Forest Of Flames - Tales Of Aslan The Elf

Chapter One

The heat of the scorching sun vanished as the wagon entered a cave. Suddenly the sound of cheering erupted from the distance. I cringed as I saw it. Two demi humans, both of the ram variety, battling inside a large metal cage. It's a brutal scene. One a child looking to be in his teens, small and frail looking. The other is a middle aged man whose body is littered with scars and looks to be much more fit and in better condition than the child. The grown man stomping on the other's head. Both are bloodied. The man looks to have a large gash across his face; however, he is in a much better condition than the child. The boy who looks to only be a teen is drenched in his own blood, his right arm appeared broken and his left foot missing strewn somewhere else in the ring. His head is bleeding profusely and he looks to be half dead already. The man stomps on the child's head once more with all his force extracting a yelp and the child goes limp on the floor blood pooling around his head. I sigh aloud trying to think of a reason these humans have for enjoying the bloodshed as much as they seem to, but alas I cannot think of an answer. I look away from the ring where they were getting it ready for the next fight. As I redirect my attention to where the cart is heading it stops. I have arrived at my cell where I am to stay until my fight begins. It looks run down as always having a small wooden bed that looks to be rotting in the top right corner and a singular blanket sitting on top already stained with blood from the past years contestants. I sigh once again and sit on the bed. Next to it is a small table where a small piece of bread wrapped in an old stained cloth and a small canteen of water sits. I take the small piece of bread which is roughly the size of the palm of my hand and eat it, taking small bites of it to make it last. These rations are all that I will get until my fight which could be weeks away, however as I am still wrapping up my thoughts a man dressed in chainmail approaches my cell. His keys jingle as they twist and turn to undo the rusty old lock on my cell. "Contestant 57 Aslan step out of your cell with your hands behind you," the man whom I believe is a guard commands as he reaches for a pair of old raggedy handcuffs. I finish off my small meal, chugging the measly cup of water. I stand and walk out of the cell following the instructions given to me as the guard meets me at the entrance of the cell securing the handcuffs around my wrists. He attached a short chain to the cuffs and began to lead me out of the cell. As we approach the entrance to my side of the ring I hear the announcer stating my name along with my species, gender, height, weight, and many other details about me. At the entrance of the ring my guard not so gently takes my handcuffs off before shoving me inside the ring. It takes me a moment to adjust to the bright lights flashing down on me and the noise from the crowd as I walk forward to see my opponent. As my eyes begin to focus I can see the silhouette of a large, burly man. He is just a plain human, which surprises me as there are not many who participate in this event. I hear the announcer yell out his name as he walks into the ring on the opposing side. Suddenly, but not surprisingly a wall erupts out of the ground in the middle of the ring. As the wall stops moving the announcer explains the rules to the audience and to us all of which I have heard before, but this time there was something different. "Each opponent gets one weapon of choice and for this match magic is allowed!" The announcer screeches. As I hear those words all the color drains from my face. That means that this is no ordinary human, but a mage. How did a mage end up a slave? I have no idea, but I must be careful to not end up dead. The countdown is beginning. At the same time everyone in the audience counts down "3, 2, 1, fight!" I hear the word fight and rush towards the wall of weaponry. My choice of weapon is a set of throwing knives. Best to keep my distance until I know what kind of mage this man is. I see him grab a mace and rush towards me while chanting something. I continue jumping away until he finishes his chant and the metal the mace is made of reshapes itself into two short swords. Seeing this I realize that he must be a close combat mage whose specialty is metal magic. I begin throwing my blades at him one by one, but as they get closer and closer instead of impaling the man and killing him they absorb into his short swords increasing their size bit by bit. I drop the rest of my knives and run at the man. Apparently I caught him off guard by this. As I get closer he begins running at me as well swinging his swords in a crossing slash motion. I jump back narrowly dodging the attack. I sprint forward once more and jump over the man kicking the back of his knees out causing him to fall. Once he went down I quickly stomp on his wrists causing him to let go of the blades. He slowly tries to get back up, but I can't let him. I must win my freedom back, I cannot afford to die in a place like this. I jump onto his head and put him a tight headlock squeezing as hard as I can. As his airway is cut off he starts clawing at my arms failing miserably to pull me off of him. When he sees that this feeble attempt to pry me off fails he starts thrashing around like a wild animal. As time goes by he slowly starts moving less and less until he ceases all movement, eyes rolling to the back of his head. I quickly jump off so as to not get trapped under him. As he limply falls back to the ground the announcer states that I am the winner. However, as I begin to exit the ring I hear rapid footsteps and yelling something about requesting for backup. All the audience members begin scrambling around trying to escape the ring before whatever was trying to get in succeeds. In the chaos I realize that I have the chance to escape. Looking around to make sure the guards at the entry points of the ring were gone I ran out where I entered. Running as fast as I can I head for the back of the cave where an exit resides, mainly used to throw out dead bodies, however that doesn't matter to me as of now. All that matters is that I can escape during this commotion. Running to the exit I start to see light. Finally I made it out of that hell hole, but now is not the time to celebrate. I still need to escape further into the forest and find somewhere I can stay without being captured again. I will continue running. I'm not sure for how long, but it feels like I have been running for days at this point and I could collapse from exhaustion any time now it's dark, but I have no time to rest. Just as I begin to lose hope I spot smoke. That means fire so someone must be nearby. I'm sure that no one will recognise me here. Hopefully I can find somewhere to stay for a bit even if only for a couple hours. As I keep running towards the smoke I recognise the light of the fire in the darkness. Once I got closer I stopped running hoping to not alarm whoever has set up camp here. I slow down my breathing before continuing to walk towards the fire to see two men who look to be in their twenties or thirties. Clearing my throat to gain their attention I greet them "Hello sirs, I am a traveler and happened to see your fire nearby I was wondering if you would be so kind as to let me stay around your fire for the night as I just ran out of supplies a few days ago and have yet to find a village to restock." Both give me a weary glance before speaking themselves "Hello sir who claims to be a traveler. You reek of blood and rust. You look as though you have been starving for days and you seem to be a forest elf from the look of your horns. I have never heard of a traveling forest elf. Would you care to explain, good sir?" I sigh heavily. I get the feeling I will not be welcomed here especially if I lie further. "Apologies to you both for lying. I am not a traveler, but a runaway slave who recently escaped my captors and yes you are correct I am a forest elf. Forgive me for deceiving you. Is there any chance you might let me stay at your camp for a night?" I say. I watch the two as they seem to discuss between one another with hushed whispers and glances. One speaks up clearing his throat. "I suppose you may stay at our camp for a while. Just beware we are vampires. My name is Ambrose and he is Skylar" Ambrose says, pointing to the other vampire beside him. "Thank you both for your generosity, truly. My name is Aslan" I say to them. "Well Aslan it is late, you should get some rest for your journeys ahead. You may occupy that tent there" Skylar says pointing towards one of the two tents. "Thank you I swear on my name I shall repay you both in full one day" I say before heading into the tent to finally rest.