only know the big guy by reputation, but his opponent is a psychopath who is on death row for killing ten people at a bar, two of the responding peace core officers, and one of our own royal guard, hence the early tournament."
Eleanora looked up at Syphon, and the fear that bombarded Lex was so strong that she couldn't separate it from her own feelings.
"But if he is fighting in this tournament, does that mean he has a chance of becoming one of the royal guards and being exonerated of his crimes?"
Syphon shook his head profusely. "No, my apologies, my lady. I didn't mean to scare you.." he hesitated before speaking the next part. "My lady, this is.. an execution."
The crowd roared in excitement, while Lex's heart sank.. or maybe it was Eleanora's, she couldn't really tell anymore.
Syphon went on, putting a hand on her shoulder. "He will continue to fight until he grows tired and loses."
"You mean until he is killed."
"Yes."
She felt sick. This was pure savagery. "And my father is okay with this."
Syphon's face went blank. "He gave the lunatic the choice. Death by beheading or fight until he dies in the arena. It was his choice."
She scoffed. "Those were not choices. The only options were between dying then or dying later. How can we be better than he is if we are willing to take a life just as easily?"
The crowd roared their excitement once more as she flinched, and fear flooded her system again. Syphon had never been mad at her. Not even a little. He always had a smile on his face or that bored look whenever they spoke, and she had always wondered what he looked like when he was angry.
But the flicker of anger that had flashed across his face made her never want to see it again.
He quickly masked it and started to apologize when the caster of the matches Morton (a good family friend) began speaking into the microphone.
"Ladies! And! Gentlemen! We have our Winner!" She pretended to be interested in Mortons' grandiose display, when in reality, she just didn't want to look back at Syphon. She was too afraid of what she had seen.
The crowd was now booing.
"Knives" seemed hardly winded while his opponent was being carried out the arena in a stretcher.
"Don't worry, everyone! Because this next challenger is something special!" He paused for a moment, letting the suspense build, and it worked. The crowd stopped their disapproving chants and waited for him to speak again.
"Coming in at! 146 pounds, and 6 feet in height! He's only fourteen years old! But one of the only dragon shifters in the world!"
Her heart sank. Were they really going to let a fourteen year old kid fight that monster?
"Give it up for Lycan!"
A young Kaeron emerged from the fighters waiting area. He was smaller in build, shorter in height, and he was missing the arrogant smile that he normally wore like a badge of honor, but it was her Kaeron. Lex kind of missed this version of her brother. He was more open back in these days; back before Draefin had completely stripped away whatever innocence of his that was left after the parade of abusive step fathers, their mother had subjected them to.
He moved cautiously as he made his way across the arena. His head was down, but she knew her brother. He was observing every little detail. Each breath his opponent took, the length in between, looking for any weaknesses he could exploit.
He stopped ten feet away from the scrawny man, and whatever the man saw in Kaerons eyes made him take half a step back.
She wanted to smile. Even as a kid, her brother was a force to be reckoned with.
"This here, folks! Will be a fight to write home about! You here in the audience! Will have the honor of watching a real-life dragon shifter! Go toe to toe, with our so far undefeated champion here! Will he be the one to finally put him down! And claim! The ultimate prize of becoming one of the elite! Royal! Guards!!!" The announcer shouted into the microphone. Lex had to give the man credit. He had a way with words.
The crowd erupted.
"I bet 500 silver pods that he loses in ten minutes!" Somebody shouted
"7000 Vorx coins that he wins in five!" Another shouted.
Her ears were threatening a coup from all of the shouting and cheering, so she stuck her fingers in them, trying to block some of it out, but not before hearing one of the royal guard shout out a bet of 300 gold pods on Kaeron losing in six minutes.
She knew he would win. She was sure of it.
She looked over at Syphon, who was staring down into the arena like he had discovered a new enemy, and now she was really intrigued. Syphon didn't find many people outside of the royal guard or the royal family interesting enough to even bother a second look at. No less take up all of his attention.
"Begin!"
The man shifted into a knife throwing stance and immediately flung two of his daggers at Kaeron, one aimed for his torso the other at his foot.
Kaeron's lips moved as if he had spoken something before letting out a roar so loud that it made the shouting from before seem like they had been whispering, and the force from it (almost blew out her eardrums), stopped the blades mid air, and sent them flying back at his opponent who ran to the right and dived to the ground to avoid it all.
The arena went silent, and even Lex was stunned. Kaeron never used his shifter powers, especially not in front of her, so this was a first even for her.
Snapping out from his daze, Syphon turned and looked at his king and spoke, but everything came out muffled, and besides. She didn't care what he was saying. All that matter was the shifter. She couldn't take her eyes off him, and not in some creepy way, but in a way... she couldn't explain. She had never felt like this before.
"My lady? Her ears are bleeding! My lady!?"
She didn't answer. She just stood and watched the shifter walk menacingly towards his panicking opponent who was swiping his remaining blade wildly at the nothing in front of him, until the shifter... Lycan grabbed the man by the hand, and the scrawny mans bones being crushed echoed across the arena.
"Eleanora, are you okay?" She heard her father ask now kneeling right next to her, but she didn't look away from the fight. Not even when the scrawny man let out a blood curling scream as his body was set on fire and he burned to death.