Normal User
Posts: 1,015
|
"The most displeasurable delivery, I must say." an ezahni scoffed as the sound of hooves cantering into the room overtook my music. A letter was thrown over my shoulder on to my lap from behind. It was a very intricately decorated letter, swirls similar to that of a shaefu's trailing the smooth paper, with a fancy, but unrecognisable seal.
Innocenti walked soundlessly into the room shortly after, bowing slightly to a snorting Zephero before coming to my side.
"I have repaired the broken window downstairs, My Lord." He said. I had no idea what broken window he was talking about, but after Zephero's declaration of an 'unpleasurable delivery', he could roughly guess.
"It seems a creatu roughly the size of a veram had crashed through our lobby window." Innocenti sighed. "It left some pawprints on the carpet too. It seems to have come from Adagu, as the prints made were of mud. Perhaps it had flown through the clouds to get here, which explains the dampness of the soil..."
"Yeah yeah whatever. Open this." I shoved the letter at Innocenti without looking.
He placed a hoof on it and tore a perfectly straight line across the top, before pulling out it's contents with his teeth. He held it up for me to read, and I did so out loud for the benefit of an already-very-pissed-off Zephero.
"Welcome! You have been invited to participate in the first modern annual Great Rescreatu Tournament!
"Everyone
from all walks of life are invited to join in for the chace of riches
and fame in this ancient but new game! Join in at Adagu City on December
4th 2020 for the Tournament's opening ceremonies!"
It read.
"What the hell is this?" I asked, waving it away. It was probably some other naive organiser wanting to make history. I was not interested.
"The Great Rescreatu tournament appears to have been a very prestigious tournament in its day, master," Innocenti told me and he placed the card carefully back into the envelope. "It seems you have been invited to participate in this tournament."
"I'm not going." I declared. I did not need more trouble. I did not need to bother myself with such foolish competitions either.
"It seems only distinguished guests have been invited, sir. It is highly possible that the Baron of Reiflem will be present as well. Surely you would not want him to think you are afraid to lose? I do not wish for another phase of mockery of my young master, ever since the day it had been announced that you were to take over as the Baron of Scria."
I still did not want to go, but the thought of the scum that the Baron of Reiflem was made of led my mouth to telling Innocenti to pack both our bags. We had to go, the point having been raised. It was no longer whether I wanted to or not.
We left at night after dinner, in Innocenti's 'hoof-made' carriage. It was flawless, exterior polished till it was a gleaming black, where you check your hair and clothes before you left , lined with fine golden streaks that glittered in the street lights. The interior was equally as grand, if not more. The floor and seats were a royal red velvet, 2 pillows on both sides of the carriage and more than enough leg space for four. The door windows did not have curtains. Rather, they were mini sliding-doors with different degrees of transparency. You could have a transparent cover to see outside on a day of blizzards, or a translucent cover to keep out the afternoon sun, or the opaque cover for absolute privacy. Insides, it was lit with a warm, golden light that was never much of a bother because of Scria's cold climate.
I fell asleep quickly, not having anybody to talk to as Innocenti was outside pulling the carriage and I had simply refused to let Zephero to come along. When I next awoke, it was promptly sunrise in Relcore. I had been shaken awake by the persistent, rocky earth of Adagu, much to my dislike. The clattering gravel against the wooden wheel sannoyed me, but there was nothing I could do. If only Relcore's gravity was near zero as well. I felt distinctly heavier as we landed on Relcore, but Innocenti did not seem to have a problem at all. As usual.
We arrived at Adagu City shortly after, riding past pointing, whispering commoners. I had my window covered with the translucent plastic, not wanting to be exposed as some rich brat to those commoners.
The carriage drew to a stop, to my relief. The doors remained shut, while I heard Innocenti's conversation outside.
"We are here for the Great Rescreatu Tournament."
"You guys got an invitation?"
"Yes, we have."
"Show it, or git lost, punk."
"It seems unfortunate that we have forgotten to bring it with us... Mr. Commoner."
I knew perfectly well the letter was somewhere with Innocenti. He just disliked being spoken to in such an... uncivilised tone.
"Then git lost. Freakin hell. And don take that tone wimme. *censored*."
I heard a growl that sounded like a chimbies, but it was not squeaky, but rather like a cross between a zenirix and a chimby's. I assumed it was a mutant chimby, since it was not speaking, and had only been growling non-stop.
"Ho?" Innocenti said with his michievous, mocking voice. I could picture his head rising up, looking down on the security guard. I shook my head slightly.
"We are representative of the Queen as the Baron of Scria. Surely you would not need any more authentification than that."
There was a pause, to which I was assuming was Innocenti indicating the Scrian crest next to the Alejandro Household's. However, we knew perfectly well the peasant would not understand such terms, and our authority.
"NO INVITATION MEANS NO ENTRY YA THICKSKULL. GET THE HELL OUTTA HERE 'FORE I GET PUDDY HERE TER RIP YEH TER SHREDS."
"I'd love to see you try." Innocenti chuckled, unhitching himself from the carriage.
I pulled back the screen, to see 'Puddy', which had been indeed a mutant chimby, ready to pounce at Innocenti, who stood at ease, looking down proud and tall at them. His magnificent height seemed to have magnified when he stood before the two short guards, while the man himself was pretty much as pudgy as his pet. It also made Innocenti look quite very thin.
With a great heave, the chimby launched itself at Innocenti, who sidestepped it with ease. Its speed was no match for any scrian creatu, let alone a valabex's, and Innocenti who was superior on the majority in terms of reflexes and strength of normal valabexes. He pinned the chimby down to the ground with a single hoof, watching it whine in pain and struggle under his feet, clawing helplessly at the ground. A sadistic grin pulled in the side of his face, as his eyes narrowed in the pleasure of seeing it in pain.
