There are some parts in the story that might seem really, well, exaggerated (the auctioning part). Just humor me, okay? I'd like to think that Syaoran is worth a lot. You might be wondering what in the world I'm talking about, but when you get there, you'll see.
I know I haven't updated in a while, I understand, but I kind of get writer's block a lot. And about my other stories, well I hadn't received many reviews for those, so I decided not to rewrite them, until I have time. Maybe after I complete this story.
The Amber Eyed Gladiator: Forbidden Games
By: Sakuratenshi89
Chapter Eight
Ostia, Italy, 87 A.D.
Eighteen months had passed (A/N: I really don't know how long it takes on ship to get from Japan to Italy, just pretend it was eighteen months, okay? They had good luck ;) since the Fune no Sakura had sailed away from Japan. Now they reached Ostia.
"Wow," said Sakura, as she glanced around the beautiful port city in awe. "This is amazing."
Paul grinned, "Glad you liked it. You haven't seen the best of it yet though, this is just the port city, Ostia, we haven't actually reached Rome yet. We will be taking a road that will lead us to Rome."
"Is it true that 'all roads lead to Rome'?" asked Sakura eagerly.
"Well, it's mostly true."
"This is so wonderful! I'm in Rome!" shouted Sakura happily. "Romam amo (I love Rome)."
Paul laughed. "So do I, Sakura, so do I. It's good to be back home again."
"Those eighteen months on the ship were worth it," Sakura sighed dreamily. "I can't wait to see the rest of the city. Come on Paul! Let's go, I can't wait! Hurry up! You're so slow!"
Sakura was behind Paul and trying to push him towards the streets.
Paul just kept on laughing, "Slow down there tiger."
She glared at him, only succeeding in making him laugh even harder.
"What?" she demanded. "I don't find my wanting to go check out the city so amusing."
"The city isn't going anywhere," laughed Paul. "You're going to be here for a while, so just relax Sakura. We can go anytime, just not today, we have to get to Rome first."
"How long will it be?" whined Sakura.
"Several days," answered Paul.
Sakura sighed in resignation, "All right, I suppose I can wait."
"That's my girl, I promise though that once we reach Rome, we will go look at all the sights, I'll even take you to go see a game in the Colosseum. I might just change your opinion of it. It's really not as bad as it sounds. I'll tell you when something's about to happen and you can close your eyes and I'll tell you when it's over so that you can open them again."
"I don't know Paul," said Sakura slowly, "You know that I really find those games appalling. If I go watch it, can you ask them to make it just fight until one sheds some blood, not until one dies. The winner is the one who hasn't lost any blood."
"I suppose I could," thought Paul out loud. "I'd have to ask my father, since he's in charge."
"Thanks, but I'll go see it just for you," said Sakura giving him a small smile. "Since you want me to go so bad."
"I promise that it won't be so bad princess." Paul offered his hand to Sakura.
"Okay," said Sakura skeptically, as she took Paul's offered hand and stepped up into the carriage.
Auction Market, Rome, Italy, 87 A.D.
Syaoran stood in line, waiting for his turn up on the stand to be sold. He watched a guy in front of him was sold to a rich, rather snobby looking man. Syaoran grimaced; he could only hope that he wouldn't have to work for that man.
"Sold, for $1000!" called out the owner of the auction market. (A/N: I really don't know what their money was called back then, so just bear with me and pretend they had dollars, okay?)
Syaoran looked on as the guy right before him was sold to a voluptuous woman in her mid forties perhaps with loads of make up on her face for $950. He didn't have to guess to know what her job was. He was appalled, now he would rather have the stuck up old man than the prostitute.
"Go!" hissed Kanto, who was directly behind him. "It's your turn."
Startled, Syaoran stumbled up the steps of the stand and stood there.
Men and women of all ages began to gawk; they had never seen such a magnificent slave in their life! Who was this man? Surely he was no ordinary slave. For no slave was ever built so finely with such handsome features. The women were all flushing and getting warm at the sight of this man.
"We have here a slave that came all the way from China! He is very young too, I believe around twenty," introduced the auction master (A/N: I didn't know what he would be called). "He is educated in many languages and ladies, as you can see, he is very strong and capable of work. He will make a good tutor and slave. So let the auctioning begin at $3000!"
