Fantasy The Great Game

[lostlovesandmagic]

The palace was alive with energy. Servants rushed about, opening rooms that had been long shut off. Maids darted by, their arms full with fresh linens. A few girls kneeled on the floor, scrubbing and polishing the tile. The palace had been empty for so long, Nora had nearly forgotten what it was like to be in a place teeming with people. She hadn’t seen so many people inside the palace since she was a little girl, before the plague had reached them. The air buzzed with excitement. It was wonderful.

Nora passed by unnoticed, slowly making her way down to the kitchen. She never found it difficult to slip past her guard. Not only were they not very good at guarding, but they also didn’t seem keen on keeping track of her anyways. It had been a talent of hers ever since she was a child. As the youngest of four siblings, and the last in line to the throne, she found it rather easy to get by unannounced and without any fanfare. She was rather plain, as well, and that certainly helped her to blend in with the serving girls.

It was always the expectation that a princess be beautiful, or special, in some way. Like her sister Mary, with her dark brown hair and startling bright blue eyes. Mary was the epitome of beauty and grace. Nora, on the other hand, was dull. She had wild, unruly curls and was somehow always finding streaks of dirt either on her clothes or cheeks. Being plain was a blessing in disguise, though, as Nora could often walk about undisturbed—no one noticed her. Everyone knew when Mary walked into a room, but most people forgot when Nora was in it.

That was how, now, she was able to walk through the kitchen and out the servants’ door without an escort. A cool breeze tussled the hem of her wool dress, and Nora inhaled the fresh air deeply. It was early spring, and the air was still crisp with the remnants of winter. It felt good against her skin, a nice change from the stale air inside the palace.

She left the palace without looking back, feeling free for the first time in months. It was considerably more difficult to escape when father had died and George had been crowned King. The plague had been at its worst only six months back, and George had been reluctant to let anyone in or out of the palace gates. Now, though, there was not much he could do to keep her confined. The palace, the capital itself, was simply too busy with preparations for the Great Game. No one had time to constantly track her whereabouts.

Nora sought out the arena. It was a large stadium just outside the capital gates. Hundreds, maybe even thousands, of tents were pitched around it. She assumed that maybe some of the Hunters were living there, and certainly some of the poor that had come for work and couldn’t afford to stay at an inn within the city gates. It was dangerous to sleep outside the capital, where soldiers did not roam to protect the people.

Thinking of the monsters, Nora glanced at the sky. The sun was still high. She still had plenty of time. Monsters crawled through the lands at any time of the day, but they were more numerous at night, and that was when the city locked its gates. She did not want to be caught outside the gates, at night, in a field of tents, with the monsters.

She didn’t know what she was looking for. The Great Games wouldn’t start for three more days, and when they did she would work with the other healers to save whoever was injured, but had survived. George had fought her dearly on it, and Mary had supported him. It will ruin your reputation, they had reprimanded. A lady, especially a princess, shouldn’t work with her hands. But, she was so damn bored inside that palace. She felt stifled, useless. Surprisingly, the third of her siblings, Peter, had come to her aid.

If only they all knew where she was now. She almost felt guilty. A ruined reputation indeed. The gossip would be merciless if anyone were to find she went outside the city alone.

Nora clutched her basket of healing supplies to her chest, walking quietly through the tents. The Hunters didn’t need her help yet, but there were plenty of poor and unfortunate souls that could use her skills, however minimal they were.

 

[Syrrus]

Valerik was sitting on some rubble, probably what was left of some poor sod's home, before the sickness had grippes the land. Not that he had been there to see it.

This hunter was far from a socialite by any standards. He surprised himself when he had managed to hold a normal, casual conversation with his fellow man. Normaly he would spend his days lazily, talking with monsters and animals of his home turf, by the use of clicks and grunts, not conversing with another human.

The travel from the southern jungles had been long and tiering. He had gone by foot. Like many other hunters he had heard the call and gone to the capital. The games gave hunters like himself an excellent opportunity. Definetly worth the trip.

Valeric was hardly someone to say no to a 'traveling free pass', a way to go anywhere whenever, no matter who he was or where he had come from; the world had to welcome him with open arms. For once.

He was giddy with excitment, almost jumping for joy. His messy black hair still filled with twigs and dead leaves, stuck there since leaving home. He was dressed in leather and linen, even some chainmail, in green, brown and blue - the best way to camouflage oneself in the jungle bioms. His weapon, a long bow and a swors sat neatly on his back.

