Dreaming of the family I had been forced to leave, my sleep filled my heart with a mix of sorrow and happiness, for now, the only time I could see Melly’s smile, hear my idiot brother’s jokes, and be scolded by my father was in memories that drifted through my dreams. I miss them so much, it makes my heart ache, but that only make me treasure them even more, and fuels my determination to one day return to them.

I woke to a bright and cheerful morning, somewhat surprised that I had spent the whole night in peaceful dreams, undisturbed by intruders. The guards that the King had assigned me must really be good at their job…..I yawned happily and stretched in the warm bed, pushing the blankets off of me as I did. My mana was almost completely restored now and my body thrummed excitedly as I started to think of the upcoming fight this morning, letting the thoughts of my family drift to the back of my mind where they lingered on.

-Hmmm, I wonder what the arena is going to be like today? Every single time, it’s made an interesting transformation…..For today, the third round that got caught off should be finishing today, and the there will be the fourth round…...and then after that, it should be the last round….So two more rounds left! And they should be pretty good too…....I had better be careful and remember why I came here…..-

I pulled my boots on and then turned to Firesong, who had her head tucked into and was still sleeping happily perched on the bed post. Carefully grabbing her clawed feet, I pulled Firesong away from the bed frame and placed her on my shoulder. The lazy bird shifted slightly for a moment, barely waking up, then leaned onto my head and fell back to sleep. I glanced down at my clothes.

-They’re a bit dusty….yuck, and I have Lonan’s blood on my sleeves…..I guess I should probably change…..ah, but I left my bag in the room at the Blue Tail…...and for some reason, whenever I use the cleaning spell, it bleaches all of my clothes white…..Well, I’m probably going to get even more dirty during the rest of the tournament today so I might as well just stay in these…..-

I ran my fingers through my tangled hair, sending a simple cleaning and detangling spell along with it. Opening the door, I stepped out into the hall and glanced around. Two men were standing on either side of my door. The short but well built man on my right was dark skinned, causing his close cropped blonde hair to stand out, he was probably from one of the Northern isles. Two Sasari chop blades were hanging his side, their handles well worn from use. The other man was a stark contrast to his colleague, tall and lanky with pale skin and long emerald green hair tied up into a ponytail, he had two knives strapped to his legs and probably a dozen more hidden about his person, I had only spotted about seven so far in a short glance. It looked like he might have a few traces of dominant elven blood, rare these days, since the elves had been wiped out centuries ago….Both men were clad in brown leather pants and black tunics with the Serac kingdom emblem stitched in silver thread on their fronts…..and they were both pointedly ignoring each other…..and ME.

I slammed the door shut behind me and the two men jumped, startled by the sudden noise. They had noticed me when I first opened the door and had chosen not to move, but now that they were startled by my unexpected slamming of the door, they both turned to look at me. I smiled sweetly at them and raised an eyebrow, glancing at each of them. Their faces went through an identical set of emotions, shock, anger, embarrassment, until they each settled into sheepish smiles….which abruptly changed when the two men saw each other's faces. The northern islander adopted a sharp grin, while the other man settled into an icy expression that seemed very natural for him. There was a long silence that the Easterner finally broke, he walked forward, holding his hand out.

“Ah, sorry about that, my name is Brom, the icicle over there is Ren...Your visitors kept us busy last night, so we’re a bit off right now...well, I am, Snowflake over here is always like this.”

Ren glared angrily at Brom.

“I am not, and stop calling me those stupid nicknames!”

…...These guys are going to be interesting to watch. Ren turned to look at me, pointedly ignoring Brom, who had started to listing a large number of ice related names.

“Your name is Delta, right? Is it true that you can’t speak?”

I nodded, and then started walking down the hall, I wanted to get some breakfast at Drest’s place, he makes a mind blowing cheese and onion omelette. Glancing around, I frowned…….How do I get out of the castle? The place was built like a maze, which is good when the palace under attack, but a pain in the rear for daily life. I could ask the two guys trailing behind me…..but they had started bickering again. Spotting a window, I found my solution. Trotting happily to the window, Ren and Brom following me absent mindedly, I checked out my possible way out.

-Hmm…..Pretty high up, but if I climb down that terret….then jump over to that balcony….scale my way from there down to the guard walk…...then I can get down from there to the main courtyard and walk out the open main gate!-

I pushed the two swinging window panes open and then poked Ren and Brom each in the shoulder. Gaining their attention for a brief moment, I mimed eating, smiled, waved goodbye, and slipped out the window.

Brom Seacrest’s Point of View:

I rushed to edge of the window, Ice boy following close behind me. I was always faster than him. I watched as the strange woman that we had been guarding all night climbed the stone side of the castle so fast that it was hard to believe she wasn’t falling. I shoved Ran in the shoulder.

“Go after her!”

