Shadow Claw
By Blue Dragon-sy

Chapter 4:
The Baycross Tournament

“Wow, the food here’s really different from what we eat in back home, huh Raph?” Camus asked as the two of them made their way up the stairs towards their room after dinner.

“It’s too spicy!” the younger brother stated, giving a disgusted expression. “It’s so spicy that my mouth’s on fire! I simply can’t understand why you can eat plates and plates of it!”

“And I don’t understand why YOU can’t eat all that heavenly food!”

“Heavenly food, you say?” Rapheon shook his head. “Huh, I’d say the food’s from hell. I bet that's why it’s so spicy.”

He shrugged. “Well, ANYWAY, let’s just stop arguing about this, okay?”

“Fine with me.”

They glared at each other for a moment, and then burst out laughing – they could never really stay mad at each other for long, and most arguments they had weren’t really arguments since they did it only to tease the other.

It was three days after they left the town of Goran, and earlier that day they arrived at the river city of Baycross. This huge, prosperous city was floating on the wide Henara River, which was so wide that even the city couldn’t reach both ends at once, so boatmen there make money by sending people across the waters. Rapheon had been glad that this time, the inn they were staying at did not have any rough looking people, only people who looked like adventurers or casually-clothed townspeople.

“Hey, what’s this?” Camus said when they arrived at their door, and reached out to pull out the piece of paper stuck on it. He looked around and saw that similar papers were stuck on other people’s doors as well, so he read it as he opened the door.

Rapheon entered the room first, turned and glanced at the paper as his brother closed the door. “What is it?”

“Hm…” The older of the two sat on the bed and read the paper aloud, “It says that there’s a tournament going on three days later. Fighters from all over the world gather… blah blah blah…” He threw the paper towards the table, where it slid towards the opposite end. “It’s nothing interesting.”

He shrugged. “Even if we’re interested, I guess we can’t exactly waste time.”

He started to move towards his bed, but as he did, his steps suddenly became slower. His head tilted forwards, his body swaying a little in a futile attempt to stay balanced, then his whole body leaned forward and, to his brother’s horror, collapsed onto the floor.

“Raph!” Camus panicked and immediately rushed to his side. “Raph?! What happened?!”

“I… I feel… dizzy…” the boy muttered, then he became still.

This only made Camus even more afraid. “Hang on, Raph!” He reached around his pockets for a potion. “Hang on! I’ll…! I’ll…” A strange wave of dizziness washed over him before he could do anything else, and he fell sideways onto the floor as well.

Just before he fell unconscious, however, he heard the loud creak of the door swinging open and a gruff voice saying, “Looks like we’ve got them. The boss is definitely paying us big bucks now!”

 

When Camus finally woke up, at first he couldn’t see anything at all. He remained still, afraid that he might have lost his sight, but luckily that wasn’t the case as soon his eyes began to adjust to the darkness. He sat up slowly and looked around to see where he was.

A… prison?

It certainly was a prison cell, one with a feeling of gloom. So gloomy that it could drive a prisoner to madness within days.

On the single wall was a small window with steel bars across it, where the moon was shining brightly through. The other three sides of the cell were more steel bars, each bar so close to the next that it was impossible to slip between them, even for the smallest child. Through these bars, he could see the prison in front of him, which was filled with things that always gave him the shivers whenever he saw them – human bones.

Maybe… maybe he was starved to death… or tortured to death…

He stared at the bones for a long time, thinking of what could have happened here and if his life would end that way as well. When he finally forced himself to look away, he reached up to his forehead to wipe away the beads of sweat that were forming there, and only then he noticed that there was a plain steel tiara around his head. He tried to remove it, but the moment he gave the slightest tug at it, a rush of electricity ran through him. The concentrated energy wasn’t strong enough to make him unconscious again, but it was enough to stun him for a moment.

Once he regained control of his body, he shook his head to clear his mind, but then at that time his right hand touched something like a piece of cloth beside him. He jumped a little, and then gave a cry of surprise and fear.

It was his brother, but he was lying on the ground and breathing weakly and heavily as if gasping for air. There was that same steel tiara on his sweating forehead as well, and his face was ghastly pale.

“R-Raph!” Camus exclaimed, panicking once again.

Rapheon wearily looked up at him “So… you’re… awake…”

“What happened to you?!” He put a hand on his brother’s forehead to wipe his sweat away, but gasped and quickly pulled his hand away. “It’s so hot! Are you sick or something?!”

“In case you haven’t guessed by now, he’s been poisoned,” a squawky voice filled the cell.

Camus turned towards the voice and saw three men entering the prison area. The first man was exceedingly short and fat, looking very similar to a pig in a silky purple cloak, the rings decorating his fingers and the gold chain around his neck showed that he was an extremely rich man. His head only had a few strands of black hair on it, and he had a thin, curly moustache that looked as though it was drawn on his face with black paint.

The other two men behind him – probably the short man’s body guards – stayed silent. Both wore green armour sets that covered every part of their body but the head, and a sword was strapped around each of their waists. One of them was a young eighteen-year-old with short brown eyes that shone with certain softness in them, unlike his master whose eyes shone with evil. The other, on the other hand, was a black-haired man about third with a moustache, beard and a grouchy face.

“I am Hugo Van Logan,” the short man said, smiling somewhat evilly even though it made him look even more comical. “The richest man in Baycross.”

Camus angrily shook a fist towards him as he sprang to his feet, looking as though he wanted to bash the prison door down. “I don’t care if you’re my uncle’s DOG!! What the hell did you do to Raph?!!”

