The night was late, and it was hot. There were hundreds of people milling around the cramped amphitheater, causing the already sweltering night to hang thick with humidity. The distinct scents of sweat, greasy food stalls, and foreign spices phased in and out of Cody's awareness. The idle chattering of hundreds seemed to swell.
Cody panted in the sultry breeze. "Dr. Chad! Wait up!" Chad Adkins, the senior archaeologist at Cody's research team, was too fast for him to keep up with in the crowd. Cody muttered under his breath. "Damn, he's fast for an overweight 60 year old." Chad was actually only 50.
"If we go at your pace, we're gonna miss Buakaw!" Chad flipped Cody off behind his back not-so-stealthily and stormed back into the crowd. Cody heard a distant "Amateur!" directed at him before Cody lost sight of him completely. Dr. Chad was, of course, referring to Cody being the only under 25 researcher with the rest of the team. He insulted him often.
"I didn't even want to come watch this 'incredible Buakaw'…", Cody mumbled to himself in a mocking tone. Sighing, he wiped the sweat from his brow, re-tucked in his now sweat-stained white shirt, and increased his speed. "Who even cares about Muay Thai?" Dr. Chad, who had been studying Thai culture professionally and in his free time for the past 15 years, cared deeply. But Cody had only been in the country for 6 months, and had somehow managed to evade all invitations to a fight, though they happened nightly. So far, Cody was unimpressed with the general experience, though he still had yet to watch an actual match.
His calves burned from the fast walking. He was unsuccessfully trying to mask his heavy breathing, and the humid air wasn't helping. With a final burst of speed, he surged through the thickest part of the crowd to find a slightly less flooded area. Cody had successfully kept from becoming too entangled in the throng, but Dr. Chad was nowhere to be found.
Cody strained in order to catch sight of the professor. He was almost 6 foot tall, and towered over the Thai people swarming around him. Despite this height advantage, however, Dr. Chad evaded his vision completely.
"Oh, great." Cody cussed to himself. Dr. Chad had dragged him from his mountains of fieldwork, paperwork, and grunt work to attend this event that he didn't even want to go to. Now he was abandoned. Cody was already exhausted from a full day of working at the site, and now this?
Cody leaned against the grimy wall, and observed his surroundings. The shoddy "stadium" (if it could be called that), was really just a covered area with two permanent walls, a semi permanent one, and a gaping entrance where the fourth wall would be. Despite the openings immense size, it only managed to invite in humid air and throngs of Thais. The seating consisted of folding and red plastic lawn chairs. A handful of vendors loudly sold greasy street food as they milled through the crowd.
"Damn it." He muttered. "Damn it!" The old man was nowhere in sight! Cody, frustrated and sweaty, made up his mind, and decisively turned back to face the crowd. Eyeing the cavernous exit, Cody took a large step. Before he could make much headway, however, he tripped into a previously unobserved person standing near the ring on Cody's right.
Cody scrambled from the floor in a panic, frantically stuttering in his broken Thai.
"Oh, I'm so sorry! I guess I wasn't looking where I-" As Cody reached to help up the other person, he found himself staring into the eyes of an extremely, extremely, well chiseled and shirtless man.
Speechless, Cody finished helping the man to his silence stretched for a moment before Cody blushed and looked away.
"S-Sorry." Cody bit his lip in embarrassment. The man was clearly a competitor for one of tonight's matches. He had his hands tightly wrapped up in white gauze, and was wearing the unmistakably flashy shorts all muay thai fighters wore. His bare chest and arms were very well defined, and Cody had a hard time keeping his eyes from sliding back to trace every muscle. While his height, hair, and general appearance seemed to be distinctly thai, his stockiness and lighter skin threw Cody for a loop. Was he half white? The man's black eyebrows were knitted in annoyance.
Coming back to his senses, Cody blushed. "S-sorry, sir."
The man looked away and let out a puff of air. His tough and twisted fingers loosely signaled something Cody couldn't quite decipher, but thought might be translated as a dismissive "Whatever". The man turned to face the other direction, and walked towards an old Thai man (his trainer?). Cody was entranced by the expansive "tribal" tattoo that stretched across the man's taut shoulder blades.
He stood still in the throng. The crowd was beginning to thin, which showed that the match might be beginning soon. Fearing he would miss his chance to escape (did he really want to, now?), he snapped back to attention and jogged towards freedom, when he heard the unmistakably gruff voice of Dr. Chad.
