Flooding the Colosseum

Flooding the Colosseum - Emma Hall (Acellus Academy, 8th Grade)

There is a terrified silence as the guards leave and the prisoners are all left alone in a  dark chamber. The side entrance they came in has been sealed and Aurelia can hear the  thundering crowd outside, a violent storm of merriment and excitement, their shouts for  entertainment puncturing her ears. She licks her lips, fingers twitching convulsively and her  mouth feeling parched and dry. Her fingers dip into her pockets and take out a small knife,  concealed in her hand. She takes the opportunity to start picking the lock on the chains.  Aurelia does not pick locks often, so it takes an extended amount of time before she hears a  soft click and loosening. But she leaves the cuffs on, despite the manacles being unlocked and  slides her knife back in her pocket.  

They waited for the door before them to open, and the delay leads her mind to  obsessively going over every detail of her plan. Can’t we just go already, she thinks, feeling  exasperated, the suspense is more painful then any torture the Romans could come up with  yet. Then her mind turns towards Alba. Would his family be in the audience today? Would her  father? And should she survive, what would she say to them? The guards may not have  noticed the switch, but his family certainly would.  

There is a moan from the side of the room that cuts off her thoughts, as they have  begun to drift down the path of uncertainty. Aurelia turns and sees a young woman crying and  curling in on herself. The young woman is clothed in white, most likely an accused witch or a  Christian. Echoes of similar expressions of despair fill the empty room, the air is thick with  desperation. It curdles her stomach. 

 Then as quickly as they had arrived a deathly silence cages the inhabitants. All in the room  seem to stop breathing, as the door slides upward. There is an inhuman growl from behind  them and they all rush to exit the room, to a new pathway to reality laid before them. She  cannot help but notice that the door does not close behind them and the growling behind them  does not desist. 

Bright foliage and jungle trees are thickly placed all over the Colosseum's heart of  entertainment. They give the air a heavy dose of humidity and the stench of dampness. The  place looks like a rainforest brought to life.  

Out of the corner of her eye, Aurelia can even see an actual waterfall cascading over a bed of  rocks. They must have been using water from the aqueducts to create it. Maybe even the one  she had nearly drowned in, she observes. The circular shape is still there of course, but there  

are animals that had just been released into the arena roaming around creating an entirely new  atmosphere.  

 But what really caught her attention was the moat surrounding where they all stood. A moat of  crocodiles. And their only way to get across is a singular wooden beam.  

“We are all going to die either way,” cries a man with outrage. “Whether it be by the  animals behind that door or by trying to cross that accursed moat before they do!” 

“Holy deities,” she breathes, dwelling on the same thing.  

Then she turns to the man, to all of them and says assuredly, “the door won’t open  anytime soon. They want us to cross the moat.” And the door won’t open because the pulley  system for it has been severed, for now at least, she surmises.

“And tell me how exactly would you know that?” 

To that she had no reply. For she could not expand on this claim without revealing too  much and possibly giving who she really is away. To these people she was not fifteen year old  Aurelia, the fearless daughter of Nikolaos, a Physician and well known owner of an apothecary.  She came here in collusion, to the Colosseum under the dangerous pretense of impersonating  Alba, and it would have to remain that way. 

The whole arena is alive with noise, the cheers and shouts from the spectators were  deafening. But despite the mental disarray this caused, Aurelia cannot prevent a relieved smile  growing on her pale face as she drops her manacles and leaves them on the ground. In her  tunic she still had the bundles of darts tucked away.  

She approached the beam and jumped on it with a perfect balance, she waited until the  crocodile with snapping jaws approached to strike it with the dart. It penetrated the scaly flesh,  and she resumed her precarious journey over the predatorial waters. She moves quickly, but  despite this she cannot however restrain a gasp from escaping her mouth. Another bloodthirsty  beast approaches, she had never felt so terrified in her life. Behind her and from the stands she  hears low murmurs, almost all of them sure she is about to meet her untimely demise. 

“Not today,” she vows bellicosely. 

She catches another glimpse at the crocodile, who is drawing closer. Adrenaline rushes  through her veins, crackling like a stoked furnace. Her nerves are on fire, all the while she  continues to make her way across the beam. 

“SNAP! CRUNCH!”  

She jumps forward just as its jagged teeth savagely take a bite out of the beam right where her  feet had been only seconds ago.  