"Wait! Please! Stop!" A small-built boy cam running over. He was dressed in peasant's clothes as well.
"Are you Sir Innocenti? Butler of his Highness Alejandro Lacias?" He said with a small bow.
"Why yes," Said Innocenti, stepping down harder on the chimby's head.
"We have been expecting you sir, forgive their insolence." He said exasperatedly, bowing even lower this time in apology.
"No matter." Innocenti smiled, lifting his hoof from the great lump's 'head'. "I figured it was a matter of time before we were recognised."
The boy smiled sheepishly, bowing and moving aside, pointing to another entrance, more grand-looking than the one we had been trying to enter. "Please, sir, this way. Leave your carriage and suitcases with us. We have prepared lodging for our competitors, and you will find your luggage in your rooms after the opening ceremony.
"Very well," Innocenti nodded, before cantering to the door and opening the carriage door for me. "Would you like a ride, young master?"
"No." I muttered sliding off and stepping away from him. I felt the weight on my legs more than I expected, and nearly fell before Innocenti somehow swept me up on to his back. "You need to be more careful Young Master, or you'd suffer much unnecessary humiliations."
I rolled my eyes and rode him inside the coliseum, where a sight grander than I had expected greeted my eyes.
Thousands of visitors sat in the lower parts of the coliseum, cheering, talking, eating, celebrating the return of this glorious event. On the level we were on, it appeared to be the competitors in the tournament. There were a very many, some with huge, muscular berroks to lean, beautiful easeros. There were stubby ones, fair ones, tall ones, thin ones, poor ones, rich ones, royalty, commoners. There was more than ten of every kind.
And there the Baron of Reiflem sat, stroking his filthy beard and smiling to himself as three of his seven wives fawned over him while his red-eyed, white veram sat on the back of his tall char, looking down on everybody with gleaming, evil eyes. He had a black bowtie and sleeve collars on his wrists, golden rings hanging from his right ear and tail.
I took the seat next to him, labelled "Baron - Scria, Lacias" Sure enough, he was about to pick a quarrel with me, but Innocenti kicked the back of one of his wives' chairs and she fell on to the person in front of her, so he was too busy scolding and hitting her to care about me.
I closed my eyes and rubbed the space in between my eyes. I was trying my best not to fall asleep, but it was hard. If it had not been the sudden darkening of the lights and bogus fireworks, I would have dozed off for good.
As if by magic, I felt lighter again, like normal in Scria. A booming voice resounded throughout the coliseum, it was a female's.
"You will now be experiencing a short change in gravity for those who are not native to Relcore. We understand the changes you have to experience when you take the trouble to come here to participate in this tournament or witness it. All of you will experience gravitational conditions of your own planets henceforth within these compounds, as a magical barrier has been placed over this coliseum by none other than our mascot, Dionia!"
A spotlight focused on a jahra on the stage below, where she was waving and smiling for all her pearly whites were worth.
"Please take these few moments to get used to the new conditions while we clean up the last of our preparations for the opening ceremony. We will begin in five minutes' time."
I stamped my feet once our twice. It was true. I really did feel lighter, like normal. I was busy being fascinated when the Baron of Reiflem interrupted my short-term amusement. "Even the little squirt is here." He drawled.
I remained silent. I had no need to talk to him.
"Hah. I was wonderin if you'd even show up. Bet you were all jittery before you cam here eh? Small fry, you are, not worth a single *censored*..."
"Worth more than you at least. If I'm worth one *censored*, you're not even worth a step in the direction of the toilet."
"Talkin big EH?" He stood up, fists clenched. He glared down at me with fiery red eyes, while I stared back with calm blue ones. If i was not so freakishly tired I would have stood up too.
Innocenti, however, got up on my behalf.
"I would appreciate if you stepped back from my master, Sir Trite." Innocenti said calmly, taking a step towards him. Trite's veram leapt off the seat and hovered before Innocenti's face, growling with claws fully out.
"Ye'd be wise not ter mess with us sissy." He spat. He feinted at Innocenti, who did not budge an inch. His face was as calm as my own, although his was more of steadfastness as mine was of exhaustion.
Jet lag.
"Audience! Please resume your seats! The opening ceremony while commence in 3..."
The countdown began. The heated three sat back down, the Reiflem-rooted ones very huffily and reluctantly. Innocenti breathed out a deep breath, eyes closed. I could tell he was tired too, but I didn't want to point it out. He'd had enough.
"1!"
Fireworks flew into the air, the first few forming the words,
"WELCOME TO"
and the next set exploded in front of the silver words in a blinding yellow-gold.
"THE GREAT RESCREATU TOURNAMENT"
The words were clearer than usual. The fireworks show by itself must have costed them millions, considering how generous they had been. Golden sparks shot from around the coliseum outside, while more fireworks of all shapes and sizes took to the velvety night sky. Yet, there was no smoke, as black verams swept across the night sky, skilfully weaving through the explosions and beating the smoke away with their mighty wings.
I swore I heard Trite's veram snort.
After the fireworks dissipated, there was a few seconds of quiet, before sudden jets of water shot out from the stage below, illuminated by trance-like colours. You could see the faint outlines of draquas as they swam stomach-up in the water, shooting out powerful 'ropes' of water and making beautiful patterns in the sky. It was a magnificent sight, I had to admit. They had put in a lot more effort than I'd expected.
((ONE MORE WEEK. :D I shall draft this on paper first then. xD)
|
Normal User
Normal User
Normal User
\\r\\n\r\n
Normal User
Normal User
Normal User
Normal User
Normal User
Normal User