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The block head shoved me back.

“No way! Anyways, why do we need to follow her, she’s just going to breakfast, and we were only supposed to watch her through the night.”

I turned to look at him, how did he know she was going to breakfast?.....Oh yeah, she had made some hand motions before jumping out the window…...now that I think about, she could have been miming eating motions….

“But why did she jump out the window!?!?!?”

Iceberg shrugged, his usual irritating blank look back on his face.

“Because she wanted to, now, I’m heading to the breakfast hall, I could use some food myself.”

………..I really hate this guy!!!!

Misty:

My feet hit the sun warmed stone of the palace courtyard and I shook out my slightly sore arms, smiling happily as I took a deep breath. The fresh morning air was filled with the smell of fresh bread and sunshine, there were, of course, the more unpleasant smells the come with a city mixed in as well, but I had learned to focus on the good smells. My stomach rumbled loudly, time to get some breakfast.

The streets were full of the morning crowd of people bustling against each other, I had to move carefully through the crowd to avoid having anyone accidentally bump Firesong’s still injured wing, someone could lose an eye if that happened. The fact that people kept stopping to look at me didn’t make it any easier. After a bit of effort, I finally made it to the Blue Tail, which was also bustling with people excited to get there breakfast.

Drest’s face lit up when he spotted me in the crowd of people, he grinned and nodded at me, his hands full stirring a massive pan of eggs over a ball of fire magic. I made my way to the well-worn wooden counter and he slid a plate of fresh scrambled eggs and a roll of wheat bread.

“Sorry Delta, lass, no time to make ye an omelette today, the inn is full up too, all these fellows are here for the tournament and the blighters all want to get breakfast before it starts, which is in just a wee bit over thirty minutes, speakin o’ that, you had better start headin over there yourself, good show the other day, by the way, tho that Lonin fellow was a bit creepy, I’m glad ye offed the bugger.”

I nodded understandingly and took the plate, grabbing one of the wooden spoons Drest kept in a mug on the counter. I glanced at it for a moment, releasing a small cleaning spell over it, and then dug in to the pile of hot eggs. They were fresh and buttery, a slight hint of salt giving them just the right boost to accentuate the eggs taste. I ripped into the bread and bit into the slightly coarse but flavorful wheat bread, it mixed well with eggs and I sighed happily.

Having fully enjoyed the flavor of my breakfast, shoveled the rest of it into my mouth as quickly as possible, I didn’t have time for a leisurly breakfast, I hadn’t realized the tournament would be starting so soon….now that I think of it, I hadn’t even gotten a starting time for today….I’m lucky didn’t miss it, though I suppose those guard guys would have woken me up before it started though….

Sliding my plate back to Drest, I dashed up the stairs to my room and grabbed my stuff, hopefully after today, I would be staying at the palace as the new royal guard. I slapped my key on the counter as I left and made my way as quickly as I could to the arena. That was when I reached a problem.

The area around the arena was stuffed full of people trying to get in, there was literally no space for me to squeeze through the crowd, much less without having someone bump into Firesong’s wing. Sighing, I glanced around at the nearby buildings, it looked like I would have to do it the hard way.

Spotting an ideal building, I slipped by people to the building and leapt, easily latching onto the edge of the houses roof and pulling myself up onto the slanted tiles. I ran easily across the roof and leapt over to the next roof. Firesong’s talons gripped a bit tighter into my shoulder and I was suddenly very grateful for the thick leather of my jacket. Without it, my shoulder would have already been punctured by the bird’s sharp talons. After several more precarious leaps, I finally made it the the house closests to the massive walls of the arena. Taking a sharp breath, I dashed forwards in the small space of the roof and threw myself at the arena. My legs sent me flying far into the air and I easily managed to latch onto the rocky surface of the arena. By now, I had started to gather quite a bit of attention, but people seemed to quickly recognize who I was because of the coloring of my hair. I quickly climbed sideways and made my way to one of the large gates, which were manned by a large number of guards. Reaching the gate, I whistled, and let one arm let go to wave at the harried guard whose attention I had caught. He seemed confused for a moment, then recognition bloomed across his face and he smiled politely, waving for me to go on in.

Glancing down at the packed crowd of people, I elected to stay on the wall and made my way unhindered into the arena. Launching off the wall, I landed in the currently normal sandy basin of the arena and made my way to the door that lead to the rooms. Before I could touch the weathered wooden to push it open, it swung open on it’s own, and instinctively, I glance up at the king’s balcony. I spotted the king and could barely perceive his small nod and smile, silently acknowledging that he had opened the door.

I returned his nod and stepped into the hall beyond the door, making my way through the now somewhat familiar halls to the rooms competitors. None of the other competitors were out in the hall when I made my way to my room and entered. Plopping down on the cot, I settled another long wait. It’d be a bit before my turn to fight came up again.