The King's Gamma (#Wattys2024)

Twenty Nine

The food from the previous night had been surprisingly filling and the tab was somewhat generous as I had managed to convince the mother of the house to allow Jin's sister to leave with us, much to the surprise of the siblings. The mother of the house was known for not selling her women.

The Arena proved to be interesting. I had on my new leather armor, provided by Na'hal's father, as well as my new face cover. Jin's sister had a serum, much like modern-day hair coloring, that was able to color my hair the color I wished indefinitely. When I wished to have my color again I merely needed to use the other half of the serum.

I was surrounded by fighters in their humanoid form in every direction and their masters always near them. When the official who took the sign-ups for fighters showed his face, they slowly approached his table. I was waiting with Jin, his sister, Na'hal, his father and a few other Orcs when Ahman, Felix, and several more wolves than the previous night approached. They stared at my cloaked figure like I was a strange entity.

"You cost me quite a lot of money last night, Marcenia."

"Call me Marcellus. It's less conspicuous. Also, it's not my fault that you were unaware of my appetite. I eat as much on an hourly basis, usually. But that succubus makes a filling meal."

"Ahman!" A strangely familiar voice called from behind me. "I see you found a new champion for our Sid to cut down."

I looked towards the voice, finding the new money couple approaching us with their two lines of dancer-slaves and another with them. I was surprised to see another familiar face.  He was Rhi, a vampire clan leader that I had met for the sake of the treaties in my time. I smiled beneath the face cover, in my time I quite liked him as a person. He was the most welcoming of our treaties amongst the leaders.

"Rhi." I whispered, barely audible to even the vampire hearing. "Don't use the sword. It's a piece of shit."

I watched as his eyes barely moved into my direction, a small frown appearing between his brows.

"What was it that you wanted, Zach?" I heard Ahman.

"Your champion is new. I'm curious what you told this poor wolf to get him to offer his life up."

"He came to me, wanting to enter the Arena."

"And what would you be fighting with, tiny one?" The attention was now shifted towards me. "Or will you just give yourself up to die?"

I was still smiling beneath the mask, approaching the pompous man with once again a large bag of gold on his side. I snuck my hand inside his bag, pulling a few coins from it and slipping them into Rhi's hand before he could react. All except for him and his wife realized what was happening.

I twisted, throwing my arm over his shoulder and gave a hiccup.

"Friend...!" I hiccuped again and stumbled into him, making sure to seem drunk. "Did ya... Did ya gift that shword to... To... What was the bashtards name ag... Again?" I looked over at his wife and pulled her in as well, my hand around her hip as my fingers worked to untie the strap of her coin pouch.

"Shit... His name was Shit, right?"

"Sid," Rhi said behind me.

I was being pushed off of them with as much force as they seemed to be able to muster, only barely budging from them. I quickly took the coin back from Rhi and placed it inside the purse which I then pushed into the back of my shirt. I pretended to fall forward, grabbing onto Felix for show.

"May the best... May the best dancer win..."

The couple seemed disgusted with me this time.

They left without saying anything further, their slaves and champion giving me looks before they followed their masters. I looked back at the stunned werewolves, holding up the coin purse for them to see.