After I was taken away from the throne room, I was brought into another prison.
I was thrown inside, and shackles were strapped on my wrists to hold me to the ground. I sat there, with nothing to do except lie on the cold stone.
As time passed on, I thought of what had happened, the wit the emperor had used to give me this fate. I thought back on my [luck] skill.
Was it not working? Or was this the luckiest end for me? I was afraid of what would happen; in a few days, I would fight monsters and warriors much stronger than me in the arena. This fear forced me to hold on to the hope that my [luck] skill would somehow help me escape this fate. The fear and anxiety kept me from sleeping for a while, but I was tired from everything that happened today. After a few hours of thinking and a bit of crying, I started to feel heavy and eventually dozed off.
I woke to the drip of water. It echoed through the stone like a heartbeat, slow and maddening. My back ached from the uneven floor, cold, damp, and strewn with grit. Somewhere above, faint light trickled in through a grate, but it did little to push back the gloom. The cell stank of old blood, piss, and something worse: the sweet, cloying scent of rot.
I heard distant sounds of cheers, shouting, screaming, and applause. I assumed this was a holding cell inside the arena. Sometimes I would hear larger tremors.
My wrists burned where the shackles had rubbed them raw. I shifted, trying to ease the pain, but the chains clinked loud enough to rouse the rats. I heard them stir in the shadows, bold little vermin that knew I could barely move.
Footsteps rang out beyond the cell. I froze. I counted each step, heart pounding with fear and dread, had my time come already?
The sounds of footsteps stopped. I saw in front of me a man. This man did not wear a uniform like the guards or the soldiers. He wore light weather armor and had scars all over his body. He had a rough beard and a blind eye. He had greasy, dark hair and a piercing on his nose.
He stared down at me for a minute and finally opened his mouth.
'I am a guard, responsible for escorting you to the arena.' The guard said. 'The emperor sure is ruthless, sending a kid to die in such a humiliating way. Can you even fight?' He sighed, pitying me.
I didn't reply.
'You're lucky you don't have to stay in this cell any longer. We've had times where prisoners died in this cell before they even stepped in the arena.'
Maybe I was lucky, not having to live in such terrible conditions inside the cell. Unable to move, surrounded by the smell of human excrement, blood, and rot. Nothing to do except think and reflect. Sometimes the rats, aware of my immobility, would bite and scratch. Any other fate would be better.
The man was starting to get angry as I did not reply to anything. 'It's your turn now. Put up a good show for us.' he said as he unshackled my chains.
He led me through a straight, narrow corridor. I could see the other cells, prisoners inside them. Indeed, the emperor really was ruthless. There were not only men, but also old people, women, and people who looked younger than me. Some cells held corpses, with rats, maggots, and flies roaming around them. The rot was unbearable. As I moved on, I saw a white light at the end of the corridor. As I reached it, I looked to see a view completely opposite from the view inside.
The sun hit my face the moment I stepped out. After hours in the dark inside, it was like staring into fire. The air was hot, dry, and thick with the smell of dust and sweat. The sand beneath my feet felt warm and loose, shifting with every step. There were stains of red splattered in some places. It was already dark in some places. Someone had bled here not long ago. The gate behind me closed.
All around me, the stone walls of the arena rose high. Thousands of people filled the seats, shouting, laughing, and pointing. I couldn't see their faces clearly, but I could feel their hunger. They wanted noise. They wanted blood. To them, I wasn't a human. I was just part of the show.
Trumpets blared from above, sharp and cold. I looked toward the shaded box at the center. The emperor sat there, high above us all, under a canopy of silk. He didn't move much. Just raised one hand, almost lazy. People watched him more than they watched me.
Around the edge of the arena, the gates were closed, except for the one in front of me. No escape, no shadow to hide in. Just the sun, the sand, and the sound of a thousand voices waiting to see what happened next.
I stood still. I breathed in the dust. And I waited.
Suddenly, there was a rattling of chains, there were sounds of men struggling and shouting from the gate in front of me. This only increased my anxiety and fear. What sort of beast are they expecting me to fight? The shouting got louder, the tremors became stronger, then I heard a sound I had heard not long ago
[SCREEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE]
[Creak] The gate across the arena creaked open with a deep groan. At first, I saw nothing, just darkness behind the iron bars. Then I heard it: claws scraping stone, low and sharp. A heavy breath, like a furnace, rolled out of the shadows. And then it stepped into the light.
The creature was huge. Bigger than any man, bigger than any beast I had ever seen. Its skin was black, not like coal, but like burned metal, rough and cracked, with a shine that caught the sun. Smoke curled from its wide jaws. When it opened its mouth, I saw teeth like curved knives, yellow and wet. Its eyes were narrow and lustrous, the color of fire behind glass.
Wings were folded using a chain. It was leathery and torn in places, filled with holes, but still strong. As the guards unchained the wings, they opened wide, casting a shadow over the sand. The crowd gasped. Even the guards behind it stepped back. The wyvern tried to fly, but the tears and holes in its wings made it unable to.
The wyvern's tail swayed behind it, long and spiked like a whip. It was held to the ground by a heavy metal iron ball. It dragged its tail through the sand, leaving a trail like a snake. I could hear its breath: slow, deep, and angry. As they released the tail, the wyvern swiped it around, the air was instantly blurred by the blown sand. One guard was flung to the walls of the arena.
After the beast was fully free, all the guards immediately fled, shutting the gate behind them. The guard who was flung to the wall was left behind.
I had no words. Just the pounding in my chest, the heat of the sun, and the black monster staring straight at me.