Becoming Baba

"Hmmmm… now, where could that girl have gone to?" I thought aloud. "She's carrying valuables, so she probably intends to sell them in some big city or something. That would be the logical thing for her to do, after all, cause then they couldn't track her very easily in a large town. Now, there are only two big cities anywhere close to here, other than Hometown, of course, and she would have to be a fool to return there. There's Coursair, over to the east, and there's Windia, up north and west a ways. But, then again, Windia's two entrances are essentially sealed off. One's being watched over by the winged guards of the palace, and the other, the main entrance, can only be reached by those who can fly. Now, my little bat-girl has wings, but does that mean she can fly? I hope to the Dragon God not, because that would make my quest a heck of a lot tougher.

Well, I'm going with my gut and say she can't fly. It's a risky choice, because if I mess up, she could be gone forever. But I must go with it. If I falter now, on any level, I could end up in a deep crack.

I guess then that Windia's pretty much x-ed out, so I should probably head over to Coursair and see if they got any news on her. Maybe I'll even get to check out the fights when I get there. After all, they're world renowned, and I've never been to one. Maybe I could even get in and fight in one…

I grinned to myself. That would be righteous to have happen. Be on the world's most famous fighting stage, battling the odds as well as my opponent, taking out all who oppose me, earning worldwide fame. That was certainly a very nice picture in my head. But, I knew the fighters in there trained since they were in diapers, so I doubt I would have much of a chance, great as I was. Still, it was nice to dream about such things.

Now, it was time to go. Yes, I would have to climb the mountain for the fourth time today, but that was fine. This time, I wouldn't have Bow pestering me. That thought alone would make it easy to make the journey. I was finally free to do my own stuff. I mean, I love Bow and all, but man! That guy can get on your nerves really quick. He talks a lot, and that's fine with me, but not so with other people. He doesn't like to do hard work, or any work for that matter. He's prone to "dizzy spells" that render him "unable to move", and so he goes and spends the whole day in bed, much to the anger of us who actually do work. He's a little slow, both in the mental and physical sense. He has some good ideas, but they never come to light because he can't execute them properly. All in all, he has a lot of faults, just like the rest of us, but he's a really good dude when it comes down to it. I know I was just ragging on him just now, but it's all in good fun. I wouldn't leave his side in a million years, unless I was forced to, like now. I had to hurry so I could get back and clear his name, so he could travel with me again!

I started walking towards the mountain base, mentally preparing for another trip over. Suddenly I stopped, and thought a little about the seriousness of the situation; then I started again, this time jogging a little. Then, I upped the pace, beginning to run. After that, I kept picking up speed until I was screaming over the trail. I had a mission after all, and I couldn't ignore it. Bow was depending on me, and darned if I was going to let him down. He had done a lot for me over the years, and had never once abandoned me, in any situation (well, maybe a few times, but still). With this thought spurring me, I ran and ran, and didn't stop until I made it to the bottom of the mountain, and across the bridge leading to the eastern lands, where I could make my way to Coursair.

As I made it to the other side, I collapsed. I couldn't help myself. I was plumb tuckered out. I hadn't run that much, that fast, in many moons. I rarely ran anymore, actually, so this was the first time in a long time I had even done that. I just didn't have the energy most of the time. But, this situation was special, so I made an exception. Maybe I shouldn't have, though. I felt as though I would die real soon if I didn't get somewhere fast and have a good rest. Luckily, Coursair wasn't too far now, so I might be able to make it. I had to try, at least, if nothing else. I gritted my teeth and stood up, my stomach complaining as I did. I slowly brushed off the little bits of grass that had gathered on my shirt and pants as I had lay down. Once I was finished with that, I began walking. I didn't think I could run anymore for a while. I had to take it easy for now.

When I arrived at the upper bridge, I saw with great relief that the guard who had halted Bow and I earlier was gone. He must have found that Nina person or whoever it was he was looking for. Thank the Dragon God. I was far too tired to deal with anybody right now, especially a stupid guard. Now, I was just a little ways from Coursair. I smiled slightly. I could get some rest now.

As I drew close, the coliseum loomed large over my head. I looked up and stared at it for a second. It looked exactly like the old ones did, back in ancient times. That was cool. They had done their research before they built it. I admired that.

