Tiso grumbled to himself as he rubbed the pieces of cloth together in an attempt to remove the stains of some unidentified liquid, his hands were slowly going numb because of the cold water in the stream, which was not making the task any easier

After he and his new ''master'' struck the deal about his training, he was kinda disappointed to hear that it would be at least two weeks before they would start, that's how long it would take for Tiso's wounds to heal enough for it, or so Oro said

Tiso obviously was not very happy about this, but by this point he knew better than to try arguing with the bigger bug

It was however only a few days before Oro gave him his first tasks, this made Tiso understandably upset, and he demanded to know why should he work if his training wasn't about to start for some time yet

He was surprised to hear that this was supposed to better prepare him for the actual training that was about to come

~ Are you going to show me a secret cleaning technique that will unexpectedly come in hand during a battle and save my shell against all odds? ~

~ Wha- No! Where did you get THAT idea from?! ~

Oro's argument was that if he would just sit around for two weeks, or more, then his muscles would weaken and he would have to build them back up, so in order to prevent that, he would be doing some tasks around the house, starting immediately

Which is why he was currently attempting to wash these heavy curtains in a small stream Oro showed him the other day, an unusual sight in the Kingdom's edge, usually only filled with acid ponds and rivers

The task was certainly not easy, it took a lot of scrubbing and washing to get the stains out, it was a hard job, but Tiso didn't want to look weak in front of his new mentor, so he didn't complain

A few more minutes of labor, and the last piece of material was beginning to look clean, good, only a few more minutes of this, and Tiso could go back to Oro's hut. His injuries felt better and better every day, and his training was about to begin very soon. He was eagerly awaiting it, but also couldn't help but feel a bit anxious. He wondered how training under his new master would look like, Oro didn't give out an impression of a kind, patient teacher. He was always cold and distant at best, and he already gave Tiso a demonstration of what can happen when he loses his patience.

On the other hand, working under him was hard, but not unbearably so. His tasks were not unreasonable or sadistic, and he made sure not to put too much strain on Tiso's body, only giving him jobs he knew the ant could handle. Tiso could certainly think of a few bugs much worse than him in that regard

But even if he would turn out to be as harsh and cruel teacher as could be, Tiso knew he would pull through and emerge stronger than before, he might not be as great a warrior as he would like to be, yet, but no one could deny him his stubbornness

Finally the curtains were clean, or as clean as you can get without any soap… but Tiso finally could start his journey back, he put the curtains into a neat pile, and was about to lift it, when he heard a voice, just behind him

~Wow! I didn't expect to see you ever again, especially not doing laundry!~

God Tamer rested her giant sword on the bed frame, today has been a bit more action-packed than usual, and she had just finished cleaning it off all the blood. The fools that made it to her were as pathetic as usually, and she had crushed them like all the others, well she and Diabol together. Speaking of her best friend, he was currently in the stables, resting and licking his wounds, nothing serious, but he was still tired from the fight and just wanted to roll over and sleep until tomorrow

God Tamer however was still full of unused energy after the trials, and so decided to go on a little stroll through the caverns of the kingdom's edge and reduce the population of aspids and hoppers while at it. She would be going alone, and decided to leave her giant sword at the colosseum (no reason to drag that heavy thing everywhere with her) instead opting to take one smaller, but just as deadly in her hands

She decided to sneak out the backdoor, rather than exit through the main gate, her absence often evoked an unhealthy sense of impunity among other fools and she would rather avoid having to deal with any potential mess. That, and she also wanted to avoid talking to that strung-up fool. Seriously, how was that thing still alive? He refused to be taken down by anyone but the Lord Fool himself, considering it was he who put him there for something nobody could even remember. Evidently this particular fool earned his title due to being foolishly loyal

Anytime somebody tried to enlighten him to the fact that Lord Fool was dead for like, a few good years now, all he would do was laugh and compliment them on their sense of humor. Every time God Tamer came near him, she would be bombarded by questions about whether Lord Fool has forgiven him yet, and she would NOT have this day ruined further by having to come up with yet another awkward excuse

When she finally got out, God Tamer immediately started taking on the aspids and hoopers throughout the Kingdom's Edge, not that they were particularly tough, but there was a lot of them, and dodging the acid from the primal aspids was a challenge as usual

Eventually however it got boring, as always, and also as a result frustrating. Fights were supposed to be exciting dammit!

God Tamer finally gave up, and decided to start heading back, but she wanted to wash all the blood and acid from her armor first, luckily she knew there was a stream of water somewhere around these parts, she just needed to be careful not to run into that old grouch...

