Kaitlyn had tried to be good. She really had. She had tried to be friendly and open and easily brush off people's comments, but unfortunately, Kaitlyn was naturally a little temperamental.
Still, she had spent most of the morning going around and introducing herself to adult angels, asking them how they were doing, seeing if she could help them in any way, and things like that. And at first, it seemed to go well. Most of them were a little lost and forgetful and were happy to have help finding arenas and certain temples and things of that sort. Kaitlyn left her multiple weapons at her house, so as not to freak out the other angels with her gun and pistols.
Give them no reason to hate me or think differently of me…Kaitlyn thought throughout the whole process. That was what she was trying to do, make a good impression. She wanted them to respect and accept her, so she tried to act as angel-ish as possible, which came out to be a perky, smiley Kaitlyn that she altogether didn't know even existed.
"You, blue feathers, which way to the archery arena?"
Kaitlyn turned around to face the voice and put on a smile. "Down that street, then take a right. You can't miss it!"
The angel, along with a group of others, all began to walk towards her. They were all male angels; the smallest was taller than her by at least a head. The one in the front was of middle height, with dark grey hair, pale skin, and dark gold eyes. The group stopped in front of Kaitlyn and the one in the front, obviously the leader, raised an eyebrow. "I don't recognize you at all. Are you new?"
Kaitlyn nodded, trying to sound as happy as possible. "Yes, I am!"
The angel's eyes narrowed, then widened for a moment. "Hey, wait, you're the human girl, aren't you! The one Lady Palutena gave wings too."
Kaitlyn held back a breath of annoyance. "Yes, that's me."
A mischievous glint came into the man's eyes. "Ah, I've been wondering what Palutena's human pet looked like. No wonder she keeps you around. You're awfully pretty for a human."
Kaitlyn sucked in a breath and let it out silently, trying to brush off the "human pet" comment. "I'll take that as a compliment," she managed to say with a smile.
The man looked at her and smiled, though it hardly matched his gleaming eyes. "So what do they call you?"
"My name is Kaitlyn," the blonde said. She was trying not to grit her teeth together in annoyance, but she was having a hard time of it.
"Kaitlyn? What an unusual name."
"I'm not hearing you offer yours," Kaitlyn said sharply.
The man shook his head, his dark hair falling in front of his eyes. "Forgive me. My name is Osprey, and my friends here are Kingfisher, Buzzard, and Redtail."
Kaitlyn crossed her arms. "Well, where I'm from, those names are considered more than unusual."
"No need to get touchy," Osprey said. "I want to know what you're competing in, that's all!"
"Wrestling," Kaitlyn said sharply, "and javelin, but wrestling is what I'm really interested in winning."
Osprey gave a short laugh. "Really? Wrestling? You're looking at the top wrestler of Corinthia." He puffed his chest out in pride, the white and grey feathers on his wings flaring and fluffing themselves out.
"You?" Kaitlyn looked the angel up and down. In human years, he couldn't have been older than eighteen years old, and he wasn't all that large. His shoulders were hardly broad, and his waist was thin. He didn't actually look all that strong. "You're a wrestler? And the best Corinthia has to offer? Then I guess this match will be easier to win than I thought."
"Oh, you think so?" Osprey threw his hands out and shoved Kaitlyn backwards. She gave a small cry as she fell, throwing back her arms to try and catch herself. But she didn't need to. One of the other angels from Osprey's little group was behind her and he shoved her back, laughing.
Kaitlyn yelled in anger as she was pushed back and forth in the small circle by the three angels. "Get off of me!" she screamed, but she realized there was no one there to hear her. They were all at the archery competition.
"Or what?" Osprey said with a laugh. Kaitlyn's arms were held by two of the angels so she faced Osprey. His face was smug with delight. Kaitlyn's lips pulled back in a snarl of disgust. "You're nothing more than a pet to the goddess. Why else would she have you up here? You're nothing more than a common mutt." He looked Kaitlyn up and down for a moment, hand on his chin. "You know any tricks, mutt?"
"Why are you doing this?" Kaitlyn snapped. "So I'm a human turned angel. Why should you care? You don't even live here!"
