Chapter 13
Nobody likes me. Everybody hates me. I guess I’ll go get drunk.
We talked a bit while sitting and having our drinks, and our talk continued as we finished our drinks and started into the city streets. We needed to find a place to stay for the night, and it was better to find a place sooner rather than later. Now that we were cleared to fight in the Coliseum, Maxnie said she would submit the paperwork today, and by tomorrow, we should be able to start registering for fights. We were gonna ride that high as far as we could.
When looking for a place to stay for the night, Janet wanted to find one in the same district we had stayed in before, so we headed in that direction. It was around 4:30 p.m. When we finally got back to the Third Quarter district. We started checking inns, but everywhere seemed booked up for the night. We had checked maybe ten inns in about an hour, getting turned away from everyone, and we were starting to feel discouraged.
We decided to get dinner at the indulgent Delefesent to give ourselves a pick-me-up, but they wouldn’t seat us. I tried to ask the host what the problem was, but he just excused himself, saying he had to take care of a table. We tried a couple of other restaurants as well and got similar responses. We were now sitting on a bench in a park, just kind of shell-shocked. I was looking into the sky, and Janet had her head resting in her hands, and her arms were resting on her thighs as she was just staring at the ground.
“What the fuck? What the fuck! What is happening? Did we just get blacklisted in this district?”
“Fuck, I think we did. Do you think it was that little fucking rich shit from yesterday? Do you think he fucking did this? Just to fucking spite us.” I stopped staring at the sky and then turned my head to look over at Janet.
“What do you want to do? Janet?”
“Uh, I heard you. This just fucking sucks. That restaurant was so good, Travis. So fucking good, and now we can’t go back. Oh, and the bed, Travis, the bed, ugh. It’s what, six-thirty now, fuck!” Janet had checked her watch.
“Travis, we need to find a place to stay for the night. Do you think it’s just this district, or do you think we got blacklisted from the whole city?” Janet looked at me, a little worried, and in all honesty, I was a bit worried as well. We wasted no more time and got up, on our way to leave the Third Quarter district and finding out if we were truly fucked or not.
So we weren’t totally fuck. We finally ended up at the same place where Marissa, Michael, and the rest of their group stayed for the night. We paid for two nights, but Janet wasn’t pleased with the accommodations. She had agreed to one night, but we would have to find somewhere more to her tastes the following day. Our stay didn’t include breakfast or anything else, just the room. The only upside was the cost. One night at the inn was twenty silver per night per person. It was a whole lot cheaper than the inn we had been staying at previously.
When we woke the following day, it wasn’t to the sound of a soft knocking on our door that indicated our breakfast had arrived, no. We awoke to the sound of two probably cats fighting it out in the alleyway behind the inn. It was a much less pleasant way to wake up, and the worst part of the whole experience was that there were two bathrooms, and they were shared with the entire floor. It was just like college all over again, and I had been so happy to leave that part of my life behind. Janet almost entirely refused to use them, but when that urge comes, you gotta do what you gotta do.
Our plan for today was to find a trainer. Maxine had suggested it would be a good idea, and we took her words to heart. We decided to check out the five trainers on Maxine listed. Every training yard was located in the First Quarter district. It took a while to get over to the First Quarter district. Maybe there were some great fights today or something, but the streets were packed. We left the inn in the Waning Crescent district at eleven and found the first training ground on our list just before two. It was insane, and more than once, I had to smack the hand of a pickpocket away from one of the bags of holding attached to my belt.
When we arrived at the first of the five suggested trainers, we entered what I could most closely compare to a paddock used for houses. It was a large fenced-in mud field, and two fighters were beating the shit out of each other in the center of it. There was what must have been the instructor walking around then, watching every move they made and yelling at them when he felt they were doing something wrong.
We hung out leaning against the wooden fence that encircled the yard and watched the two men fight for a while.
It was only about another five minutes before the trainer called a break, and both combatants trudged off to get some water and rest. The training master walked over to a table, jotted some quick notes on a piece of paper, then sat down in a chair and drank some water. He then sat the cup down again and rested his head in one hand, supported by his elbow resting on the table beside him. I looked at Janet, and she looked at me.
“You want to go over and see if the guy will talk to us for a second?” Janet asked.
