Chapter 11: A Team Divided
13 was lucky enough to have a dreamless sleep this time around, waking from a deep blackness rather than some crazy dream that had something to do with his pent up frustration. Honestly, he was glad for it, some dreams were far worse than others. 13 cracked his eyes open with a groan and lolled his head to the side, the sun was still up high enough to make his eyes sting in his condition.
He reached his arm up to protect his vision as he tried to swing his legs over the cot, and bit his tongue when a much more painful jolt ran though his right shoulder.
"Argh, fuck!" 13 hissed through his teeth. Movement in the room confirmed he at least wasn't alone, a streak he'd been having anytime he managed to wound himself in the past.
"Oh goodness your awake? You haven't been asleep nearly long enough for the healing potion to set in, stop trying to struggle!" With more force than before the woman slung 13's feet back onto the cot and pushed his forehead back down into the pillows. Contact on 13's face reminded him of the events that transpired earlier today.
"Wait a minute, your the one that slapped me in the face! What kind of medical procedure is that? Doctors don't make a habit of going all slap happy on their patients, for shame woman! What kind of doctor are you?"
The woman quickly spun on her heals and walked back towards a table situated in the middle of the room, looking for something specific among the instruments and books scattered about the wooden surface.
"I'm not a doctor, 13. I've just been tasked with pretending to be one."
Her comment stopped 13's response dead in his throat while also making him stop his attempts to sit back up, there was a story hiding on the edge of this conversation and 13 oddly enough wanted to hear it.
"How do you know my name?" A simple enough question, maybe he'd get her to open up if he got her talking long enough.
The woman shivered and stopped her search for a moment.
"Lady Sharp came in to check on you while you were resting, she seemed rather found of her, 13."
Was that amusement in her voice? 13 couldn't tell but he had her talking now, he'd have to give some if he wanted more details about the brown haired curiosity still toiling away in the middle of the room.
"Gods! I get flogged once and now I've got a serpent wrapped around my throat just waiting to finish the job!"
13 peeked through the fingers that covered his face, hoping to see if she had took the bait. The woman's back stiffened and her hands ceased their movements, good signs indeed.
"Its unhealthy to hold such opinions about our mistress considering I only know how to cure so many wounds."
13 didn't try to hide his chuckle.
"Even if one has already been instructed to die?"
13 watched the woman look at the floor, possibly feeling guilty about his situation. Now was probably the best time to ask about her medical skills.
"You say your pretending to be a doctor and that your skills are limited correct? Why are you here by your self then? I find it hard to imagine Arezo would willingly let the lives of her investments rest solely on the shoulders of an untrained healer."
13 sat up and managed to finally rest his feet on the floor with out any resistance, maybe his words had cut deeper than he had planned them too? 13 mentally slapped himself, at this rate he'd be better off refraining from talking to the opposite sex altogether.
"It's because on paper I'm an apprentice of Archton academy."
13 shook his head and tried to clean his ears out, did he hear her right?
"Excuse me, did you say Archton academy?"
The woman nodded in confirmation, 13 had to know more, something coincidental such as this couldn't just be ignored.
"Uh, why would something like that matter? And if your a student of an academy, why are you here?"
The brunette hugged herself as if the room's temperature had suddenly bottomed out below zero.
"Arezo bought me thinking I was magically talented, something that's apparently a rarity among slaves. She only learned much later that the academy only sold students who showed no promise."
13's throat filled with bile as connections he hadn't seen before snapped neatly into place.
"So your telling me that the Academy's promise of free learning for all was just a ruse!" he couldn't stop himself, 13 was feeling fury quickly bubble inside him as his blood boiled.
"All those years, a waste! I was destined to fail from the start and they knew anyway!"
13 stood to his feet and roared, with rage he ripped the bindings keeping his right arm pinned to his chest apart. The pain and protest of his shoulder only fueled him on as 13 began to work his shoulder, trying to get it used to the fact he wasn't through using it yet.