Osprey frowned, his golden eyes meeting Kaitlyn's green. "This is a pure, sacred world, free of human filth. All you're doing is making it worse. Maybe if you're taught a lesson, you'll learn not to come back. That's what dogs do, right? Learn tricks?"
Something inside of Kaitlyn snapped, and before she knew what she was doing. She had ripped her arms away from the angels and pinned Osprey to the ground, fist held directly over his face. The mischief in his face was gone, replaced by a spark of fear that Kaitlyn found incredibly satisfying. "I'm going to make you pay for saying that to me," she hissed.
She nearly punched him in the face. She would have liked to, but she knew that if she accidentally hit him wrong, she could easily do more damage than she had been intending. So instead she shifted her position and slammed her fist into Osprey's stomach, upwards toward the diaphragm. She could hear the air leave his lungs, and Osprey gave a loud cry, wheezing for breath.
Kaitlyn stood up, her feet straddling Osprey's body. "See you at the match," she said in her most menacing tone. She hardly had to turn to catch sight of the other three angels, who had stood by and watched in fear as Kaitlyn punched their leader. "Stay out of my way," she snapped and rustled the feathers on her wings as she left.
Now she needed to find Nighthawk.
Pit stood next to Kaitlyn and sighed briefly. "And that's how it happened?"
Kaitlyn shrugged. "More or less. I want to get this stupid event over with now."
"Why? You were so excited about it before!"
Kaitlyn's green eyes were narrowed angrily. "Because if I'm going to earn respect from the angels, then I have to show them I'm at least half as tough as they are. And I'm going to do it by winning this tournament!"
Pit rubbed his face with one hand, trying desperately to understand. "Kaitlyn, you could have done that tomorrow, when the contest was supposed to take place. Why make it now? I get that you aren't so happy because of Osprey, but honestly, you took his down already! Why move the contest up?"
"Because," Kaitlyn said sharply. "If I don't do it now, Osprey will probably tell everyone that I beat him up for no good reason, or something stupid like that, and then I'll be disqualified or shunned or something else like that. I need to do this now. Nighthawk took care of everything. I'll see you at the Wrestling Arena in ten minutes." Kaitlyn took off in a flash of blue feathers, flying slowly up out of the arena and out of sight.
Pit groaned and sighed before taking off himself in the direction of the large announcer's box, where he knew both Lyre and Lady Palutena would be. Somehow, he didn't think this would end very well.
"Lady Palutena." Pit landed on the platform and bowed. He noticed that all the angels were leaving to go to the Wrestling Arena. It was like a mass exodus. He took a deep breath and turned back to Palutena, who was alone in the box. "I don't think this is going to go so well."
Palutena looked at Pit and cocked her head. "What will?"
"You know, the wrestling match. Kaitlyn is not happy, and this could end really badly."
"Kaitlyn?"
Pit nodded. "Yeah. She's the one who started all of this. And if she gets even angrier, we could have some seriously injured angels. You know she's a little temperamental…well…very temperamental…Lady Palutena, are you alright?"
The goddess' face was nearly blank, as though she was watching something she found vaguely interesting but that she really had no comment on. She looked at Pit with green eyes that were glazed over, as though she had been staring at a screen for too long. "What are you talking about?"
Pit swallowed, motioning to the arena, which was nearly empty at this point. "Aren't you even a little worried that this could end badly?"
"What could end badly?"
Pit stared at the goddess, narrowing his eyes. "Lady Palutena, are you sure you're alright?"
"Why wouldn't I be alright?"
Something was very, very wrong, and Pit couldn't help but get a sick feeling in his stomach. "Lady Palutena, do you know who's going to be competing in the tournament? Who started all of this?"
The green eyes narrowed and Palutena looked as though she was trying hard to think. "No…not that I can remember…"
Pit took a long breath, looking out to the sky, now filled with angels. He needed to go and watch Kaitlyn's match to make sure it didn't get out of hand. But there was obviously something wrong with Lady Palutena. He gritted his teeth and let out a long breath. "I'll be back in a little while. I need to go and make sure Kaitlyn is alright. Okay?"
Palutena nodded. "Okay. Have fun."
