The Failure
Chapter 5
Tyr woke up to the sounds of cheering audiences. He shook his head. It had been a long night, all night long Harper tried to make a conversation and when he did not get anything out of Tyr, he just started mumbling to himself. Reluctantly he had gone to sleep, knowing he would be of no use if he did not have some rest. It was morning now; their fate whether they lived or died would be discovered today. Tyr looked over to Harper he lay asleep a cool sweat covered his body. Tyr leaned over to check on the boy. He placed a hand on harpers forehead and noticed his fever was mostly gone.
" His fever broke last night."
Tyr turned around to see the little girl standing there watching him. He nodded in reply and returned his attention to the young boy. He shook Harper's shoulder trying to wake up the young engineer. All he got in return was a slight moan.
" Boy. Wake up"
He shook Harper harder. Still he got nothing but a moan.
" Boy…wake up!"
He turned Harper to face him and then shook him again.
" Rommie five more minutes."
Tyr shook his head placing his hand to rub his temple.
" BOY"
Tyr pulled Harper into a sitting position and shook him. He still got nothing. His patience was wavering and still the boy ignored him. Then all of the sudden Tyr noticed one of the most annoying sounds ever, but he could not place it. He looked to the still sleeping Harper and realized that Harper was snoring. Tyr growled at the stupidity of it all.
" Boy…"
Tyr looked away staring at the window made out of bars. The audience was already being placed into the arena. Harper opened his eyes and noticed how close to Tyr he was.
" Umm. Tyr I do not mind you and all, but umm. Could you let me go."
Tyr turned around in an instant and growled. Letting Harper drop back onto the floor.
" Hey ummm. Tyr man buddy what is that sound."
Tyr stood up and wandered over to the window.
" It's the crowd. They are taking their seats. Were going to be fighting soon."
Harper suddenly remembered all the things that had happened to them.
" Oh…lovely."
Tyr just snorted and sat against the wall. Harper was looking around when Tyr heard the doors opening. Two guards entered holding spears.
" Come on you scum. Time to fight."
Tyr just growled while standing up. Harper got to his feet and stood next to Tyr. The guards unlocked the door and escorted them out. They headed out of the dungeon and up the stone staircase. It was a long way up to where they were headed and Harper could not resist causing some trouble.
" Are we there yet?"
The guards just glared back at him.
" Ok lets try another question."
Tyr nudged Harper tying to detour him from mouthing off.
" Don't worry big guy I know what i'm doing."
Tyr just rolled his eyes as they continued down a long corridor.
" Can I drive?"
The guards turned around to face him.
" Kludge if I were you I would shut up."
Harper remained quiet for a little while and then finally he could not stand the quiet.
" You never let me drive."
The guard turned around and was about to hit Harper.
" Ahh the prisoners are here. Zikoon please take them to the armory they will need some supplies. And do refrain from hitting them they are better if they get killed in the ring."
Harper sighed; for once, the bad guys had saved him.
" Yeah guys don't hurt the merchandise."
The guards glared back at him. The admiral was laughing at him.
" The crowd will love him. Well Zikoon get going. They will fight in only a couple of hours."
The guard nodded and continued to push Tyr and Harper along until they reached a small room with a green lizard type creature.
" Hey old man…suit em up"
The guards stood outside the small building waiting for the two prisoners to be done with their fitting. Before the guards left, they handed the little man a piece of paper. The man took it, looked it over, and then gave the two prisoners.
" Ok let's see here. A nietzchian and a kludge. Ok hmmm. Well nietzchian you will be fighting a gladiator while the kludge must survive a copheta beast. They must think your something if they are gonna murder you like that. Well let's get ya set up shall we."
Harper looked over to Tyr concerned.
" Ok what do I get?"
The little man grinned. He started to rummage through the piles of metal and sharp armaments. He came back around with some scraps of what used to be armor. The man grabbed harpers arm and pulled him down to his eye level, which caused Harper to stay on his knees. Harper had, had enough of being treating like an expendable creature. Harper pushed the little man away.
" Hey knock it off man. I'm not a puppet."
The little man grinned before grabbing a hold of Harper's fingers and bending them backwards. Harpers face contorted in pain. Tyr moved to try and intercept, but the man released Harper before he had to do anything. The man straitened himself out and then looked at Harper.
" So do you want a throwing knife or a sword?"
Harper stopped focusing on his hand and looked at the strange man.
" A sword, I guess"
The little man handed Harper the sword, it was rusting and already broken in half. The little man moved around to Tyr.
" Hmmm a nietzchian, fighting gladiators. Lets see do you want a mace or a pleted sword."
Tyr knew the mace was most likely in two pieces and did not know what a pleted sword was. It had to be a native weapon.
" pleted sword"
The man nodded and handed Tyr a sword with a weird divit in the side of it. It could obviously be used to cut a persons head in half. The man suited them with armor and sent them back to the arena where they would wait their turn to fight to survive. The gladiator games were about to begin.
