Golden Games - The Brutes: Part 1

Golden Games
The Brutes: Part 1

   The good time spent with the Forgotten clan passed too quickly. Meline felt a little anxious of being recognized by the Druids later on as the impolite guest who bullied them before proper introductions, but Troall managed to calm her down by explaining how the targeted clan probably didn’t have time to stop and stare long enough to figure out what came to haunt them. The Empyrians and the Puller received a meal as a thanks for their efforts, and the clan provided a place to have an invigorating sleep before Cailu tugged them on towards the next clan. Eshin announced that he will stay with the Forgotten for a bit longer (to everyone’s shock, he could talk). 

   During their nap, a few more Vayrons had found their way down from the collapsed tunnel wall and wanted to know more about the new strange species living underground. One of the fresh explorers introduced himself as Wardac, a fluffy Runner originally from Roenden, who couldn’t resist checking this novel discovery out. He requested to go further with Meline and Aethone, as the ladies already had some experience with the local culture and managed to communicate with the Haedians relatively well, despite their archaic version of the tongue. Aethone shrugged indifferently as if not minding a new party member while Meline was already busy chatting with Wardac as they headed towards the next clan.

“Our next stop is the clan called the Brutes. As the name suggests, they’re tough miners who love to hold games of strength. I’m sure they’d be intrigued to have you join the trial to see if the people from the surface have gone soft or not.”

   Cailu explained as they all entered a larger tunnel, which led straight to the heart of the Brutes homeplace. Aethone smirked to herself - considering how small and scrawny the Forgotten were, the well-fed and heavily-trained Brutes couldn’t still possibly be bigger than her. Meline and Wardac weren’t so sure this was good news.

“Uhmm… what games or trials are we talking about? Because I’d prefer not to fight anyone.”

   Wardac expressed his concern. Cailu then calmly explained that the game isn’t about directly fighting, the Brutes liked to test their strength by wrestling and with the help of special golden rocks, which they had to swipe from each other while also defending their own pile of loot. He wasn’t sure of the exact rules, but that’s how he had seen the games take place, so it must be pretty simple and straightforward. Meline and Wardac calmed down after receiving the info that the fight was most likely not a bloody one, while Aethone was still betting on her size to do most of the job for her.

   The sounds ahead indicated that they were heading in the right direction. However, it took surprisingly less to reach the edge of their territory and the topsiders could see why - the clan’s grounds were densely decorated by strange-shaped pillars that seemed to disperse noise and carpets woven of dried vegetation were laid out here and there. All three found it pretty clever and impressive while Cailu smiled softly as he was glad the guests enjoyed the generations-long work of the Brutes. The time to be awestruck cut short as with each passing step, the sound coming from bustling activity grew louder and clearer. New Haedians started appearing here and there, who stopped whatever they were doing to observe the unfamiliar faces following Cailu. Aethone saw how they were indeed in better shape than the previous clan’s members, but she was still a very much worthy opponent to them. Wardac’s ears were perked as he looked around with a happy puppy-like smile, wagging his short nubby tail at the confused Brutes while Meline wasn’t that comfortable with so much attention. Some Haedians started to follow them to the center of their grounds, where many of them had gathered, chattering with each other regarding the upcoming trial and hyping the energy up. Proudly observing it all in the center was a rather large Haedian with a rather spiky tail, hardened stance and rather muscular body, who turned its annoying look at Cailu as he approached with a friendly smile.

“Zarod, greetings to you and your clan! How’s life been treating you? And I see the Battle of Stone is about to begin.”

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“Cailu… what do you want? And who the heck are those?”

   The Haedian Cailu called Zarod didn’t leave a friendly first impression as she turned her orange eyes at the Reoseans behind him, to which Wardac stepped forward, bowed politely to greet Zarod and started explaining.

“Greetings, great Zarod. I am Wardac, this is Meline and the big gal is Aethone. We come from the world above these caves, and we are very pleased to meet you. In order to experience your ways and learn about your fascinating culture, may we participate in the games you call Battle of Stone?” 

   Both Cailu’s and Zarod’s eyebrows raised at Wardac’s well-mannered words, and Meline felt a pinch of pride in her heart for Wardac being such a good listener of what she shared with him before. To their surprise, Zarod seemed to soften up and chuckle before responding.

“You choose your words well, Wardac. Sounds like a fun change to me, we never mind the extra entertainment around here. Alright, all of you may join, but don’t expect us to go easy on you just because you’re surface-dwellers.”

   Aethone was almost tempted to respond with the same but kept her tongue. Cailu wished them good luck and made his way up to the viewing area, where some excited giggling kids and elderly Brutes had already picked their spots. Zarod briefly explained the trio the idea behind the trials, and how the game usually consists of three parts - first one is for gathering the rocks from the clan’s territory; the second round is acquiring as much rocks possible from others while also defending your own and lastly, there’s two final contestants left who focus only on each other to fight for the win. Confirming that the newcomers understood, Zarod spoke up with a strong loud voice.

“Time has come to hold our traditional Battle of Stone. This time, we have some new species joining us to test their strength against us. Let’s show the surface-dwellers how we play games down here!”