What made Valerik stand out was simply the arm long lizard. It was a monster, clearly. Something cut inbetween two common animals. With a red fluffy tail of a squirrel and a body of your avarage spiky lizard. Both looking completely at home in the mix of it all, even if they managed to stand out. He wasn't the only one with a pet, but the only one with a monster, as the creature sat upon his knee, streaching upwards on it's hind legs like an hare sniffing the air.

"You know Eskil" Said the youth, his voice melodic, he spoke a little quicker than your avarage man. "This place has decent grub." He added, speaking loud enough to gain attention from fellow hunters, aome who gave him puzzled looks (or disgruntled stares).

Valerik was chewing on some local sweet, almons roasted in honey, grinning from ear to ear. Once he became free to roam the lands he'd try every single candy and sweet each corner had to offer.

He scratched his nose with one long index finger, hand dressed in thick wrappinga and a leather glove. A metalic mechanism decorated the forearm with a small but sturdy harpune sticking out of it's head.

"Then again you'd prefer something like this, huh bud?" Valerik pulled a piece of raw meat out if his bag, which was chained around his waist. The monster instantly perked up, sniffing it's meal and swallowed it down whole, like a boa swallowing a sheep.

 

[lostlovesandmagic]

Nora checked the wrappings of the bandage she had adorned on the little girl’s hand, making sure it was not too tight, yet not loose enough to slip off if the child wasn’t careful. “There,” she beamed brightly, patting the knee of the little girl in front of her. The child sat on top a wooden chest that had been settled outside a small tent, cradling a rag doll under her good arm. Walking through the encampment of tents precariously pitched outside the arena, Nora had been looking for those she could offer her services to. She had noticed the little girl alone, with a bad burn on one hand and her arm—but the worst of it was on her hands.

The child had been quick to announce to Nora that her father was there, off somewhere in the distance. “He’s competing as a Hunter,” the girl told her excitedly. Nora noted the careful difference. He was competing as a hunter, not he was a hunter. It was an important fact, and an unfortunate one. Undoubtedly, some mortal men would be tempted to enter the games as Hunters for a chance to win the prize—wealth, fame. It was unfortunate because they could never win it. Fighting monsters was a precarious business. This girl’s father wouldn’t win, but Nora kept her mouth firmly shut as she had set about putting a soothing ointment on the child’s arms and bandaging her one burned hand.

“Well then, I’ll be about the next few days,” Nora said as she wrapped the remaining bandages, tucking the wrappings and tin of healing balm into her basket of supplies. “If the burns get worse, or your father needs any help,” she added, with what she hoped was subtlety, “then seek me out and I’ll do what I can.”

The little girl didn’t answer, and when Nora looked up from her work she saw the child was staring at something over her shoulder. The girl’s eyes were wide and her mouth was hanging open in surprise and wonder. Curious, Nora shifted to see what was happening behind her.

“Oh,” she gasped, feeling the same wonderment she had seen on the child’s face. A man, odd and a bit strange with twigs tangled into his black hair, was feeding a monster. It took Nora another moment to process the scene. “Oh!” A man was feeding a monster? Odd, indeed.

The “monster” in question was actually quite small, and besides looking rather strange, appeared to be harmless at first glance. Nora knew better than to think monsters were harmless, though. She had seen firsthand the terror and havoc they brought. Still, this creature was, well, strange. It had the red tail of a squirrel, but the body of a lizard. And the man was feeding it! Of all the things to do.

Before she could think better of it, she had risen from her spot on the ground and took several long strides until she was closer to the man and his monster. A dirt stain wavered on the bottom of her skirts where she had been kneeling. “How curious,” she murmured, her brow furrowing in thought. “Is this your pet, sir?” Calling the man “sir” seemed a stretch, as he appeared equally as wild as the monsters. Yet, Nora had been taught to be polite in all things. It was a hard lesson to undo.

She kept a respectful distance, the basket hanging loosely from her grasp as she leaned forward on her toes to try and get a better look at the monster. Instinct told her not to get closer, even though the man seemed intimate with the creature. “How in the heavens did you get this creature?”

 

[Syrrus]

Valerik was about to putt yet another sweet in his mouth when a curious young woman approached him. She seemed awfully interested in Eskil, who had started to sniff the air again and seemed to keep one eye at all times on the stranger.

"Did you just call Eskil a pet?" Valerik raised an eyebrow, clearly not very impressed by the choice of words. Then again, he hardly could berate her, the monster was hardly common, and didn't spend time with humans in normal circumstances.