Slowly a dull throb was the only thing left in his shoulder as 13 sat himself back down on the cot, his temper cooling off slowly. He looked up to see fright on the poor woman's face in front of him, no doubt his actions had struck terror into her.
"I'm sorry miss, I just can't believe after all these years...no point hiding it I guess. I'm also a fellow student from the academy. The only difference between us is that my mother exiled me before the academy could do anything with me."
13 took a deep breath and exhaled as he watched the woman's face morph from fear to pure shock.
"Y-your from the academy, but you were exiled before they put you to auction? By who?"
Here it came, 13 could already feel the impending pity.
"My mother."
13 closed his eyes so he didn't have to see her expression, he'd have to change the subject.
"May I ask what my partner in misfortune goes by? Unless your fine with me calling you stew lady."
He smiled just to add a bit of mirth to this sad subject, it would be better for both of them if they focused on something else right now.
"I'm Elizabeth, I was fortunate enough that Mistress Sharp stuck with my original name. Speaking of which, why do you choose to be called 13?"
13 snorted at her question, some people just had all the luck didn't they?
"Choose? I'd didn't get to choose much of anything at the camp I was held at. One minute I'm a sniveling 13 year old in the middle of the desert, the next I'm a bloody pincushion being hauled off towards a life of chains and spoon beatings."
13 paused and considered his statement, "Of course now that I think about it, I guess either way I was destined for chains haha."
The joke was dry but he didn't care, 13 stood himself up and looked down upon the much shorter Elizabeth. He rolled his shoulder while considering his next course of action.
"Oh no you don't, you just had your shoulder brutally knocked out of its socket! It can't even be closed to fully healed you have to at least give it a days rest and even after that you can't heavily rely on it for a week at least!"
13 was already tuning Elizabeth's rants out, he had to think of a way to use today's events to his advantage. All the other teams watched as Green team easily took down Orange, something that would hurt the already small group severely if any other team decided to capitalize on their size.
He looked once more at this woman still explaining his condition to him and grinned.
"That's it! Elizabeth your a genius, can you show me how you wrapped my shoulder up?"
The woman stopped mid-rant and gave him a confused look.
"Every healer magic or not knows how to tightly secure a damaged limb, what's so brilliant about it?"
13 could only widen his grin, "It's gonna give my team a major advantage! Right now every other group could possibly capitalize on our team's size, this is the perfect time for us to pretend to be the weakest link so we can study our future competition!"
Each word filled 13 with excitement and haste, he had to hurry back if he needed this to work.
"Quick you wonderful server of stew you! Show me how this works so I can do it when I'm alone, If you plan to complain about me neglecting your words in the future I need to get back to my team as soon as possible!"
Maybe, just maybe, 13 had a way to keep him and his team alive longer than expected.
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She couldn't look them in the eyes, any of them. One moment Kitten was being the best bur in 13's side the desert had ever seen, and not even seconds later her victim was being carried away with an arm dangling like a sack of flour on a string. Brutus wasn't even gone more than five minutes before he had returned with a rather grim look on his face.
"H-how is he? Brutus...how is 13?"
The men of orange team all focused their shocked gazes on Kitten. As of late she had been making life difficult for everyone in the group, and yet now here she stood, with a look that many scientists and scholars would all agree was possibly the first time shame had ever marred the red head's features. This moment couldn't be lost, it was just to rare a moment for all of them.
The big man looked Kitten dead in the eyes and gave her the gravest stare he had given anyone in the twenty one years he had breathed in this plane of existence. Kittens eyes widened, horrible fantasies of a handicapped team leader rushing through her head.
Brutus deeply exhaled, "13 is stable, the lady had me help her pop his arm back into place, he should make a full recovery in a couple of days."
Kitten's mouth dropped clean to the floor. The men could build a three bedroom flat in the gaping maw that was Kitten's mouth. Worst of all, that bastard was grinning at her! Kitten had just made the closest thing to an apology by taking interest in 13's condition, and here was this son of a bitch mocking her!