Her hand lurches out and another the poisoned dart embeds itself on the tough skin. Then it  sinks beneath the water, unconscious, if not dead. Out of the corner of her eye she sees an  onslaught of its fellow creatures making their way over to where she stood. Time is ticking for  her, so paying no heed to them she sprinted across the collapsing beam. 

The stability and sandiness of the ground had never seemed better when she reached  the other side, with her adrenaline pumping like it never had before. She scrambles away from  the moat as she watches the other prisoners staring terrified at their options. They too, could  hear the roars on the other side of the door behind them, and a couple were taking their  chances with crossing the moat.  

 It’s a shame, she determines, that they don’t realize that the door behind them won’t open.  When Aurelia had been helping Oliver, a worker at the hypogeum, with a stuck pulley system,  she had taken the opportunity to cut a few pulleys that would have released some particularly  murderous animals, including the ones behind that door. She would have to see how long that  lasted, though. 

Turning her focus to the arena she studies the opening of the artificial rainforest and looks up  and sees the Emperor’s box. She looks up only to catch the eyes of Emperor Commudus  staring at her with barbaric fascination. The crowd also appears impressed with her victory  over the crocodiles, judging by their cheers and hollers.  

Good, she thinks with satisfaction. Then she turns and runs into the rainforest. 

The branches cut into her face as she flees through the trees. They leave stinging cuts on her  face and forearms and tangle themselves in her newly shortened and dyed hair. The terrain is  even, a mark of its ersatz. She pants as she hears a distant, muffled scream. Doors are  opening and the crowd begins to chant, which can mean only one thing. The gladiators have  arrived. 

 “Narcissus! NARCISSUS! NARCISSUS!” 

Her ears strain to hear the chorus of the crowd. To know what foe she may have cause  to face next. Gray eyes trace upward and her gaze snags on the tops of the trees. What would  it be like, she pondered, to have a vantage point from up there? It takes a minute to find a tree  that looks like it can support her weight, but once she does she wastes no time hoisting herself  

as high on the branches as she can get.  

 From the top of the tree she can spot the friendly face of Livia who has just entered the  arena. The elephant has been dressed in armor and spikes that combined with her scars make  her look terrifying. And yet Aurelia finds herself beaming at the sight of the leathery, ferocious  creature. 

She begins to sink into triumphant thoughts, filled with excitement at the prospect of  success that begins to make its way apparent. But then she hears it.  

 A door opening. 

A primal roar. 

The sound of panicked movements. 

She can scarcely breathe when she hears it. 

When she realizes it. 

The tigers have been released.  

 Screams and sounds of battle now fill the air, with the roar of the waterfall competing for  who is the loudest. Many have fallen, many lives have been needlessly taken for the sake of  entertainment. The Roman people are truly sadistic, for with every life lost their elation  becomes more palpable.  

“What to do now,” Aurelia murmurs to herself from her crouched position in the thick  boughs of a tree.    

She then stills, as she sees a familiar man run through the trees. Narcissus, he seems to  have lost his weapons in the chase. But why is he….. 

“Zeus’s lightning bolt,” she curses under her breath as she realizes who he is running  from. Or as the better term would have it, what he is escaping from.  

The tiger is huge and feral and she recognizes it as one of the many she treated for rabies.  Though obviously she had failed to cure the creature.

She debates for a long minute what to do. It would make sense to simply let him be  overtaken by the beast. But on the other hand, she could use some assistance. And she  suspected that having someone like Narcissus in her debt could be very advantageous. 

It was decided, and she swiftly dropped down from the tree landing behind the tiger. Dagger in  hand, one of the longer ones from her bag that she had snuck in with her, she stealthily  approached the beast from behind. The tiger had backed Narcissus into the side of the arena,  he was trapped and looked like he was well aware of it. His once tidy, dark hair matted with  sweat and his parlor pale beneath his tanned skin. He seemed to have gained an injury from  the ordeal in his arm, that was now gushing red.  

“ROAR!” 

His lethal enemy advances. And Aurelia does not go unnoticed, the creature can sense  her and unexpectedly pivots around and lunges at her. She is soon pinned under the foaming  tiger, its claws digging into her. Unhesitatingly Aurelia uses her knife, just as the tiger bites into  her shoulder. The knife sinks into its mark and much to her horror, she can practically feel the  life drain out of the beast. 

 However, now that the tiger is no longer a threat, Aurelia can feel overwhelming pain surging  in where the tiger had bitten her and where its claws had scratched. Her entire body feels  bruised from the impact, and remains in pain as she is unable to get the tiger’s prone body off her. Struggling she is able to get it part ways off her when another set of hands lifts the corpse  all the way off. 