“Fuck, seems as good a time as any. Let’s go.” We started making our way through the mud of the training yard until we stood in front of the exhausted-looking training master. He didn’t notice us until my shadow blocked the sun, hitting his face. The training master slowly opened his eyes until he was staring at Janet and myself. We just stood there for the next minute or so, Janet and I staring at the training master while he stared right back.
“Well, are you going to stand there and gawk at me all day, or are you going to ask me what you clearly came to ask me?”
“Okay then. Where looking for a trainer, and we just…” Janet was cut off.
“No. I’m not taking on new students. I don’t care how talented you are. I have my hands full as it is. Maybe you could come back in a year. A few of my students should have died by then. Now leave. Can’t you see I’m busy?” I looked at the guy again, who had shut his eyes once more, clearly done with us, and then looked over at the two people he was training resting on one side of the training yard.
“Yeah, busy, my ass,” I said under my breath as Janet and I left the training area.
We tried all five names on Maxine’s list and got varying versions of what the first training master said.
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“Well, that was a fucking waste of time,” Janet said as she kicked a rock. We were taking a break from our hunt for a trainer. We had decided to sit down and have a drink at a tavern with outdoor seating. The sun was hot but lovely, and a cool breeze helped with the heat. It didn’t help with our mood, however. We were bummin hard. It was around five in the afternoon, and we had checked not only the five trainers Maxine had told us about but also nearly every other trainer in the area. No one was taking new students at the moment. Well, at least that’s what most of them said. One trainer was a little more forthcoming.
“Train you two? Yeah, I could… wait, let me see your faces again, and what were your names again?” When I told the man our names, and he got a better look at my face, he blinked a few times as if trying to remember something. Then he snapped his fingers as he finally remembered.
“Sorry, kids, I can’t help you.”
“What?” I said, confused.
“Why not? It sounded like you were considering it a second ago. What changed?” Janet asked the man, looking quite confused.
“Well, you see, you two pissed off some pretty powerful people, I guess. You’ve been blacklisted, and if anyone trains you, they’ll get blacklisted too. I can’t afford to fuck with the nobility. I’m not an idiot. Now fuck off. I don’t want anyone thinking I was helping you or anything. Off! Go!.” The man had basically run us off the training field at that point, and that’s how we got to where we were now. Sitting drinking our troubles away, depressed, and about ready to give up on finding a trainer.
“So we really did get blacklisted by that little shit, fuck!” A few patrons sitting in the tavern looked over my way at my outburst but went back to their drinks soon after.
“Yeah, this is fucked.” Janet and I had found a tavern close to the training yards and had been sitting there, wallowing our troubled way for over an hour now. I was on my fourth glass, and Janet was right there with me.
“What should we do now?” Janet asked, glancing over in my direction.
“You know this is bullshit. We should still be able to fight in the Coliseum, though. The rich little shit hopefully didn’t fuck us there. Shit, he totally could have. We haven’t even tried to sign up for a match yet, but now I’m worried that they won’t let us fight anyways. On the other hand, they could also put us against extremely dangerous opponents and try to kill us that way. I guess we won’t know for sure till we try.”
“Yeah, that’s a good point. Either way, our lives just got a lot harder here in the city. That’s for sure.” I couldn’t disagree, and I could only nod in response to Janet.
“Couldn’t help but overhear that you two are in a bit of a pickle hum?” I lifted my head from the beer I was currently staring into and looked around to see who had spoken. Janets was on my right side, and it sounded like the speaker was on my left, but all I could see was a mass of clothes piled up in the chair next to me. I did a double take because that pile of clothes had just moved.
“Holly shit!” I yelped and then fell backward out of my chair, landing ass-first on the wooden floor of the tavern.
“Oh shit Travis.” Janet tried to catch me as I went down but did not quite make it. She did help me get off the floor, though, and soon enough, I was back in my chair. The man or maybe creature might have been a better word to describe the being. It was covered in mismatched, dirty, old, and smelly bits and pieces of clothing. Only its eyes and nose were visible through the shamble. I realized I had been staring when the being smiled at me, and I suddenly could see sparkling white, pointed, and dangerous-looking teeth appear amidst a disgusting beard I had just thought was another rag. At that moment, a shiver ran down my spine.
