SABIS the SURVIVOR

Chapter 11: Crushed Pebbles

Chapter 11: Crushed Pebbles

Sulfur-lime torches mounted on animal femurs burned throughout the Arena, providing light, heat, odours, and above all an ambiance. The utility and mood that these odiferous lamps furnished depended on who you asked. For the viewing crowd, the Arena lights helped to identify the player, whether they were successful at their throws, or if they were hurt in the combat zone.

For the Elders, the flickering lights reminded them of the Hall of the Ancients, where ambient light and torches remained dim throughout the entire steam cycle. Therefore, they considered the lights adequate. The lights and the shadows, however, gave the contestants the chance to conceal their strategies and perhaps gain an advantage, albeit a hardly measurable one.

Ravis had eyed these twisted torches when he had first entered the Arena carrying his friend F.M. on his back. They had been a beacon of light for his weary legs. Now, these torches represented a glimmer of hope, a potential advantage, and a perfectly fair and legal element that he could use to win the title of Stone Games champion.

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Desire to kick and slash filled Ravis' body and mind─he felt like a caged lion ready to escape at the first chance for freedom: once the cage door unlocks, he could unleash his ruthless ferocity on any ill-fated person nearby, trampling them without consideration or regard for their well-being.

But he was not a caged lion nor was he a reckless brute. While waiting for the final part of the Stone Games to commence, he calmly and methodically rehearsed his plans. He reviewed his own offensive strategies and defensive countermeasures─this put his mind and body on high alert. His hair stood on end, his skin colour blanched, and his eyesight and depth perception improved.

After dismissing her previous soliloquy as a way to vent some steam, Dreyis now focused her attention on taking controlled abdominal breaths and remaining sure-footed.

With the shrill sound of the ram's horn, she backed Ravis onto the edge of the combat zone, a circular area ten meters across marked by darker earth and surrounded by a perimeter of sloping lighter-coloured earth. As she and Ravis crested the perimeter zone, she could almost discern the seams of coal, sulfur, and limestone that filled the wall's cracks and crevices. As she pushed forward with her roundhouse kicks and blade thrusts, Ravis held his blade pointed forward in his left hand while he grasped his makeshift lasso curled up in his right hand. Behind him and about one meter above, a torch hung suspended from the stone wall.

As their dance progressed, the audience cheered for their favourite combatant. Hoots and hollers streamed from the boys' section whereas shrieks and cries of approval and encouragement emanated from the girls' section.

Ravis knew his time to act was fast approaching. He counted the steps he took backwards: One, two, three ...

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His Father had arrived home from another after-work time spent with his fellow UnderStrata labourers. The torches had been dimmed in their home cave to signal sleep time but Father often did not follow convention when it came to routines. Mother had been sleeping with Ravis on that occasion after he had called for her due to a disturbing dream sequence.

When Father yelled, "Where are you Maris?" that had woken them both up. Ravis at the age of six, did not understand the ways of men and women or the physical needs of a man. So when Father yanked Mother by her hair and pulled her towards their sleeping area, he did not understand Father's behaviour nor could he intervene. For her part, Mother tried to reassure Ravis by telling him, "Go back to sleep, my love. I am alright and I will see you in a while. You are my angel and I love you." But her voice sounded tense and forced, like when a musician played a string instrument whose strings were too taut.

Father yelled some more while Mother tried to quiet him with soothing words, "Yes, Muallis. Whatever you want. Please not so hard. Don't rip my clothes."

Her quiet protests had been punctuated with some muted shrieks. Ravis, alone in his hammock, could still hear his parents as he counted numbers while drifting off to sleep. "One, two, three ..."

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The shrieks from the girls' section and the hollering from the boys' section intensified in tandem while Ravis closed his eyes in anticipation of the impending darkness. Confidently and fearlessly, he stepped forward with his left foot spear tip rising to Dreyis' face. As Dreyis ducked underneath the spear attack, Ravis, with his eyes still shut, released his lasso up and over his head to snare the torch just behind him. He quickly flicked his right wrist forward causing the torch to fly in the air and land on the ground behind Dreyis.

Legend has it that Gadis the Great, the original Survivor, lived in a dimly-lit cave all by himself where he contemplated how he could honour Mother Earth and how the tribe could survive after the planetary catastrophe that had plunged the world into a state of pale and thin light. This way, Gadis could more comfortably and effectively adjust to the shadowy existence caused by SkyGod's lackluster luminescence.

Ravis recreated the muted lighting conditions of that ancient cave and obscured his next moves from Dreyis. With the nearby grounded torch partially snuffed out, Ravis reopened his eyes. In the growing dimness of the combat zone, Ravis felt like he was reenacting Gadis' fight to survive but this time, it was not for the tribe's survival but for his own personal healing.

With both the element of surprise and his adjusted low-light vision on his side, he darted forward and slid onto the ground kicking his left leg at Dreyis' right thigh sack while simultaneously using his right-hand webbing to lasso her blade out of her right hand. Now behind her, he spun half-way around as fast as an expert break-dancer, then slashed the back of her left thigh and sack with the blade in his left hand thus preventing her from pirouetting away from his attack. She cried out as the blade sliced into her skin just below her armoured vest. She dropped to her knees and bent forward in an attempt to avoid her arm sacks from being sliced into.

Licking his lips and smelling blood, with a medium blue flame from the sulfurous torch illuminating his face, he kicked once more at her, this time aiming for her neck. Grazing her jugular notch with his spear-tipped left foot, he then spun on the ground while using his webbed lasso to snare the grounded torch behind him. He then flicked his right wrist thus sending the torch directly at Dreyis' face.

Her cries of anguish were barely audible as the crowd went wild with screams and hollers. As the torch burned and oozed a red liquid, it was virtually impossible to differentiate blood from melted sulfur − both were red and liquid at room temperature. Only Ravis and Dreyis knew if blood had been spilled.

Ravis' lust for more revenge against his Father and anyone else who stood in his way, culminated in his final thrust for glory. He sprang like a wild animal, pouncing on his prey, using all four of his limbs to land on Dreyis' throat and chest region. He then sliced her arm sacks thus spilling their contents.

Ravis roared and stood up to roar some more. He then stomped on the spilled stones with his bare feet. When he was unable to crush them into dust, he then ripped off his useful spear tip, transferred it to his dominant right hand, and smashed the fallen stones into pebbles and then into fine particles of stone dust, until they were no different from the resident stone dust. The only remaining evidence of a recent combat were the blobs of dried and coagulated blood from Dreyis' thigh and neck that displayed the ferocity and gore of the proceedings.

"All stop!"

The crowd chanted.

"Griffin! Griffin! Ravis! Ravis!"

Then Ravis fell onto his back and sobbed.