"$3500!" yelled the prostitute who had just bought the man before Syaoran; she now threw him aside, having her eye on this new delicious piece of meat (A/N: hehe).
"$4000!" cried out a man!"
"$4020!"
"$4500!"
"$4700!"
"$4850!"
"$5000!"
The auction master smiled greedily as the price rose higher and higher until…
"$9000." Came a voice calmly.
The crowd gasped, who was willing to pay this much for a slave? Not that the prices weren't already ridiculously high. They all turned to the source of the voice and found an old man (well, about in his early fifties anyway) standing with two guards on each side of him.
"Come again?" stuttered the speechless auction master. Never in his whole life had he sold a single slave for that high of a price. Hell, he couldn't sell two slaves for that price normally.
"I said $9000," the old man spoke again. He glanced around the crowd as if daring anyone to raise the price even further.
Syaoran held his breath, 'Looks like this is the end.'
"Are you sure?" asked the auction master hesitantly. "Gaius, are you really willing to pay that much for one slave."
"I have the money," said 'Gaius' calmly. "And I am willing to pay it for this young man here."
The auction master shrugged and relented, "All right, but there are no refunds."
"I know."
"$9000! Any takers? Going once!"
There was a murmur amongst the crowd as they looked about themselves to see if anyone was willing to pay more than $9000 for a slave.
Much to Syaoran's relief and disgust, the prostitute was looking rather disappointed and put out, so he knew that she wouldn't be making any offers on him anymore.
"Going twice!"
Syaoran began to sweat, this was it, he was going to be sold. He didn't even know who this Gaius person was.
"Sold!" shouted the auction master.
The man who had bought Syaoran, Gaius, walked up to the auction master and placed the money into his greedy, waiting hands.
"Come," was all he said to Syaoran.
Syaoran walked down the steps of the stand and followed the old man down the narrow aisle the crowd had formed in order to let them through. As he walked down the aisle, the crowd whispered and murmured, pointing at him as if he were an alien.
'You are an alien,' thought Syaoran to himself. 'You're a foreigner in this country. They're just staring at you because you're a slave who just got sold for a huge amount of money, $9000. And they've never seen or heard of a slave ever being sold for that much. That's it. That's all they're whispering to themselves about.'
The old man had gotten into a carriage and was waiting for Syaoran to get in with him.
Syaoran got in, hesitating at first until the old man had said, "What are you waiting for? Get in!"
"I'll bet you're wondering who I am and why I bought you for so much, eh?" chuckled Gaius.
Syaoran nodded slowly.
"I know who you are Syaoran Li."
Syaoran pretended not to be surprised, but it still must have shown on his face.
"Surprised, eh?" laughed Gaius. "Don't be. I'll explain everything to you later. But first, I've been very rude. Let me introduce myself to you. I am Gaius Augustus. I am your owner from this point forth. Anything that happens to you and anything you do, etc., is my business."
Syaoran nodded in understanding.
"I am the master of the Gladiatorial School here in Rome. It is my job and duty to find new recruits and train them to become the best gladiators out there. We are very well known for our gladiators here in the school, we have the best trainers and the best equipment and whatnot. We are renown for our gladiators that we send to the games. Interested yet? Well, you don't have a choice anyway, seeing as I just bought you not too long ago," the old man chuckled to himself.
'Me, become a gladiator? That seems pretty interesting,' thought Syaoran.
"I picked you, Li Syaoran, because you not only have the potential but also the power to become the most powerful man in the world."
Syaoran's eyes widened at this, "W-what did you just say?"
"You have the potential and the power to become the most powerful man and sorcerer in this world. That is, if you put your mind to it," said Gaius. "Of course you'll need training and discipline, which is what I'm here for…I know what you're thinking. You're thinking about how you've already had all the discipline and training you'll ever need from the Elders when you were young and in your early teens, but that's not true. There's more training than those old men can give."
'You're old too,' thought Syaoran, who for once had never thought he would be defending the Elders. 'Plus, they were good trainers and discipliners, even if they tried to kill me with all their instruction and chastising. They were good deep down anyway otherwise they wouldn't have become an Elder.'
"I know that I'm old too," smirked Gaius, watching Syaoran's facial expression, "But I can teach you more than they ever could with a sword and with your powers."
Syaoran raised an eyebrow. "Really?"