Finished gazing at it, I shifted my gaze down, and made my way into the gladiator capital of the world, Coursair.

When I got in, I saw that, other than the giant building in the back, it was fairly similar to Hometown. Darn. And here I had been hoping for a totally unique place. Oh, well. Can't always get what you want, I guess.

But, after proceeding in a few steps, I saw something that caught my eye and gave me a boost. It was a sign indicating an establishment that Hometown had banned a while back after Bow and I had caused some trouble in it. In the eastern half of the town, there was an inn, which made me quite happy. But the sign on the building next to it made me happier, for it bore one single, awesome word: PUB, in neon letters. I hadn't been in one for quite some time, and since I, like any other man, loved my ale, I had been hankering to get back in one ever since the Elder had shut ours down. And the cause of that, by the way, was Bow. Not me. I was just there. Bow started the fight, and I only helped a little. Don't believe anything else.

I wandered over to the door below the sign and pulled it open. Ah! That glorious smell of beer! Great stuff, I think. Just being in this place made me feel a lot better than before.

I walked up to the barkeep, who was busy wiping out the glasses and getting them ready for another use. I still remembered what I was doing here, which was good, because beer usually makes me amnesiac. I decided to ask him a few questions. "Hey, man," I offered as my greeting.

He turned and stared at me, revealing a happy look on his face. Wow. This guy must be taking classes on how to please the customer. "What can I do for you, bud? Want a drink? Food? Lodging? Something? Anything?" he asked in a manner that reflected his visage. He was still wiping the glass as he talked, his hand never stopping its circular motion.

"None of those, thank you very much. What I need is answers. You see, I've come here from Hometown, investigating a robbery that took place over there. The thief dashed off before we could capture her, as they always seem to, and I have a hunch she might have either come here or to Windia. Of course, Windia's hard to get to, so I figured she had probably passed through here."

"Hmmm. What does she look like?"

"She has blue hair, like mine, only darker. More of a blue-black, I guess you would say. And wings. She has two bat-like wings on her back. Kind of like a dragon, or something like that. That's about all I was able to tell at the quick glance I got, unfortunately."

"Well, bud, sorry to disappoint, but I ain't seen anyone like that in this bar or in town. I would remember if I did, and I don't, so I didn't. However, you might have better luck asking the patrons here about her."

I looked around. It was empty except for me, him, and one other bartender. "Where are they?"

He chuckled. "Oh, don't worry, sonny, they'll come. The first ones usually come around 7, and then gradually, more keep arriving until about 9ish. By then, it's almost always full. I have a feeling these guys will know at least something, because most of them have jobs outside of town, so they see a lot more than me. I'm stuck here all day, you see? I haven't even had a chance to see that new fighter everyone's talking about. Anyways, why don't you wait here until 7, huh?"

"Okay. Will do, sir. Thanks for the tip." I went over to a table and sat down, wondering what to do for the next three hours.

"No problemo, bud. Hey, you wanna help me clean up here and get ready for tonight? I can't pay you, but you can kill some time and get some experience in. How about it? If you have other plans, that's fine. But I really could use some help."

I stood up. Might as well do it. After all, I had no other plans. "All right, sir, I'll help. You need to teach me, though. I've never done this before."

"You got it. By nightfall, you'll know everything about bartending. By the way, my name's Jack, nice to meet you." He extended his hand for me to shake.

I took it. "I'm Ryu. It's nice to meet you, Jack."

He put his hand down, bent down behind the counter, and came up with another rag. "All right, now that we know each other, let's get started…"

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

Ah! Finally, it was 7:00! Now, I could try to get some answers. Thus far, no one had arrived, but that was all right. Jack had told me I was off at 7:00 no matter what. I walked over to the side counter, flipped the panel up, and went to sat down at a table. I really needed a rest now. As much as my spirit had been lifted up by the mere sighting of the pub, it had been crashed down to a much lower level in the three hours since. Doing bartending was hard work. I felt for Jack and Jim. Both those guys deserved props for working here so long. Good thing this was my last time doing that stuff.