   Zarod’s speech was met with deafening cheering, shouting and drumming of the paws on the ground. Cailu was forced to cover his ears so he wouldn’t go fully deaf, Meline and Wardac were visibly intimidated by the noise while Aethone still beamed with confidence. All the Haedians on the ground took starting positions, and when the trio of outsiders was also ready, Zarod’s mighty roar started the challenge.

   The Haedians rushed off and scattered around everywhere with Meline and Wardac among them doing their best to avoid getting trampled on. Aethone had it easier as the Haes were smart enough not to get in her way as she went with the flow. It didn’t take long when the first rocks were found and the Brutes were already tussling over the findings. This made Meline climb out from the crowd, up on a ledge where she realized the reality - she was not up for beating any seasoned player like that. Swallowing a temporary tight knot in her throat, she managed to pull herself together and get her head back in the game. She had lost sight of Wardac, who was busy with his own struggles among the Brutes. Somebody had stepped on his hind paw and somebody accidentally smacked him with their tail, so Wardac wasn’t as cheery as before anymore. Still, the boy was stubborn enough to keep going, paying even more attention to the Haedians around him till he reached further from the stadium, allowing himself to take a couple deeper breaths there. He raised his head to a soft thud and a yelp following it to witness how Aethone had rammed a contestant and grabbed the dropped rock from the ground before anyone could react. Since she had more space left in her mouth, she kept going, enjoying the game the same way the Brutes did. Sighing to that, Meline suddenly appeared next to him to what Wardac squeaked at as he had let his guard down for a moment, but seeing a friendly familiar face calmed him down immediately.

“Any luck?”

   Wardac decided to ask, even though it was clear from Meline’s expression that she wasn’t particularly enjoying it. Shaking her head to the question, she had to fight a couple of tears forming in her eyes. To make matters worse, the first whistle echoed in the tunnels, indicating that soon it was time to turn back with the rocks or be disqualified from the game.

“I don’t know what to do, they’re so aggressive and ruthless and… I can’t keep up with that.”

   Wardac quickly put his paw on Meline’s shoulder to comfort her, he felt somewhat guilty for having dragged her into all this.

“Hey, hey, easy there. Maybe if we stick together we have better odds at finding some rocks, yea? It’s not over yet.”

   After quickly wiping her tears, Meline nodded to that with a grim face and having inhaled deeply, rushed after Wardac further on, past brawling Aethone into another tunnel where they didn’t see many Haedians. It didn’t take them long to spot a couple of gold chunks partially tucked away behind one of the glowing crystals. After Meline had grabbed them, both smiled to each other encouragingly. They carried on, finding one more rock that Wardac picked up with his jaws and considering that excellent achievement already, they turned around together to head back in the main area as there was not much time left till this round ended. They spotted Aethone once again, who was also satisfied with her loot and was running with heavy pawsteps. They caught up with her, but she wasn’t able to talk because her mouth was stuffed with the golden rocks.

   Suddenly, a Haedian attempted to ram into Aethone, which caused her to make one wrong step due to the loss of balance. Thanks to that, Meline bumped into her, tripped over and her both chunks flew further on the tunnel floor. Fortunately Wardac was still on his feet so he managed to quickly secure one of the rocks, but the other one had already been lost to their opponents. The Haedian, who had rammed Aethone, received a nice kick from her in the shins for the mess it made, and leaving it behind to recover from the impact, the trio rushed on. Wardac let Meline have her rock back, so both of them would have at least one when they arrive back to the starting point. Meline was more shocked than hurt from the events, so she could ignore the slight pain in her right wing that got a decent impact from Aethone.

   Our three heroes made it back just in time, as in a few seconds, the second whistle sounded, indicating the end of the first part. Having seen them among the returned Haedians, Cailu sighed of relief. He was glad the guests were seemingly unharmed in the middle of all the ruckus. He tensed up again when Zarod displayed her impressive amount of rocks and every other Haedian gathered their winnings on a pile as well but a handful of them had sour faces on as they had either been late with the returning or didn’t manage to secure anything. Right, there was a second condition…

“Well, surface dwellers, show me what you got.”

   Zarod had appeared in front of them with a bully’s grin. She didn’t expect them to pass the first round, but to her surprise, Meline and Wardac provided one rock, which allowed them to continue on and when Aethone finally let her noticeable amount of golden chunks drop on the floor to relax her almost cramping jaws, Zarod’s jaw nearly dropped. Cailu let out an even deeper sigh of relief and nearly had to fall over from the tension that left his body.

“Huh… not too bad. Get ready for the next round.”

Zarod made a short comment as she turned around. She tried to sound indifferent but Aethone’s success was quite remarkable. In a way, she hoped she’d get to face her in the final test. Meline and Wardac’s faces beamed from a wide genuine smile as they high-fived and cheered when Cailu gave them an energetic thumbs-up from the spectator area. Aethone assessed the amount of rocks others got, and based on that, she had pretty good chances of getting the honor of facing Zarod herself in the very near future.