Rivals

Guards once again swarmed the barracks as Ysane, Athena, and Hurk all stepped through the now ruined doors to the staging area. Though she would have defended herself to the death, Ysane remarkably enough, didn't even have to place a hand on the hilt of her blade.

Once again, it was Athena who stood in the way…

Well, Athena… and someone they would have last expected...

Hurk...

"STEP ASIDE, ATHENA!" The guard captain ordered, hostility evident in his tone, "That woman's overstepped her bounds!"

"It wasn't what it looked like, Hogarth!" Athena shot back, desperately trying to come up with an excuse for what it was.

"It was planned." A sudden, gruff voice spoke up.

It was Hurk.

"… What?" The guard captain questioned blankly, voicing the single word that everyone else in the room had on their mind.

"It was planned." Hurk repeated, taking a shifting glance at Ysane before directing his gaze back to the guard captain.

"Okay what? Am I missing something here?" Athena spoke up, completely bewildered as to what it was that Hurk was saying.

"Are you saying that you two staged that entire thing?" The red headed woman blubbered, trying to organize her thoughts.

This time, Ysane glance at Hurk before folding her arms and looking away in a haughty manner, much like one would expect with her.

"My idea." Hurk lied, "Make a rivalry of sorts and publicize it as a grudge rematch in a few days."

As if on cue, the side door to the staging area flew open and Rygart burst into the room.

"What the hell is going on in here? Why isn't her head on a spike yet?" He demanded furiously.

"It was staged." Hurk spoke up before anyone else could say anything.

Rygart's face adopted the same dumbfounded look that everyone else in the room had.

"What?"

"It was staged." Hurk repeated like a broken record.

"Why in the bloody fuck would you stage something like that?! You didn't even ask permission from me!" He howled furiously.

"… Well… It had to be convincing…" Hurk answered, thinking as quickly as he could though he was clearly running out of ideas.

"The fuck with convincing, you-"

"Ahem."

"What the fuck do you want!?" Rygart swore at the castanic who had cleared her throat to grab everyone's attention. "You know what? I don't care! Guards, arrest her!"

With a roll of her eyes, Ysane gestured a thumb over her shoulder.

"WHAT!" The man blasted, before suddenly stopping, "…the….." Gradually, Rygart's face seemed to redden.

Sure enough, as the shouting between arguing members within the staging area died down, the steady and growing roar of the coliseum began to filter through the area. It was low at first, but within seconds, the sound was overwhelming.

The matches for the day had ended over ten minutes ago…

And yet not a single person had left the arena just yet.

Slowly, Rygart pushed his way through the rubble that remained of the stadium doors and slowly made his way down into the coliseum. The moment the man stepped out into the light of the stadium, the crowd's noise shot to a whole new level.

The cheers were deafening as Rygart blinked with complete and utter stupor with what was happening. At last, the man fumbled with a device in his jacket pocket and he pulled out a magical stone with a shaky hand. Lifting the stone to his mouth, he opened his lips to speak into the microphone, but words seemed to fail him.

Thankfully enough, there was someone far better at picking up the spur of the moment than him.

Athena.

Stepping out from behind the man, Athena swept the device into her own hands and waved at the crowd with that trademark smile written on her face.

"Thank you! Thank you!" She spoke to the crowd, her projected voice finally dimming the sound of the crowd's roars. "I hope you all enjoyed that little teaser of what is to come as much as I did!"

The crowd roared again and stamped their feet with approval.

"… But the resolution to this battle… Will not come today!"

The crowd roared again, but this time it seemed disappointed.

"But fear not, my friends. This fated match will come to its conclusion in three days! I hope to see you all there! Tickets will be on sale tomorrow! THANK YOU!" She finished before taking a sweeping bow and turning Rygart back to the staging area before vanishing back into the darkness.

When the two returned, they found an odd scene with all of the guards clustered around the windows, staring into the arena, while Hurk and Ysane were off to the side, not exchanging words with one another, but quite clearly making an attempt at conversation.