"You sun dried piece of shit!"
With her claws unsheathed Kitten began her relentless assault against the giant's chest, beating him like a Dongo skin drum. Punch after punch bounced off the man's chest as a small chuckle cascaded into boisterous laughter that Drew and Daniel quickly joined in on. She mentally added their names to her ever growing list as she prepared to round house Drew's smug little mug. Before she could land her heel into a much needed Drew landing zone, Bastard number one decided to make his presence known.
"Alright brats, outside on the double, we've got a day full of fun and no reason to waste it! Move it!"
The room quickly emptied, plates and trays left out for the slaves running the kitchen to pick up later. Kitten quietly fumed as she followed Brutus and the others out, angry at her team, Bastard number one and 13 especially!
The teams continued with more exercises yet the whole time Kitten could only stew in the fury that consisted of 13's stupidity. The idiot just HAD to butt in! If the dunce had just left well enough alone he'd still have a good arm. But what would you have instead?
Kitten's practice stick slowed slightly as her conscience put her on the defensive. Images of her face to the floor, the trio of green team members holding her body to the ground as they exacted their twisted sense of justice flooded her mind as wobbles began to shake through the stick.
13 has been trying to get you to work with him and the others, and even when you were giving him a hard time he still stood his ground, three on one. Kitten's swing became sporadic as she began to add pounds of pointless force to her swings.
"I was there as well, it was two on three, much better odds." Anyone around Kitten would only assume she was mumbling in frustration, clueless to the debate the woman was having with herself. If it was really two on three, why did you just let 13 take the beating? The red head didn't notice that everyone else had stopped as she threw her stick to the ground, defeated mentally and emotionally.
"Well it looks like little cupcake here has finally decided to join us! Oh dear, does baby have a booboo? "
Other teams were quietly snickering as the drill instructor's victim made their way closer, Kitten didn't even have to look up. Soft crunching of sand was all that was heard as 13 made his way back to his team.
"If you're done resting off such a HORRIBLE war wound, why don't you join us for another nice stroll?"
Moans filled the air as the groups lined up to begin the many miles that would make up their "stroll".
Kitten looked up and watched as 13 got closer to her, expecting hell now that the man had his senses about him once more. She closed her eyes for what ever it was she had coming to her, seeing it coming would only make it worse.
"Slowly make your way to the back of the pack alright? Try to pretend your falling behind, we'll all meet up in the rear."
With that 13 began to jog with the rest of the slaves, placing himself no where among his team. Kitten followed suit and noticed how Brutus, Drew and Daniel all made it their job to stay far away from each other as well. What was 13's game? Orange team was completely peppered among the rest of the teams.
Kitten didn't want to admit it, but for once she'd do as he asked, she owed him that much. The instructor was oblivious or just plain ignorant of the large number of slaves behind him as he led them through the gates and into the city that the lucky slaves would hopefully be calling home months from now.
Kitten met up with the rest of her group while everyone else marveled at the sites around them. Once everyone had picked a steady pace and formation, Kitten decided now was the time for answers.
"Alright... why.. the hell...are we in the back of the pack?"
A little blunt, but she'd played along long enough, now it was time for answers. She swiveled her head from side to side and surprisingly the others happened to be agreeing with her. 13 looked back at them and smirked before looking forward once more.
"The reason why we are back here is simple, we're weak, we can't keep up with the other teams."
13 used his free hand to scratch his bound shoulder, the sweat and activity no doubt irritating the skin underneath the shoulder wrap.
Kitten was dumbfounded, what the heck was he getting at?
"I think you may still be in shock, I didn't take your for a quitter after the stunt you pulled an hour ago."
Daniel began to grin and nudged Kitten as their group rounded a city fountain.
"But kitten, after today's events, it would make sense if we couldn't correct?"
