Ziabach's Worst Enemy!
Part 12
My nerves took a jump. Dilandau was next! I had finally gotten this far... now all I had to do was either win, which was slim, or stand against him for ten minutes... could I do that? The answer? Yes. Yes I could do that. I had to do that. What would they do to me if I didn't? Kill me? I decided not to worry about it. I sat down on my knees and started to mediate. There was no reason to get all worked up, I might start shaking, and then what would I do when I hit him? Mess up? Leave myself open?
I cleared my mind and just pictured my sister. She would have the best time just running around with our dog and cleaning the floors. She'd run around with the rag between her hands making rows and rows of clean streaks on the dirt-covered floor. She was so fun to watch!
My heart swelled and it seemed like my sore legs, swollen lip, and pounding head all disappeared.
A whistle sounded and I looked up to hear a large amount of Cheers erupting and Dilandau stepping onto the platform. He stood tall and proud. He narrowed his eyes at me and waited. I stood and looked at him.
I became nervous once again. Not only that I might fail Marel, but that I also might hurt him. I silently chided myself while keeping eye contact with Dilandau. I wasn't going to worry about him; he wasn't worrying about me after all.
I got into fighting stance. He followed suit. People cheered. He didn't move, and neither did I. We stood like that for about a minute, I checked the clock. Nine minutes to go. Finally, when I looked back, Dilandau was moving. It seemed as though he was trying to waist time too. But for what?
He approached me quickly, I didn't move until the last second that I could. Jumping to the left, I held out my foot, but he jumped over. He turned and kicked me in the solorplex, I fell to the ground and he jumped on top. But I wasn't about to let him beat me so soon. I straightened my hand and shoved it into his neck. He choked and I rolled him off, jumping up, I kicked him in the stomach and the ribs.
He rolled, and people started yelling for him to get up. It had been two seconds. When it reached three I couldn't believe it, but no timer went. I looked around confused. Dilandau stud and upper-cutted me, making me bite my lip and sending me into the wall.
He came up face to face with me, and grabbed my arms, pinning them to my body. He punched me hard in the stomach. "Confused? They lengthen the time to five seconds." He said before hitting me in the cheek.
I kneed him in the stomach right below the ribs and pushed him away. He smiled maliciously.
"Why? Didn't think that I could last for ten minutes?" I asked.
"Well, that could be, and the fact that people are not allowed to use weapons now. When our muscles get beet-" he cut off as he spin behind me and grabbed my hair, pulling my head back. "It's harder to move around and things." He said, starring at me.
"Well thanks for the health lesson, but I knew that all ready. I am a fighter!" I said, punching him in the nose, he dropped me and my head landed on his feet. I did a backwards summer sault and kicked the bottom of his jaw, and used my legs to push him down, pinning him on the ground.
He took his index finger and his middle finger and shoved them into the muscle in my leg.
"Ah!" I screamed, and rolled off. Pressure points sucked, which is what he just did. He almost split the muscle from the bone, which would have rendered me helpless to move around and stand, leaving me to just lie there while the time ticked away.
Dilandau rolled over me; he grabbed my hair and began to jam my head into the ground over and over again. My vision became fuzzy and black dots began to swim before my eyes like they were floating.
I reached over and elbowed Dilandau in the temple, or I aimed for the temple, but since I was moving and I couldn't really see, I ended up getting him in the jaw. I punched him so hard in the stomach it felt as though my fist was going to go right through his stomach.
I kicked him off me and sent him about two feet away. I jumped up, looking at the clock I saw it read four seconds. That was close. I couldn't let him do it again.
I stood on him for a second, jumping on his stomach, he turned quickly and I fell backwards, not expecting it, I landed badly on my wrist. I kicked him again in the spine, keeping him on the ground before standing.
I got ready for fighting again. I let him stand, glancing at the clock again I saw it read 6:27. About four more minutes to go. My stomach jolted again. I Tai kicked Dilandau as soon as he stood.
