Daughter of the Moon - Book 1: Water

Chapter 6: The Arena

- Elara -

The week leading up to my first trial in the Arena, Master hadn't given me much work to do, allowing me just enough time to recover from my fresh burns and to study the Arena with Jade and the other slaves who had been forced to fight. Unfortunately, most of the other kids who had been forced to go only went once or twice before the Master gave up on them, so there wasn't much to study other than getting a good look at the brand we all shared. Long story short, I was basically going in as blind as a wolf-bat.

That morning, long before the sun had even touched the horizon, I had been taken from my Master's house in chains and led to some kind of underground arena. Thousands of stadium seats lined the outer wall of a large cave to look onto a large platform, the two separated by a slight drop off that hid dozens of cells along the base of the fighting floor. I was tossed carelessly into one of these cells to wait for the tournament to begin. I paced in my room as I heard people entering the stadium, and my eyes simply gazed at the wall of weapons that had been provided to me, too distracted to really take anything in. I was told I could pick any of them to bring with me onto the platform, and even though I didn't want to use them, I knew that there would be someone that might use them to try and beat me. Or worse. So, against my better judgement, I picked up a small dagger; the only weapon worthy of my short and gangly frame.

"All these weapons, but no armor," I whispered to myself in disbelief as I strapped the dagger to my leg. "Ridiculous."

I tried to get a good look at myself in the dull reflection of the metal walls before I had to fight for my life, and I knew that I would be a sad sight for anyone other than the freaks in this colony. My clothes were baggy, run down, and dirty, especially considering that this was the only outfit I was given upon my arrival in Yu Dao. Jade had somehow woven my hair into a single braid to keep it out of my face while I was fighting, for which I was sincerely grateful. Other than that, the only things that would distinguish me from the other slaves here were the dagger on my hip and the wrappings on my hands.

Since I had been healing the burns on my hands with my bending, Jade had become concerned that Master would notice and burn my hands again. So, as a way to protect me from getting punished, she started wrapping my hands and the lower part of my forearms with bandages to hide my healing burns. She only left my fingers unwrapped so that I could easily use them to bend. I actually didn't mind wrapping up my hands like that. I thought it looked kind of edgy, and it's one of the only things that I had that was unique and that Master wouldn't take away.

After what felt like hours of waiting, a guard finally walked up to my cell. But he didn't open it like I thought he would. Instead, he pulled a lever which opened a previously hidden metal door at the back of the room.

"Get in," he grumbled at me, and I quickly obliged.

Once I had stepped into the significantly smaller, metal box, the door slammed closed, locking me in. I thought about banging on the door to beg to be released, but I decided against it. I had an image to protect, and being a slave was already hurting my cause. Instead, I stood facing away from the first door towards what I thought would be the center of the arena—towards where I anticipated my opponent to be.

With a lurch, the room started moving upwards. I would have panicked had I not already been panicking about potentially fighting to the death. Besides, the box was moving for all of thirty seconds before it came to a stop (although, I must admit that those thirty seconds were the longest thirty seconds of my life). From inside this shell, I heard a muffled countdown from ten, and with each passing second, my senses seemed to sharpen. I was ready.