School is soon. Urgh, I'm about to cry. School messes up my writing but i'll see how it turns out. Now do enjoy the read. Quite longer than I expected

Agnes heard Aileen’s sigh and was jolted out of concentration, her eyes snapped open. Aileen gasped, realizing what she had done.

“I’m very sorry” She said clasping her hand in apology.

Agnes shook her head gently, “It’s fine, I’ll just begin again”. She closed her eyes and was about to call the energy force in again when a loud screechy voice sounded in their room.

“Block C. File out”

Agnes grimaced at the sound and looked at the older girl for an answer.

Aileen in return just gave a bitter smile, “You don’t have a block yet, no need to worry”

“Block? What’s that?”

“A supposedly randomized way of getting us to fight but I don’t think so”, She got up and walked towards Agnes pulling her to her feet, “Come on, let me show you how fights in the colosseum look like”.

She pulled Agnes to the door and looked out into the corridor, left and right. Seeing no soul, she picked up Agnes like the child that she was and bolted.

“What------?”, Agnes immediately yelled in protest, wriggling to get away.

“Shhhh”, Aileen replied and didn’t seem to be making any effort despite Agnes’ wriggling.

Agnes was dumbfounded and stopped struggling. She looked towards where they were going to know what was happening. She found they had passed the lecture hall and soon she was a tiny hallway.

Aileen entered that hallways and touched the wall on the left. A circular region of earth opened up revealing a dark entrance.

“Go in”, Aileen whispered urgently.

“No”, Agnes replied firmly.

“Urgh”, Aileen seems really impatient for some reason, “Just go”, she urged.

“No”, Agnes shook her head vehemently, wondering why Aileen didn’t just push her into the whole against her will, “What is in there?”

“New roommate? About time”, a soft spoken voice sounded and Agnes was surprised to see the well- endowed girl from earlier that day.

Aileen beamed, “Yes, thank goodness you’re here Sarai”, she said and her eyes looked down at the small boy holding onto Sarai, “My roommate doesn’t trust me,” she continued giving a small laugh.

Agnes pouted as she screamed inwardly, ‘You won’t tell me what exactly you’re doing. How can I just go with it?!’

“It’s fine. That’s your block for this month. Gonna skip?”, Sarai said

“No. Skipped last time, besides I am close enough to graduating from a Savage”

To that Sarai grinned, “Be careful out there”

“I will. And that?” She pointed to the boy beside Sarai.

“Noet’s new inmate”, Sarai said crisply.

“Oh…,” Aileen’s expression seemed to pale for a second then she reverted back to normal as she squatted and dropped Agnes, then patted the little boy’s head.

“Hurry if you want to make it, got ur life savers?” Sarai asked with a smile.

“Yup, recently stocked up on my pills”, She said as immediately bolted away leaving a light breeze behind.

Agnes looked at Sarai, evidently confused by the interaction and the appearance of Sarai.

“Go in, I will go in too,” Sarai said dryly.

Agnes stared at the lady for a while before deciding to comply. For some reason, this lady frightened her a bit.

She crawled in and began to move with the borders and she felt some movement behind her. Sarai used earth magic to reclose the entry and they were plunged into complete darkness.

After crawling for a while, Agnes saw a ray of light and moved a bit faster. She soon found herself looking at ten circular opening.

“Take one opening”, Sarai’s voice sounded out.

Agnes obeyed and crawled to the farthest one then peered through the hole. Immediately her mouth opening as she gasped in surprise.

“Unnecessarily big, right?” Sarai said as though seeing what Agnes saw even though she wasn’t looking through the hole.

“It is”, a small voice was heard and Agnes realized there was small boy right next to her.

“He’s eight years old, mind you”, Sarai suddenly said.

Agnes face contorted in disbelief. He looked at most five years old. She was about to say something when Sarai pointed towards holes.

She turned to look and was once again fascinated by the humongous sight. The colosseum was bigger than she imagined. The seats right in front of her were occupied by many wearing common clothing and was quite the rowdy area.

She shifted her gaze towards the right and saw that these seats where packed with rows or people wearing exquisite clothing and speaking in hushed tones.

Right in front on her on an elevated platform were four ruby clad seats that exuded majesty. Only one seat out of the four had a golden inscription of a dragon on it.

The seat on its right was different from the other two as it was higher in size with a silver inscription with a writing that she could not see but even if she could, she was unable to read. The two other seats were completely the same but were one step lower.

These seats were empty but it was easy to tell that they were to seat royalty. She looked around taking in the crowd and was surprised that the hole allowed her to see this much. She suddenly wanted to see what everyone had gathered here to see.

“Haha”, a cheerful voice suddenly boomed and Agnes could not see the person, “Welcome to the colosseum! Today as we have gathered to enjoy ourselves for the Talhut festival and because of that we will bring out our most wanted entertainment, the Seratin mastiff”.

“Shit,” Sarai suddenly cursed, “It’s a festival. They will wring them dry”

“Huh?” the little boy asked but got no reply so Agnes didn’t bother to say anything.

The ground shook as a section underneath the seats apparently for nobles revealed a cage.