As soon as I lay my head down, though, I was interrupted. A stream of people started pouring in, and I lifted my head sleepily to watch them. No one that looked suspicious on the surface, and no one that looked especially helpful. They looked to be your average town citizens without any cares or concerns about what was going on in the world. But, wait, there was one guy, at the back. He looked like he could aid me. I observed him go over to the back of the bar and stand there. Once he did, I hopped up from my seat and went to have a talk with him.

When I got closer, though, I begin to feel a little scared. This guy was gigantic. I had never seen anyone this big, outside of the monster that attacked me when I was younger. He stood probably seven or eight tall at the shoulder, which made him approximately nine feet tall. His skin was a leathery gray, and it looked like it could repel anything, even the sharpest of blades. He looked a little like a member of the Shell clan, but I couldn't really tell since he was so large. Most Shells are smaller, or so I had been taught. They're tough as nails, true, but a lot smaller than this guy. I mean, his biceps were bigger than my entire body. He could squish me flat with no problem, and probably would if I upset him. I would have to be very careful with this guy, no doubt about it. I did not want him as my enemy. I took a deep breath and walked right next to him. "Hello, good sir," I began. I saw him flitch his ear in a fashion that made me think he was listening. I continued, just a trifle nervous. "As I sat here in the bar, waiting for the patrons to make their entrance, I had begun to think to myself that I needed help from someone who is tough. Now as I watched the men come in, I looked in their faces, and saw nothing there that gave me any assurance that these men could help me. And then I saw you come in, and I knew immediately that you could assist me. How about it, sir? Would you like to listen to my story, and decide for yourself if you should help a pitiful soul like me?"

He thought for a moment. Actually several moments. Evidently my friend here wasn't too fast on the uptake. Oh, well. For a guy his size, I wasn't expecting too much upstairs. "Well, I guess I might as well. I got nothing better to do," he rumbled out in an astonishingly deep voice. "Take a seat, my small friend. I can't sit, of course, because then I'll break the stool. And Jake over there said if that happened one more time, he would throw me out forever. And I can't have that happen, you see? This is practically my home."

"Uh-huh," I said, moving to take a seat. "Well, that's fine by me, Mr…?"

"My name's Rand."

"Oh, well, I'm Ryu. Good to meet you, Rand."

"Right. Now, what is it you want to say? I can't guarantee I can help, but I'll try."

"Yes, sir. Okay, here's the deal. I'm on a journey from my hometown of Hometown, to the west of here. You ever been there?"

He shook his head. "Nope, never have Ryu. I can't say that I've even ever heard of it."

"Oh. Okay. Well, anyways, my friend Bow was told yesterday to go steal a treasure back from a rich man in town. His hirer, another rich man, claimed the other guy, Trout, had stolen from him and he was just assigning Bow to get it back, not technically "steal" it. Thus, he felt, and made Bow feel, it was not wrong to do what he asked. So my friend goes in Trout's mansion, and when he gets to the room the treasure is supposed to be in, bam! Some little punk girl runs into him and knocks him over. When he gets up to check, the room is empty! The girl that had crashed into him had stolen everything. Just then, the guards came, and my buddy ran for it. And since he did that very suspicious act, all the guards think he's guilty. Now, he is hiding in a shack next to Mt. Fubi, because, back in Hometown, he is Public Enemy No. 1. After he went into exile, he asked that I go out and look for the real thief, so that I could clear his name. And thus, I came here, to Coursair, to look for answers."

"Hmmm. That's a very intriguing story. What does this thief of ours look like?"

"I wasn't able to tell much from the brief glance I got when she bumped into me, but she does have bat-like wings and blue-black hair."

"Not too many people I've ever seen match that. She should be easy to find."

"Yes, well. I thought perhaps maybe you had seen her in your travels?"

"No, sorry. I haven't. I've seen a lot of weirdos, but none like that. However…"

"Yes?"

"There is someone here at the coliseum that might be the girl you're looking for. Or, maybe this person has some information about the thief. Rumor has it that a tough new fighter has come here and dominated everyone she's fought. No one knows what her name is, because she told the ring announcers to just call her the "greatest fighter in the world." She has her reasons, I guess. I haven't had a chance to go see her in action yet, but tomorrow tonight I will. She's scheduled to fight someone named Baba. Again, not much is known about him, but he is rumored to reside in the Tag Woods, up north a bit. He's supposed to be this crazy woodsman who bears this giant axe, ready to take down anyone. A real fighter.