For a moment she was afraid it would be unavoidable, as she could clearly see a bug kneeling by the water, but it was much too small to be the old Nailmaster… too small and too blue, she walked closer to get a better look…the figure looked strangely familiar…

…

By the wyrm and root, it couldn't be…

Yes it was! It was that ant, what's-his-name, who arrived at the colosseum a week or so ago, boasted to everyone about what great warrior he was and what not, and proceeded to die stupidly in his first trial. He was quite rude and even more full of himself than your average fool, so naturally everyone was pretty happy that they didn't have to deal with him any longer. God Tamer however was a bit disappointed by this outcome…. It was a long time since she met another one of her kind, ants usually lived their whole lives at their colonies, never venturing further than their queen wished them to. She had hoped that maybe he could add some entertainment to her mundane life, who knew maybe he would turn out to be a nicer bug under his shell…

And his fighting style was certainly very unique too, God Tamer didn't think she ever saw someone utilizing their shield as a weapon, not to such an extent at least. She really wanted to learn more about him, but then he got killed so quickly she didn't even have the time to talk to him, such a disappointment

Or rather knocked out? Unless he somehow came back from the dead, which God Tamer doubted. But what was he doing here of all places? By how he was described to her, the ant should be back at the colosseum by now, trying to regain his lost honor or whatever. Instead he was here...doing laundry? Strange...but maybe she would get a chance to mess with him a bit

She started making her way towards him, maybe today wouldn't be so bad after all…

Tiso spun around abruptly, startled by the voice, it belonged to a red-armored bug who sure as hell wasn't here just a few seconds ago, Tiso cursed himself silently, he was so preoccupied with extricating splatters of unidentified moisture out of Oro's dirty glorified sheets, that he completely missed this bug approach, if it had malicious intents, he would be a goner for sure…

Thankfully that was not the case, but the bug had implied that they met before...or at least he...she knew him from somewhere, Tiso took a closer look….

Yep there was no mistaking that type of armor anywhere, she was definitely a Fool from the colosseum, and a fellow ant as well! It was a bit weird seeing another ant after all this time. Ants rarely stray off from their colonies...but it could happen, he himself was a proof of that, after all

But it was her armor that caught the most, from what he heard, red was the colour of armor belonging to the Champion of the Colosseum herself, could she be…. No, no it was surely not her, sure the champion was recognized by her armor among other things, but her even more prominent attributes were her humongous sword, said to be twice as tall as she was, and the fearsome beast she rode into the battle. Since Tiso could not see any of those two things with her, he concluded that this couldn't be the champion, the colour of her armor was not sufficient to base those kinds of assumptions on, any fool could paint theirs red

Which meant it was just another obnoxious fool

Probably here to laugh at his some more

He deeply resented the fact that he didn't bring any weapon with him

It looked as if he was correct in his assessment as the fool in question mistook his lack of response as a permission to keep talking

~I mean, the way that Mawlek landed on you, that must've been really...crushing experience pfffff!~

Yep that confirmed it, no way someone cool enough to become a champion could be telling these kinds of jokes…

~So why are you here, doing laundry of all things? Shouldn't you be lying dead somewhere below the colosseum?~

Gods, didn't this female have anything better to do than bothering him? Tiso was starting to lose patience, a small part of his mind was telling him to simply ignore her, finish his task, and leave. Tiso, being himself, ignored that part completely

~That thing didn't weigh HALF of what it needed to crush me, for your information. Nothing your pathetic arena has in store would be enough to kill me, including you~

Tiso couldn't see under the other ant's helmet, but he could feel her smirking underneath it

~Is that so, then I suppose you allowed yourself to be thrown out of the arena, you were just pretending to be dead as they dragged you to the edge? If so, then I have to give it to you, you're pretty good at it, maybe you should become an actor!~

Her tone gradually became more sarcastic and mocking through the sentence

Tiso's hemolymph was starting to boil

And she wasn't even done yet

~Seriously though, if you're so great then what are you doing here washing clothes or whatever that is. Or maybe you've just realized, what a sad, pathetic excuse of a fighter you are, and decided to get a job at a laundry?~

Tiso's vision has gone red, how DARE she?! He didn't care that he had no weapon, he didn't care he still wasn't up to his full strength, HE WOULD BEAT THIS RED B*TCH TO A PULP WITH HIS BARE HANDS!

