She sat on the cool cave floor and kept her eyes on the people around her, and she wished that she was either tired enough or stupid enough to sleep like some of the men and women were already doing.
Half a year ago a flying fortress passed over the city, like every other gladiator she hadn't paid much thought to it, after all, she wasn't ever going to see what was inside it.
So she continued with her training.
A few months passed and the event was forgotten like all things are, that is until word about a failed siege began to spread, sieges happen every once and a while and weren't things to take notice of.
Either because the men died long before getting to their destination, because of the heat, the monsters, or because they became themselves were targeted by some horror no one knew about.
The sound of an infant briefly caught her attention, the infant's mother was spitting on her hand before rubbing the child's face as she tried to keep it clean.
Their destination wasn't far now.
A couple of months ago several slaves had rebelled and managed to escape, in the confusion some of the gladiators took their chances and tried to escape as well, most succeeded, and a couple of didn't.
She turned to look at several men lifting large rocks as they practiced how they would show their strength to the masters of the fortress.
The people inside the cave had gathered because of what they had heard, the details couldn't be relied upon, and if she was, to be honest, everything they had heard seemed like something a naive child would come up with.
Fields of grass so soft that when it touches your skin it tikes, the wind was so cool that when it touches your skin you can't help but to breath it in, as you don't want to waste a single moment.
There are beasts of all kinds just walking about without are and they are so plump that we ate for days, even the trees had so much fruit that we didn't want to leave.
The man telling the story laughed, you should have seen it, rivers filled with water, so clean we just stuck our heads in and drank, it was cold and tasted better than anything I've drunk in my entire life.
In the end, the siege failed because one of us felt like fighting anymore, I mean why would we, the man said to them
The man had said to them, ad when another gladiator said to the man why he even bothered coming back.
Isn't it obvious, the first ma said before a woman answered him.
She never bothered to get too close to the other gladiators because whenever she did, they would be forced to fight each other in the arena, she had learned to live her life separate from others, this way when she killed someone it wouldn't hurt.
She watched as women gave their final lessons to their daughters on how they should act, as to make themselves more appealing to the masters of the fortress
Everyone including herself was aiming for one of two things, either they would be looked upon by one of the fortress's inhabitants and be taken as a slave or be allowed to live outside of the towns and cities.
Normally slavery is someone everyone either wishes to avoid or escape and here they are hoping for it.
She looked down at herself and wondered if the scars she had received over the years would make her look unappealing to her new masters, or if they would seal her fate and she would be thrown into the arena to live what was left of her life as a gladiator.
She watched how most of the women practiced either standing a certain way or acted in a way to make themselves more sexually appealing and her attention changed to several gladiators practicing as they imagined themselves becoming guards.
She turned her attention back to the girl she had met before joining everyone who had heard about the mysterious kingdom.
Once again the girl was helping her mother this time she was helping the soulless woman stand up as the sun was already starting to come up.
It would be a couple of hours but it was better to start walking before the sun was out and they had no choice but to walk under the scorching heat.
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They walked towards the destination their guide took them no one knew if the men were taking them to the place they told them about or if they were just walking to their deaths.
In this world, the latter was far more possible.
Her mother and herself are what's left of their town, if there are any other people left they're either being worked to death or...it was better if she didn't think about it.
She had approached the Half-Elf woman because they are the same half-elves, it didn't mean anything, but they were currently surrounded by all sorts of people that might decide that they didn't like their elf halves.
Elves are by far the most wicked creatures that existed in the world, next to defilers.
Her mother was raised in a town that told away everyday farming and she had received the luxury of being able to grow up in a house with both a mother and father, that did care for her.
Every once in a while the Elves would come to their town to trade and her mother had fallen in love with one.
She wished her mother had never met her father.
Like all elves, her father ran the moment danger showed itself and she was just a small girl when she watched him run away.
The beast never bothered to turn back, he, no it just ran.
She watched how the townsmen fought the raiders and died protecting their loved ones.
Her grandfather died that day, the man was nowhere near young, but he wasn't old either.
That day her mother died inside, and ever since she did her best to keep the woman safe.
They walked for hours and when the sun had finally reached the point that it could and would cook them alive if they didn't find somewhere to hide from the sun's heat, they began to hear the sound of something moving in the distance.