Now, if you go try to talk to this girl, she'll probably kill you. At least, if you're not fighting her. The only way that you have any shot of asking her anything is by entering into combat with her in the arena. And she already has an opponent tonight. And after this, she won't fight again for two more weeks."

"Two weeks! That's too long! No, I must speak to her now! Doesn't she have like visiting hours or something where reporters come and talk to her?"

He threw his head back and laughed. "Are you kidding? No way! Everyone's scared of her. Nope, you're out of luck, my friend, unless by some chance you're Baba?"

I was scared, and angry, now. How could this be? Just when I thought I had a promising lead, it turns out to be a dead end. There had to be something I could do!

"Well," I started, "thanks for all the info, Rand. I appreciate it, even if it didn't help me out a whole lot. Since I got nothing else to do, I might just stop by the coliseum and see her fight. See if she's my thief I'm looking for, you know? Again, thanks. I'll see you later." With that, I turned and walked out of the bar.

"No problem, Ryu," he offered as his parting words. "I'll keep my eyes open for you, though. If anyone like that turns up, I'll be sure to let you know."

I raised my hand in acknowledgement and thanking of his speech. By now I was nearly to the door, so I pushed open it and stepped out into the night.

Brrrr. It was getting cold out here. I needed to get inside an inn and get some sleep. I hadn't shut my eyes for two days now, except for about two hours early this morning. I stumbled over to the inn, just a few steps away from the pub, and landed painfully on the doorstep.

"Ouch." I got up, rubbing my face. I had not meant to do that. Now a little angry, I grabbed the door handle and yanked it, only to find it was a push type of door. Exasperated, I lifted my foot and kicked it open, startling the receptionist who sat there typing something up.

"Can I help you, sir?" she asked pleasantly, yet with a slightly nervous look on her face.

"Yeah, I need a room real bad. Do you have one open?"

"Certainly, sir. Here is your key."

I took it. "Thanks."

"My pleasure, sir. Now, this is an advance pay hotel, so if you would, please pay the 200 coins now."

I nodded, inwardly surprised. 200 coins? For this slophouse? Wow. They were nuts. But I had no choice, after all. I pulled out my coin bag and gave her 10 twenty-coin pieces.

"Thank you very much, sir. Have a good night."

"I will try to, ma'am. Good night."

I took the key from my host's hands, turned, and walked up the stairs, trying to present myself in any kind of dignified manner. After all, first impressions are the most important.

The instant I made it upstairs and into my room, I made a beeline for the bed. When I crashed onto it, I closed my eyes, and was asleep in less than a minute.

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

Wow! That felt great! Finally, I had gotten some well-earned and needed rest. I was ready now to execute my plan. I hopped out of bed, dressed, went downstairs, bid the receptionist good morning, and walked outside the inn.

Where I promptly ran into my huge friend from the night before. I nearly fell over, but he reached over and grabbed me before I did. "Ryu. I know what you're planning on doing today, and I applaud you for it. Not many people are brave enough to go into Tag Woods alone. There's a reason why Baba is the only man still living there.

"You must be extremely cautious, of course. There are all sorts of things in there that you should be wary of. In particular, the bugbear. You can't miss it. It's a giant, green-furred bear, with a tuft of pink hair on its head, which stands on its hind legs and swipes at you with its claws. It has a very long reach, and its claws do tend to hurt, a lot, so try to stay away from it, okay?

"As for the other things, there are living trees, but they stay rooted to the ground. Just stay out of the way of their branches and you should be fine. Harpies roost in the trees and will attack anybody who comes close to them; just stick on the main path and don't wander off it to check out the trees, okay? And, lastly, giant, killer flowers abound in there. They try to put people to sleep so they can eat them later. Aim at their base with your sword and you should have no trouble. But, all things considered, not just the monsters, it's a very dangerous place, Ryu. Go for it, I say, if you're willing, but be very careful. I want you back in one piece. Don't go get yourself killed for nothing, eh?" With those words, he turned and went off to the pub.

