I was not sure, what had happened. Did I dream? I got aware, that I was lying on the sand of the practice area, with a brutal headache. Something was insulting my nose, maybe I was lying in animal turd. I wanted to do something about it, but I could not. Things just did not work right. Nethis dragged me into my bed, my pile of hey, that's what I realized. I had a headache like I did not have had one before. I thought my head would explode any moment.
From far, I heard Nethis say something like: "How could you fight him without a helmet?"
I remembered that in my fury I had not put my helmet back on again. For some reason, I was still alive. Achot had not killed me, as he had promised and Fek'lhr had rejected me. Being in my sleeping bag in the soft hey was comfortable and it did not take long until I was asleep.
When I woke up, I still had that bloody headache. It was not as brutal anymore but still painful. The slightest action with my left arm caused excruciating pain, while a number of other spots on my body were burning. In a way, I was interested, what had happened, but the pain made me dismiss the idea of getting up and checking things out. At some point, however, Nethis came in with food, but I had nausea and did not want to eat.
"What's wrong with me", I asked him?
"You might have a concussion. You have two wounds at the side of your head. How could you face Achot without a helmet?"
My brain did not quite produce the answer yet. For some reason, I did not have a helmet on. "Where is Achot", I inquired?
"You hit him pretty badly in the neck. He could not breathe well anymore. He had left, after his breathing had improved somewhat again. He could not continue after you were on the ground. That possibly saved your life. He could hardly breathe anymore."
"Well, he asked for it and look at me, he hit me badly, too." These few words drained all my power and I just went back to sleep.
In an Apartment in the First City on Qo'nos
Editorial note: The following paragraph is information, Laila did not know at the time, but was gathered much later and is provided for the reader's better understanding of events to come.
"Achot, what happened to you?"
"Don't ask, ghojmoH!"
Author's note: ghojmoH = honey
"Look at you! Your neck is swollen and you can hardly breathe. How can I not ask?"
"Fine! The Pathak I'm training, called me a bIHnuch and then we got into a real fight. I wanted to kill her, but before I landed my fatal hits, she got me at the neck."
"That Vulcan Pathak dared call you a blHnuch?"
"Yes, but she might already be in Gre'thor. I did not show her mercy."
"Well Achot, surely you had to kill her. Such an insult cannot go unpunished. However the way you did it was not very smart. For once, you need to go to a medical examination now. Secondly, when she is dead, then you are without a job. And I guess you are very much aware, that this is bad. Thirdly Odron and his investors will be asking you for damage reimbursement. Fourthly if word goes around, that you killed a trainee, you will have the hardest time to get another job as a trainer. We have to figure out, how we can make this look like an accident so that your insurance will cover it."
"I fear you are right, ghojmoH."
"Off course Achot, you are the fighter and I'm the brains. Let me see it. Does it hurt when I press here!"
"Yes, it does."
"Alright then, I will apply a healing agent and I'll do an ultrasonic examination on you."
The ghojmoH connected her portable ultrasonic scanner to the laptop, applied gel to Achot's neck and moved the ultrasonic head all around Achot's neck.
"You are lucky, it's just a bad contusion, nothing too serious. In about a week you'll be able to work again."
In Odron's Gladiator School
A Klingon woman came and examined me. She brought a portable x-ray machine and a portable ultrasonic scanner. With those devices, she diagnosed me with a concussion and gave me two painkiller tablets and tablets against nausea, in case I'd need them. She also advised me not to take the painkillers, if I can manage. Apparently, it was important to monitor me, if my condition would go worse. In that case, I had to be brought to a hospital immediately. The painkillers could mask my condition worsening, and thus it was better if I could manage without them. In case I'd taken the two painkiller tablets I should also go to the hospital, because then I should have a CRT done. Just to be on the safe side. Likelyhood had it, that my condition worsened, when I needed the painkillers. The Klingon doctor ordered me to stay in bed and do nothing but sleeping for the next 5 days. Then after that, I had to take it very easy for a couple of more days. After she had left, I thought about it. I had not expected Achot to send a doctor for me. Maybe he was not such a bad asshole after all?
In an Apartment in the First City on Qo'nos
Editorial note: The following paragraph is information, Laila did not know at the time, but was gathered much later and is provided for the reader's better understanding of events to come.
"You are back, ghojmoH."
"Yes! She is still alive. She has a bad concussion, but she will likely fully recover."
"Hmm, I thought, I provided her the appropriate reward for her inappropriate behavior?"
"Achot, be happy, that this will go without severe consequences."
"I cannot simply let it go like that!"
"And you will not! However, you will wait for a good opportunity to pay her back, pay her back in a way, which does not get you in trouble. I'm pretty sure, at some point in time, she will have to go into a fight, which is out of her league. This is your chance then, to prepare her appropriately, which means she is inappropriately prepared."
"You are right, ghojmoH. I need to have patience."
In Odron's Gladiator School
Achot did not come for the rest of the week, but I was not fit for training anyways. After the five days, my headache hat completely ceased, but came back again when I tried to work out and my left arm hurt quite a bit, when I lifted something or moved it fast.
Eventually, Achot came back after the next week. He was a bit more respectful now. Both of us did not mention our skirmish to Odron, which was probably better that way. I could still not train hard during that week, had to take it slow. Then in the week before the fight, we fully focused on speed again. Badly enough, I still felt my head when moving it quickly.
