6

The next morning, Saya went down to the bar to eat her breakfast, but the barman walked up to her.

"Saya, you may want to hear this," he started.

Saya looked at him, question marks written in her eyes.

"Earlier this morning, I heard that there was a fire, down by the tents. Most of the tents are burnt to the ground. They are postponing the fights to this afternoon.

Saya's eyes immediately widened. A brick sunk to her stomach, and all of the things she left in her tent overnight flashed before her eyes. Was it all gone?

"What do you mean with fire?"

"It was an accident, a campfire that got out of hand. One of the tents caught fire, the rest followed. Only two of them are still upright. I believe it was number four and number fifteen."

Saya sighed of relief when he said the numbers. Number 15 was her tent. With only two out of sixteen tents still upright, that felt like a downright miracle. There was only one problem.

There were four contestants left in the tournament, and only two tents. That meant the four semi-finalists had to share.

Not much later, Saya received a letter from a messenger.

Dear contestant,

The fire this morning surprised us as much as you. We are incredibly sorry for the loss of belongings, but are happy to report there were no casualties.

The remaining tents will be divided as follows:

The two contestants Cambrian and Adea will be sharing tent number 4.

Number 15 will be shared between the contestants Wynn and Saya.

Saya felt her heart drop in her chest when she saw the words. Of course, she thought. Of course this was the division the jury had come up with. She should have known this was going to happen. The jury had chosen not to put the contestants together that would fight each other today. That had left them with only two possibilities, and apparently they had chosen for this one.

she read the last bit of text on the flyer:

The fights for today have been postponed to this afternoon, due to the accident this morning. We hope to see everyone there.

Greetings, the official tournament Jury

The exact time for the two fights under the letter: Wynn would be fighting Cambrian in the first round, Saya and Adea would fight in the second.

The afternoon came around quickly and Saya was already on her way to the tent to put the sword back in the sheath and check on her materials before her fight.

She mindlessly opened the tent's entrance and stepped inside, before being almost startled to death by a half undressed an very annoyed Wynn, staring at her from inside.

For a moment Saya's eyes were locked on Wynn's soft skin, almost shining in the sunlight that came in through a small opening in the tent next to her, highlighting her body like a spotlight.

Wynn covered her exposed stomach with the full lengths of her arms.

"Could you knock, next time?"

"Yes, sorry, it won't happen again." Saya tore her eyes away from her.

"I have to change into my armour," Wynn said.

"So?"

"So please leave?" Wynn said it like it should have been obvious from the start.

"Don't worry, I won't look. I just have to get my armour ready for the fight."

"I'd rather be alone."

"That really isn't my problem."

Saya calmly walked up to her own armour, that was neatly laid out on the table. She started examining all the stitches that held the leather together to make sure they weren't broken and ran her fingers up and down the leather itself, to check for any possible damage.

Wynn hastily threw on her armour and grabbed her sword in both hands. Just before she disappear through the door, she turned to Saya.

"Good luck later, in case I don't see you anymore before your fight."

"Good luck to you too, Wynn."

From the tent she could hear the audience's to what was happening in the arena pretty clearly. While she got herself ready for her own duel, she listened to Wynn's. It seemed to be an exciting fight. She could hear loud, enthusiastic cheering one second, and even louder sounds of disapproval and disgust the next.

Saya put on her boots.

"Ooooh" Came from the arena.

She tightened her breast plate.

"Ahh, come on, no, no, no, oooh"

She loosened the plate again, not satisfied with how it fit.

"Do it, do it, finish it"

She grabbed her sword, the moment a cheering, louder than anything before, arose from the crowd.

Someone had won. She didn't know who it was, but she truly hoped it was Wynn. That way she was one step closer to them being in the finale together. That way, she was one step closer to showing her how much of a better fighter she really was.

Either way, that was her cue.