The crowd of the arena grew rowdy and restless from the conclusion of our fight. Here were two combatants that seemed to go at each other’s necks without a moment’s hesitation, with flashy and original moves and magic most of them probably had never seen before, and then one suddenly conceded. For some certain parts of the audience, this battle was really all about the eye candy, and these predominantly male groups were neither afraid nor ashamed of voicing their somewhat dubious opinions. When you factor in the alcohol and lack of policing guards, it was not all that weird that I quickly became the most hated of people participating in the tournament.

Hopefully, this would not cause any problems for me down the line. Merely the fact that these problems were caused inadvertently by Leo was enough to make me uncomfortable. If there was one thing he used to exceed at, it was causing a dizzying array of problems, making it difficult for anyone close to him to figure out if they were caught in his schemes before it was too late to act. As me and Lea were exiting the arena, she continued with her smiling. She was also walking with a skip in her step and if you listened closely, you could hear her humming an eerie song.

“Before we begin your “observement”, are there any schemes I should know about?”

“No schemes currently, Al, but I never know. They just sort of come to me, you know?” She reassured me, I could only hope for it to be true. Honestly, her not having a scheme was a little disconcerting. It made me think she simply lied, and that I was involved in a running scheme. Perhaps it was better to ignore the possibility, and move on. Attempting to guess her thoughts would only leave me with a headache.

As the two of us had finished our fight, me qualifying for the tournament and Lea not so much, we were done with the arena for the day and were allowed to leave. The match behind us was between two of the retreating cowards from earlier, amusingly. Why they were still participating was anybody’s guess, some woman maybe? Honestly, suicide had easier alternatives.

“That reminds me Lea, where are you staying?”

“Why, I carve people open and sleep inside them for heat”

“I see, well then I’ll be staying here then, bye”

“Sometimes I try to pilot the meat suit the day after” I was already inside the inn, walking up the stairs. Lea showed no signs of stopping to follow me.

“Do you know how hard it is to insert your own limbs into somebody elses? As if they weren’t made for it” I’m not going to argue the obvious flaws in her statements, it’s what she wants.

“Then there’s trying to adjust the eyeballs. I have to replace them you know? With my own, bringing my face as close to the surface of theirs so that telling from the outside is hard” I put my hand on the door to my room.

“Look, even if I agreed to let you observe me and my goings, can’t you observe me sleep from somewhere else?”

“Somewhere else? How do you suggest I do that?” She snickered at me.

“Through the window or something” I opened the door to my room, quickly realizing it had no window, but simple wooden panels on hinges. Lea noticed too, as a subdued laughter was escaping her.

“Maybe not through a window, but maybe you can just take up residence in another room? I could even pay for it” I tried to smile at her. I failed at smiling at her, as her face was enough to tell me the answer.

“Now why would I do that? Give up such a nice opportunity for .. observation” She sat down on my desk, neglecting the perfectly good chair.

“Because I would like some sleep?”

“Why wouldn’t you be sleeping?”

“Because you would be in the room”

“Am I too alluring for you, Al?” I turned around and started to drop pieces of armor on the floor as I unstrapped them.

“Quite the opposite, I fear getting molested” She laughed before responding.

“Relax, Al, just because I swapped genders and bodies doesn’t mean I turned gay”

“You might not have turned gay, no, but I heard you already were”

“Those were rumors”

“But were they only rumors?”

“Do you want to find out?” She said, attempting seductive poses on my desk.

“I want to sleep, undisturbed” I said as I sat down on my bed.

“Oh, I won’t wake you”

“Those two things are not the same!”

“But they might be?” Was she planning on sleeping on my desk? It did almost fit her when she was lying down, and I’m sure she had slept on worse. Keeping an eye on her for movement I lay down on my side.

When the morning came, it turned out that I had kept an eye on her too well, since I hadn’t gotten a wink of sleep myself. She, on the other hand, stretched out yawning as if the desk had been the cure for all of her ailments. Groggily I stepped out of the inn, in contrast to Lea’s skipping as we headed back to the arena.