I heard people shouting at me and booing. Some people were yelling, "She should get penalized for that!" and other was shouting, "Come on Dilandau! She's ONLY A GIRL!"
My eyes narrowed and I became very angry. I jumped up; putting my feet together, my heals both smashed into Dilandau's nose.
He stumbled back and fell. More Bo's and angry yelling, but one really stud out, "Dilandau! Use this!" I looked around, and saw a dagger land blade-into the ground.
I ran over, but Dilandau was up behind me, when I was reaching down to get it he swung his leg under mine, I tripped and almost landed on it. I watched as Dilandau picked it up, and everyone, everyone stopped as I turned over and looked at Dilandau, he raised it above me, but didn't bring it down. Instead, he threw it into the wall.
"Who threw that into the ring?!?!!" He asked, if there was someone whispering they sure weren't now. "Someone had better come forth otherwise We'll just stand here and let the time tick away! She'll win! If she lasts for ten minutes then she wins! SO WHO THREW IT?!"
No one moved. No one blinked each hoping that whoever threw it would come forth, and the one who threw it hoping someone else would take the blame. I wasn't just going to let the time go, me on the floor, and it being announced that I won because the time was up, just because Dilandau wouldn't do anything but look around the crowds.
I stud, brushing myself off and whipping the blood that had slowly dripped from my broken lip. I looked at the clock, 4:32.
"Hey Dilandau. It doesn't matter. If we're going to fight, then lets fight." I said. He looked down at me, when he didn't move, I did. I jabbed him in the nose, he looked surprised, but smiled, nodded, and we got into our fighting stances.
He side kicked, I dodged, swept my foot under his, and he tripped. I brought my leg down on his face and my heal split his eyebrow open. He grabbed my foot and twisted, forcing me to flip in the air and land next to him.
He elbowed me in the stomach. I coughed. He was hitting harder. I punched him in the ear, really hard, he gripped it and we stood at the same time.
We stood, trading blows, each one getting stronger and stronger, My lip broke open again, his cheek began getting bruised, we'd dodge some, kick some, but what came to a shock to me, was that it seemed as though Dilandau was getting tired of just wasting time. Finally, he pushed me up to the wall, knocked my head into it, really hard, making me black out for a second, and the his foot met with my forehead, knocking it into the wall as hard as could possibly be.
All the pain from the fight finally came to me. My muscles couldn't lift my bodyweight, my eyes couldn't open, and I heard the timer go off, that was it. I had lost. I had let Marel down...
"Tora... Tora...Tora..." I slowly opened my eyes, Viole was standing there, I saw the clock, for me being on the ground first, it said four seconds, and then I looked at the other clock, it said ten minutes! I did it! I won.... I won....
My mind became cluttered, I looked over and saw Dilandau on the ground, just as exsausted as I was, but everyone was crowding me. I closed my eyes and slipped into darkness.
* * *
I woke in the hospital wing. Gatti was helping Viole wrap my leg. They didn't seem to notice that I had woken yet. My head was pounding and I could have sworn I had a concussion. I moved my hand to the back of my head and let out a soft whimper.
Gatti's head jerked in my direction. He smiled, as if he couldn't have been more relieved about anything in his whole life. "Tora..." He said sighing.
Viole looked up and saw I was awake. "Oh good. Everyone was worried you wouldn't wake up and that you might have slipped into a coma." He said, walking to my head. I didn't say anything but watched him. He dabbed the dressing they had put on my eyebrow and brought my hand down from my head.
"Where is she?" I asked, looking at both of them.
"Well that gets rid of my next question, 'do you remember anything'." Viole said.
"They're going to give her to Van and Allen tomorrow night. They agreed to take her once they noticed that you were telling the truth. Of course we didn't tell them that you were the spy. It would have been too embarrassing for us; they still think that you're a farm-girl going to get your sister who was kidnapped. We said that we agreed to take you instead, since you're older and we can use you for more things." Gatti explained.
"Oh great. Now they think that I'm going to be a cook for my enemy." I said, rolling my eyes.
