Chapter Two: Crystal

My first opponent knew she was going to die. I could see it in her eyes: focused but scared. We played the part, dancing around each other, slashing here and there. She would cut the air cleanly, but she lacked the skills. I could tell that she did not want to be here. Her attacks were not even within an arms distance from me and she held the straight blade loosely. Then she stumbled and I saw my chance. Quick slash to the abdomen followed by a clean spin and slash to the neck.
The second was more eager. Filled with adrenalin from his previous battle, he ran blindly, slicing the air as if it was closing in on him. My curved blade parried his blind strikes with ease. His broad long sword snapped. I felt bad when I ended his suffering with a powerful kick to the face followed by a backhand jab to the neck. They taught you always go for the neck: clean and painless.
The third knew what he was doing. At first, he seemed surprised that a female was blocking his attacks with enough power behind it to send him back a few steps. Block, shuffle, dodge, slash, roll, jab. His duel blades were small and stealthy. I started to get anxious when I felt my hands get sweaty on the blades grip. We repeated the sequence for at least a generation before I felt a burning pain on my upper right arm. Smart to take down the sword arm first, too bad I wasn’t right handed. He gasped as I switched hands with lightning speed, ending the duel clean and painless.
Before I could recover, I felt something very strange in my stomach. At first, there wasn’t any pain, just numbness. Then I dropped to my knees and felt the pain running through my body. Then I felt it again, but backwards. I searched my stomach to find a sticky wet substance. How pathetic. The fourth and final competitor didn’t even wait for it to be a fair match. Since the fight was already unfair, I decided to play it dirty with the last ounces of energy I had. I spun on the ground knocking him off his feet and into the dirt. I staggered to my feet and noticed that he had dropped his dagger that was previously inside of me. I rolled over to it and grasped it hard. The overgrown senior was now standing and stared at me in astonishment. I started laughing. He started crying. I flipped the dagger so its point was in-between my thump and fore-most fingers. Then I threw it straight at the boy’s heart. All I heard before I blacked out was Cody yelling at me. He was screaming at me not to die.
The moment I regained consciousness I knew something wasn’t right. I could barley open my eyes and I couldn’t move my arms. Or any other part of me for that matter. I strained to sit up, only to feel a blinding pain in my stomach. Oh, that’s right. I had been stabbed. I sighed, let my head fall back into the pillow, and let my other senses take over. I could hear the clanging of dishes in a bucket, the swish of the wind in the shutters, and a strange breathing sound coming from the foot of the bed. It must be Cody. He always was a little clingy.
I found the strength to open my eyes and lean up a little. To my surprise, it wasn’t Cody at the foot of the bed, but Chriss. His black hair was a mess and he looked as though he hadn’t bathed for days. The smell that struck my nostrils confirmed that. I nudged his head with my ankle, but he only mumbled. I hit him harder and he fell out of his chair and onto the floor, still asleep. Well he won’t be much help. I wiggled my arms and found that I couldn’t lift them. They were strapped down to the bed. That’s peculiar.
I called out for a nurse, but when no one came, I decided to try to wake up the sleeping tree under my bed. Using my foot, that wasn’t restrained, I managed to hit the chair Chriss had been sleeping in, and knock it on top of him. “Huh?” Finally.
“Hey sleepy head,” I called out.
“Crystal!” Chriss yelped as he dragged himself off the floor. “You’re awake!”
“No. I’m just a figment of your imagination.” By now I just wanted to know what happened and why I was tied down to a bed.
“Glad to see you still have your sense of humor charming,” Chriss stated. I answered him with a striking glare that pierced his sarcasm. “Well I bet you want to know what happened. After you blacked out, we brought you to the infirmary to try to save the only person who ever won two trials. At first, the doctors didn’t think you were going to make it. They even turned the IV to water instead of morphine. They we just going to let you die.” Chriss was getting a little emotional with his dramatic story and had to sit down in a chair that wasn’t turned over. “Once the water was pumping through your body for less than a minute, a strange blue light started to appear where the puncture was in your stomach. It got brighter and then disappeared. When the nurse took the bandages off the wound was almost completely healed. Besides some major bruising and a scab the size of an elephant, you were healed.”
I took a deep breath and asked Chriss to tell me why I was strapped down like an animal.
“Well. I think they got scarred. They aren’t used to people like us.”
“Like ‘Us’?”
“There will be time for that kind of talk later. Right now I’m going to go talk to the doctor about getting you home.”
With that, Chriss left me to my thoughts, which, honestly, I didn’t know what to think. I had a strange feeling that what happened to me was connected to my father and the things he left me. I tried to visualize the objects and I couldn’t find anything alarmingly out of the ordinary. Except the fact that the sword was hallow in the middle where the design should be and the funny colored, scale type amour. The charm bracelet was probably the most normal of all three.
Chriss came back with the doctor and he reluctantly lessened the straps. I rubbed my wrists while walking to the bathroom to change back into normal clothes. Chriss led the way out of the hospital and I realized that he was only one who showed up. I guess I shouldn’t get my hopes up that either one of my parents even gave it a second thought. When we got to my house, Chriss made it clear that if anything strange happened I needed to call him right away no matter what time of the day it was. I agreed hastily, wanting to curl up in my own bed and dream away the pain.