He had been hunting in the jungle, like he did most nights. The rain had been heavy for weeks, with the occasional thunderstorms, which often meant that something was going on, something he could deal with. Hunting a Nuku-ya-ra, the type of monster Eskil was, where dangerous business. They were fast, could climb the giant trees and glide between them, as any flying squirrel could, what made then so dangerous was their ability to conjure lightning, with such speed and heat that they could burn down entire forests in one single night. Unlike Eskil, who was just a babe the Nuku-ya-ra Valerik had been stalking for the past few nights was an adult, fully grown and a female; smaller than a male but still triple the size of Valerik himself.

He had managed to catch it, kill it and skinned it. Just as he had noticed, glowing in the dark like fire flies – small red eggs. He had murdered a mother. Normally a hunter would have taken the eggs and cooked them for breakfast, but Valerik had made it a promise, to himself, to never hunt a monster who were working on a family. Just as he would never have taken the life of a human mother either, it was a matter of honour.

“I raised him from an egg. His name is Eskil. He’s six months old.” He ranted on, and would have continued if he hadn’t bit himself on the tongue. Eskil looked between his master and the stranger, chirping like a bird.

“He says it’s nice to meet you.” Valerik scratched the back of his head, causing some leaves to fall out of his messy black locks. He then took another piece if meat out from his bag and continued to feed the little critter.

Guilt wasn’t Valerik’s thing, but he felt it strongly every time he looked at Eskil, the only egg which he had managed to take care of out of fifteen. Usually a female Nuku-ya-ra would raise five to seven of her hatchlings, three would reach adulthood. Valerik had only managed to raise one.

“In an another seven he’ll be big enough to live on his own.” Valerik mumbled the last part, for even he knew the chance of Eskil surviving by himself, without the training he would have received from his mother was impossible.

“Who are you again?” Valerik raised a long eyebrow at the stranger, putting one arm around Eskil, as if he just realized someone might want to take the critter from him, or that it could be illegal to have one as a... as a pet.

 

[lostlovesandmagic]

“Fascinating,” she said. Nora had never heard of anyone raising a monster. She wondered what George would think of that. Most people, including her, thought that all monsters, regardless of their age, needed to die. The creatures caused chaos. They destroyed lives and families. They made it difficult to live in a world that was already harsh to its inhabitants. She wasn’t aware of any law, though, that said the keeping of monsters was illegal. So she supposed as long as it didn’t hurt anyone, it was fine.

“You can understand it?” She gasped, trying to keep her mouth from hanging open in shock. Now this, she really had never heard of. Someone that could understand monsters? Nora was already sizing the man up, wondering if it was something she should tell her brother.

He would want to know. Moreover, he had a right to know. He was king, after all, and maybe knowledge that man could communicate with monster might help George help the people. And Nora had heard the hushed conversations between her siblings. War was brewing in the east. There had been more and more raids. Knowledge of this, it could change things for them, for their people, for the thousands of citizens flocking to the capital on the hope of opportunity. Still, to tell George would mean taking this man’s freedom from him, and Nora knew all too well what it was like to be kept in the halls of that blasted palace.

“You’re going to release it?” She couldn’t help the frown that marred her features. Maybe she should tell George. This man was putting another monster in the world, a creature that could hurt children like the little girl with the burns. Of course, she didn’t want that, but she also found it hard to imagine the creature before her hurting anyone. It appeared so tame, and….though she was reluctant to admit it, maybe even friendly.

Nora was taken aback at his question. She wasn’t used to people paying any attention to her, especially when she wasn’t actively trying to be Princess Nora. She shifted uncomfortably. “Well, I’m a healer,” she told him lamely, holding out the basket she carried as proof. It felt wrong to lie, but then again it wasn’t quite a lie. She was training to be a healer. “I’m here for the Great Game,” she added. “Are you a Hunter?”

 

[Syrrus]

Valerik started to look very uncomfortable, perhaps even a little nervous. She had such a strong stare, and Valerik wasn’t used to confrontations of the talking kind. Eskil felt his discomfort and climbed his muscular frame like as if he had been a tree trunk, until the creature could curl around his neck.

“Either I let him go where he pleases or I’ll need a much bigger house. Eskil might not look it, but the males of his kind grows very, very large.” The young man laughed nervously and jumped up on his feet. He shook his head violently, like a dog, and all the sticks and leaves went flying, leaving him looking a little bit cleaner. “Besides. Shouldn’t everyone get a chance to live their life?” he folded his arms, too look a little bit more in charge. “Also, of course I understand him. It’s all about body language.”