Now Daniel wasn't making any sense, did the others get jumped by Green team when she wasn't looking?
"Enough of the cloak and daggers guys, just spit it out already!"
Brutus was done playing games apparently, Kitten had to admire the man for putting his foot down at least. This time Drew gave the pair a wide grin, apparently satisfied with 13's thinking.
"I think what 13 is trying to say is that we need to pretend to be behind the other teams correct?"
13 nodded once more and quickly looked of them in the eyes, Kitten noticing an energy there she hadn't seen before.
"That's right you guys, you'll think I'm crazy but the Green team's actions today may helped us in the long run. At lunch I finally got to measure what our team is up against and there is no way we can take all of them head on. If they consider us a threat, because of our size the first day we enter the arena, every team will probably aim to make sure none of us leave alive."
The grim situation had finally settle on Kitten and she couldn't believe she had been so blind. 13 was right, it would be short work for the other teams to easily gang up on them. No matter how the matches or battles were structured, Orange team would be leaving in pieces at the end of the day.
It was decided then, Kitten would have to work with these morons if any of them wanted to hope to see another year. The woman made sure to keep her voice among the group, just in case.
"I assume you have a plan to keep us at the bottom of their hit lists then? We need a way to make sure they focus on the other groups or else we're done for."
13 quickly slowed behind her and nudged her to lead their group as they made their way to the docks of the city, keeping pace with the other slaves as the leading bastard compared the lot of them to seagulls.
"We have to seem disorganized, so far all the other groups know is that you don't care for me and that I'm injured, we can work with that. I need you to call the shots and become the leader of out group, but still treat us like dirt. I'll milk this arm for as long as I can and practice training with my left arm when ever the others are around."
Kitten already had a problem with this plan, there was no way in hell she would be leading anyone, pretend or no.
"Like hell I'm gonna lead your morons! You guys have been doing pretty well without me so far!"
Some of the other slaves looked back at Orange team, noticing how behind they were. Drew quickly sprung into action.
"But you have too! There's no way lefty here could even lead an anthill and I shudder to imagine the chaos our pet giant would get us into!"
13 held back a snicker as Daniel reigned in a fit of snorts. Brutus was quietly giggling the word "lefty" under his breath, or maybe it was gurgling, Kitten couldn't tell the difference. The group ahead of them focused back on the path ahead so 13 took his chances as they finally left the docks.
"Look, we need to seem disorganized, untrained and completely hopeless. If we ever have free time we can practice working as a team but for now, our main goal is turning the other teams on each other. If they go into the arena with a grudges against each other, we may be able to sit back and just watch the show."
With that 13 nodded to them all and picked up the pace, quickly jogging back to the front, a hurt look now plastered on his face. He was truly going to go through with his hair brained scheme. The others followed his lead and split up, leaving Kitten in the back, alone with only her thoughts to keep her company.
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13's mind was scheming, plotting and planning while the city's streets fell under his feet. Each corner, stair way and slopes were just more obstacles his body adjusted too while his mind jumped hurdles of their own. The green team had to be proud of their accomplishments, it didn't matter that they had won an unfair fight or started a pointless battle to begin with. They had defended their territory and that was enough.
Odd how 13 wanted to climb down the ladder of dominance rather than up, no matter though, he just needed to discover other opportunities to either solidify Orange team's low threat status, or turn the other teams on each other. Only time would hopefully give him those opportunities. 13's feet met well packed sand once more and he looked up to watch as the Sharp estate closed in on him once more.
The well oiled black iron gates closing shut without a sound, a beautiful front for a beautiful prison. The terror that was the instructor finally led the group the a stop. 13 was trying to remember the man's name, Elizabeth had instructed him on it hours before. What was it again? Bread? Brandy, ah Brant! Bastard Brant, perfect!
Brant actually seemed to be a bit out of breath after this last excursion, his face was slightly redder than usual as he addressed the slaves.
