Tournament of Kings

Chapter Four: Burying Treasure

Anoa disappeared shortly afterward; she didn't notice when it happened. He did that a lot; it had something to do with being an ascended being. Relma had to walk home on her own after that. As she did, she found that lugging all this treasure was hard. Her hands hurt from the weight of the bags, and they kept bouncing against her back. She was not looking forward to getting home.

And how was she supposed to explain all this money to Aunt Pan?

Before she could think about that, Ajax came out of the trees, loping on all fours. It was a habit he fell into when he was excited or running. She had the feeling that he had been watching for a long time, though. How long was an important question?

Ajax was holding a rabbit with a broken neck in his mouth. His mouth was bloody. "Hello, Relma." His voice was accusing, and he sniffed the air suspiciously.

"Ajax?" said Relma. "What are you doing here?"

"Hunting rabbits," said Ajax. "Then I picked up your scent?"

"Oh, you did," said Relma, shifting the bags of gold to the ground. They hurt her shoulders.

"Who was with you?" asked Ajax.

"A friend," said Relma, not wanting to lie.

"There was someone here. I smelled them," said Ajax. "They smelled like blood and death."

"Alright, fine, so I was visited by the spirit of Anoa the Bright," said Relma, annoyed. "Now lay off, will you." And then a bag slipped out of her hand and spilled gold all over the ground. Relma kneeled down to begin putting it back in.

Ajax looked at the bags. "Where did you get all this gold?"

"Anoa led me to it," said Relma. "It was an ancient cache he had. I want to buy armor so I can participate in the Tournament of Kings while in disguise."

"You realize Pandora will catch you," said Ajax. "Assuming I don't report you in the first place." Relma looked at him, feeling a bit irritated. But also confident that no such thing would happen. "I've got plans for that. And if you don't tell anyone about this, I can get you into the Tournament of Kings as well." How was she going to do that?

Ajax scoffed and wiped the blood from his mouth. "Why would I want to enter something like that?"

"Well, the Tournament of Kings is going to be where all the best warriors in Harlenor fight it out," said Relma. "If you were to be the winner, it would prove that the brood of Telix is stronger than the others."

"As if they'd ever allow me in," noted Ajax.

"You could still get in," said Relma. "All you'd need was some armor."

"We don't have your human obsession with shiny things," scoffed Ajax. "We don't keep gold around, so we can't buy armor."

"I've got a lot of gold here," said Relma. "I could purchase us both armor. Mine could hide my face, and yours could hide your ears. Then we could enter as foreign knights."