Finally surrounded by walls rather than the piercing stares of hundreds if not thousands of people, Rygart finally managed to regain his voice.

"Athena, what the fuck are you thinking?" He hissed, clearly not understanding what it was the red head had just done.

"Relax, big boss…" Athena rolled her eyes, "You'll see it soon eno-"

"Rygart! Sir?" A new voice piped up from behind the same door that Rygart had emerged from. Poking out from the door way was a woman in her late thirties. "There's people at the ticket office that are already asking for tickets to the match, what should I do?"

"… What?" Rygart repeated dumbly.

"Uhm… There are people at the-"

"No, no, no, I got that… I just…" Rygart fumbled his words. For a moment, he stopped completely and took a few deep breaths to restore his composure. When he opened his eyes, he turned back to Hurk and Athena in turn.

"Alright, fine. I'll let this one go for now, but don't expect me to be so lenient next time!" He snarled before moving towards his assistant.

"Come, Lydia, we have ticket prices to set and many other preparations to make." He barked as he shoved though the door and back up towards his office.

"Guards, dismissed!" His voice echoed down the hall, promptly causing the mass of milling guards to shuffle about awkwardly before finally filing out of the staging area.

At last, Hurk, Ysane, and Athena were left alone.

"So…." Athena spoke up rather awkwardly, staring at the odd sight of Ysane and Hurk sitting even more awkwardly at the end of one of the wooden tables.

Neither one responded to her.

With a huff, the red head moved over and took a seat on the table itself, leaning in a way that she was between the two.

"… So was that really planned?" She whispered in a hushed tone.

Hurk shook his head with a scowl as he grit his teeth.

Athena stayed quiet for a moment before cheeky grin broke out across her features.

"Aww, look at ya, big softie!" Athena crowed, giving Hurk a punch in the shoulder as she laughed, "Look at ya! Protectin' her like that! Ahahahaha!"

On either side of Athena, both Ysane and Hurk seemed to grit their teeth in unison. If anything at all was apparent, it was that Hurk didn't like the fact that he had been bested to such a degree, while Ysane hated admitting that Hurk had definitely swung the odds in their favor.

"So big guy! Why'd ya do it?" Athena kept right on prodding away. "Did ya… fall in love?"

"Hardly." Hurk stated through his gritted teeth, but offering no further explanation.

"Well, c'mon big guy! It's not like you're shy! Gimme a hint!" Athena laughed, swinging her feet and leaning back on her hands as she sat on the table top.

"I…" Hurk hesitated as he glanced up at the castanic.

"You…?" Athena pressed the other, trying to coax him to continue.

"… I won't have you running away until I defeat you!" He declared with a powerful conviction, simultaneously gesturing at Ysane as if he were making a declaration of war.

For a moment neither Ysane nor Athena moved.

"BAAAHAHAHAHAHA! So that's it, eh Hurk!?" Athena laughed louder than ever, the woman pounding a fist into the table with mirth as she realized that it was a selfish reason as to why Hurk had helped. "Ehehehe! HAHAHA! You've… ahahaha… You've got a lot of work to do, buddy!"

Gradually, Athena's mirth subsided. With a deep breath, she finally recovered from the long winded streak of laughing. As she did, her eyes finally settled upon the castanic to her left. Surprise registered on her features for a moment, as the barest of all smiles was written across Ysane's face. It was a strange look, almost one that was all too knowing. Almost one that indicated that Ysane herself knew that she had stoke the embers that burned within Hurk's fighting spirit, but rather than say something about it, something else popped into Athena's mind.

"So… Wait… If that was a serious fight, then… what was it that managed to get you two to butt heads?" Athena inquired curiously, "I mean I know you probably wouldn't get along to begin with, but other than Ysane maybe insulting you, Hurk, I don't really…"

Her voice trailed off, letting the other two fill in whatever it was they thought she was going to say.

"Partially true." Ysane answered flatly, openly admitting that her words definitely had something to do with it.

Athena rolled her eyes in response.