I stood there for a bit, a little stunned. This was going to be far harder than I first thought. Bugbears? Killer flowers that would eat me? That didn't sound my idea of a fun place. But, Bow was counting on me. I couldn't let him down now. I had to go, and go now, or else night would fall while I would still be debating, and all hope would be lost for my questioning the fighter in the arena.

Before I went, though, I decided to go upgrade my equipment. I needed it badly. There was a weapon store right next to the entrance, so I headed there straightaway, my pace a little faster than normal.

When I got in there, I saw I was the only one in the store. Hmm. You'd think more people would want to get better armor for themselves in these dangerous times. Ah, well. I approached the proprietor, another of the fish kind. These seemed to be the only guys running these places.

He looked up as I came over. His eyes, huge and unblinking, stared at me ceaselessly. It made a little nervous. He needed to have those things looked at.

"Say, maister, what's going on? You got any equipment you can sell me? I really need some, man. I'm about to go somewhere very dangerous, and the better my equipment, the higher my chance of survival, right?"

He nodded, very slowly. "Right, you are, sir," he said mechanically. "What can I do for you this fine day?"

Had this guy even heard one word I said? I made a mental note to talk to management later on their choice of employees. I decided to try again. "Well, I reckon you could sell me some armor. How about that?"

"Fine. Have a look."

I took a glance. Oh. So this was why there was no one else. The inventory stunk. I mean, it was pitiful. It was barely better than the stuff I wore, and that was handmade. That either says a lot about my craftsmanship abilities or nothing at all about their stock. Either way, there wasn't anything much I could use here, except for two pieces of equipment, a shiny little helmet in the corner and a dusty cloak on the counter.

"Well, pardner, I reckon I'll take that there helmet and this here cloak and be on my way, eh?"

He stared, still stared, at me as he moved to get the items. "Okay, sir. That will be 579 coins."

"Jesus! That much! God, you guys are rip-offs! I have never seen the likes of this. Wow, just wow! Here, take the money!" With that, I flung six 100-coin pieces in his face. "Keep the change, man." I grabbed my armor and headed out the door, and out of town, ready to make my way to the woods.

As I got outside, I removed the duct tap that held my salad bowl, which had rested on my head since the start of my journey, to my head. I took the bowl off, and adjusted my new helmet onto my head. Good. It fit nice. It didn't fully cover my face, but then, few helmets did, after all. Once that was done, I stripped off the armor I was wearing, which was really little more than rags, and adjusted my cloak on my body. There. Now I was set to go. I stalked off in a general northwest direction, thinking all the way.

I figured, since Baba was going to be fighting tonight, I would have to beat him in his lair to take his place in the contest. I knew this would work. Every fighter, no matter how low-down or how tough, has some sense of morals when it comes to their sport. They will acknowledge defeat and give up their titles or whatever to you if you beat them fair and square. I was confident I could thrash Baba, but I wasn't so sure about the monsters in the woods. They were likely tougher than he was. And I was all alone now. This was do or die time. It was time to stand up to my fears and conquer them by myself. All right. I was at the entrance already. Time to head on in. Slowly I proceeded forward.

Well, this wasn't so bad. Some typical forest sights greeted me, like really green grass, tall trees, and moving flowers. Huh? Moving Flowers! WHAT!

Instantly I was rolling along the ground, having narrowly avoid the giant flower's sleep breath. Through its lingering cloud, I could discern the flower retreating. I couldn't let it do that.

Tucking my mouth into my cloak and lowering my head, I stumbled forward to overtake the monster. Once I was out of the smoke cloud, I lifted my cloak down and drew my sword. Now, Rand had mentioned the base when he was talking about the flowers, so I ducked down, avoiding the high-speed petal that had been coming my way, and began hacking. Only bits and pieces flew off at a time. Evidently, this thing had a tough foundation. I kept whacking at it, circling as I did to avoid the hits and the clouds of gas, and eventually dug a deep hole in its front side. Having done so, I reached back and stabbed into its heart, cutting through it and effectively ending its life.

Well, that was nice. Two steps in and I had gotten ambushed. This trip was not going to be fun. That was all right. I has experienced plenty worse than this. I could handle it. No problem. As long as I avoided any bugbears, that is.