Pit managed a weary half-smile. "Will do." He took off and shot out of the booth to the other arena. It was around the same size as the Archery Arena, but set up for hand-to-hand sports. A platform had been erected in the center of the arena, making it rise up above the ground level so the angels would be able to see better. Pit made his way to one of the open levels and landed there, sitting down on a bench. The other angels were hooting and hollering for their favorite angels, showing their city pride. Pit was too distracted to join in.
"Well, isn't this a surprising turn of events."
"Nighthawk!" Pit turned to his friend, who had sat next to him. In his hands was his trust clipboard, which he was once again, scribbling notes on. Pit suddenly felt incredibly upset at his friend. "How could you let this happen?!" He yelled angrily. "We both know Kaitlyn can be rough when she's angry!"
Nighthawk narrowed his eyes, not looking at Pit. "But she's trying to defend her reputation. I thought that was the plan all along."
"Yeah, but it wasn't supposed to end up like this!" Pit yelped, motioning to the angels who had come into the arena so that they could compete. Kaitlyn stood off on her own, arms crossed and eyes narrowed.
"Well, that's kind of what happened!" Nighthawk snapped. "I didn't have a whole lot of choice on the matter! If something goes wrong, we can always intervene. But for now, we should just let it go."
Pit took a long breath and groaned, head in his hands. He just knew this was not the way it was supposed to happen. If something went wrong, Kaitlyn's reputation could go even further down the drain. "Nighthawk," he finally said, "something's wrong with Lady Palutena."
"Like what?"
"She's so…out of it. I don't think she's tired or anything. But something's seriously wrong with her. She keeps on forgetting who everyone is."
The dark-skinned angel raised an eyebrow. "Well, that's unusual, but it's probably just the stress of everything getting to her."
"You think so?"
"We all deal with stress differently. It's not like you freak out as much as I do when you're under a time crunch."
"Yeah, I just sing weird songs," Pit replied. "Still, don't you think it's odd that—?"
"Pit! There you are!"
The brown-haired angel turned to see Magpie land into the empty seat next to him. Her dark feathers brushed against his skin as she drew close. "I was wondering where you were!" Pit felt her long fingers interlace with his. "You flew off so fast before that we didn't get to have a good conversation."
Pit sighed. "Not to be mean, Magpie, but this isn't the best time."
"Why not?" She raised a thin eyebrow. "I thought you said we'd do lunch?"
It's not lunch time, Pit thought. But that didn't sound very appropriate to say to the angel girl. "It's just that…we're a bit busy…and I'm here to make sure Kaitlyn is okay."
"Kaitlyn?" Magpie turned to look at the field. "You mean the human girl? I've heard so much about her! Is she competing?"
Pit gently pulled his hand away from hers. For some reason, Magpie was making him feel a little uncomfortable, though he wasn't sure why. "Yeah, she is. We're here to…um…support her."
Magpie scooted closer to Pit, so her shoulder touched his. "Is she a close friend of yours?"
"Yeah. She's kind of—."
"She's not as pretty as I thought she'd be."
Pit forgot what he was going to say. He shook his head. "Wait, what?"
Magpie shrugged. "I mean, she's kind of exotic looking. But she's not a beauty to behold, if you know what I mean."
Pit's lips tightened. "No, I don't."
"Now, don't take this the wrong way, Pit. I'm sure she has a great personality. But when it comes to angelic beauty, she's just not as…flawless as other angel girls."
Pit wasn't sure what taking that comment the wrong way was, but he wasn't very happy with it. "Wait a minute, hold on, are you saying that—."
"Welcome to the Wrestling Tournament!"
Pit was once again cut off in mid-sentence, this time by Lyre, who had taken her place in the upper box. Pit couldn't see it very well from his angle, but he wondered if Palutena was up there as well. She was supposed to be, but judging by her condition, she could easily not be there.
"This has been an interesting turn of events, ladies and gentlemen! The wrestling match that was going to occur tomorrow has been switched to today! So get ready to watch some serious fighting!"
The crowd whooped and cheered. Pit wasn't surprised. Angels were very excitable creatures and unexpected things made them very animated. Still, he wasn't really all that focused on the match anymore. He shot a look at the angel next to him. "Magpie!" He yelled, trying to be heard over the crowd. "What are you saying about Kaitlyn?"