"But he instigated it." Ysane continued with an arrogant turn of her head, looking away rather disdainfully from Hurk.

"Hey! I spoke what I saw!" Hurk answered defensively, "You made Athena buy that ugly set of armor for you! It's a waste… er… it was a waste… er…"

"…"

Hurk's argument faltered as he realized that Ysane was fully capable of using the things that Athena had bought for her, making the purchase hardly a waste at all.

"Well at the time…" He started, but finally just gave up with a toss of his hands.

"He insulted the purchase you made for me. He insulted your gift." Ysane explained with typical bluntness. "It was offensive."

Athena blinked at the horned woman for a moment before a wide smile broke out across her lips.

"Aww! That's so cuuuuute!" Athena gushed as she leaned sideways on the table and caught Ysane about the neck in a crushing hug, "That's adorable, Ysane! Defending the gifts that I bought for you! And here I was thinking you didn't like me! Aww!"

The moment Athena's arms closed around her head, Ysane squirmed and tried to break free, but the effort did little to push the red head off of her. Athena was remarkably strong despite her looks…

"Lookit, Hurk! She actually cares about me! Isn't that cute!?" Athena kept right on gushing, cradling the castanic's head while rocking back and forth. When she finally stopped rocking, the woman released the castanic and ran her hand over Ysane's hair as if she were stroking a dog's fur. Gradually, Athena's hands went elsewhere and eventually found themselves gently caressing the other woman's horns.

In an instant, Hurk's eyes bulged in their sockets and his mouth cracked open in a half attempt to speak up, only words didn't quite make it out.

Ysane, on the other hand, froze stalk still beneath Athena's touch.

It took a bit of a moment before Athena stopped uttering gibberish about being cute and she finally turned from Hurk, to Ysane, and then back to Hurk. Completely unaware of what was going on, she stopped her hands where they were and searched for somethinganything…?

"Uhh… 'thena…." Hurk cleared his throat awkwardly.

Turning to the burly man, Athena gave him a look that clearly said "Huh? What?"

Gesturing above his head at an invisible shape, he finally conveyed the message.

Horns.

Athena had touched them.

Her mouth instantly forming an "Oh!" of chagrin and realization, Athena's teeth came together and a ginger looking expression plastered her face. Immediately, she severed the contact her fingers had with Ysane's horns and slowly, she backed away.

If there was one thing that even racism couldn't deny, it was that touching a castanic's horns was never to be done. The gesture was one to be treasured and remembered whenever it happened, as it was an indication of the closest kinds of intimacy for the prideful castanic race. For Ysane, this very much remained true.

While one might have expected violence to come from the castanic, surprisingly enough, what was present instead was a slight pink blush on the castanic's face as the woman had shut her eyes and turned her gaze slightly away from Athena and Hurk. There was no smile of embarrassment on her face, only a different hue, and a very stiff, stoic mask on her features.

If anything at all was evident, it was that she hadn't lashed out simply due to the fact that Athena was still technically her master.

"Uhhhh….. I'm…. uh….. sorry…?" Athena offered hesitantly.

For a second, the hue on Ysane's cheeks seemed to darken before she abruptly shot to her feet, turned on her heel, and stormed out the door without a word.

"…"

"Nice." Hurk commented in a single worded opinion.

Athena, however, said something completely different.

"Shit."


Author's Notes:

Hello everyone, thank you for reading this chapter. I know there are few of you out there that enjoy reading about Tera, but I do find the setting very enjoyable to write in, and I hope that those of you who do, can share in my enjoyment as well. This chapter is rather short, but it is remarkably long at the same time since it is a single scene. Hopefully all of you enjoy the characters as they grow together and interact. From now on, Hurk will begin to play a more integral role in the story. Let's face it, as much as I enjoy my yuri and what not, having males in the mix is a refreshing addition. Also his character is rather fun to write after all.

Anyhow, I hope you all enjoyed, and I hope to see you in the chapters to come. Please feel free to leave a comment or critique in the reviews section! I hope to see you in the chapters to come.

-M