Dawn broke over the mountains illuminating them in a cold light. Mist hung in the bottoms of the valleys and crevices, almost like a sea surrounding islands. Karl had not been able to sleep for most of the night, the note was troubling him more than he would admit to himself, there was a small mountain town a couple of miles east, the road would be dangerous at the moment, but once the sun had burned through the mist it should be safe to travel on. He relight the fire to warm himself up, she mist in the valley below him was already vanishing and he could see two people by the river, but the distance made it impossible to see them in any detail.
Once all the mist had cleared he set off towards the town, when he could see it in the distance, he realised it was a festival, no shops would be open, but he could relax and enjoy himself for a bit. As he approached the town gates, two guards nodded to let him pass. The stone houses were decorated with flags and coloured cloth. Everywhere was clean and there was music playing everywhere, as he neared the centre of the town he noticed a crowd had gathered round a stage and was waiting for something. A girl ran in front of him and between the legs of the bystanders. And old woman noticed him and said: "You're not from around here are you?"
"No, I'm just travelling, what is this?" he replied
"Every year there is a competition between the four largest towns in the area, races, martial arts and dancing, and this year we're hosting it. You should stay and watch, it's the first round of the fights, first event, it should be worth your while." he nodded in response, and began to watch the stage. A man walked to the centre of the stage and began to speak "Friends, travellers from distant lands, we welcome you to the 100th Contest, as always the first event is the battles between the best fighters from: Gransville, Smithtown, Armend, and Talinsis. The first fight will be between the chosen of the host, Talinsis and the chosen of Gransville. The chosen weapon is the rod, and now I give you, travelling from Gransville to defend his title: Derek Jones, and the local girl: Tanya Adams. The two fighters walked from opposite sides of the stage and walked to the centre, Tanya was a good head shorter than Derek, but she had the look of a fighter determined to win. "Fighters take your positions, ready, fight" the crowd were in for a short fight however, as Derek ran at Tanya, who did not appear to move, but Karl could tell, she was in the perfect position for a jump, and sure enough, she jumped right over him, from the edge of the stage to the centre, Derek just fell off the stage, losing. "Right, that was quick." said the commentator, "On to the next fight: Bill Sommerton from Smithtown and Zack Zinas from Armend.
This fight was more interesting than the last, and ended in a win for Zack when he floored Bill and pinned him for 10 seconds.
While the commentator announced when the next round would be Karl scanned the crowd and felt his heart go cold, he'd seen her, wait, it couldn't be, Marishka Silvias had died six years ago, yet she was here, but when he looked again, she was gone. "Just my imagination." he thought to himself