A case of content theft: this narrative is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.

“Hey, Al, what do you think about starting our own arena?”

“Sounds stupid”

“We could find the strongest people from all over, and have them participate for glory!”

“I doubt they would come far for just glory”

“If that’s a problem, you could add some money to the prize pool”

“Why should I?”

“Because we’ll find the strongest people around?”

“I’m not seeing a reason here?”

 “For fun?”

“Not for me”

“Who knows, we might even find some girls with dicks?”

“I don’t like what you’re implying”

“Some really strong and muscular girls with dicks”

“You’re not being convincing, but then again, I doubt you were intending to be from the beginning”

“Is that not your type then? You prefer them more slender?”

“I don’t prefer them at all”

“Oh, don’t be shy. Weren’t you looking at me all night, wondering if I had one in my pants?”

“I’m already assuming that you do, it makes it easier for me to handle you”

“Oh, how forward. At least take me on a date before undressing me with your eyes, pervert”

“That’s not something people usually do, is it?”

“Oh I know what you mean, I never take anyone on a date before imagining them naked”

“You, dating?”

“Me, dating?” She was copying my intonation as well.

“That’s more like it, you almost surprised me there for a moment”

“Rude, I have the young body of fair maiden. My chances of finding love are vastly greater than yours”

We arrived at the arena, cheers were heard from the inside, where more qualifiers were held. Outside was the usual ordeal, seven squares, central desk.

“Remember when we first met, darling?”

“Well it wasn’t here, and I wouldn’t call that “meeting””

I went over to one of the idle staff members and asked where I could get information on my next fight. I was then told the front office of the arena would have such information.

“We should commemorate coming back here”

“No, no we shouldn’t”

The front office was in the walls arena, between two entrances for spectators. There were several clerks in there, from the masses that wanted information on the next fights. Asking one of them, I was told my next fight would be on three days’ time, on the first day of the tournament. Having fulfilled our purpose for coming here, we next made our way to the White Tiger.

Before we entered, a man that had been standing outside spotted us and quickly went inside. He must have been the lookout, previously not there because Lea had entered.

“They’re back Sebastian!” the young boy yelled, loud enough for us to hear it out here. He must be new on the lookout duty; perhaps I killed his predecessor yesterday?

Inside there were less men than yesterday, did they lose some? Most of the men here today were younger, in their late teens. Some looked younger. Sebastian stood in front of the bar, showing off his imposing height that complimented his brutish looks. I was usually quite tall amongst humans, but he was a good head taller.

“You did say you’d be back. Honestly mate, I was hopin’ it’d just been your crazy talkin’ yesterday.”

“You and your boys steal, yes?”

“We might, yeah, what about it?”

“And do you know of the current political state of the capital?”

“Just tell me the fuck you want, yeh?”

“Answer the fucking question, yeh?”

“I know as much as most about the right hand man and the little boy”

“Then this should be simple; I want you and your boys to steal from the nobles supporting the right hand man, Lucas”

“The fuck it’s simple old man, they have all their men in those fancy houses of theirs”

“Then don’t go there, the nobles don’t only own those fancy houses, they own land and farmers working there. Head out to the local fields and rough up the farmers, only from the right nobles though”

“Even then, how are we ‘spoused to know who’s right and who’s wrong out there?”

“In these parts of town, there must be some people in the know, ask them. Or persuade them to tell you”

“We could do that, yeah. And you said something about payment last time, yeh?”

“And you said something about special offer?”

“That offer ended was only valid yesterday”

“Then I’ll make you a new one; do as I say, and less of you die”

“I’m only trying to help you here, man. No pay isn’t going to convince anyone to rob some farmers, they don’t have much in the ways of money. People are just gonna ignore me, that’s not what you want is it?”

“Fine, I’ll pay you, but you’ll  have to do a little extra for it”

“Whaddya have in mind?”

“Kill the farmers and burn their crops”