Not That Far

Chapter 32-Cabin Fever

I crouched on my heels, leaning against the cold wall as I listening to the rain pounding on the metal roof high above us and pattering against the thin wall as it blew in almost horizontal sheets.

For two days I'd been confined in this dark, cramped building with over a thousand other people while a blizzard swept over the central camp. And not one of them did I know. Shay had been moved to the infirmary to get his rib set a few hours before the rain came and Sattari had gone with him, leaving me alone and miserable.

Glancing around out of pure boredom, I noticed a tight-knit group on the other end on the building against the wall. Looking left and right for slave drivers first, I crept across the crowded floor space to get a better look. Elbowing my way in the huddle, I found what something that was actually entertaining.

A fight was being carefully orchestrated in the circle made by spectators, meaning that both the fighters and the crowd were trying to keep it quite. Neither the two guys struggling on the dirt floor in a headlock nor the contenders making up the ring as they watched made much of a sound. Or at least nothing could be heard over the normal din of the camp. I'd never seen such a strange thing in all the time I'd spent here. So, I elbowed a spot for myself in between two people and watched the last bit of the fight.

I was tempted for a moment to jump in as the loser shortly beat a hasty retreat, exiting the ring and blending into the masses while nursing a bloody nose. But I checked myself. If this fight was broken up by the slave drivers I'd be labeled as one to keep an eye on. And my main purpose here was to lay low until I could round up my family and get out of here ASAP.

I watched instead as the winner stood, rolling his shoulders and looked each spectator in the eye, challenging someone to step in the ring. As he turned to look at me I got a strange feeling, liked I'd seen him before. Looking at the man closer, my heart skipped a beat.

Icy blue eyes half obscured by a curtain of shaggy black hair pierced me as the current champion leveled a steady gaze on me. His left ear twitched in mild surprise when I didn't look away like everyone else. Meeting his eye straight on, I hoped I had made it clear that I wanted to be the next challenger. A slow grin spreading over his face, he stepped back to make room for me.

Stepping forward into the ring I continued to hold his gaze, never once letting it go. I knew enough from my intensive training at the Sanctuary not to let my guard down. Do to so with an enemy was foolish and dangerous. 'The moment you take your eyes from your opponent is the moment you willingly expose your throat.' Or so said Shoka anyway.

I also knew that this was nothing like honorable fighting I'd learned back on Talour. This was street fighting, so anything and everything goes. You don't fight for the honor, you fight to win, or you don't live to fight another day.

And watching his eyes intently did pay off. The eyes are what give signals as to what a person is thinking, and he flicked his to my ankle for a nanosecond, telling me that he planned to knock my feet out from under me or something of that nature. So I was prepared when he crouched and swept his leg across the floor with lightning speed.

Hopping over it with ease, I landed a single punch on his left ear while he was still on the ground and vulnerable to attack. Hopefully getting my point across that I was no cocky upstart and that I actually knew how to fight, I stepped back with my arms behind my back, waiting for him to make the next move.

And my message did indeed get through, because he was no longer toying with me after that. Lunging up at me with a straight punch that was indented to break my nose, I just barely avoided a similar fate of the last loser. Using my speed to balance out the incredible strength he possessed, I dodged his every move. I figured that if he couldn't hit me, he couldn't win.