"You don't really have a choice anyway, you're working for me now, so it doesn't matter if you believe me or not. But I usually like it better and find it easier to teach when my pupils and slaves believe in me."
"It's not that I don't want to believe you," Syaoran said slowly, "It's just I don't know what to believe anymore. There's also the fact that I'm a foreigner and don't quite know the ways of your people. I'm more susceptible to false beliefs than other Romans are. It's also just very hard to believe. I hope you understand me."
Gaius nodded, then he asked quietly, "So, are you willing to give this a shot?"
"I am," Syaoran nodded.
"Good," said Gaius smiling, "I'm glad you agreed, and I'm sure that you will be too."
"Why?"
"Didn't you know?"
"Know what?"
"If any member of the royal family likes you very much, you will practically be considered royalty yourself and you will have all the privileges of the royal family, except of course, voting. You will have a huge change of becoming free if you win favor with the royal family. Well, you have to be good of course to even get them to notice you. But once they do notice you, virtually everything about you becomes their business. So there are ups and downs to this," Gaius said seriously. "So, what do you say?"
"Bring it on."
The Palace, Rome, Italy, 87 A.D.
"This place is so beautiful!" exclaimed Sakura as she got out of the carriage, ignoring Paul's offer to help her out. She ran up the steps leading to the palace. "It's so much more beautiful than I could ever imagine!"
"I really hope you enjoy your stay here," said Paul nervously. "The servants have prepared the room across from mine to be yours. We didn't quite know what you liked, so they tried to decorate it as feminine as possible."
"Don't worry, I'd like any room you have!"
"Well, let's go, I'll show you around the palace," said Paul, offering his arm to Sakura, which she took gladly.
They walked through the palace, with Paul and Sakura lingering behind in every room because Sakura wanted to engrave everything into her memory. She oohed and ahhed at the tall ceilings and the columns and the marble tiled floors. She gasped at the magnificent wall paintings and designs.
"I hope my room is as magnificent as the rest of them," said Sakura eagerly. "It has to be, the rest of the palace has just been absolutely wonderful!"
"Well, don't get too excited yet, but there is a ball coming up in a week, in your honor," said Paul as they walked up a stairway.
"Kami-sama!" breathed Sakura. "Are you serious?"
Paul nodded, "I'm afraid I am!"
"This is so great!" Sakura jumped up and down excitedly and hugged Paul tightly.
"Uh…Sakura?"
"Yes?" asked Sakura who was still hugging Paul.
"We kind of need to get to your room, and I can't breathe."
"Oh, sorry," said Sakura sheepishly.
"No problem."
They soon stopped in front of a intricately carved wooden door.
"Here we are."
Sakura opened the heavy door (with lots of help from Paul) and gasped at what she saw. "This is so beautiful!"
The room was made of marble of course, like the rest of the palace, with a beautiful large bed on one side, with a personal bath behind some curtains on the other end. There were two couches (A/N: the ones that Roman's had, that you could lie on) in the middle of the tables, for company and other uses. She also had her own personal balcony from which she could look over practically all of Rome.
"I absolutely love it!" exclaimed Sakura.
"You'll love it even more, because when your friend Tomoyo arrives, she'll be staying in the adjoining room," said Paul, pointing to the door Sakura had missed.
"Thank you!" Sakura hugged Paul.
"Come now, there is this place I want to take you," said Paul, tugging on Sakura's hand gently.
Sakura laughed. "All right, hold on, I just want to admire my room for a little longer."
"You can admire all you want later," whined Paul, making Sakura laugh even more. "You are staying here for a while you know. You'll have plenty of time to admire then."
"True," said Sakura, letting Paul pull her out of her room.
The Gladiatorial Institute of Rome, Rome, Italy, 87 A.D.
Three days later, Sakura stood next to her fiancé stiffly. It was rather obvious to everyone that she was not very excited about being where she was. Well, actually it was only Paul who could actually tell that she wasn't very excited.
For the past three days, the couple had been sightseeing all of Rome. Visiting its magnificent buildings and just roaming the streets. Sakura had stopped at just about every store and stand they had come across, while Paul patiently waited for her. He knew that Rome was beautiful and glorious and Sakura wanted to see just about everything there was in the city.
"Honey, what's the matter?" asked Paul, even though he knew perfectly well what was wrong with Sakura.
Sakura sighed, "You know what's wrong."
