It's already late at night, our chateau's dead silent and I can't sleep. That's when I decided to escape from my room's balcony and get some fresh air. Luckily, the moon is waning that makes it easier to stay hidden in the shadows. I can feel the cool breeze grazing my skin as if telling me to follow the wind. I did let the wind guide me until a sweet voice fulls me deeper in the forest. The melodic sound led me into a clearing, there was a maiden sitting at the edge of the lake with her back at me, feet soaked in the water while singing and playing a harp.
"May I please have the honor of knowing the name of such a beautiful maiden?" She was startled and almost plunge into the water but I've caught her. "What are you doing, sneaking behind me and scaring me like that!? I almost fall into the lake!", she screamed at me. " I beg your pardon? I just want to know your name, you're voice is so enticing that I can't help but be curious." She sighed deeply then smiled—such a lovely sight! "Granted, you did caugth me though. I'm Marina as of the sea, a serf of Lord Augustus, and you are?" I returned her smile that turned into a grin and answered her. "Me? You really don't know? I just happened to be Earl Lars Portsmouth."She gasped, then bowed in her knees. "You didn't told me you're an Earl M'lord, please pardon my insolence."
I woke up from a dream, a dream that was never new to me. It was the sixth or maybe seventh this week? I checked my hands and as usual, saw it holding the two laurel wreaths, the reason I'm having this dreams, and the reason why I still have hope, hope that I will be with Marina again. Thousands of years have passed, but the laurel wreaths are still as green as new, as if it's magic and that is the case. I still remember the first time I woke with these laurels in my hands.
It's the year 1799, gladiator games have been outlawed centuries ago but in a village near the mountains, an underground arena held tournaments illegaly to earn money. They used slaves and kidnapped travelers as gladiators, unfortunately, I'm one of those kidnapped travelers. I'm going by the name of Roel by then and I was never a good warrior. It was my first fight when I got knocked out by my enemy. Then memories came flashing back, about my past life and my interrupted love with Marina.When I woke up, the wreaths are already in my hands and a nurse is tending to my wounds. I was lucky it seems that they don't want to waste any of their few gladiators.
When I looked closely to my nurse, I recognized her immediately. "Marina" I whispered, she looked at me questioningly as if wanting me to repeat what I've said clearly and louder. Tears started to fall from my eyes, then she approached me still wearing the same face. The moment she's in reach, I grabbed her for a kiss and called her by her name. With that one kiss, I can tell that she remembered it all, she remembered about our past too, our promise!
"Lars, are you really sure about this? What if we get caught?", Marina asked with a trembling voice. I hold her hands to make her feel secure. "We've been planning this for months? What could go wrong?" She just nods at me and continue with our escape. Marina drugged the guards earlier and stole the keys from them, we planned to free all the prisoners to help with the distractions and focus on our escape. But I guess the advantage of the distraction became a liability instead. Some gladiators goes on rampage that announced our escape. The guards and the ringmaster rushes immediately to block all the exits. The room was engulfed with chaos. Guards vs Gladiators, Gladiators vs Gladiators. Blood has flooded the floor, Marina was crying and shaking with all the violence but I continued pulling her into one of the exits. We were so close, when the ringmaster snatch Marina from my hands and held her by the hair. "I trusted you, Adilla. But you would betray me just for an excuse for a gladiator?" I was grabbed behind me by two guards, forced to watch Marina cry and beheaded by the ringmaster. My heart was broken into thousand pieces, it hurts emotionally, and physically after the ringmaster thrust his sword right through my heart.