"Oi, amateur!" Dr. Chad was squeezing between a tangle of fold-out metal chairs about 20 feet off to the side. Cody approached him, and joined his left side.
"It's about time you show your baby face." Chad slapped Cody on the shoulder. Cody lurched forward at the force uncomfortably.
"Professor, I don't even want to be here." Cody said somewhat unconvincingly, as he was still thinking about one of the evening competitors. He rubbed his shoulder. "Why'd you drag me?"
Chad pulled a coke from his bag, took a long draught, then handed it to Cody's tentative hands. "Shut up, Cody. It's starting. And stop calling me professor."
The two finally found seating, about as far from the centered boxing ring as they possibly could. An announcer stepped into the ring, and after a few moments of chatter, the crowd hushed.
While Cody had a rudimentary understanding of the Thai language that was growing more every day, he was lost when the announcer began to speak. Not only did he speak faster than normal, the crowd erupted into cheers that drowned out 50% of his language. Chad was one of the loudest audience members.
After what seemed like an eternity, the first match of the evening began. There were to be three matches of the evening, each made of 5 rounds. The first fight between two women, the following two between men. Cody sank in his seat and settled into his misery, expecting a long and fruitless night.
The announcer left the match, and two women walked to either corners of the ring - which was actually a square. The "square" had two white corners, and two colored corners - one red, and one blue.
One of the woman, the one nearest to Cody at the red corner of the ring, was a tall, caucasian woman - a "farang" (Thai for foreigner - as were Chad and Cody). The other a petit Thai woman who hardly seemed to be over the age of 17.
Cody observed the farang closely as she spoke with her trainer for a moment, and began to move about in place, throwing a few punches and a kick. The trainer nodded his head, and when the announcer signaled, he lifted the bottom of the ropes up for her to crawl under. The same was done for the Thai woman.
A decorative headband and armband was worn by both women, traditional Thai instruments began playing, and they began a "dance" around the ring. Cody sat, entranced.
"What are they doing?" Cody asked to Chad.
"What? Oh. They're doing the Wai Kru Ram Muay.", Chad said dismissively.
"The- the what?"
"It's a ceremony. Figure it out." Chad snapped. Cody decided he better learn by watching.
The women's rounds, three minutes each, seemed to pass by too quickly. With each round, Cody became more involved. At first he only held his breath when sharp elbows were thrown, or high kicks landed. By the end of the fifth round, Cody was shouting at everything that happened, good or bad - and with no one to properly cheer for, he cheered for both. Chad was too busy drowning out their half of the audience to take notice of Cody's sudden enthusiasm.
While Cody had difficulty following how points were scored, or what the rules were, he was unsurprised when the young Thai woman was proclaimed the winner in the end. Though the 'farang' had a superior height advantage, and stronger attacks, the Thai women moved so gracefully and swiftly that it was impossible for the 'farang' to keep up.
There was a bit of time between matches, and then the interim match began. This time, it was two Thai men, both young (only 19). They carried through the Wai Kru ceremony effortlessly. These rounds seemed more brutal, and it was harder for Cody to tell who was winning.
Chad's voice echoed through the stadium, chanting for the man in the blue corner. Cody decided to chant for the red cornered competitor. The red corner competitor lost brutally in the fifth round, with a knockout taking place in the final seconds. Cody felt slight disappointment, even though he had never watched the sport before that day in his entire life. How could he have fallen for something so quickly and so completely?
There was a 30 minute break between that match and the final match. As soon as the two competitors left the ring, the crowds voices swelled again to a deafening level within moments. Chad waved down a vendor who was aggressively trying to sell his food to an uninterested nearby woman, effectively saving her. He purchased two greasy trays of spicy chicken kebabs.
Cody accepted the offering with gratitude, and excitedly began to discuss the two matches. Chad explained rules Cody had not understood from just viewing, and described the basic aspects of Muay Thai for Cody to better understand.
"...You see," Chad began, tearing a large bite of meat off of his kebab, "Muay Thai has really changed over it's time, but nowadays, it's called 'the art of eight limbs'. This is because not only does it use both hands and feet, like kickboxing, but it also uses elbows and knees…"
Cody absorbed all the information like a sponge. He felt like a child, having Chad explain the rules over a meal purchased by him, but he didn't care. Somehow he had managed to be completely converted to the brutal but graceful sport.
