THREE STARS BURNING

Unit 2

Rye stepped into the circle, his weapon of choice at hand - a dagger, light but lethal, better for close contact but could also be thrown: his ideal weapon.

Blood stained the sand that scattered underneath him. His face gave nothing away, blank as a sheet.

The crowd had grown silent, no doubt waiting in anticipation for the next blood bath, a pleasure Rye was not willing to give. The sound of his steady breathing echoed around the arena from the tiny speakers that were dotted around the room.

Alongside the speakers were cameras that were just as tiny, live feeding this scene to every creature under the three stars.

A faint creaking sound broke through the rhythm of his breathing.

Out scuttled a small animal of some sort. Both of its eyes bigger than its body, it was struggling to stand upright. Maybe animal was the wrong word, more like insect, if insects hadn't been extinct for the past 300 years.

It blinked its huge eyes. To most people it would seem cute but Rye felt nothing towards it - he only viewed it as the thing standing between him and survival.

Any fool would have killed it there and then but Rye knew this was way too easy, he stood there and looked at it, waiting for the twist.

He wasn't disappointed at all.

The animal's eyes fell out of its head and rolled across the floor to his feet. The audience didn't seem surprised, more like excited, they knew something was about to happen.

The body of the animal left behind started to crackle as it turned inside out, collecting pieces of sand as it did so. Soon enough, there stood in front of him a half-dead bloody carcass. Sand fell from its seams only to enter it again from the soles of its feet. It grew big, bigger than expected from something that came from a small animal's body.

In the end, it was more than twice his height and width. Each and every spectator was looking at him, wondering what he would do, what creative way he would come up with to leave the circle with his life.

He whistled in appreciation.

"Well hello there," he waved "Do you have a name?"

No answer.

"I'll call you Tim then."

You could practically hear the cogs ticking in Rye's mind. He adopted a battle stance in case the creature decided to attack. Looking down at the eyes underneath him, he took one step to the side.

Both the creature and the eyes moved towards him. Another step, the same outcome but this time you could clearly see that the beast was lunging more to the eyes and the eyes were moving more towards him.

Then he realized, it wanted the eyes and the eyes wanted him. He thought about throwing them out of the circle, but at once knew it was a bad idea - if the eyes were out of the equation, there would be nothing separating him and the beast.

A second later, an idea struck his mind.

"Alright Tim, I'm sorry to interrupt but you might wanna brace yourself."

He used his dagger to make a large slit down the length of his arm and covered the eyes with his blood. The creature could not see yet, it could only sense. It could smell his blood and feel its link to the eyes so it wasted no time in diving for them whilst he sprinted behind the insect-turned-monster and slit a long line down its back clutching the dagger tightly in his left hand. Sand poured down the creatures back but it only hindered it for a second, a second too many.

Rye had already launched himself onto its back, using the dagger to hoist himself onto its shoulders. To say he was unbalanced was an understatement - his balance was compromised to the point that if someone sneezed he would fall and crush all of his bones on impact. It was a good thing the crowd already had all of their attention rapt on the scene before them.