Rise in the Arena (Part 1)

Chapter 1

Rise in the Arena

Andrei Gavrila

Chapter I

Biol woke up from a bad dream, it was one of those dreams where he jumped out of bed as soon as it was over. He dreamed of his brother Dolorio wielding a sword in one hand and a shield in another. He was in the middle of the desert, on sand, surrounded by round walls with people on top of them sitting in rows on some leathery chairs. In front of Dolorio was a knight, dressed in black armor, he had a knife in one hand and the other was surrounded by magic, a warrior mage Biol thought. The knight had a black spiky helmet and it had white stripes over the mouth, the helmet had a small snake on top of it, the warrior also had a straight sky blue painted line on his armor. His brother on the other hand was dressed in a brown tunic over a chainmail. The black knight ran towards his brother. His brother lifted his shield but it was easily shattered by the wind. Then the black knight stabbed his brother with the knife before Dolorio could defend himself with the sword. The black knight pulled out the knife from Dolorio’s leg and placed it in a hilt at his back then he removed his magic and threw his hands up. The people on the chairs cheered, and then Biol realized that he was in an Arena.

The black knight picked up a bow from the ground and an arrow, then he took off his helmet, Biol was shocked, the black knight was his cousin. His cousin armed the bow with the arrow and fired at Biol. Before the arrow reached Biol's head he woke up in his bed at midnight. The dream scared him, and he tried to recollect everything from the dream.

First thing that came to him was the Arena, why an Arena he thought. Second his brother, he died, killed by his cousin with a snake on top. Snake! Biol killed three snaked later that day, and then he remembered what Old Granny told him: “Snakes are demons in animal form. They bite you and give you the eternal sleep and then drag you into the Fire Pit, if you kill them their spirit floats away in the air and enters your lungs there they corrupt you. If you want to escape it you have to go to the Temple and pray all day long for seven weeks straight.”

Corrupt you...Biol was scared at the thought, but at the same time did not believe it, it was the same as the other stories said by Old Granny, they were not true, except for some. Biol shook his head and stood up from bed, he knew what he had to do, he took off his pajamas and got some new clean clothes, they were a clean blue shirt and brown pants. He ran to the window and saw that it was late midnight. He put on his shoes and ran out of his room. Quickly Biol went to his brother's room, he tried to open it but it was locked. He needed to pick the lock or be smarter and do it Biol's way.

Biol ran quietly through the hall, at the end of the hall was a window, that was Biol's destination.  He opened it and ran out, jumped through. As soon as he was in mid air he turned around his face facing the sky and grabbed the roof's edge with both hands. He pulled himself up and now he was on the roof of his house.

He walked slowly to the center of the roof, he took hold of a small metal pole from the center of the roof and he looked around. The sky was a dark blue and the clouds were black, the full moon was shining and made light on Biol's face as he stood still and felt the breeze of the midnight winds. Biol enjoyed the view of Volkas. It was his hometown and it was full of happy and sad memories. He could walk through every street and remember an event. Volkas was completing him, he was attached to it, to its alleys, roads, houses, people and places. After a while he turned his head to the right towards Kronos Castle. The only castle he ever saw, it was big, it was surrounded by a grey brick wall with watch towers and archers patrolling at all times. He could see the roofs of different buildings and most of all he could see the palace. It was light grey and the roof was painted dark red. He enjoyed this view too, he was rarely been to Kronos Castle and he didn’t like it, it was crowded and full of people who weren’t so friendly as the people from villages. He wondered how his cousin could live there all by himself. But then maybe he got used to it the way Biol got used to the bad taste of tavern water.