A/N: Yup, I'm back with another one! This is my Lunar Chronicles retelling of the Princess and the Pea, set in Toulouse/Paris, France. The story follows the adventure of a blind fighter girl with a mysterious past. Hope you enjoy!
Left arm, right arm, duck and dodge, knee to the crotch, elbow to the back of head. Her opponent lay on the ground, groaning. "Cheater!" he cried, spitting blood. "Lying, scheming cheat!" he continued to jeer as the crowds booed him off the floor.
She dusted herself off gave him a smug smile and wink and went to collect her earnings. "That's the sixth win in a row, tonight, Pea!" an admirer patted her on the back with a heavy hand. "Claw was the top winner for the past year!"
Pea smirked. "He didn't last long." she chuckled. "I was expecting more of a challenge!" she hollered over the noise of the crowds.
"How do you do it?!" He exclaimed. "It's true, isn't it? That you're blind? Your eyes look weird and they're always shut! So how do you do it?!"
She placed a finger on her lips and smiled with a knowing glint in her eye. "That's for me to know."
The bell dinged, signaling the beginning of the next match. One of the usual suspects, a short, stocky man who made up for his height in strength, against one of the newer guys. He was tall, rough-looking, covered in scars.
Pea could feel them as they scrabbled on the center floor, the audience cheering. The small man had the advantage, having been fighting for years, but she could feel the new guy's ferocity as he pounded him, his fighting technique reminded Pea of the wolves that wandered around the woods outside Toulouse. She heard a snap, then the smaller guy fell to the floor. "My nose!" he yelled in a shrill voice. The wolf-guy gave a chuckle, then stepped off the stage. Pea lost his footsteps in the sea of vibrations left by the throbbing crowds.
She moved to the platform, her turn again. "You ready?" asked the announcer. "Last match of the night! You're up against Dragon Tooth." He whispered as he pulled her up onto the stage.
Dragon Tooth. She'd heard about him before, a bartender from one of Toulouse's underground clubs described him to her. He was tall and slim, a cyborg, apparently, but most of that was inside his body. The stuff that was outside was worse than any kind of cyborg surge. He had crimson scales that covered his arms and legs, with large spikes going down his spine, and studded across his knuckles. Apparently, he was a better fighter than Claw, but he didn't show up enough to top him on the scoreboards.
"Aw, I can't hit a little girl!" She heard him, standing across the ring. "She's practically a toddler!"
"I'm seventeen, you dick! Too scared to fight a chick, huh?!"
He shifted, contemplating it for a moment, before the bell sounded and he came barreling towards her. He was fast, quicker than most of the other fighters, but Pea could feel him from a mile away. She ducked to the left and gave him a swift kick to the knees. He didn't come down, but he stumbled, cursing under his breath. "How the hell-?"
She had him in a headlock before he could even finish his sentence. Flipping him onto his back, she pinned him down in two sharp movements and pummeled his face with her blistered, callous fists.
But she was smaller than him, he grabbed her by the shoulders and swung her off of him and into the side of the ring like an empty sack. Pea rebounded off the ropes and landed like a cat. She snarled, and hurled herself at him in retaliation. She could feel his body shift and anticipated the hit from the right. But suddenly, a thundering punch was delivered from the left. Her cheek throbbed, gushing with blood. "Caught on to me, huh?" she laughed. "Those are some nice implants you got on your knuckles!" she gestured to wherever he was.
"I'm smirking right now!" He roared. "I know all about you, blind bitch! I know how you work."
Pea grinned, exposing her pearly whites. "Finally, a challenge!"
He thrust forward, his weight shifting left and right, closer, and closer. Pea knew she couldn't trust the vibrations in the floor anymore and just ducked. She shot beneath him, between his legs and somersaulted to the opposite side of the stage.
"Oh, how scary! You gonna dodge me like a monkey or fight me like a man?!" Dragon Tooth jeered.
She raised an eyebrow. "You know," she ducked beneath a punch, "I really hate guys like you." Knee to his groin.
He stumbled back, grumbling under his breath.
