Bloodsword: War of the Leaf

Chapter 5: Honing the Edge

Tev sighed in resignation as Kora reached up to adjust the straps on his chest guard, something she had gotten in the habit of doing ever since that first night against Farnuk.  The shorter Ajanti woman stood so close, he could smell the sweet scent of the lightly perfumed soap she favored.  Despite being built stronger than most elvish males, the Ajanti pit fighter tried to remain as feminine as possible.  And, it seemed to the frowning human, she was trying harder and harder with each day that passed.

It was almost three moons since Tev's first pit fight, a blood duel against the pale monstrosity that was the D'Skaar elf, Farnuk.   Now, well over 80 blood duels later, the powerful human had hacked, diced, slashed and stabbed his way to the very top to become the emperor's pit sword champion.

Which meant of course that the bloodthirsty patrons of the pits had to see the human fight more and more dangerous foes.  Or worse yet, some kind of ferocious animal bent on consuming him whole.  Tev feared only his own death would slake their ever-growing thirst for violence and blood.

In apparent confirmation of his fear, just two nights ago Tev had faced eight heavily armed Kensarthi in the main pit, right beneath the Emerald Emperor's own keen and interested eyes in his opulent private box.  And the night before Tev faced a brace of azora, a fierce type of hunting cat from the Mountains of the Moon which lay north of the Mardish jungles.  The size of a good horse, the cats were as fast as a winter's storm on the Meridian and armed with more teeth and claws than the harried human had cared to count.

The Kensarthi had died in a frenzy of steel and bright red blood, Tev walking away from the encounter without as much as a scratch or a drop of his own blood on his gear.  And the night before saw him tie the four big cats into a knot so tight, a gaggle of Mardish sorcerers couldn't undo it.  And he had the four left canines from the cats to prove it, each tooth bored through at the base to hold a simple leather cord, allowing him to dangle the yellowish ivory trophies from his belt.  It was a barbaric decoration in this, the most barbaric of all blood sports.

The death and mayhem that now surged around the young human was like the great Takahan Run, the spring tides that rippled across the vast reaches of the Meridian to serve as Winter's last blow against those insignificants that attempted each year to cross its vastness on their fragile constructs of wood, rope, and canvas.  

Yet all that chaos and ruin was nothing compared to the cold purpose that now seemed to rest resolutely in the center of Tev's very soul.  It pushed him past, over and through the obstacles that stood in his path to the fulfilling of his oath and the finding of the Sword of Blood.

As these thoughts flitted through his normally calm mind like tace darting through the trees of the A'Chura forest, Tev stirred uneasily.  That pulled him out of Kora's grasp, making the Ajanti cluck with disapproval as she was in the midst of finishing her tightening of the straps on his breastplate.

"Hold still, you lummox," she growled, reaching around his deep chest to take hold of the straps once again.  "Or you'll be dropping this breastplate on the sand just as one of those pit bugs takes a wild jab at you."

But Tev was unable to hear the Ajanti's words as the flitting suddenly became a sleeting then a raging as another man's memories and thoughts once again poured without warning into his mind.  The human blinked once, twice and then the prep room was gone!

And in its place the muscular human found himself standing on a snow-covered, boulder-strewn slope as a wickedly cold wind, sleet-filled and chilling, scythed through the thick furs and leathers layered tightly around his suddenly thick and compact body.  In his right hand was a massive broadsword, its hilt barely felt by cold-numbed fingers which, despite being sheathed in gloves of soft and supple, fur-lined leather, were being gnawed upon by the wind.