He launched himself at her, faster than she could react, and immediately yelled out in pain when his fist connected with her helmet

She just stared him for a moment ~Wow, you're fast~ she said, her fingers wrapped around his wrist, and she twisted his arm painfully, at the same time she swept Tiso's legs from underneath him with a kick, he lost his balance and fell to the ground with a grunt of pain

~But not very smart it seems~ She finished ~Now unless you want to die for real I'd suggest not to try this again~

Tiso slowly pulled himself up, he was still fuming inside, but now that the moment of blinding rage was over, he recognized how recklessly impulsive that was. Attacking someone obviously better prepared to fight than you, looks like his brawl with Oro didn't teach him anything after all, damnit

He managed to quell the anger still burning inside him, and instead returned to his task, the...ugh...laundry was placed in the basket it was brought in, and Tiso was determined to get out of there as fast as possible

But the red clad bug was not done yet, as she stood in his way. ~Come On, tell me how you ended up here? You're the most interesting thing that happened to me in months! Now will you share your story willingly or do I have to beat you up some more?~ It was clear that she meant what he said, and that she wouldn't let him go unless he complied. And so with a heavy sight, Tiso surrendered to his fate

After he was done telling his tale, they both fell silent, the only sound was the sound of the flowing water. Finally the fool spoke up ~Wow, you actually got the hermit grouh to teach you? I must say, I've misjudged you, there's certainly something to you, since you managed to convince the biggest, most solitary bug around to teach you. Is that why you are doing his laundry?~

Tiso nodded, now more annoyed than angry ~Yes, if you really must know. Now will you let me go already?~

She looked as if she was considering whether to, and Tiso wondered if it was worth it trying to punch her again, but finally she stepped aside and let him go, he went ahead immediately, not wanting to waste another second.

He really wanted to forget this ever happened as fast as possible, however this would be impossible since the red clad bug called out after him

~This really has been interesting! I'm looking forward to our next meeting!~

Tiso spun around so fast his laundry almost flew out of the basket ~What even makes you think there'll ever be a ''next meeting'' ? Why would you, or I, ever have the need to meet again?!~

~Oh come on, don't be like that. You really are the most interesting thing that happened to me in a looong time, that's a compliment by the way, you can bet I will come back some for more!~

Tiso was about to unleash a volley of curses and counter arguments at her, but she added

~You can't stop me from coming, no matter what you say, and I know where to look for you, so we'll run to each other eventually. One might say...resisting is a fool's errand!~

Oh gods…

~Look at it this way~ she took a more sympathetic tone ~It will be beneficial for both of us! I'll get to escape my boredom, and you'll get to talk to someone who isn't that old grouch, trust me it'll be good for you, he's notorious around here for being insufferably negative all the time~

Tiso couldn't disagree about that last part, but he still wasn't happy about this, but what the other ant said next caught his attention ~I could even spar some more in the future, provided that you bring weapons next time…~

This throw him off a bit

~Why would we spare though? ~

~Why for fun of course! Oh and I suppose it could be good for you to train with someone who isn't twice your height and three times your weight once in a while... Some more practice never killed anybody, you might get some bruises though~

Tiso took a while to consider her words, she was pretty insufferable, but at this point he knew from experience that Oro could be far worse. His primary form of communication were grunts of disapproval or silence, and Tiso was pretty sure he was capable of only a single emotion, annoyance. Similarly, some more practice would be nice, Oro did agree to training him, but he sure as hell wouldn't overwork himself either

In the end Tiso found more benefits to this situation (although barely) and so he asked

~We'll if we're to meet again at least tell me your name first~ She seemed a bit surprised at this question

~Wait, so you don't know who I am? ~

Tiso tilted his head at this ~Uhhh...No…? I don't think we've met before, I'm certain I would remember someone like you…''

~Oh… I suppose we technically haven't met before. Okay, my name is Go...go...Gold! Yeah, Gold, that's me!~

~You...sure? ~ Tiso was not convinced ~You seemed...unsure for a second there…~

~Yes I'm sure, hehe...what did you think I forgot my own name?~

~Okay fair enough... I'm Tiso, now if you really want to help me 'train', just remember~ His tone got serious and he raised his hand, pointing at her ~That I won't hesitate to use this experience against you when I finally get back to the colosseum, if you even survive until then that is''

She didn't look bothered in the slightest by his proclamation, if anything her posture was even more confident than before ~Oh it's not me you should worry about, Tiso, but rather yourself, since I assure you, when we finally meet in the arena, I won't hesitate either. Now go before your master grows (more) angry with you. I'll be heading back to the arena myself, see you!"

And with that, she was gone

Tiso readjusted the laundry in his arms and resumed his journey to Oro's hut, he kept grumbling to himself about the red ant as he went

~Who was that female anyway? What a strange name, ''Gold", and what's up with her and this constant need for entertainment? What kind of bug would even be bored at a place like the Colosseum of Fools? ''