The Battlefield

Double Trouble

"Tomorrow, I've got a tournament," Luca said out of the blue while looking at his parents expectantly, " I was hoping you can come to show your support for me."

Three days after Miriam's introduction to Luca's kind side, he disappeared for most of the day and only arrived late at night after training as a gladiator.
This was the first thing she heard him say in the duration of these three days.

Julian and Alena looked at each other dumbfounded. "You should've told us at least a week ago so we wouldn't have by made any extra plans for tomorrow," Julian said.
Now it was Luca's turn to look confused. "You made plans for tomorrow?"
"Yes, we have to auction our land off in Fidanae."
Alena stayed quiet for a while before speaking.
"How about we just postpone the auction, our son's first tournament isn't going to come again." Alena looked at Julian with anticipation. The two stared into each other's eyes, both having their own inner conflicting conversations as Mia, Luca and Miriam watched on.
Julian sighed, defeated.

"Alright. We'll come to your tournament."

"Thank you papa," Luca said with a small smile. "You won't regret it." Julian smiled back and Mia resumed recounting what she had learnt in her lessons.
(///▽///)
The next day, Julian and Luca left the house earlier than the women. Julian had to give the word of postponing the auction and Luca had to get an early start on the training and preparing.

"Mia come out of the bathroom darling, we've got to get you dressed up!"

"But Madre, I want don't want to go."

"Oh come on cara, it won't be that bad."

"But papa told me that Luca will really get hurt and I don't want to see him hurt"
Miriam walked out of her room at that time, looking at Alena who was anxiously knocking on the bathroom door.

"What's all this commotion for?" Miriam asked, draping a shawl over her shoulders and across her waist, as this was the traditional dressing style for both men and women. And the society wouldn't accept someone who would accentuate their figure rather than cover it up for the sake of modesty.

"Oh nothing dear, Mia over here doesn't want to come to to tournament and locked herself on the bathroom."

Miriam thought this over. She wasn't familiar on how to treat little children. How could she ever be of help? And it was nearly time for the tournament.

"Mia, darling, please come out," said Miriam softly to console the child.

"No" the the defiant reply she got.

"Don't worry about Luca, he's really strong. And he also told me he'd especially fight his best if you're there. You don't want to let him down do you?" Miriam cooed. She and Alena were met with silence before they heard the soft sigh.
"I'll come," she said
(///▽///)
Inside the Colosseum,Miriam and Alena's family sat together in the front row, Julian had joined them in the building because it was on his way back.

Miriam started to fret when Mia kept talking about how Luca was going to 'thrash' his competitor for her.
Alena could see that something was bothering her.

"What's wrong dear?" Alena asked.
Miriam looked at her distressingly. Should she tell Alena about her petty problem? What if she was making a big deal out of nothing?
Miriam decided to tell her after the worry on Alena's face increased and Julian also looked their way concerned so as to not keep them worried.

"I don't know how good Luca is as a gladiator, but I'm sure he's great. However, I think it'll calm my mind if I tell him about the promise I told Mia that was supposedly been from him. I just hope it'll motivate him...somehow, and he'll execute his best performance for her," all the words came tumbling down before she even had a chance think them over. She didn't know how much of it made sense to Alena but she was glad she got it out. Now Alena could go tell him and he'll try his best. Great, it'll work out as planned.

However, it was Alena's next words that didn't go as planned. "That's wonderful darling, I didn't even get to wish him good luck properly this morning. If you go and tell him to try his best on behalf of all of us, I'm sure he'd love it!"
Miriam sat speechless, Alena had given her the responsibility of talking to Luca. Oh great!

Alena was tending to Mia when her nerves started to kick in again in worry for her brother. Alena turned to look at Miriam again with a questioning smile. Miriam smile back unsure but got up and went behind the seats and into the corridors which would lead to the training room.

It helped that her uncle, an ex gladiator, gave her a tour of the Colosseum. If anyone asked about her authority to enter I to these corridors, Miriam answered in reference to her relationship to her uncle so to keep a low profile because her uncle had been defeated in battle and wasn't well known anymore.

When Miriam reached the training room, the pungent smell of sweat, mould and blood lingered near the doorway. She wasn't ready to open the door because she expected a whole gush of this toxic smell to envelope her.

And she was on point. The smell almost kicked her out of the door and forced her to close the door and never come back in again. However, Mia's words rang in her ears.
She urged herself to stay there and her eyes roamed around the place full of hefty men, getting ready to fight.
The room was lined with rows and rows of swords, shields and other equipment used for fighting. Some of the walls were also smeared in blood. Miriam shuddered, Luca's blood might've also been on the walls.
Many were dressed in the same outfit. A loin cloth was worn around the men's waist and then another cloth. On top of that, they wore copper strips which ended at their knees as armour. Most of them were barefoot, because gladiators were mostly slaves. Some fought in sandals, those were the slaves who gained enough money to live life as a nobleman, through the many experience and victories.
All of them wore shoulder pads, helmets that covered majority of their faces and were all bare chested, exposing their scars from past tournaments.

Luca was not a slave, however he sold himself to them to gain money when he was fifteen years old because his family was struggling and Mia was just born which placed the family in a more unfavourable condition.

As Miriam walked deeper into the room, men jeered at her as if they have seen the female species before.
Most of it was bearable, it was similar to going through an overcrowded market. The only difference was that the men made sexual comments and briefly but intentionally touched her.

The worst was when she had only come half way into the room before she was confronted by a group of men blocking her way as if they were a wall.
One of the men reached for her but she instantly ducked away. The men laughed cruelly and circled around her.
The leader of the group, walked towards her. He was handsome. But his looks didn't affect Miriam in the least. "What are you here for beautiful?" He asked with a wicked smirk.
"Right now I'm thinking of a plan on how to get away from you,' was Miriam's reply.
She didn't know if she'd done the right thing. Would her comeback provoke him or make him go away when he realised she wasn't up for his trouble? The thought that it could be the latter was wiped clean when his surprised face shifted to one of a challenge.

"Do I annoy you, little girl?" He asked staring her down.

"Only when you're breathing," she replied sounding bored while rolling her eyes. Adrenaline shot through her veins, her heart was threatening to fall out of her chest, her palms were sweaty, every muscle in her body was ready for attack. Whether it be verbally or physically, even though she could probably never defeat this Manx even with a dagger up her sleeve.
The man reached and twisted a strand of her hair around his finger.
"Why don't you meet me in my house tonight, and we'll see if your opinion of me changes," he said while leaning in closer to her.

Miriam moved further away and was close to sprinting out of there if Luca hadn't come barging through the circle of these men and pulling the man off her.
"Nicolas! You devil! Get the cazzo up!"
Nicolas stood up straight and glared at Luca before walking to the back of the room muttering obscenities under his breath with his group. Before getting consumed by the other gladiators he yelled, "Prepare to die Luca, that girl will be mine!"

Luca glared at them again, before dragging Miriam out of the room.
Surprisingly, now no one commented and just moved out of their path.

Oh, what had she gotten herself into?

Madre-Mother
Cara-Dear(f)
Cazzo- Fůck (I had a smile on my lips while I read the sentence. It just didn't sound natural!)