The group kept quiet less they catch the attention of whatever horror was moving closeby.
Yet their guides, yes there are more of them now, the men only began to walk fasted ad she watched as they started to laugh when they saw what was making the sound.
Hesitantly everyone else followed the men's lead, and they were met with a sight that both filled them with fear and aww.
A massive centipede-like creature was spinning its skeletal body, creating a dust storm that hid it from view.
The only reason any of them could even see the creature's body was that whenever it stopped spinning the creature leaped forward and slammed into the ground.
When the dust storm calmed itself because the creature had moved on, she noticed that something had begun to follow the path where the creature had been.
When the wind blew, both herself and the rest of the people with her recognized the scent.
It was water, water was flowing into the long-dead earth, that greedily drank it as if it was someone that was about to die from thirst.
Who knows perhaps the world was dying and, the water that had been brought by the creature was helping it regain some of its life.
"Quickly," their guides said to them as they pointed at a black dot in the distance.
The men guided them to the recently created river but warned them not to drink from it.
The sun is on top of them now and several men and women nearly drowned when they fell into the river when they tried to use the cold muddy water to relieve themselves from the heat.
For whatever reason, their guides wouldn't allow them to go any further unless they help the fools.
Soon, the oldest and youngest amongst them had fallen and their guides ordered everyone to carry them.
"They're watching us," their guides said to them, as she looked around she didn't see anyone, but she helped carry the half-dead corpses when it was her turn.
Everyone walked and as they walked they began to notice that the water had started to change color, at first it was thick with mud, then it was a filthy brown, then a strange green, now it was was crystal clear.
'Everyone drink as much as you want" their guides said to them before sticking their heads into the river and immediately lifting themselves out.
She watched as the men gasped with delight, and even as the men smiled at the women that were accompanying them, the crowd around her threw themselves at the river and greedily drank from it.
She went down to get a hand full of water to give to her mother and when she returned to her spot where she had left there, she found that her mother was gone.
She began to look around in panic, then she found her mother close by walking almost as if she was in a daze.
She followed her mother and found herself looking at a field of green grass.
She ran to her mother's side and watched as the woman reached into a small hole in the ground and brought out a hand full of water.
The grass had started as small patches that didn't do anything t stop them from touching the hot dirt, then it was in such abundance that it could be considered a floor or a carpet.
She followed her mother, granted she could have already reached the woman, but she was already having difficulty believing if what she was seeing was real.
She watched as her mother stood in front of a tree and reached to pluck a fruit that hung from its branches, and as the woman bit into it, she watched as life returned to her mother's eyes.
She watched as her mother turned to look at her and for the first time in years the woman smiled.
"Did we die?" is this heaven"?' her mother asked her
She was bout to answer when the slow grumbling and the moans of massive beasts reached her ears and she felt her eyes widen at the sight that lay beyond where her mother stood.
Titanic beasts walked the lands, so plump that just one could feed a city for a month, not to mention everything that could be made from its bones and skin.
She turned to look at the people that had come with her and her mother and to her surprise, the woman she had met before joining everyone else stood next to her.
Yet the woman's eyes were locked on something, she nearly screamed at the sight before her, not just one but several dragons watched their surrounding, but ignored the people near them as they ignorantly walked alongside the river towards wherever their guides were taking them.
"Guards," the half-elf woman said
"The dragons are keeping their eyes out for danger," the half-elf woman said
The sounds of me and women cheering caught their attention and they noticed that men and women began to fight amongst themselves, but by the way, they moved none of them meant to do any harm to each other.
She knew what they were thinking, after all, it was the same thought, the half-elf, and her mother shad.
They had found paradise and would be dammed if they were forced to leave it.
It was time to get back to the group, everyone knew that there is safety in numbers.
"Come on," she said to her mother and she waited for the woman to take her hand, but to her surprise, the woman didn't move instead she turned around and pointed at something.
She felt her eye widen and her breath left her, the moment she saw what her mother was pointing at.
A massive figure white figure raised its hand and made rainfall around them, the rain didn't touch her or anyone walking alongside the river, instead, it touched the dry world that was just out of reach from her current location.