The break drew near an end, and Cody became more restless. Would he be able to see the handsome fighter from before again? If Buakaw was as good of a fighter as Chad seemed to be implying, Cody wasn't sure if he wanted to see that. Or maybe he did… After all, he wouldn't mind seeing the man's muscles become more defined through the intensity of the fight…
Cody blushed as his thoughts continued through this avenue a little too long, and hastily took the last bite of his meal. He choked on the spiciness of the meat and his thoughts, and Chad clapped him on the back a little too hard.
"Too much meat for you to swallow?" Chad chuckled. Cody burned with embarrassment.
After what seemed like an eternity, two muscular, shorts bearing men entered the stadium from opposite entrances, and the crowd immediately hushed. Approaching the blue corner was Buakaw. He looked mean, and ready to fight. Buakaw peered up at the crowd, and Cody froze. The crowd erupted in cheers, but Cody was frozen, staring into the eyes of this fearsome warrior. A chill went down his spine.
"BUAKAW!" Chad began chanting the champion's name, along with the crowd. Cody, shaking himself of the fear from before, rolled his eyes. Deciding it was all in his head, he allowed himself to scan the young man's body. He was very handsome, but not as handsome as the other guy he had bumped into earlier.
After the crowd had subsided a little bit, the other competitor entered the room. He had a silent and unassuming air. This was the very man Cody had just been thinking about. He blushed at the sudden apparition, and Chad booed.
Mustering his courage, and commanding himself to not betray his feelings, Cody lightly touched Chad's arm. "Profess- uh - I mean, Chad..? Who is that guy?"
"Who the hell cares? It's not Buakaw" Chad said gruffly. Cody pouted.
The two men began to speak with their trainers, and Chad reconsidered Cody's question. "He's some underdog." Chad pointed vaguely at the red corner of the ring.
Cody snapped to attention. "Yeah? What else?" Perhaps he was being too forward, but if Chad had information, he wanted all of it.
Chad scratched his stubbled chin. "Yeah… yeah, I remember hearing his name a few years back. I think his name is...Nicolas Brown."
Cody was quiet. "Nicolas? That's hardly a Thai name."
"He's a halfer." Chad said nonchalantly. "One of the many victims of rampant sex tourism I believe... When I first started living here, he was a young up and coming professional Muay Thai fighter everyone had their eyes on, but suddenly he vanished from the public's eye about four years after I moved. Last I heard, he'd 'been the reigning champion of the illegal underground matches for the past ten years. This is probably his first time back with the professionals. Well I say professional, this is still a pretty amateur venue - otherwise we'd have some damned air conditioning. But Buakaw is good enough to go pro… he just hasn't yet. He always comes out on top." Chad said pridefully, as if Buakaw was his very own flesh and blood. "No way this Nicolas Brown is gonna win, especially without street rules."
Cody sat quietly for a moment, considering. Finally he spoke. "Illegal? For ten years?"
"Yeah. If I had to guess, he's probably 27, 28." Cody sank into his seat, considering his own tender age of 20. 'I wonder if something like that matters to someone like him…' Cody thought to himself.
Before Cody was able to shake himself out of these useless thoughts, Chad interrupted. "He's already nearing the end of his Muay career, and he's just now starting to clean up his act with the amateur league." Chad scoffed and grabbed the untouched Coke back from the ground near Cody's feet. "He's done for. The illegal matches are some real nasty stuff. It's the same kickboxing but with less technique, and more 'house' rules. Rules like that sometimes mean the match doesn't end until someone's on the ground, or until they're out cold. It can get pretty bloody. The underground champs have been known to use wet rope instead of hand wraps, to make it sting. Some of them even put shards of glass there too. This Brown guy looks like a real scrapper."
"Huh…" Cody peered at Nicolas with a more watchful eye. The two of them were beginning the Wai Kru ceremony. Buakaw effortlessly preformed the Wai Kru, but Nicolas seemed a little uncomfortable performing in front of such an audience. A halfer? Underground? Cody noticed some brutal scars coating Nicolas' body he hadn't seen when he bumped into him earlier. "Why would he go to the underground to begin with if he was already succes-"
Chad shoved the nearly-empty and lukewarm Coke back into Cody's hands. "Shut up!"
The match had begun.