Chapter 18: into the city
Vaughn waited behind the grand arbiter as the gates opened up. The vanguard on either side of the arbiter kept in close proximity. Ka'jeal stood beside Vaughn and a vanguard stood beside both of them. A trail of apprentices and a few medics followed behind in formation. The gates to the great city opened and Vaughn was stunned.
Huge sky scrappers reached up into the air in the distance as far as he could see. Closer, there was row upon row of low buildings, each was surprisingly nice for appearing to be the slums, and a street carved its way right down the middle. They walked down the street at a brisk pace, never stopping. Hundreds of Yautja filled every nook and cranny, the females whom Vaughn was seeing for the first time were somewhat similar to the males, except for they lacked mandibles, and their hairline was closer up. Yautja children clung to their mothers or played in the alleyways. Most of them wore shades of brown and tan hide clothing of various sorts, some were warriors like the ones Vaughn had met so far, but they all seemed lower class. Some cheered as the arbiter's clan marched by, but none were quite. There was a low roar of talking (all in Yautja) as they all milled about. It was a sort of market place; shops set up along the sides of the street, Yautja all moving from one to the other. Everyone got out of the arbiter's way when he walked by, but it was not a thing of fear, but of respect. The arbiter himself signaled acknowledgement a few times when someone would yell a praise or cheer. Some yelled good luck, and others just yelled. The Yautja all looked at Vaughn in a funny way though, kind of like when a child sees someone of a different ethnic background, or some new animal for the first time. A kind of cautious curiosity. A few of the warriors flashed Vaughn a dirty look, but he barely noticed. Vaughn laughed a few times when someone would yell out something like "good-looking ooman arbiter!" And the arbiter would laugh when Vaughn yelled back "thanks" in Yautja. Needless to say they were pretty stunned.
The coliseum could be seen as they approached it, between the tall buildings and the market place like area. It closely resembled the roman coliseum (or apparently the roman coliseum resembled it) but on a larger scale. They arrived there a short time later, entering through a massive set of double doors. Past the doors was a hall that circled all the way around the coliseum. They walked to one of the smaller doors that lined the hall, and one of the vanguards opened it. "Ka'jeal, take the ooman here to prepare, the opening ceremonies will be soon." Ka'jeal nodded at what the arbiter had said and walked into the room. Vaughn followed, but before he could go into the room, the arbiter stopped him. "Good luck ooman" Vaughn bowed his head and stepped in. Vaughn and Ka'jeal sat in the room for what seemed like forever. The synthetic man was starting to get nervous, but Ka'jeal prepped him for the battle that lay ahead. They talked about some of the rules of the tournament; none really, just weapon restrictions mostly. And they talked about other things until a vanguard entered the room. "Its time" Ka'jeal and Vaughn stood and followed the vanguard into a much larger room.
The room was full of all different kinds of species. Vaughn was amazed to see all of the variety; he had no idea that there was so much intelligent life in the universe. But the appearance of one of the larger competitors made him rethink the intelligent part. All of the aliens here looked similar in a couple of ways. Two arms, two legs, bipedal. Most were from about five and a half feet to eight feet tall. Other than that they had various differences, skin color, eyes, mouths, ears, all different. Some even seemed to have thick leather skin that make them a little more armored than the others. Vaughn was the only human (well, synthetic human) but a few were similar. He took his place among them as Ka'jeal stood against a wall. Big doors creaked open and the crowd roared and light poured into the room.