“Can we help you? You know it’s rude to eavesdrop, right?” Janet asked the being. The being smiled even wider at Janet’s words, then let out the creepiest giggle I had ever heard. It was halfway between fingers on a chalkboard and breaking glass. I flinched at the sound and shifted my chair a bit more toward Janet and away from the creepy dude.
“I do believe it was I who said I may be able to help you. You need a trainer, but no one will touch you.” The being giggled that awful giggle again and then kept speaking.
“What’d you do? Piss of a noble or some shit?” When the dude got no response from either Jand or myself, they giggled again. Im sure, taking our silence as confirmation of his words. The dude giggled again.
“Well, today is your lucky day. I’m a trainer myself. The name’s Eikman Tando. Put her there.” The being, Eikman said, then stuck out his hand to shake. I looked down at the filthy and somewhat sticky hand because it did look like a human hand and then back up at Eikman’s face. Yeah, I was definitely not shaking his hand. No fucking way. After a few moments of extreme awkwardness, Eikman took his hand back and then kept talking as if nothing had happened.
“You’re lucky you found me, um, hum. You’re definitely lucky, very lucky. I used to be one of the best fighters the Coliseum had ever seen. I used to train the best, um, hum. Then I messed up, but I fixed it, I fixed it. They didn’t care. No one trains with me now. Call me the “crazy trainer,” do they? Well, fuck them! I’m not crazy. I’m not crazy, damn it!” Eikman was breathing heavily, and It looked like the dude had totally forgotten that Janet and I were there. Then out of fucking nowhere, the guy was back.
“I can train you, though, and I don’t care about the fucking Nobels. They can’t shit on me more than I’ve already been shit on. Let them try, um, hum. Let them try.” Eikman finished speaking. I figured the guy was done with his pitch cause he was just giggling to himself like a madman now. I shot Janet a worried look and received one in return. Then I looked back over at Eikman, still giggling to himself.
“Yeah, um, so Eikman was it? Thanks for the offer, but we have to go now. We made plans to meet up with some friends. We’ll definitely think about your offer and let you know.” I downed the rest of my beer and then stood up from my seat. I gestured with my head to Janet that we should be going, and she downed her drink before standing.
“Well, we’re off then. Take care, Eikman.” I waved to the being, but Eikman was already lost in giggles again.
“So that was fucking weird, right?” Janet asked me as soon as we had left the tavern.
“Yeah, that was fucking super weird. That dude is two stops past Crazy Town. No fucking joke.”
“Yeah, that was a trip, and whatever the guy was wearing was disgusting.”
“Janet, the hand the guy stuck out to shake. That, that was disgusting.”
Janet and I talked about the encounter we had just had all the way back to the inn where we were staying. The place was called The Bulletproof Horse. I had no idea why, but that was its name. It was on the larger side when it came to the Inns of the city, and the accommodations, as I said before, were not up to Janet’s standards. We hadn’t seen Michael or Marissa since we had started staying at the inn, but with all the people staying at the place, we had very little hope we would.
We had spent far too much time looking for a trainer today, and it left us no time to find another place to stay. That only pissed Janet off more after the day we had, and everyone who crossed Janet’s path as we made for our room scurried out of her way, fear evident on their faces. When we returned to the room, Janet said she was going to take a shower. I turned to remind her that the showers and restrooms were communal at this inn, but before the words could leave my lips, Janet let out a furious scream of rage.
“Janet, what’s going on?” Without answering me, Janet just threw her towel in the air and collapsed face-first onto the bed. Then I heard Janet’s muffled words through the pillow she had her face planted into.
“Fucking communal! Communal!” I couldn’t help it, I laughed. Janet just lifted her head from the pillow on which it rested. Then she turned her head till she was looking over at me. Slowly, she dragged her arm up the bed until her hand was lying next to her face, and then she flicked me off. I laughed even harder after that, but Janet ignored me.
That day turned out to be a total bust, and we didn’t even go out to get dinner. We both lay down on the bed around 6:30, and Janet and I ended up spooning until we passed out. Thoughts were running through my head as I was falling asleep. One thought kept leaping to the forefront of my mind. Tomorrow has to be better than today, right?