Now it was Paul's turn to sigh, "I know that you might not be really fond of these games that we take pride in, but please, just watch it this once."
"I'm only here because it's my duty to show up with you in public," said Sakura.
"I promise that if you do find these games utterly appalling, then we will not come to them anymore."
"I can't do that Paul," said Sakura. "You love watching these games. I can't take it away from you. I can't stop you from watching these games just because I don't like them. That would be unfair to you."
"No, it's fine, really," said Paul, shaking his head. "I'm not that fond of them."
"Yes you are. I'll come to these games with you, but I probably won't enjoy them. I'll be here for your sake."
"Are you sure?" asked Paul quietly.
"Yes."
"Thank you," said Paul, rewarding Sakura with a brilliant smile that took Sakura's breath away. "Besides, what could be so bad? We're only watching the men train. We're not actually seeing them battle today. I thought it would be nice to let you see what they do to prepare and how they take their, well…job, if you want to call it that."
"Your highness!" exclaimed a loud voice from the door.
Sakura and Paul turned.
"Gaius! How good to see you!" said Paul, smiling jovially.
"How may I be of service to you?" inquired the rather friendly looking old man.
"My fiancé and I would like to just have a tour of the institute. This is one of my favorite places in the whole world and I just wanted to share it with her. It's my favorite sport."
"You fiancé?!" Gaius said, shocked. He looked beside Paul and saw Sakura. "I'm so sorry, Your Highness, it was terribly rude of me to ignore you like that. I'm Gaius, the owner and principal teacher, if you will, of the Gladiatorial Institute of Rome."
"Pleased to meet you," said Sakura, bowing her head. "I am Sakura Kinomoto, from Japan."
"I must say, your Latin is perfect," smiled Gaius.
"Thank you," Sakura beamed.
"You picked a good one," Gaius told Paul, making him (Paul) smile and nod in agreement. "Well, what are you waiting for? Come in! Come in! And let the tour begin!"
They walked down a large hallway lit by candles, there was a little light coming in from the sun roofs. Sakura shivered a bit from the coolness of the Institute. They soon stopped in front of two large double metal doors.
"This is the practice room where all the practicing takes place," explained Gaius as he pushed open the heavy doors with ease. "This is the largest room and the most active and well known room in the whole Institute. Please, come in."
"How is the training with the new recruits coming along?" asked Paul as he looked around the room at the fighting men.
Gaius began speaking eagerly, "It's been great. I found some fit slaves in the auctioning the other day and they're good to say in the least. We'll be having the best games we've ever had in a while is all I can say without ruining anything for you. The fights are going to be great."
"Wow, so can you fill me in on some things?" asked Paul, inquisitively. He really enjoyed talking about the gladiatorial games.
While Paul and Gaius were engaged in a deep conversation that she knew wasn't going to end anytime soon, Sakura walked around curiously, stopping here and there to watch. There were practice swordfights, to wrestling, boxing, virtually everything connected to the word "fight" was going on in the Institute.
Sakura in all her curiosity did not notice a step in the path and all of a sudden she tripped, letting out a scream, stopping all the action and conversation going on in the room.
"Sakura!" Paul shouted desperately, trying to reach her before the hit the hard, stone ground.
Sakura shut her eyes tightly, waiting for the impact she would make when she hit the floor. All of a sudden, she saw flashes of herself lying in a pool of her own blood and began to feel sick. She waited for her death, but it never came. Instead she felt a pair of warm, muscular, strong arms wrap around her waist, catching her, saving her from a terrible fall. She opened her eyes, and saw that she was just mere inches from touching the ground and sighed with relief.
"Paul?" asked Sakura, glancing up at her rescuer, expecting to meet warm blue eyes. Instead, she met fiery, passionate amber.
And that was the first time emerald met amber.
A/N: I know, the ending I used is really cliché. Like everyone uses it, but I really like it. Now you can tell me how much you love my story, hehe, just kidding. But if you do love my story, please feel free to press that blue button down there that says 'submit review'!
Ostia is a real city; it's the port city that leads to Rome. I know 'cause I'm taking Latin. I was actually awake that day, hehe. It's boring, but learning some Roman history (especially mythology) is actually quite fun. It helps with vocabulary and roots, even though my vocabulary is still very limited. Hey, English is my second language, so give me a break.