A New Light

Chapter 14

From the moment I laid eyes on the old man, I instantly disliked him. An arrogant looking sneer on is face and his feet propped up against the desk. Right when I entered the room, we instantly started a staring contest. Then, as if he was being gracious he said," Come take a seat." He motioned to the chair in front of his desk, the seat right in front of his feet.

Slowly, I take steps toward his direction, then with a very innocent look on my face I state," But why would I sit there when I would only be staring at your feet, Grandpa?" He obviously grimaced at the sound of my voice.

In a overbearing voice he started lecturing me," You are only a little snotty child, yet you dare to disrespect me? What a disgrace." He then made a high pitched and mocking voice," Oh! This student is a genius! She is very capable. She will do great in your camp!" He then returned to his normal haughty tone," Do you know what I see you as in my eyes? A puny little kid spoiled brat who bribed their way into my prestigious training faculty."

Hearing his babble on and on was getting very irritating. I had to bite the inside of my mouth and dig my nails into my thigh to prevent myself from punching this old man. He then slammed a sheet of paper down in front of my face.

"Hah! Do you know what this is? Since you obviously don't know how to read I will explain it to you. This is a tournament where you battle. Fight. Duel. And do you know what you are gonna do? You are going enter this tournament and place in top ten." As the old man continued spouting out words I noticed that this tournament was the same one I had seen on the board. The same one I wanted to participate in. Excited, I try to calm myself down and listen - or act like I am - to the old man's ranting.

"What will happen if I don't place in the top ten you ask? Let me answer that for you. You will be hit with a pole 100 times. Pay me a compensation amount of 500,000 gold coins for accepting you. And you will have to leave this place an never come back afterwards. Did that answer your question."

Trying very hard not to get violent I give him a very calm smile and ask," What if I win the tournament?"

The old man laughed very hard, so hard his faced turned red like it was about to burst. I wish it did. "You? Win?" He was practically dying of laughter and mockery now,"If you did I might as well give you 10,000 jade coins!"

Smirking a bit I confirm," So if I win, you will give me 10,000 jade coins? And if I don't get in top ten I will have to take your punishment?"

The old man narrowed his eyes at me," If we're going to make a bet you have to make if fair right? But since you're so confident in yourself I'm not giving you mercy anymore. Achieve first place or take the consequences."

Satisfied with this deal, I bring out two sheets of paper and write out the deal. I sign it, and then push it over for the old man to sign. He reads it over, signs, then smirks at me," Try to live past the first round and you might come back with your life."

Ignoring him I study to two sheets of paper before nodding and sliding one of them over for the old man to keep. I then look up at him and remind him," Old Man, you forget that this tournament is one week away. Classes start tomorrow."

As if he planned the entire thing he give me a pompous grin," That just means I get to enjoy your struggle of keeping up in your classes." His attitude then did a complete 180, with a dull voice the shoos me away," Get the man outside the doors to lead you to your room. Get out of my sight." Happy to get out of this thing's office I quickly find the guy outside the doors and get to my room.

~•~

The first thing I did when I entered the room was to take a nice hot shower, then soak in a self made, lavender scented, medicinal bath. It smelled nice and did wonders to the body. It helped my magic level and physical strength. I stayed in the bath for so long that I almost dozed off. Honestly, I applaud myself for even being able to step out of the the bathtub - if you could even call it that - it was in the shape of many circles joined together, which made it not circular at all, and had steps down and seats built in it. It was genuinely a miracle that I didn't spent half the night in there.

Quickly I change my cloths and leap under the covers of the bed. So fluffy... I suppose we were going to start classes tomorrow, since I don't think the rest of the people did anything... Not knowing how or when I fell into a very relaxing and comfortable sleep.

~•~

Waking up, the first thing I notice is something that was not here last night. On the night stand there was a sheet of paper that included a map pointing out where all my classes would take place on the back, and a list of all my classes on the front. Not really wanting to know how or when the sheet of paper got there I got headed to the bathroom to get ready for the day.

Apparently, what I was doing today was all outdoors. I got into an outfit that would be easy exercise in, made sure I had my pouch on, and headed to the Forest Clearing. Aside from the teacher that was onto top of the really tall tree to my right, I was the first one here. Not too sure when the class was actually going to start I hopped up one of the trees and sat on the lowest branch, but now that I think about it. The lowest branch had to be at least 25 feet off the ground.

I smiled a bit, swinging my legs, it's a good thing I'm not afraid of heights.