“Are you alright, boy?” Asks the man. 

“I have been better,” she wheezes in return. 

She then sits up and expertly tears her cloak into strips before using the makeshift  bandages to staunch the bleeding of her wounds. The action itself is calming, with its familiarity  from all the days she spent working at the apothecary and treating patients. 

 Her hands won’t stop trembling, so it takes longer than it should to bind her injuries.  She looks down at her hands and sees that they are caked in dirt. Muttering, she stumbles to  her feet only to find the world spinning and twisting before her eyes. Her entire body aches with  an assortment of injuries. Even her stomach is crying for relief as it gnaws with hunger like an  insurmountable monster. She turns her eyes to the wrestler, who is pushing himself to his feet,  looking just as terrorized as she feels. 

“You saved my life,” he says, shocked. 

“How astute of you to notice, Narcissus. What observation do you plan on making  next? The sky is blue?” She says unnecessarily abasely. Trying not to betray her panicked  state. “Now, come on. We need to get going or we will be too late.” 

“That was rather blunt. I apologize, but do you not realize where we are right now?” 

“Of course I do, all I ask is for you to come with me and ensure that no one kills me,”  she says simplistically, gesturing for him to follow her as she starts to make her way to the  farthest edge of the arena. 

“So, like a bodyguard? Why would I do that? ”

“Because it is firstly both brief and easy to carry out this task and secondly you would  get a ride that you may brag about for the rest of your life. And even if those weren’t valid  reasons, you owe me. I didn’t have to save you from that tiger, I chose to. For a reason.” A  reason that definitely doesn’t come from the goodness of her heart. 

Aurelia inclines her head as she hears another ferocious roar of a tiger. She breaks into  a run and Narcissus wisely chooses to do the same. The forest passes by in a blur, but Aurelia  is too busy focusing on her next destination, to pay it any heed.   

“Do I know you? Your voice sounds familiar and strangely enough each time you speak  you sound….different,” the wrestler puffs out between labored breaths. 

But Aurelia ignores him, both unable to respond due to breathlessness and not wanting  to, for fear that she would give herself away. If he found out she was Malcolm, the boy who she  had pretended to be in order to help Oliver and him with the pulleys, it could ruin everything.  

 They are almost there. The trees are beginning to thin out and Aurelia suddenly smiles, she  can see Livia. Finally, she thinks with relief, someone I can trust. 

“What is your name anyways? And how do you know my name?”  

Once again she disregards him. Channeling a last burst of speed as she sprints to Livia and  embraces her. Hooking her arms around her leathery neck. 

“Heus, Livia. It is so good to see you,” she says into the elephant's neck. “Do you have my  bag?” 

She steps back as the elephant withdraws a satchel that had been enfolded in her large trunk.  A grin spreads across her face as Aurelia gingerly takes the precious bag. Inside is her other  knife, more poisoned darts and her most valuable tool, a curved bladed mace. She slings the  bag across her body and whirls on Narcissus who is staring at the both of them in  astonishment. 

“Well?” She says irritably, hauling herself onto Livia. “Would you prefer to walk?” “No,” he replies, quickly mounting the elephant behind her.  

Then they make their way to their next destination. To greet the gushing of the falls and  the icy depths that would soon decide her fate. 

The waterfall cascades over the rocks creating a shimmering sheen of flow that is  incredibly appealing to the eye. The falls look like they have been painted in a balayage  fashion, because of the highlights and dynamic shadows of the water. Its crystalline water all  empties to a basin, where the water seems to go through a vent to be re-filtered again. Though  the roar of the falls may indicate otherwise, the water is monitored by a pipe that opens and  closes to make sure that it will not flood. 

Aurelia slides smoothly off Livia and approaches the basin.  

“Stand guard,” she orders both the elephant and Narcissus. “I can see some unfriendly  faces who may decide to meet with us soon and I would rather not have to deal with them.”

“All right, are you going to tell me why or am I not allowed to ask questions?”Asks the  wrestler bitterly, before continuing in a almost paternal tone, “listen, if you just tell me what is  going on, maybe I can help–”  

“Silence would be most preferable.” 

He nods and Aurelia gestures for them to stand a bit away from the falls. Aurelia also  gives him weapons, the knives. She sheds her heavy, dark birrus and satchel before she  effortlessly dives onto the body of water and begins to swim. She can easily see through the  clear water and notes that underneath the idyllic waters, is a dark and perfectly shaped dome.  She feels the cool, clean water surrounding her and can’t help but notice how relaxing it is.  

