Post date: Mar 19, 2016 12:47:07 PM
Caradorynee: Feats & Wagers
#1
The increasing heat of the morning sun was a blessing and a curse. The blessing was that the scorching sun’s rays would burn off the misty fog which made the atmosphere on Caradorynee hard to breathe. The curse was, that beneath the long sleeved tunic-like shirt Star Wright wore, her skin began to itch from the beads of sweat that trickled down her back.
Star hated the fact that she’d been forced to tie her long hair away from her shoulders, but she’d had little choice. She couldn’t afford for the thick mass to act as a grappling hook by an opponent or to be caught up in her weaponry.
The absence of the silky weight, however, made her feel naked and exposed.
Several contestants shuffled and made odd murmuring noises down the line. The motley crowd as antsy as she to get started.
Star took another deep breath. The humidity in the air was lessening but not enough for her laboured breathing to slow. She glanced up to gage the position of the sun. She only needed a few more minutes, then she’d be able to-
ABONSHEEEEGGGAAA! ABONSHEEEEGGGAAA!
The sharp shrill of the command to start the competition roared in Star’s ears. Before she could even think she raised the tattered strip of cloth around her neck to her face. The starting line erupted into chaos.
Instinct told Star to run. To flee from the bloodbath, in a manner of speaking, that broke out around her. Training had her wanting to unsheathe her blade. Reason instead had her dropping to her knees and wrapping her arms around her head. She closed her eyes to ward off the cloud of rising dust. The ash, that spewed nightly, from the Dormoan volcanoes wafted around her as the fighting contestants surged by her.
Time passed. Star couldn’t judge how much, for since arriving on Caradorynee her normal assessment of time had been thrown way off.
Hunger, thirst, the need for sleep, and even the warning signs that her muscles had been taxed to their limit, had all been distorted.
She’d discovered that she could go for several Dormoan volcano eruptions without sleep or food and have an abundance of energy. Other times she could travel no more than a few feet, her muscles aching fiercely and her body demanding an overwhelming need for sleep.
The only constant that she could measure was the fact that when the sun didn't shine, she couldn't breathe and when the sun shone, her thirst increased dramatically.
A buzzing sound and a swoosh of heated air passing over her alerted Star to the fact that the Caradorynee master for this quadrant had finally taken notice of her.
She knew that her kind, Human that is, was a puzzling anomaly to the hundreds of different species of Caradorynee’s. A fact that Star was fast learning was her best chance if she hoped to survive in this hostile and inhospitable world.
The buzzing sound came closer.
“Oy!” Star shouted, springing to her feet. She easily dodged the buzzing tool that the heavyset brute of a creature was trying and failing miserably to jolt her with. “And stop waving that thing at me dammed head.”
The Karco, as she’d come to know these towering brutes to be called, simply stared at her, which was an excellent sign, so she continued.
She squared her shoulders and set her chin at a jaunty angle while her hand reached behind her back. “You can’t blame a girl for not wanting to get her head bashed in, now can ya? Now, I know. I’m a going, I’m a going. But I’ll be warning ya. Anything that comes near me will have to deal with ‘Mr. Bladey’.”
The Karco made a grunting sound, that she surmised was some sort of harsh laugh. The brute’s pale eyes, the colour of muddy coal, beneath its hooded eyelids, focused on the sight of the tiny foot-long blade which she’d pulled from the sheath that was strapped to her back. The Karco made another grunting sound and Star watched the wrinkly, heavy folds of the creatures face quiver.
Star snorted and swung her blade over her head. “That wasn’t very nice. Small as he is, ‘Mr. Bladey’ doesn’t like to be made fun of.”
The Karco took an aggressive step toward her. It hefted the buzzing staff onto its massive shoulder.
Star felt her chest begin to lighten. Which was just in time. She smiled up at the Karco brute and then fell into a crouched position. She thrust out her blade behind her.
The eerie squelching sound of her blade making contact was satisfying to her ears. She glanced over her shoulder and upwards to watch the now detached appendage of a Tooacua flying through the air.
The walking squid-like creature’s bellow echoed over the many cries and groans of the other competitors.
Star pivoted and thrust her right leg out to kick the Tooacua away from her. A moment later she was again on her feet.
The Karco’s grunts increased to a roaring level and without a backward glance, for either the amused brute or the wailing tentacle-being, Star set off to find her fortune.
©Human in Inhuman Worlds by Janet Merritt