"You assume that girls will be girls," Dodge left, "and boys will be boys." Right hook. "And that if a girl decides to do what boys do," hit to the chin, "or a boy does what a girl is supposed to do," she took a kick to her side and crumpled, but shot back up before he could pin her down, "then they should be judged only as a girl, or only as a man." She twirled out of his way seconds before he attempted to land another crippling blow. "Rather than judge them as a person."
The crowds were screaming, begging for blood, watching intensely as they fought. Pea was panting, nearly out of breath, but Dragon Tooth wasn't much better off. Neither fighter could get a decent hit in, but Pea had certainly taken the most damage. "Is that all you're going to do?!" Dragon Tooth shrieked. "Jabber on and on?! Your voice is so annoying!" He thrust a palm under her chin.
A loud snap reverberated through her head.
Her opponent smirked. "What'cha think of that?!" he taunted as she fell back, unable to react.
The room fell silent. The air was dead.
"But you know what?" her voice echoed in the silence as she ignored his mocking jab. She pulled herself back up, and spun her leg out in a flash, bringing Dragon Tooth down to level ground with her. "I may not be a man," she kneeled down on top of him, pinning his struggling hands to his sides with her knees and brought his face up to hers by the scruff of his shirt and hissed, "but I sure as hell ain't a 'little girl'!" She smashed his forehead against hers and knocked him out.
A roar thundered through the room, bouncing off the walls, in praise of their winner. They pulled her from the stage, she could feel every hand, every commending pat, creepy pervert, and idolizing fan as she passed over them. She felt nauseous, sea sick, and tired.
Pea barely made it through the rest of the night. She wasn't used to fights that lasted longer than a few minutes. She downed a few drinks with some fans, answered a couple of questions, and even signed a few autographs, though she doubted they looked like anything resembling the word "Pea".
As she stumbled out of the Morel House and slowly down the hill, she suddenly froze. The wind stopped and the air stiffened. "Hello?" she called.
"Ah, there you are! I was wondering when you'd notice me!" A voice called out from the bottom of the hill. "Won't you come talk?!" he yelled.
Pea shifted uncomfortably, contemplating whether or not to bother. It wasn't like she couldn't take him if he turned out to be some sort or rapist or murderer, but she was tuckered out, and ready to plop into bed.
"Come on, I won't bite!" he called.
Pea sighed, and finished her way down the hill in silence. "What?" she remarked dryly. "I'm tired and bored and I want to go to sleep, so make it quick."
"Oh, that's alright! I'll walk with you." He reassured her. "I just had a proposition for you."
She rolled her eyes and stalked off. "I don't have sex with strangers! Back off, creep!"
The man rushed after her. "No, no, no! That's not what I'm here about. I have no interest in your body...well...not in that way. No, I want to fight!" he exclaimed.
Pea scoffed. Based on how he walked, she could tell he wasn't much of a fighter. His stance was more of an upper-class businessman type. Tall and lean, maybe a little muscle from his daily hour at some swanky gym. "Oh please. What kind of masochistic little freak are you? I could pound you in seconds."
"This is a special kind of fight!" he had to race to keep up with her. "I promise, it's like nothing you've ever done before!"
"I told you, I'm not a whore!"
"It's not sex, I swear! But I can't tell you much about it, it's a bit of a surprise."
She stopped abruptly, a dark look passed over her face. "Look, mister, I don't want to put up with some weirdo's crap all night! There is only one person I can stand not giving me straight answers, and you sure as hell aren't them! I'm tired and I'm not interested! Now back off!"
"Please! I promise, you'll want to do this! If you win the fight, you won't regret it!"
Pea stormed down the road and into her apartment, grumbling. She was careful not to wake up Nadia as she crept into bed.
Sleep washed over her like a wave over the sand, and soon she was dragged into a dreamless state of nothingness.
A/N: So...yeah! Hope you liked that first chapter. Yes, there were some references to Scarlet in there, including one little fighter boy we all know and love (no, he is not an important character in this).
I don't have much to say here other than to check out my illustrated cover for Pea ( art/Pea-Cover-396618574) and check it out full screen!