The Dragon and the Hawke 33
Finally, the arena was opening. It had taken two months, six deaths, and a trio of disgruntled dragons to get there, but it was finished. With its opening, a grand games was arranged to celebrate this fact.
The first round of the day would pit every slaver that had tried to get their slaves into the games, against those very slaves. It was terribly ironic and in Marian's opinion a fitting level of harsh punishment.
The round didn't last very long, to the disappointment of most of the audience. As soon as Dany clapped her hands the slavers ran for the gates with their former property right on their heels. The former slaves, actually given weapons, proceeded to hack, slash, beat, and all around destroy their oppressors.
It warmed Maran's heart to see such enthusiastic violence aimed at the deserving. Tyrion was trying not to look to closely at what was happening. Sansa was imagining the slavers as the Boltons, Lord Tywin, and Cersei, so a smile was spreading across her lips at the sight of the bloodthirsty display. Missandei, who had grown up in Astapor as a slave to an Unsullied trainer, wasn't moved particularly in any direction. Dany was just glad that the issue was finally being settled. And Daario was bored watching the preliminaries.
After the corpses were carted off the sand, Dany stood. A hush fell over the audience as they waited in anticipation for the Empress's word. It was a quick speech, without much meat or message, only thanking them for coming to the pits, and for joining together in one aspect in the hope of joining together as a people in all others.
It got the message across without taking away from the overall force of it. She had learnt that she did not need to mince words with a people who already had faith in her as their ruler. Once she was finished with her speech, the Dragons flew over the arena and roared.
This was the signal for the real first round to begin.
Twenty men marched out onto the arena from the south gate. Each had the grim looks of veteran warriors, and the assured steps of men who knew each other's measure. Soon they arranged themselves in a tight square on their end of the arena. They turned to her and shouted out, "We thank you for the chance to prove our strength, oh grand Empress."
Dany smiles tightly, but the distance makes it look genuine, and she claps her hands.
The north gate opens and a pair of massive lions enter the arena. The audience hushes at the sight of the beasts. Creatures of the size that these lions would grow to, about twice the height of a normal man, were only found in the Shadow Lands beyond Asshai.
As the twenty man team and the lions face off, Missandei turns to her wife and asks, "Where did you manage to find such large monsters?"
Marian shrugs, "You remember the times I asked if I could test my newly minted breach making ability?"
"I do," Missandei nods, then raises an eyebrow, "You found them on one of those trips?"
"Yep," Marian nods, "Also found an old guy talking to a kid under a tree, some blue men, and an orgy."
Missandei thinks on that, wondering if she really wants to know. It takes her a while, but eventually she comes to the conclusion that no, she does not.
The matter drops, and both turn their attention back to the fights. Things were not looking good for the humans, with a full half their number in various states of dead or close enough not to make a difference. The lions were faring so much better that it was ridiculous; as it stood, they were essentially playing with their food at this point.
"Marian," Dany waves a hand to attract her friend's attention
"Yeah?"
"They did know what they were going to be fighting, correct?"
"Of course! I wouldn't just throw giant lions at people! That's a dick move, and I try to avoid those."
Dany nods, satisfied but still unhappy with the casual nature of their deaths. She watched in resignation as another of the fighters was swallowed by a lion, but then her eyes widened at the sight of one of the monsters wobbling. There is a collective gasp from the audience as a sword pierces the lion's stomach from the inside going out.
"Damn, that's hardcore," Marian notes as they watch the leader of the fighters cut his way out of the lion's stomach.
"What is that man's name?" Dany asks
"No idea," Marian tells her, "I think it starts with an H, or maybe a D, I'm not sure."
"It doesn't really matter," Tyrion notes, "After today he will be known by something else entirely."
"What do you think they'll call him?" Sansa asks for general discussion as they watch the man face off alone against the second lion
"Assuming he survives this?" Marian thinks, watching as the man rolls out of the way of a tackle and picks up a dropped claymore, "Probably Lionslayer."
"A boring title if ever there was one," Tyrion snorts
"Aye," Daario nods, "But look to old Mero as an example, man wasn't overly large, but he was a bastard. So when he slew Titan, he got his title."
"There was someone named Titan?" Marian asks
"It was an arena title," Daario tells her, "Big fucker, too. You ever hear of the Mountain that Rides?"
Tyrion, Sansa, and Dany all nod in distaste while Marian and Missandei shake their heads. To them, he explains, "Big guy, supposed to be around eight foot. Titan was bigger than that."
"So he got the name Titan's Bastard for killing Titan and being an asshole?" Marian asks
"Exactly."
"Huh, then I guess we've got to wait until one of his friend's name him, then," Marian frowns in disappointment, but shrugs.
All the while, the massive lion had been chasing the unlucky man around the arena. The man ducked and weaved, dived and dipped, rolled and dodged, all to stay only a breath away from the lion's jaws. People were cheering him on, and then yelled in horror as he trips.
The man falls onto his back, but rolls to the side almost as soon as he lands. The Lion slams into the ground where he had just lain, and then it roars in pain as the man's cleaver takes its right paw off.
The cheers start up again, even louder now, as the man stands and raises his claymore to the retreating monster. There is a stare down, both man and beast knowing that the next move would spell the end of one or both of them.
Unfortunately, nobody would truly know who the victor of that fight would have been, as quite suddenly there was pandemonium in the audience. Screams of pain and horror come from every section almost in unison as the Sons of the Harpy finally make their move. There weren't many of them, somewhere close to two hundred, and they were relying on the fear their first strike made to clear the area and open it up for them to charge the Empress and her retinue.
When they finally did reach the queen, they regretted it.
Marian and Daario were not pleased that two months worth of work was suddenly and violently rendered obsolete, and were killing any golden masked moron to even come within spitting distance of them.
Marian was so angry in fact, that she was going without magic to take out her opponents. If there were ever any suspicions that Marian would have been a weak woman without her magics had never seen her beat three men to death with her staff at the same time.
The one, and probably only, silver lining to the catastrophe that was the terrorist attack by the Sons, was that Daario had a feeling that they would try something like this. Almost immediately after the pandemonium started, the gates were barred from the outside, and only in a single file pile were people getting out.
So the Harpies were trapped in the arena, and quickly figuring that out. After the initial fear wore off, and people began to realize that there were only a few of the bastards around, anger set in.
Nobody messes with the Fighting Pits. It had been an unspoken but accepted rule back when Meereen was still run by the Great Masters, that nobody could instigate violence in the arena if they were not part of the competition. If violence was instigated, the troublemakers were tossed into the arena to either die or settle their differences.
As a result, there were new types of screams being heard around the arena. They consisted of shock, fear, and then a sudden cut off that indicated the screamer had hit the ground. This happened all across the arena, forcing the Sons of the Harpy out into the Pit, with the Giant Lion that had forgotten its original opponent.
Marian, Dany, and the rest of their collected friends, advisors, and loved ones, watched with satisfaction as the last of the old guard of Meereen went screaming down the lion's gullet.
"Do you think he'll get along with the dragons?" Tyrion asks, deciding then and there that the Lion would be his
Marian smirks, and then offers, "Let's find out."