While Valerik tried his hardest to seem impressive, with a puffed up chest and arms folded someone else entered the area. It was Kyle. A man wearing light blue armour, built from scales harvested from a common mountain monster. He was tall, with suntanned skin, fiery res hair, neatly slicked back over his head. He also sported a lightly unshaved look, but with his strong jaw it merely made him look like a experienced hunter. He was guiding a large steed through the crowed, nodding and greeting everyone who happened to look directly at him.

Kyle was very different from Valerik, and even though the knight looking hunter gave Valerik a confident – and kind smile – Valerik himself suddenly took the expression of someone very annoyed.


"Yeah, I'm a hunter."

 

[lostlovesandmagic]

“Right, all about body language,” she murmured, as if that made any sense to her. Nora took a quick step back when he jumped up, her heart racing. She could feel the blood running to her cheeks. Twigs and leaves slipped from his hair as he shook his head. Strange, strange, strange. The word repeated in her head like a mantra. She was slightly put out, but more curious than anything.

Nora noted the change in his demeanor, but wasn’t sure what to attribute it to. “Well, why is it alive then,” she asked. “If you’re a Hunter…shouldn’t it have been…hunted?” Dead, more like. It was kind of cute, though. In an odd, ugly sort of way.

“You’re not going to get very far in the games if you’re trying to capture all the monsters instead of kill them.” She paused before adding, though not unkindly, “It might even get other people killed.”

 

[Syrrus]

“Listen lady, I don’t know what moral centre you got, but if a man came and murdered your family would you go to his place and take a sword to his children?” Valerik was clearly very opinionated when it came to this. He hated hunters whom just killed the monsters without a proper reason. “I hunt monsters for a living, to use their hide and meat, like you would a stag. I do NOT hunt babies.” He almost growled the last part, causing Eskil to hiss in response, moving his face towards the stranger and opening his jaws, which dislocated and became the size of Valerik’s fist, teeth showing in multiple rows like ones of a shark. The tail bristled and gave Valerik a small shock which made him jump almost two meters in the air.

“Ouch!!” He grabbed the monster by the tail and ripped it from his neck, staring it down. “That bloody hurt Eskil! Stop making my whole speech redundant.” The monster’s eyes grew to the size of small dinner-plates. Tearing up even. “Okay don’t give me those puppy eyes...” The longer Valerik looked Eskil in the eyes the softer his expression became. “Awh... I’m sorry honey, it’s alright, it’s alright... I can’t be mad at you!” He nuzzled the creature like a mama dog would cuddle her pup and allowed Eskil to wrap himself around his neck.

“Now where was I?”

“You were using some elaborate example as to why a monster shouldn’t become your kitchen rug.” Kyle stepped forward, his armoured shoes klanging against the ground. He removed one of his large gloves and bowed deeply before the two strangers. He came from the desert, it wasn’t as obvious as one would think, but his body language came from many years being raised in its culture. He smiled politely and tilted his head towards the lady of the two. “Is my fellow hunter insulting you my lady?”

 

[lostlovesandmagic]

“Well, I wouldn’t use a sword at all,” Nora muttered, surprised at how vehemently the Hunter was protecting monsters. She had never before heard anyone speak in the monsters’ defense. Clearly, this man had a deeper relationship with the creatures than others. Most people either feared the monsters or hated them enough to hunt them. He kept one on his shoulder like a pet.

“Oh!” She jumped back, startled as the creature—Eskil, the man called it—showed Nora its sharp teeth. She flinched, rather terrified. So, it was not as tame as it appeared after all. She tucked away that knowledge.

“A stag doesn’t hunt humans,” Nora argued, thinking about what he had said. “Monsters hunt us. Isn’t that an important difference?” Though, the more she thought about it, the more she agreed that killing helpless newborn monsters did seem cruel. Didn’t every living creature have a right to fight for its life? Nora had never killed anything, so she supposed she wasn’t qualified to have much of an opinion on the matter.

Her attention wavered to the new Hunter that intervened. He looked like more of a knight than a Hunter. It was rather silly, she thought, although he was handsome. “Uhm, not at all,” she answered, taking yet another step back. This entire morning had turned out quite strangely. Maybe she should leave.

Nora looked anxiously at the man with the monster. The two men seemed to know each other. She couldn’t tell what had happened between them, but she got the sense that the monster-man didn’t like the knight-man.