"Well, it works for you too. You don't want people knowing that you're the one who's always infiltrating us. You could be killed for knowing the things you know and being able to fight." Viole said shrugging.
"Yeah, I guess..." I said.
"You should get some rest, you took a very long beating." Gatti said, and walked over to the bed beside me. I watched them start tending to Dilandau before I took their advise and fell back to sleep.
* * *
When I finally woke again, I was in a room on a bed, and food was next to me. I looked at it for a while. 'Have they all ready let Marel go? Did I miss my chance to say goodbye?' I wondered while sitting up and taking the glass of water.
It just struck me how dry my throat felt. I gulped down half the water before the door slid open, and I looked through the bottom of the glass to see Dilandau standing there. I took one more gulp before setting the glass down and waiting for him to explain himself.
"Feeling any better?" He asked, stepping in and letting the door close behind him.
"A little bit. I think my head caved in from that last blow you landed on my head though." I said, still watching him. He smiled and walked over.
"Here." He said, handing me a piece of paper and a pen.
"What?" I wondered.
"You can write a letter to your sister before we let her go tonight." He said.
I looked up at him in amazement. "Why can't I talk to her face to face?" I asked.
"Because then you'd start to cry. I didn't think you'd want your sister to have her last image of you with tears streaming down your cheeks." He smiled.
"Yeah, I guess so..." I said. "When you give her to Van, will you hand her right to them? Or will you make her go through the castle and everything?" "We'll give her directly. She'll be sleeping." He explained.
I nodded, and began to write.
Marel,
I'm sorry I'm not there to explain all this in person, but I probably can't leave this room while I'm recovering. I'm sorry I didn't realize that you were in Zaibach sooner, but they had me locked in a room like you and I only just got out when I saw you. The two people taking care of you now kidnaped me.
But don't worry, they're good. They thought I was part of Zaibach because I was walking around without anyone guarding me. Ask them sometime, they'll tell you the story, or what they know of it anyway. They were knocked out half the time. The one with the red shirt is Van, he's king of Finallia, and Allen, he's a knight. They're both relatively good swordsmen, if you ask them, I'm sure they could give you some lesions.
You don't need to worry about me; I'll be okay. I'm just glad that you're in good hands, and I'm sorry that I took so long. Don't come to get me, it's part of the deal. I have to stay here so that you can stay out there.
Don't try going home, we don't have one. Zaibach burned it. But I'm sure if you look around you can find people who lived there with us. They couldn't have destroyed the whole town. I'm so sorry about that too... It's my fault. I can't tell you everything, but I was able to escape from Zaibach and run away. They were following me, but I didn't know, so when I found our house, they destroyed it. They made me watch, and I thought that everyone was dead. So right now, you're probably going to be the only one to pass on our family's history. Don't come to get me. I'll be fine. Some of the guards here really aren't that bad, like Miguel or Gatti. So I won't be lonely. Please try to make new friends and start over. I know it's going to be hard, but try. Please. I love you.
Tora
"Here." I said, folding the letter and handing it to Dilandau. He nodded, putting it into his pocket. "Why are you letting me write to her?"
"So she knows everything. We're not going to explain anything, and Van and Allen only know that she's an orphan and her sister is a slave for Zaibach." He said.
"I am not going to be a slave thank you." I said defiantly.
He smiled. He seemed to be doing that a lot lately. "Yeah, we know. But that's what they think."
"So, what am I going to do while I'm here?" I asked, standing and walking around and looking at the things surrounding me.
He shrugged. "I dunno. Ask Folken-sama."
"Oh you're a great help Dilandau." I said sarcastically.
Great so, I had my letter to my sister written, explaining as much as I could without giving too much away, now I just had to see what 'great' things Zaibach had in store for me.
"Is Marel okay?"
"Oh yeah, she's fine. Last thing I heard she was watching with a gaping mouth." He said.
"Why?" I asked.
Dilandau walked over to the door and opened it. "Because we let her watch the fights." He stepped out of the room and then I was the one standing with a 'gaping' mouth.