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

I had made it. Or so I thought. After about two hours of tramping around in the untamed forest, I had at last arrived at Baba's little hut. I could see smoke rising from it, so I knew he was home.

I had been incredibly lucky during my trip. After that initial battle with the flower, I had not met but two more enemies, and not one of them had been a bugbear: one of the harpies, who was just as easy to take down as the ones on Mt. Fubi had been; and a tree. That had been easily dealt with. I had just thrown my sword into the thing's eye, thus blinding it. Once I had, I walked over, pulled my sword out, and commenced to slice and dice the branches. Following that, it was done, baby. The tree was just a hunk of wood, after all. What the hell was it going to do against hardened steel?

Once I had fought the tree, I tried to avoid any more unnecessary battles, and so ran away any time I saw a threat approaching. As I ran, I grew angry with myself, for I hate running away from anything. But, then, I didn't have time for such things now, not with so much at stake.

As I approached the door, I placed one hand over my sword handle inconspicuously, so that, as soon as he opened the door, I could get a shot at him.

"Who is it?" a voice thundered from inside.

Uh-oh. "Um, it's Ryu Bateson, sir. I have come to fight you."

"Fight me…? Ahahahahahahaha," he laughed cruelly. "You dare say that you are worthy enough to fight me, Baba, king of Tag Woods?" I could him moving inside. He was probably going for that axe of his. "Well, I tell you what. Why don't you go around back there and see what's behind my shed? Then come back and tell me if you still want to go at it."

"O-okay." I was more than a little scared. What would he have back there? Most likely something bad, but what? I had to find out. I took a deep breath, held it, and walked around to the backside of his shed.

And I immediately let it out in a rush of air, though it was not one of relief. For behind his shed lay a mountain of human skulls, most of them gray and worn through, but some quite fresh, the tops of them gleaming in the sunlight. They all had some sort of facial expression on them, the majority of them being ones of horror. Some just had a stupid look on their face, so I assumed they were not expecting their deaths. Whatever their faces showed, it didn't really matter, though. Because right now, I was standing mere feet away from the man who had made this pile here. Right then, I realized I was mistaken about Baba. He would indeed prove to be a challenge, rather than a pushover. However, I couldn't let my skull be added to this gruesomely impressive collection. I had to defeat him, for Bow's sake, yes, but more importantly, for my life. I took a deep gulp, turned, walked to the front of his house, and knocked on the door.

"Okay, Mr. Baba, I've seen the mountain you have back there. It's…very nice. But, don't think that I'm that weak. That stuff didn't scare me. I've seen far worse stuff that that before. Now, come on out and give me your best."

Silence. Then, the door opened, and Baba himself came out. He looked exactly as I expected: unbelievable tall for a man, arms that rivaled the size of Rand's, a foot long beard, and hair that reached halfway down his back. He held in one hand a huge broadax that was almost as tall as he was. He kept shifting the axe easily from one hand to the other, even though it looked to weigh in the neighborhood of 200 pounds or so. That was not a good sign. He looked down over his broad chest at me, a smile beginning to form on his lips.

"Well, well. So this is the boy who wants to fight. You've got guts kid. Not many people want to tangle with me. And I don't blame them. I'm one bad mother. Just thought you might want to know ahead of time, in case you hadn't already guessed.

"Now, let's get going. I'm tired of talking." And with that, he swung his axe up and gripped it with both hands. He was ready to fight alright.

As soon as he had finished establishing his grip, I saw he was planning to utilize it right then and there. That was probably how he killed all those other people: surprise attack. When I noted his arms getting ready to lift the axe, I quickly sidestepped out of the range of the axe. It could reach a good ways, I imagined, and so I went about 12 feet away, drawing out my sword as I did. Now I, too, was ready.