She didn't seem to hear him, so Pit merely pinched his lips and turned back to the field, where the first match was about to start. Pit wasn't all the interested in the match, actually. Kaitlyn wasn't fighting in this round. So he watched with only mild curiosity.
The angels hollered and cheered as the match finished and one angel went away victorious. The second match quickly started. Kaitlyn fought in this one, so Pit actually watched with interest. He observed her closely. She seemed intensely focused as she flew up to the platform. She landed and nonchalantly began to stretch a little, starting with her arms and then touching her toes. Her opponent grinned at her, eyes narrow and dark. He obviously didn't think she was a threat to him. Pit wasn't sure if he should feel sorry for the guy. He didn't know what he was dealing with.
In fact, the match ended quickly. Kaitlyn was heavier and stronger than her opponent and soon had him on the ground, pinned down. After Lyre called the match in Kaitlyn's favor, she let her opponent up. Pit was relieved to see her smile a little when they shook hands and the two of them left on good terms.
Maybe this won't be so bad after all, Pit thought. Kaitlyn seems to be doing well enough.
Nighthawk nudges his friend. "She's pretty strong."
"And you doubted that?"
He snorted. "No. I've just never seen her in action before."
Pit nodded. He hadn't seen Kaitlyn fight for a while now, and even then, she never used her full strength. Now she was able to without fear of really injuring someone, especially the younger angels she usually trained with.
The matches went by quickly, and the best angels were the ones that won all of their matches with ease. In the end, Pit could see the two who would end up in the finals. Kaitlyn was obviously one of them. She was physically stronger than just about all of the other angels, and her fighting style was very different. She had been trained on Earth. All of the angels had been trained by mostly the same teachers, while Kaitlyn had spent years being trained by completely different instructors. So she had an advantage.
The other angel wasn't a surprise either. Gyrfalcon was small, but incredibly strong for an angel, and Pit wondered if he might actually be able to match Kaitlyn's strength. Also, he didn't fight in the traditional angel way, with a lot of ducking and weaving and jumping out of the way. He was more like Kaitlyn: confrontational.
So when it was time for the final match, Pit was nearly gripping the marble bench in anticipation. Up to this point, Kaitlyn hadn't shown any signs of losing her temper. But now that it was the final round, and she was against one of the best angel fighters in history, she might have reason to let loose her inner beast.
"Well, ladies and gentlemen, hasn't this been an exciting match!" Lyre's voice once again rose over the crowd in a way that no other angel could do. "The final round will choose the winner of the wrestling competition! Please welcome to the field our competitors!"
"On the right, the Master of Battles, the King of the Arena, and the Champion of Lady Palutena herself, Gyrfalcon of Pallasa!"
Pit gritted his teeth as the crowd burst into cheers. Pounding, stomping, screaming…the angels were aware of Gyrfalcon's legendary fights, and they were looking for a good fight today.
"And on the left, sharpshooting extraordinaire and the first ever human to fight in an angel tournament, I give you…Kaitlyn!"
The crowd's response to Kaitlyn was interested, but obviously not as invested as it was Gyrfalcon. Kaitlyn held up her hand in a short wave. She narrowed her eyes and stared across the arena at Gyrfalcon, who was looking out into the crowd and nodding. Pit knew she was scrutinizing his every move, trying to figure out exactly how he would attack and defend. She had watched his matches earlier, so maybe she had some idea. Pit wasn't all the sure.
Nighthawk nudged him in the side. "Well, here we go."
Pit nodded, wringing his fingers together in anticipation.
Magpie put a hand on Pit's shoulder. "Don't worry. I'm sure Falcon won't hurt her that badly."
Pit jumped to his feet, suddenly very angry. "KAITLYN!" He yelled out. "YOU CAN DO IT!"
A few angels turned and stared in surprise. Pit watched as Kaitlyn turned and waved, a small smile on her face. She gave him a quick thumbs up before turning back to Gyrfalcon.
Pit couldn't help but give a smug look to Magpie. "I think she'll be fine."
