After I have stripped down to match my opponent, I feel weird. All eyes are on us, I am butt naked with my bits dangling and I am not used to nakedness in general, so I feel like I have some trouble not overly averting my gaze from my opponents private region, but recoiling a little internally, when I look at all of him. Goddammit man, pull it together, this here is a serious fight. Once I have cleared my mind, I take a haphazard stance just to show I am ready to fight.
"Let da fight begin!" The Silvester that announced my opponent earlier shouts. My opponent immediately approaches me, not too fast, but not slowly either. I have half a mind to just dive straight into him, but it feels like there is a trap, like he is making it too easy, so I dash forwards and to the the side, as he approaches me. I go full throttle, but keep of using bestowal. I am using that on my left arm, as I turn my upper body with all my might, but it only hits air. In panic, I immediately extend it into a backhand, that I feel colliding with something though I can't quite see what from this angle. I quickly turn around and step away, facing my opponent once again. He has a big red mark on his left shoulder.
He seems more careful now, but I slowly build bestowal in my legs to end this quickly. Simutaneously, we inch closer to each other. Since I barely moved at first and he came at me, he is considerably close to the perimeter currently, so only after two steps or so, I break into a sprint as unnaturally and unexpected as possible. I see his eyes widen, before going low to try and receive me, I think, but he is that close, so I spread my arms to grab him if he dodges and run at him full speed.
He tries to withstand it, clearly putting force against me as we collide, but my momentum with the speed gained from bestowal quickly overwhelms him, and I grab the lower end of his chest as he is pushed into the crowd. Though I am happy I won, the moment is heavily overshadowed by landing on top of him and feeling "that" pressed against my chest. I quickly recoil and feel a little repulsed at it... Am I a homophobe or just straight in a non-exposure culture? I think to myself.
The crowd had been silent during the short bout, but murmurs I can't make out have broken out as Kamas comes and congratulates me. "Good job, Yos, I knew you could do it!"
Though I was unsure at first, I really did it, but we were expected to win anyways, so I am still unsure if I should feel happy or not. I am little surprised that I manage to relative easily overwhelm a grown, large silvester on my own, but I guess I have my training and magic to thank for that.
If you spot this narrative on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.
The council is quickly reformed and details are laid out. In a month's time, they will send a representative to Brahms, where they will be picked up at the hunter's association, where they will convey their support however needed until the issue is settled. In addition, Kamas gets their word they don't move camp until then. Apparently, Silvestri move their camps at intervals between a few months and a few years, something about facing all the dangers of the world.
We are invited to spend the day here, which we accept and I am even given a short tour among the camp. Unlike the village I grew up in, the camp is very close to the dungeon, presumably because they hunt so much in it that monsters overflowing from lower floors and wrecking havoc on their modest homes are not of concern. I am also shown what I can only describe as a daycare.
Seems Silvestri don't personally care for their children, but are all kept at one of two places in their camp. The first such place is called "The Den" and is headed by a "den mother" and her assistants. Small children seem to be cared for here, and they are taught lessons and eat and sleep in the same large tent, but play outside. Second is "the forge" headed by a "forge father" her children go when they grow a certain size, then they are drilled in fighting and training almost daily. When they are of age here, they simply are expected to make their own way in camp, with no further guidance.
They do not count years, but simply judge their age by growth, and when close to fully grown, they are considered adult. It seems nebulous. If that was the case for humans, I would have had a few more years of childhood, but I am relatively quickly I got my independence so fast, since being an adult male on the inside, being in somebody else's care like that kind of got to me.
As Kamas and I are shown to a tent for the night, we start talking. The subject touches on why humans generally dislike Silvestri. "They travel from place to place. If they are within known lands, they usually head for abandoned dungeons, but in some cases, they hit up those used by villages too." Kamas explains. "When they do, there is naturally less ressources on the upper, more safe floors and people are forced to go deeper to meet their daily needs. This sometimes results in a death that gets pinned as being the Silvestri's fault, and it kind of is, the way I see it. They could just settle down somewhere" Kamas chews a little on nothing before continuing. "But then again, I have been colored inside by living in human society for so long. If only more strong or Silvestri women were in town, I don't think I'd ever pay visits to these camps again" he laughs a little.
Soon, we sleep.