After witnessing me back off, Baba held his axe rather than swing it and leave himself open to attack. He then slowly began to approach me. I did not wait for him to reach me. Instead, I rushed forward, ducking a little, and brought my sword upwards quickly, hoping to make a slash across his belly. Unfortunately, he evaded it, though not with the greatest of agility. I decided then I had to take advantage of my superior speed in order to win. A series of slow, powerful attacks he could easily block and counterattack, but I doubted he would have an answer for lightning-fast, semi-powerful hits. I would have to be very careful, though. It would take a number of strikes from my sword to bring him down, but one hit from that axe would likely kill me. Plus, he had quite a reach advantage on me. I would have to lure him into taking a chop with that axe, and evade it, so I could rush in and start chopping before he regained his composure. That would be a little difficult to pull off, but it was my best choice right now. I leaped back a little, sensing another swipe was going to be coming my way. That was good.

Babe lurched forward, his hands never letting his axe slip. As he approached me, he directed a slow swing at my head, then snapped it back halfway through its arc and re-aimed it so that it was pointing at my right arm. I was surprised at his speed, but I had been ready for something like that, so I evaded the brunt of the blow. I still got a cut, right on my hand, but it was not a major one.

Seeing that he had stabbed at me, and thus leaving him open, I quickly made my move. Skittering to the left of the axe, I lifted my sword, but this time in a stabbing rather than a slashing motion. As I did, he looked over, and instantly tried to bring his axe back up so he could parry my move. However, he was just a little too slow. My blade had already made a deep incision in his stomach by the time he had gotten his axe in the air, and the cut I had made caused him to drop his weapon to the ground. Seeing he was weakened, I wanted to spare him, but I couldn't. I decided to finish him off. I pushed the blade in deeper and deeper until the tip was poking out his backside. He looked down for a second at the thing in his stomach, and then his eyes went to me. They seemed to say, "Why have you done this?" And then, he fell over to the side, bringing me down with him.

I pulled myself up off the ground almost as soon as I had gone down. Speed was of the essence. I couldn't spend time laying here in the dirt with this dead giant of a man. I reached down and pulled my sword out of him and wiped it on the grass, then tucked it back in its sheath. Well, he was dead. "So sorry, Baba," I said to his corpse. "But I have a mission to take care of, and you stood in my path." When I finished saying those words, I bent down and tried to lift the axe. Jeez! How could any person manage this thing? I had been right, it was about 200 pounds. Holy moly. Well, I needed this thing, since it was Baba's symbol and all that nonsense, so with a titanic effort I hoisted the axe up and onto my shoulders, my legs bowing nearly all the way to the ground from the added weight. This was going to a trip and a half, going back to Coursair like this. I prayed to the Dragon God that he would lend me his strength so I could make it back there. And, as I went out of the forest and into the fields, I believe he did, for my load seemed to get lighter as I progressed.

Once I made it back to town, I immediately headed for the bar to tell Rand what happened had transpired in the last few hours. When I went in, he was there, standing at his usual spot. I was relieved, but a little puzzled. It was still early, and yet, here he was. Hopefully he hadn't been here this whole time just waiting for me. I walked over to him, noting the stares Jack and Jim gave me as I walked by them.

"Hey, what's up, Rand? How you doing?"

He turned and stared down at me. "Oh, hey, Ryu. I see you accomplished your task. Good job, mate. I was beginning to worry you had become another of Baba's victims. Did you see the mountain of skulls he had? Pretty gruesome, eh?"

"Yeah, I saw them alright. He tried to use them to scare me off, but I held my ground and did battle with him. He didn't turn out to be as hard as I thought he would. I mean, he was quite intimidating to look at, but in reality, he was too slow to use his power effectively. So, thus, I killed him, and took his monster of an axe with me. Now, I can go in and register as Baba and fight that little girl who's in there. After I beat her, I'll question her, to see if she knows anything. And from there, who knows, right, man?"

"Yep, you're right. Now, you might want to hurry up and go register. Time's a-running out on your chances to do so, so go on and do it now."

"Righto. After I do that, I'll come back and keep you company until the fight's ready to start."

"Uh, sorry, Ryu. You can't. Once you get register, you have to take some kind of test. If you pass, you get assigned a locker room, and you are forced to stay there until the time comes. However, you can have visitors, so if I'm not too drunk by then, I'll come by around 6:30ish. Fight starts at 7, so you have no need to worry about getting me in trouble. Now get going. I'll see you soon."

"Okay." I hopped off the stool, lifted the axe back onto my shoulder, and strutted out into the streets. It was time to get ready to rumble.