The Battlefield

The Tournament

Luca walked into the arena still in a daze, the applause of the audience seemed like it was miles away. He tried to concentrate, but his mind kept wandering back to Miriam's display of affection, even if they were on behalf of his mother and sister.
The host then invited Luca's competitor into the arena; Nicolas.

Luca shook his head, remembering how to hold his sword now that Nicholas stood opposite to him with a menacing smirk.

Both men circled each other, observing the other like a prey. Nicolas delivered the first move, trying to jab Luca in his chest.

Luca retaliated by quickly putting his own sword against the other and pushed it away from him.
They were circling again. Luca then jumped forward, with his sword raised high and seeming to aim at Nicolas' chest. Nicolas turned away while raising his leather clad wooden shield. Luca used Nicolas' distraction to change the course of his sword and instead swiped at his right hand which held the sword, creating a gash, and jumped back.
From the round of applause and cheers for Luca, from the audience, he guessed his family would be the one clapping the loudest and were the ones cheering "Come on, baby!", "Lets go son," and an excited shrill scream which would unmistakably his sister's. He wondered what Miriam would be cheering.

Being lost in his thoughts, Luca failed to realise that thinking would be his weakness. His coach had drilled it into him that the only thinking he has to be thinking in the arena is about his opponent.
Nicolas lunged at Luca going for his stomach, but slipped, but he gave Luca a cut on his thigh. A collective gasp could be heard in the audience while majority of them cheered, as they changed sides to the contestant who would be winning.

The men circled each other again. Luca was doing this for his family. He would earn bags of silk filled to the brim with riches. All he had to do was kill Nicolas or make him beg for mercy.
The men jumped at each other the same time with their swords raised high and fought for dominance with them. Keeping an alert eye on the sword and matching Nicolas' movement with his sword, Luca could easily protect himself.

Nicolas jumped at Luca again, raising his sword above his head. Luca immediately protected his head by placing his shield over it. After hearing the wooden shield thump from the effect of the sword, he lowered it.
He was faced with a ferocious looking Nicolas who still had his sword raised high, came down upon Luca's left shoulder, embedding itself.

Luca bellowed, in pain and in anger.
He needed to win. Miriam's words kept circling around in his head.

Nicolas pulled his sword out of Luca's shoulder and tried to lunge at him again.
In the gap that Nicolas raised his sword, Luca pulled his hand with the sword back and plunged it into Nicolas's stomach with immense force.

The whole stadium was eerily quiet, as Nicolas' eyes grew bloodshot and shifted his gaze downwards. Only the leather wrapped grip could be seen of the meter long sword.

Blood pooled around the around the hilt of the sword. Sickened by the grotesque sight, Miriam turned her head away from the scene in front of her. Yes, she wanted him to win, but not so aggressively! She felt weight moving on her lap and looked to see Mia looking at her with teary eyes.

Without moving her gaze away from Mia, she pulled the four year old girl and hugged her against her chest.

Mia stood on Miriam's lap with her hands tightly wrapped around her neck and her head tucked into Miriam's neck. Miriam gathered the courage to look again.

Nicolas fell backwards onto the ground, where blood droplets from the point of the sword stained the area.

The host began yelling praises of the 'young superstar', which was then joined by the uproar of the audience as they all stood in a standing ovation.
(///▽///)(///▽///)(///▽///)
The next day, Luca laid in his bed, bare chested with his still developing six pack on view, waiting for his mum to appear and clean up his injury like she'd said she would so last night. Miriam entered the room with a clay pot with warm herbal oils, and a rag in her other hand.

Luca propped himself up using his right hand lean his weight on. Miriam set the bowl on a little clay stool and sat on the edge of his bed while facing him.

"Hey there," Luca greeted her, "I thought mum was supposed to tend to me"

"She was going to," said Miriam slowly, "but Julian and Alena had to go to Fidanae to auction the land remember?"

"Oh," replied Luca. "Do they have everything they need? They're going to be there for at least two days."

"Yes, the servants packed shrugging that they may need" was Miriam's reply as she dipped the cloth into the bowl.

"Is Mia in her classes now?"
Miriam gave him a stern look. Wow, she was the first woman who did that who wasn't his mother. But Luca managed to hide the surprise on his face.

"Yes she is. Now stop worrying about others and think of yourself," she said while she dabbed the rag onto his cut.

Luca hissed at the contact. Miriam immediately retracted her hands which held the cloth. Luca shook his head painfully. "No, no it okay, keep doing it."

Miriam slowly brought her hands back and kept dabbing. "What did you think of me yesterday?" Luca asked again.

"You were pretty good, but I think you were too soft on him at the start, especially after his performance he put up in front of me in the room. Or maybe I need to be drill the words I spoke before your fight into your brain so that you would never give your opponent a chance to even lay a finger on you" Miriam replied.

"Why would I need to go hard on him for just playing with a pretty lady?" He asked while looking at her confused. 'It was mostly my sister and mum's words of encouragement that drove me."

Miriam paused at the work at hand and processed his words into her head. His words hurt Miriam to the extent she never imagined it words could.

She liked him and he didn't like her that way, but that didn't mean he shouldn't care for her at least a little bit to save her dignity. Would he have come to anther woman's rescue of Nicolas behaves with her that way? Is Luca similar to Nicolas who didn't give a second thought to help a woman in need?

Slowly, she started to resume what she was doing. What was the point of defending herself when obviously, he didn't even care for her.

Luca watched her, being very amused. Miriam started wrapping a fresh new cloth around his shoulder with her eyebrows pulled together in concentration, pushing her hurt to the furthest corner of her mind.

When Miriam, had finished, she sat up straight, throwing the dirty rag onto the stool.

She sat there for a few seconds not meeting his eyes, because she didn't want to be met with his smirk such as caused by her misery.

She got up, but Luca gripped her hand tightly, not allowing Miriam to take another step. She stood frozen in her spot, not daring to look at his face.

Luca pulled her forcefully pulled on her hand. This caused Miriam to fall back onto the bed with a gasp, luckily she just ended up sitting down in the same position as before. Her wavy hair which was braided to the side fell apart as she hadn't had enough time to carefully tie it together with a strip of cloth in the rush. Luca studied her face; with a soft smile playing on his lips, his eyes squinting slightly and his eyebrows pulled together.

With another pull, Miriam fell directly next to Luca, but she managed to stop herself before her face hit the bed or if she went off point even slightly, then she would've fallen on his shoulder.

Luca moved himself slightly so that they were face to face.
"You're right. I killed him, not because of your motivational speech Signora Inspiration, but because of the way he behaved with you. Scum like him don't need to go terrorizing people," he whispered, "especially not to those who I call my own."

Their moment was interrupted by a servant walking into the room.

Signora-Miss(f)