The fight was on a Sunday afternoon in one of the outside arenas. As I was further down the list, I had to enter the arena first and took position in the center field after the obligatory round. Then my opponent came in. He had picked the met'leth, which was the Klingon short sword, a comparatively light and fast weapon and ... and he had a medium sized round shield. He had omitted the two small shields at the left arm and shoulder and picked a midsize shield instead. The shield was unexpected, however a smart combination together with a met'leth.
The first round of attacks was on me. My opponent blocked my attacks with the shield, then counterattacked with the met'leth. He always tried to get into infight. Good, that infight was my specialty, but the long stick did not particularly lend itself for infight. On the other side, the met'leth and the medium shield were very suitable for infight. Attacks to the left side of my opponent, were pretty useless. They all got fended off with the shield. I did not have a good go at him. In this first round, I did not get a single point.
Attacks in the second round were on him. He first attacked with the met'leth and then, when I parried hit me with the shield. It was a very good strategy and I did not know, what to do about it. Luckily, hitting me with his shield did not earn him many points. Seeing the success he had with this strategy, he continued with it through the whole second round. That second round was on him. During the short time in which we showed off at the audience, I had to devise a new way off attack for the third round. I decided, to attack his right side and move more to his right immediately after. That enabled me to land a couple of minor hits, only few points though. This fight was not going well for me.
When my opponent attacked again in the fourth round, I tried to stay away from his shield. He soon realized that and attacked more ferociously with the met'leth, using the shield only sparsely. The guy was fast and the short and light met'leth was a fast weapon. He had obviously chosen it well. As I was predominantly targeting his right side we were mostly spinning clockwise. I did receive blows to the hands and arms from his short sword, while I landed hits to his feet and legs. As my long stick was a blunt weapon, those points were good for nothing though. If I did not change anything for the better, he would clearly win by points. My only hope was, that he might fatigue earlier than I would and thus I decided, to use my energy wisely. As Achot had painfully demonstrated to me in our skirmish, I should only hit hard, when I was sure to hit my opponent's body. In the fifth round, I focused my attacks to his right leg. Initially I feinted a standard attack, but then diverted it towards his right leg. Striking down from my upper left side, he parried with the met'leth and next, I pushed forward and twisted my long stick to hit his leg with the other end. That way, his shield was pretty useless. At the end of the fifth round however, he had figured it out. During my strike, he turned towards his right, so that he could block the long stick with the shield again, then he turned left and tried to hit me with the met'leth in a counter attack, which succeeded the first time. That single one hit to my side, almost earned him as many points as all of my other hits to his leg in that round.
In the short break between the fifth and sixth round, I decided to keep us spinning clockwise. It was my best bet not to receive another hit to my side. In the sixth round, I held him at a distance, until one time, I saw an opening of his guard and I trusted the long stick forward. It hit him hard in the breast, but then he moved his shield sideways and stalled my long stick for a second. Enough for him, to mildly hit my under arm with the met'leth again. With that he was the pointwise winner of round six.
For round seven, I decided to first strike downward from above towards his head. He easily blocked my strike with his shield. Right there, he tried to stab me with the met'leth, but I managed to divert it to my side by pushing the long stick to my right. There, there it was, his right leg was unprotected and I stabbed the lower tip of my long stick onto his right foot. That one was a brutal hit, I managed to put a lot of force into it, by adding my weight to the blow. From that point on, he did not move that fast anymore. His right foot was giving him trouble. In round eight I managed to land another blow to his right foot and another one in round ten. Now, he was too slow for me and I landed hit after hit after hit. Round ten, eleven and twelve were clearly on me. With me constantly hitting him, he fell apart. In round twelve, he really had a hard time fending off my attacks.
Once round 12 was finished, we waited for the announcement from the judges. It took quite long actually – about 15min. Then the final result got displayed and it was also announced over the loudspeaker system: my opponent won by 1 point, 1 single point, only one bloody point. I was mad. I forgot all Vulcan behavioral codes and swore and cursed while leaving the arena.
Back in my change room, we were all kind of depressed. Even Achot said, that I should have been the winner. I decided for an ice cold shower, so to calm down. It did the trick, my skin was burning from the cold water and washed away the anger. Once dressed, my Klingon mutant side had handed over the priority to my Vulcan logic side and that one demanded being a good sportsman. Thus I decided to swallow the rest of my anger down, walked over to my opponents change room and knocked. His owner opened the door and harshly asked: "What do you want?"
Kind of unprepared and in lack of the right words as I was, I stuttered: "I I I just wanted to say, that your gladiator fought well and - and the victory is rightfully his. I wanted to give my respect and congratulate."
The Klingon school owner looked at me with a killing glance, opened the door a bit more so that I could peer inside. He pointed to my opponent who was getting his foot and leg treated on a stretcher. "You really maltreated his foot badly. Piss off, we don't want to see you!" Then he slammed the door shut right into my nose. Great. So much for trying to be good sports.
Having lost also meant, that Odron did not have money to spend on any building projects. It also meant, my fisherman's cabin project was stalled as well. It was all pretty depressing. One shit follows the previous one and so forth and then the shit piles up and stinks like a Klingon manure pit.
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