The girl's lips pinched together tightly and she turned away. Pit, despite his annoyance, was still slightly confused. What had happened to Magpie? She used to be so much fun to practice with. Had her time in Corinthia really changed her that much?
"Get ready!" Lyre shouted. "Get set! FIGHT!"
Gyrfalcon moved with such speed that Pit could hardly track him. In moments, Kaitlyn was flat on her back, and she gave a small cry of surprise. Falcon had grabbed her foot and pulled it out from under her. Kaitlyn's free leg wrapped around Flacon's neck and jerked it away from her, forcing him to let go of her foot. Kaitlyn hurriedly stood up, facing Falcon with hands up in front of her face. Before he could compose himself, she threw a high kick to his face. But with lightning speed, he grabbed her leg and twisted. The girl lost her balance, but fell in such a way as to grab Falcon's lower leg. She jerked hard and they both fell to the ground.
Kaitlyn was on top for a moment, then Falcon, then Kaitlyn. Kaitlyn grabbed his arms and forced them behind his head, then sprawled herself on top of him, using her unorthodox human weight to force Gyrfalcon into submission.
"And the first round goes to Kaitlyn!"
Nearly panting, Kaitlyn stood and shoved a fist into the air. The crowd cheered politely, but they all seemed to be a little shocked that the human girl had bested their legendary fighter.
Falcon stood up, dusting himself off. He turned to Kaitlyn and nodded in approval, who nodded back with her head high. They both went back to their corners and readied themselves.
The second round went much quicker than the first. Again, Falcon didn't wait for Kaitlyn to move. He charged, head low, straight into Kaitlyn. The girl was forced back into the wall of the arena, unable to get a grip onto him. He grabbed both of her legs and pulled, flipping her onto her back and slamming her to the ground. The air was completely knocked out of her lungs and she gasped for air as Gyrfalcon took the opportunity to hold her on the ground.
Pit munched on his lower lip. His hands were clenched into fists, his nails digging into his palms. One more round…one more round…
Round three began much more slowly. Both Kaitlyn and Falcon were more cautious than before and circled each other for a while. Both held themselves low to the ground, knees bent and hands high to protect their heads.
Gyrfalcon threw a fist to the side of Kaitlyn's head, which she blocked. With a yell, she charged at him and tacked him to the ground. The crowd gasped in excitement. The two scuffled on the ground for a while, but eventually came back up and went back into their earlier defensive positions.
Falcon threw a punch, which Kaitlyn dodged easily. But he hadn't meant it to hit. It was his distraction. Before Kaitlyn was aware of what was going on, she slammed into the ground from the force of a powerful roundhouse kick. Falcon tried to come and straddle her so as to keep her grounded, but she threw up her feet at the last moment, catching him in the stomach and forcing him away. She rose to her feet, her breaths heavy. Falcon seemed to be having an equally difficult time breathing.
It seemed the finale had finally come. Both of them lowered their heads, yelled, and charged. Pit held his breath. This was it…
A flash of light came from the arena, momentarily blinding the audience. What the heck? Pit thought. Can Gyrfalcon do magic? Isn't that against the rules?
When the angels could see again, and audible gasp came from the crowd.
Kaitlyn and Gyrfalcon were on opposite sides of the arena, trying to stand up. In the center of the arena stood a figure. Hands on her hips, black hair streaming out behind her, and black and white wings extended.
Since when had she disappeared? Pit realized now that Magpie wasn't sitting next to him any longer, but how had she left so quietly? Taking off wasn't exactly a quiet action, and her wings alone would have been easy to see out of the corner of his eye.
Magpie clapped her hands slowly, a smile on her face and eyes bright. "Very good, you two! Kaitlyn, I had no idea you were such a good fighter! I must remember not to underestimate you in the future!"
"Magpie?" Gyrfalcon had managed to stand after being blasted into the wall. "What the—."
"And you, Gyrfalcon!" Magpie turned to him. "The stories are true after all! I always thought Hades was making the whole story up, but it seems you can really best the strongest. Too bad the strongest here was only a little human girl. It's kind of embarrassing that she held up so well, don't you think?"
