An Unlikely Friend. part 1

Chapter 24: The King

“You're not coming?” Nero asks.

“Who’d run the shop? You’ll have fun with Natina. Go.”

Nero reluctantly leaves Saraf and follows the assistant through a side entrance into the stadium. The assistant leads Nero up many flights of stairs, and past a few ticket checkpoints. They pass people of a variety of size and color, but all of them are finely dressed. They are adorned with a range of different types of Artifacts and jewelry. Using the trained eye Saraf gave him, and his unique sense of Aether, Nero quickly sums up each Artifact he sees. Some are nothing more than precious stones of incredible size while others shine with Aether as bright as some of Saraf’s finer items. The assistant finally brings Nero to a door where a large Borukin royal guard stands with his arms crossed. His head is shaved, his torso and shoulders are covered in red armor trimmed with gold, and his styk is strapped across his back.

“This is the boy Natina requested,” the assistant says.

The guard raises his eyebrow. “He’s a bit small isn’t he?”

“He’s a human, what do you expect? He’s also now your responsibility.” The assistant turns and leaves.

The guard looks Nero over one more time then knocks on the door he is guarding. “Natina, the human is here.”

The door opens and Natina's head pokes out. “Nero!”

Natina grabs Nero’s arm and pulls him into her private box, which looks out at the same arena Nero had seen yesterday. A small table to the side has an assortment of snacks and drinks.

“Where’s Grebson?” Nero asks.

“He doesn’t go to the games for some reason, so the other guy is watching me for the day.”

“I think I saw a statue of him yesterday at the Orinda Museum. Did he really compete in the Trial of Orinda?”

“Yeah I think so but no matter how hard I try, he never tells me anything about himself. It’s incredibly annoying.” Natina points to the table. “Help yourself to the food if you want and sit down. The opening ceremony is about to begin.”

A large Borukin with a shaved head walks to the center of the stadium and the crowd begins to cheer. Nero watches the big screen and his skin begins to crawl from the hardness of the king’s face. Yikes… Ivory tattoos run up his neck and wrap around his head like a crown and cover his chiseled arms that are exposed from his short-sleeved gold tunic.

Natina points, “that’s my dad!”

The king holds up his hands and the crowd settles. “Out of the ashes we arose into the second age with King Stone leading us. The world was scarred and our king was tired, but he would not rest until he saw us fit to survive. Knowing we must always be ready to meet any challenge that threatens our country, he came up with the games, which provides us with a means to hone our might! He created three special trials, which in the simplest way describes our greatness, three trials to test the strongest Borukins. Only the fiercest take part in Stone’s Trials and today the best will compete in this arena. First is the Trial of Odosa. A trial that defines the core of the Borukin’s defense.” The crowd cheers. “Second! Is the Trial of Borutaress. A trial to demonstrate our effectiveness in combat and why we are feared as warriors!” The crowd cheers even louder. “And Finally! It is the Trial of Orinda! A trial that is our honor and a taste of the hell we’ll summon when we are backed into a corner with next to no chance of victory.” The crowd roars. The king looks out at the stadium and raises both fists in the air. After turning about to face all the spectators he walks out of the arena.

“I can’t believe your dad’s the king,” Nero says.

“Yeah… He’s scary.”

Nero nods his head and a silence passes between them.