The cage opened and a seven feet tall animal proudly walked out. Its body was unlike that of dog’s and was completely like a saber tooth except less profound. Its body was completely black in color and it had a small tail.

The only different color was its golden eyes. It was Agnes’ first encounter with a beast and fear crept into her heart at the sheer size.

“The lucky savage for the mastiff is….,” the voice began its voice filled with obvious ridicule as it paused for effect. Agnes could feel the anticipation for the name,

“Mavah”

-- -- -- -- --- --- --- ----- ---- ---- ---- ----- -------- -------- --------------

Aileen sat on the uncomfortable bench humming a tune softly. The boy beside her on her left leaned on the wall, his hands behind his head and he seemed to be enjoying the tune. He had rare light green hair and his eyes were eerily black. He, however had a beautiful face and body structure. Even his posture was refined. If he was dressed appropriately, no one would deny that he was a prince.

The place they were in was packed in other areas but there was a mini circular space in front of them… as though nobody wanted to be too close.

On her right was a doll. No, she looked like a life sized doll. Her skin was very pale and her eyes were round and she did not move at all. She stared into space and her black gown had white laces around it. The only thing that made one know that know that she was alive was the barely noticeable rising and falling of her chest.

“Ah”, the boy suddenly spoke.

“What?” Aileen stopped humming and looked up at him.

“It’s a festival today”, he said quietly.

“What? Tch, I forgot. Shouldn’t have chosen today to fight”, Aileen stiffened then grumbled.

The boy sighed, “You’re probably fighting me then”

“Yup”, she replied softly, then looked down and she wriggled her feet then her voice dropped so low even someone sitting right next to her would find it hard to hear, “Who is killing who?”

The boy chuckled softly as he obviously had heard her, “Go wild”

“Alright. Signal?”, She replied, her voice still as small.

“Lightning burst”, he said and this time, his voice was as small as hers.

There was silence between them and Aileen did not continue humming.

“Hey Noet”, Aileen suddenly spoke.

“Hmm?”, he perked up.

“Never mind”, She shook her head furiously as though shaking off a bad thought.

Watching her antics, his hand found its way to her head as he patted twice, “It’s been 5 months”, he said then moved his hand away as he looked towards to blank ceiling.

“Mavah” a loud monotonic voice suddenly sounded and both Aileen and Noet had immediately weird expression on their faces.

“No way”, Aileen gasped.

“First on a festival. It’s a mastiff isn’t it?”, Noet said dryly.

“He’s not strong enough, is he?”,

“He’s learnt very little from me, he has a one percent chance of winning”, Noet said bitterly

“Sarai… She might kill Marshall”, the doll spoke for the first time.

Aileen suddenly smiled, “He deserves to die. Why haven’t we killed him yet?”

“Because anyone else and we are stuck for the rest of our lives”, Noet replied grumpily.

“Not true. We could kill them all”, the doll spoke again.

“Correction”, Aileen chuckled, “You could kill them all”

And the doll was once again silent.

Aileen leaned back to stay on the wall and began to hum again but this time the tune was very sad.

A commotion occurred in the crowd and Noet clutched his hands as he watched the pitch black hair disappear behind the sliding doors after which he slowly closed his eyes.

--- --- - -- -- ---- ---------------- ------------ ---------------- ---------------

Agnes heard the name Mavah and stilled. It sounded like a male name.

“What---?!” Sarai shrieked at the mention of the name startling Agnes, “No, no, no” she stuttered in disbelief, her voice getting smaller with every word.

Opposite where the mastiff came out from was a small gate. This distance between them was 10 meters long. The small gate slowly opened revealing a teenage boy. His gaze met the not moving mastiff and he stilled for a second then sighed audibly and immediately drew the daggers lodged on this belt.

As he walked forward, his ebony hair fluttered in the wind and his brown eyes seemed to not give a damn about his current situation while a small smile played on his lips.

Looking at his confidence, Agnes turned to look at Sarai wondering what her earlier outburst was for only to see a stunned look on Sarai’s face but that soon disappeared, replaced with a bitter smile, “As expected”, she muttered softly then closed her eyes and leaned back on the earth while pulling her knees towards herself. She suddenly began to hum very softly a tune similar to the one Aileen was humming.

Agnes too re positioned herself as her knees began to hurt and she looked at the apparently eight year old boy who didn’t make a sound but didn’t say anything to him, minding her own business.

The boy called Mavah stopped walking 10 feet away from the mastiff and Agnes wondered why the mastiff wasn’t doing anything. It just stood proudly but did not make a sound. Looking at this scene something in her heart told her that this boy might not live through this.

At that thought, she grabbed her chest and bit her lips, forcing herself to look. For some reason, she didn’t want to miss this. She realized that if she who knew nothing felt this way then the boy who had obviously experienced more than she had, knew too but his whole façade had almost deceived her.

She then with different eyes looked at these people who seemed ready to jump out of their seats, excited at what was happening. She realized from the loud mutters and feverish glances that the one the people wanted to die was not the mastiff but the boy. Her eyes widened in disbelief as reality seemed to slap her in the face once again after her encounter with Ruby. She bit her lips and blood seeped out as a thought crossed her mind, ‘So sickening’.