Kaitlyn stood up as well, glaring at Magpie. "What are you doing here, we were—." She suddenly cut off, eyes widening for a moment. "Hold on…Hades…"
"Oh, right!" Magpie put a finger under her chin, thinking. "You're the human girl who helped defeat Medusa. I'll have to have you know, she's not very happy about being back in the Underworld. But then again, who is? I was there for much longer than both of them combined!"
The dark haired angel girl sighed at their blank, confused expressions. "Really? This disguise is that good? Oh well, it was fun while it lasted!"
Magpie clapped her hands together hard and at once, a bubble of purple and black swirls appeared around her. The sphere filled with black mist, making it impossible to see inside.
Pit threw himself in the air, trying to fly down to the arena. But the sphere that Magpie had disappeared into was letting off a powerful force into the air around it, causing Pit to not be able to get much closer than twenty feet away. He tried to scream Kaitlyn's name out, but no sound came from his lips. He was effectively stuck in the sphere's aura.
After a moment, the sphere died away, releasing the black mist from inside. It fell to the ground, revealing the shape inside. A tall figure rose from the dark air, a bare foot stepping out onto the ground. Pit stayed hovering nearby, unaware that he could move once again.
"You see? Disguises can be quite effective. Hades never believed me, of course. He's always the one for dramatic flair." The figure tossed back a strand of blood red hair, which hung straight and long down her back.
Pit finally found himself able to land, and he did so right next to Kaitlyn. The figure before them was tall, probably taller than Lady Palutena. She had pale, sallow skin and a thin complexion all together. She was clothed in a full length true red dress, which looked as though it had been cut from a single piece of fabric. Her feet were bare of any shoes, and she walked delicately, as though she were walking across glass.
She gave Pit a smile, thought it hardly reached the deep wildness of her dark eyes. "And you must be Pit. A pleasure to meet you. Hades and Medusa speak very highly of your accomplishments."
Pit's bow was already out, having been split into two blades. "Who are you?" he asked, eyes narrowed and voice low. "And what are you doing here?"
"Oh, how silly. I forgot to introduce myself. My name is Eris."
Pit blinked. "Never heard of you."
The woman looked slightly shocked. "Really? Well, of course, it's been a while since I've been upworld. You'll have to do a little more research if you want Lady Palutena to ever remember who you are agai—."
"What are you talking about?!" Pit yelled, blades held up in a threatening position. "What did you do to Lady Palutena?!"
Eris tossed back another loose strand of hair back nonchalantly. "Pit, if we're going to get to know each other better, you'll have to know that I'm a goddess of action, not of words. So here, let me show you…"
The woman held up her hand and in her palm, a small sphere appeared. Pit inches forward slowly, squinting a little. After a moment, the image came into focus. It was a young woman, chained to a wall. She appeared to have long, powder blue hair that was done up in a messy ponytail. She appeared to be sleeping, though Pit couldn't be sure.
"Who is that?" Pit asked suspiciously.
Eris smiled. "Come on, you expect me to tell you? If you know who she is, you'll know what I did."
"That's it?" Pit snapped. "If that's all you're going to say, then why tell us anything?"
Eris thought for a moment, then shrugged. "Pit, one day you'll learn that it's about the chase, not about the end goal. I'm confident enough in my abilities that I'm happy to play a little game with you."
She turned as though to go, but turned her head back after a moment. "Oh, and Pit? You have a week to find what you're looking for."
And with that, the red-haired woman disappeared into a cloud of black mist.
Sorry for any grammatical or spelling errors...still working those out. I had a hard time typing today and my fingers do not seem to want to go where I want them to, for some reason.
Anyhow, here's the thing: in a little over a month, I'm moving about halfway across the country to go to college. Until then, I have a full-time job. I will try to writer as often as possible, but if I don't update for a week or so, it's because I'm working and can't find time to write. I often help close the store that I work at, and therefore find it really hard to write when I get back home at around 9:00 pm and am dead tired because I've been running around for nearly 8 hours.
Still, I'll try to write as often as I can. After all, the story is just starting to get interesting :) If you can guess who the blue-haired person is, you're psychic. But she'll be introduced soon. As for Eris, she's actually starting to really interest me. So I'm pretty sure I'm bringing her in more.
Well, until next time! I'd love reviews, if you feel so inspired to write one.
~Pixie