"Thank your Gods for Miss Sharp has given you a mercy I'll never quite understand! Get cleaned up and get to dinner, the rest of night is yours. I'm not gonna hold your hands for now on, if you choose to waste your nights away so be it, you'll only be digging your own graves. I expect you all out in the field tomorrow morning at day break, dismissed!"
Yet again the man wasted no time leaving the slaves to their devices, most choosing to bathe before heading to dinner. 13 figured now was his chance to stretch his arm a bit before dinner, he quickly creeped away from the groups and made his way the the field, planning to work up another slight sweat before dinner.
13 reached the grounds while the sun was still up, sure that he had maybe forty minutes before everyone else let their stomachs lead them away from a much needed hot bath. He made his way over to the barrels and selected a well worn piece as his tool for the night. Small short swings better prepared 13 for prolonged practice with his less dominant hand. In no time he was performing the drills taught early that day with only minor loss in form.
He looked around him once more to make sure the coast was clear then proceeded to slip his other arm out of its well soaked restraint. The dull pain was back but 13 fought through it as he swung his waister back and forth, loosening his shoulder up after hours of inactivity.
13 began to use both his hands as he started twirling and spinning the stick in random made up patterns. Swings and moves he figured in time he could possibly add to his collection of moves. He didn't see the point in learning the same things as his opponents if he wanted to win. If he relied on the same teachings everyone else was learning, the battles would come down to sheer strength and stamina, not skill or tactics.
13 never even noticed his spectator until she finally decided to make herself known.
"I don't ever remember that bastard teaching us how to flop around like a fish, maybe I should be glad I'm the leader of our group eh?"
13 jumped in fright and let the stick fly from his hand as he spun around to face Kitten, fright on his face while his healing arm rested on his heart.
"Gods you scared the religion clean out of me!"
For once 13 managed to get Kitten to smile...or maybe grimace, he didn't feel like asking would be appropriate right now anyway.
"Your religious?"
13 snorted hard enough he almost choked, "Fuck no, I'm not giving any omnipotent bastard the satisfaction of undying faith during these crappy circumstances. I take it you've thought my offer over, you'll be our leader? You'll get to push me around and make fun of my crippled wing!"
13 kicked his discarded stick close to a barrel and began to mimic a wounded duck, quacking as he pretended to fly in a circle. He was trying too hard but honestly, after today he could unwind a little.
He turned to Kitten but she wasn't smiling, instead she was looking at the ground. Oh boy, probably shouldn't have joked about being crippled.
"13, I-i need, ugh I need to just say-"
13 rested his hand on her shoulder.
"Don't, you have nothing to apologize for and I have nothing to forgive. This whole situation is jacked and honestly, we should all be frustrated and pulling our hair out. What matters is we keep it together till we survive the arena, and win enough ruppees for Arezo that she hopefully retires us as some house servant or cook. Anything would honestly beat our current occupation really."
Kitten wiped her eyes and looked up at 13, a look full of yet another emotion 13 had never witnessed till now.
"Well with a heathen such as yourself, I hope Arezo retires you as a priest, serves you right for mocking the three goddesses."
13 stepped away brought his left wrist to his forehead in mock disbelief.
"Madam, you're blade striketh true! To throw me to the gods in my hour of need, how cruel!"
With a flourish 13 re-wrapped his whole right arm and looped his good arm though kittens.
"Grant a damned man one last dinner before he meets with his surely miffed makers?"
This finally earned him a light giggle, something he'd have to convince Drew and the others actually happened.
"Only because I pity such a lost soul as yourself."
With that the two entered the cafeteria ahead of the others, ready for the much longer days ahead of them.
[Finally got a job! At...Wal-mart...yah that's a thing, so while they work me ragged, I'll attempt to continue this things and actually get the wheels moving so we can get some gladiator combat going! Blood, gore, burning moblins! What? I'm winging it as I go folks, see yah on the other side of chapter 12!]