 But there is no time for pleasantries.  

She resurfaces briefly for a breath and is greeted with the sight of a gladiator battling with  Narcissus, just as Livia savagely fends off a tiger. She needs to hurry. There is a boulder, not far  from the edge of the water, that she manages to push into the water. It takes all her strength,  but she begins to guide the massive boulder towards the vent. Her muscles begin to strain with  the effort, yet she simply grits her teeth and perseveres. 

Failure, she reminds herself, is not an option. She reaches the vent and shoves the  boulder into it, it plugs the vent and it settles there. Lungs burning and with increasingly  dimming vision, she desperately swims to the surface. Water expels from her throat as she  hacks and pulls herself out of the water, finding herself soaked to the bone.  

“Are you done now?” Narcissus inquires from where he stands with his combatants  lying unconscious at his feet. Livia has also been victorious in her endeavors of combat, Aurelia  notices with grim satisfaction. 

“No, not yet,” she retorts. “Nice job, both of you. Very impressive. I won’t be much  longer.” 

She makes her way over to her bag and retrieves her mace and the paring knife. Aurelia  also decides that while she is at it, she might as well take one of the spears of the prone body  of a gladiator.  

“I know where I recognize you from now. Last night, you helped Oliver and I with the  pulleys. And the next day half of the doors don’t work. You're not even a boy, are you? You  dyed your hair, and now it's coming out now. I don’t get it though.” He seems genuinely  confused and frustrated as he continues, his speech becoming more rapid and fueled. “Why  would you intentionally want to go to the Colosseum? What are you doing here?” 

“That is none of your business,” Aurelia snaps coolly. “Just stand guard for another ten  minutes and I’ll be done.” 

“You know what? NO. I don’t know what’s going on here, but it’s nothing good. And  unless you tell me I am going to have no choice, but to stop you, kid. I have let this subterfuge  go too far, my job is at stake and your life's on the line.” 

“Well then, it seems we are at an impasse.”  

“So it does.” 

There is silence between them for a long moment. Aurelia lunges towards him first. And then  there is a clash, a clash of wills and blades. A spear and a knife. 

Narcissus is a powerful adversary, but Aurelia is quicker and has a longer reach. Suffice to say  their duel ends quickly with Narcissus on his knees, a tip of a spear jabbing into his throat. 

“Surrender,” offers Aurelia. 

“I accept defeat, but you need to be–” 

“Good.” Then in a flash of moment she whips a dart out of her pocket and injects it into his  neck, rendering him unconscious. 

If the duel tired Aurelia she showed no sign of it. The moment Narcissus was taken care of, she  turned back towards the waterfall, mace in hand. The rushing of the falls in her ears makes her  more agitated, as she notes that time is running out. Livia is gone, fleeing towards the other  side of the arena just as she was instructed. But the same cannot be the same for her enemies,  gladiator or beast, her antics begin to catch their attention. And not to mention how she  captivates the audience. 

It’s a gelid climb up the face of the rocks, the outcrop could be made of ice for all their warmth.  Despite this unfortunate climate, Aurelia bravely scales upwards, attempting to avoid the harsh  flow of the water.  

In due time she makes it to the source, a gushing pipe. Crouching behind a barrier of wall  beside it, she withdraws her mace. Taking care to be cautious and to not get caught in the  water's influence, she begins to hack away at the pipe. It takes about a dozen swings, but it's  worth it when the pipe explodes in a wave of fury as the blade destroys its source of  resistance, the wooden panels smashing.  

Water flows like a tsunami, crashing against the arena in all its glory. Screams erupt as the  inches of water begin to climb and rush toward them, washing away trees and people like they  are inconsequential ants. The flood dwarfs all and overtakes the arena greedily. 

Once the waters anger is spent, the entire inhabitants of the arena lay in ruin at her feet. She  stands a figure tall and untouched among the destruction of the arena. The crowd gasps as  they stare at her. Marveling at her power. She is almost glowing with it. Well, not almost, she is  glowing. Her arms stings with a fierce agony, a prickly pain really. She looks down at her arm  and gasps at the sight of it. 

On her right forearm, branded on her skin is a prominent symbol. It’s a simple diamond shape  with a line at its tip extending downward and creating a cross. The image is fused to her skin in  a luminescent ivory, contrary to its plain lines. She would not have recognized it if she had not  seen and discussed the symbol countless times with her father in reference to his grecian  scrolls. 

It was the brand of the Greek goddess, Athena.