2

The next morning Saya woke up and squinted her eyes against bright daylight coming in through the window.

Ohh shit, shit, shit, it is way too bright to be early in the morning.

A panic arose in her mind as countless thoughts ran through her head. How could this happen? She never slept this late. She had woken up from a weird dream, she remembered. Though she didn't know what it had been about.

She jumped up and threw on her clothes, practically ran down the stairs and through the halls to the bar, where the barman, Bron, greeted her with a smile.

"I almost started wondering if you were still alive," he said, handing her a well filled plate and a glass of water. Then he noticed her quick breath and bewildered hair.

"Don't worry, you still got plenty of time. Now eat up and get yourself ready." He quickly scanned the room with his eyes, bent forwards a bit and then added in a whisper, "We're counting on you to win, you know. If anyone has a chance to win from Wynn, it's you. And it's time for her to lose."

A little later Saya found herself in one of the tents set up just outside the arena. 16 tents, one for every contestant, and this one was for her. As she was putting on her armour, she could hear the magnified voice of the person explaining the games to the audience in the arena.

"16 people, 16 well trained fighters from all over the land, will fight for the prize, here in this arena, to celebrate once again that all the kingdoms are in peace. The rules are simple: We fight with swords only. The fight is over when one of the contestants surrenders and killing…"

He let a silence fall over the arena.

"Killing the opponent is allowed."

A loud clapping and cheering arose from the audience. They loved a good fight, let alone one where blood was spilled.

"And not only that. This year there is an additional rule, set by the king of this here kingdom himself," he continued. "Killing is optional in the three first rounds, but…" He said, having to wait once again for the audience to quiet down. "But two of our lovely fighters will go into the finale. And only one shall come out alive."

This time there was no waiting for the audience to calm down. The cheering, shouting, yelling and clapping went on and on, seemingly forever. Saya shook her head. She had known about this rule beforehand and wasn't too shocked that the king wanted to see blood. He was probably certain that his daughter would win, and risking her life like this was good for his reputation. But how could all these people be so excited about watching a person die? She didn't understand, but she did know that, if she did end up in the finale, this rule would result on her either having to kill someone, or dying. And she really didn't feel the need to kill someone.

The second Saya was ready, she was called from the tent to go to the arena. She was just in time to watch the end of the fight before hers.

Two young men were fighting for their lives. Or actually, one of them was. He was lying on his back on the dusty ground, desperately swinging his sword around in an attempt to fend off his attacker. The other guy, however, didn't look tired at all. He seemed amused, really, happy to be there. He was a lion, playing with his prey before brutally devouring it. He kept circling the man on the ground, moving forwards every so often, which caused the already trembling man a visible panic every single time. Now and then, the man on the ground tried to get up, but a nasty leg wound prevented him from doing so. Eventually, the attacker got bored of his little game, stepped towards the man on the ground and stabbed him, one, two, three times in the stomach and then one more time in the chest. Blood started flowing and formed a wide puddle on the ground, as the man quickly lost consciousness and not much later, he was dead.

The crowd went wild and cheered on the winner as the dead man was transported away by a small group of medics. The scoreboard was changed to fit the results of the fight, and the winner left the arena, still being cheered on by the audience.

After the blood was cleared from the ground, it was Saya's time to fight. She came in from one side, while her opponent walked in from the other. Saya smiled at him, but he didn't smile back. He barely even looked at her, and his hands, Saya saw, were shaking. She wasn't that scary, was she? The audience welcomed them into the arena with a loud applause. Even though Saya knew she was the strongest fighter of the two, she only heard her opponent's name being cheered on by the crowd. That's not important enough to care about, she told herself, pushing the thought to the back of her mind.

The signal was given and the fight started. The swords clang against each other only three times before he backed away. He kept trying to defend himself while slowly shuffling backwards halfway through the arena. Saya calmly followed him, keeping him busy until finally, there it was, and opening, a mistake. You see, sword fighting is a lot like a game of chess. One wrong move can be fatal.

She made good use of his mistake and in a few second she had him knocked on the ground.

"Please, please don't kill me, Saya. Please," he whispered to her, to her great surprise.

"What do you mean? I'm not gonna kill you, you idiot, I'm not that guy before us. I'm just gonna keep you on the ground like this until you surrender, so I can move on to the next round, got it?"

His face relaxed and he sighed in relief. "Thank you," he told her, before shouting out so the audience could hear it, "I surrender, I surrender."

Well, that was about as easy as I thought it was gonna be, Saya thought to herself.

The audience, as much as they had cheered the last winner on, now booed at her, yelling at her to kill her opponent, instead of letting him off this easy. They didn't want a peaceful surrender, they still wanted blood. But she was not going to give it to them. She wasn't that cruel. She looked at the king's booth in full view of the arena. Even the king himself looked disappointed that she had let a contestant go.

Then she saw her. Wynn was sitting next to him, looking down at Saya like she was the queen. Her father was in her presence merely a peasant, glad and honoured to be sitting next to his daughter. But what was she doing there? Contestants weren't supposed to watch the fights. But of course she was an exception to that rule.

Her curly hair was messy and her cheeks were bright red, like she had just walked a mile in a very strong, ice-cold wind.

At the north pole.

In her goddamn underwear.

No one could deny that she looked very beautiful on that wooden chair that she made her throne. But that didn't change the fact that she was an incredible show-off.

Saya rolled her eyes in disbelief, and left the field.