The pig-like man twirled his moustache with a finger. “I force fed him the Grayland Poison, he’ll be dead in a few days!” He laughed – one would say that he was trying to sound like a typical villain, but he sounded completely ridiculous, rather like a squawking fat parrot. “I’m in luck today; I managed to find a Sora-Ryuken fighter, so I had my men drug your food when you weren’t looking and poisoned the boy while you were out cold!” With that, he cackled again.

The elder brother growled. “Grr… you…!!”

He took a small vial with sky-blue liquid in it from his purple cloak and raised it above his eye level, waving it slowly. “I have the only antidote for the poison in the whole city, and that tiara around your head will stop you from going beyond city gates; you’ll be electrocuted to death before you can even lay a foot outside Baycross!” Then he lowered his voice, to the point Camus had trouble hearing him. “But since I’m in a good mood today, I’ll give you the antidote if you do one thing for me.”

The green-haired man hated this, but he didn’t have a choice – his brother’s life was staked on this. He forced himself to calm down and lower his hand, frowning in an attempt to contain his anger. “…what do you want?”

“I want your friend there… what’s his name again?”

“…Rapheon.”

“Ah, yes. Well, I want him to compete in the Baycross yearly tournament three days from today, and what’s more, I want him to become the champion.”

“But he can’t fight in that condition!!” Camus yelled.

Hugo waved his hand nonchalantly. “Ah, he’ll be fine. After all, Sora-Ryuken fighters are known to be powerful, aren’t they?”

“…” He forced himself not to stay silent, since he didn’t trust himself to say anything nice when he was certainly ready to burst in a rage of fire.

“And I’ll let you both walk free until the day of the tournament.” The pig-like man glanced over a shoulder. “Falkoner.”

The younger of the two bodyguards saluted. “Yes, Master Hugo!”

“Kindly escort them to the entrance.”

“As you wish!”

As Hugo and the other bodyguard walked away, the jailer near the dungeon entrance got up and saluted as they went by. Camus kept staring at them until they were out of sight, and then turned back to his brother and proceeded to hoist him on his back.

However, Falkoner, who stayed behind, opened the cell door with a key and approached nearer while taking a vial from his item pouch. “Here, this might help h–”

“Don’t you come any nearer!” Camus snarled at him, making him jump back in surprise – especially after what that damned bastard did, he wasn’t about to trust anyone just because of a little kindness. No, this green-armoured bodyguard might be plotting to kill him as well!

He shook his head slowly, still holding the vial with the colourless liquid inside. “Don’t worry, this is just poison repelling potion, it’ll help to repel the poison for a while and help focus his mind.”

Camus got to his feet, glaring at the eighteen-year-old who was a little shorter than him. “Why should I trust you? You’re with that Hugo guy, aren’t you?!”

Falkoner stood still, with no sign of fear on his face. “…no, I’m not.” He spoke in a low voice, so that the jailer couldn’t hear him. “It doesn’t matter if you don’t believe me, but I’m on your side. At least let me help you out.”

The green-haired man was at a loss. He knew that he shouldn’t trust this young man at all, but for some reason he felt he could. He would if they met in under different circumstances, but however, trusting him now would mean costing Rapheon’s life.

He slowly nodded, but his glaring eyes were still on the young man before him. “Fine, lead us outside… but that doesn’t mean that I trust you!”

The bodyguard smiled. “I’ll keep that in mind.” He waved a hand in one direction. “This way, please.”

Hoisting the boy onto his back, Camus followed the young man outside. When he was out of the dark dungeons and set foot in the main hall of Hugo’s mansion, he stared in awe at his surroundings – the ceiling was so high that it would take a bird quite a while to reach it, the floor was carpeted in red, and the lights were dazzling enough to blind someone. This was certainly not a place he had seen before.

After a while, they arrived outside the mansion, standing in the light of the setting sun. The scene reminded him that he had to find a place for the night, or at least a place where Rapheon could rest properly. It would be hard, considering that all they had left were their weapons, not even a healing potion or a single Gorul coin.

Falkoner, however, spoke as though he was able to read his mind, “I know where you can stay for the night for free. It’s this way.”

The elder brother followed without a word. This young man seemed nice, but after all, he worked for Hugo.

Damn! Should I trust him or not?!

“Camus…” a voice whispered into his ear, startling him out of his thoughts and making him jump. But he sighed in relieved when he found that it was only his brother.

“Yeah, what is it?” he asked softly, keeping his eyes on Falkoner’s back as to not get lost.

“He… Falkoner can be trusted…”

“Huh? Are you sure? Why do you think so?”

There was a slight pause. “…I… I don’t know… A voice spoke… inside me…”

He shook his head. “A voice? Raph, are you sure you’re not dreaming?”

Only silence replied him this time, for the young boy had slipped back into unconsciousness. Camus sighed – perhaps the fever from the poison had made his brother hear things.

However… he could be right…

 

Within a few minutes, they arrived at the slums right at the edge of the city. Again, this wasn’t a place that Camus had seen before – the houses were rather shabby and looked as though a single touch to the wall would make them crumble. Some of them were horribly dirty.

Falkoner led them past those dirty houses and towards a cluster of cleaner looking ones, and stopped to turn at the door of a particularly clean small stone house.

“You can stay here for a while,” he stated, and then turned back to the door and opened it.

The elder brother didn’t say anything, but just followed him into the house.

The room they had entered was simple and quite bare, but rather neat. There was a large dark-coloured carpet on the floor to substitute chairs and a cupboard stood in a corner of the room, while a wooden staircase was at another corner, where a middle-aged woman with greying brown hair was coming down.

“Falkoner!” she cried and went over to embrace him.

The young man smiled and returned her hug. “Hey, Mother, I’m home!”

She looked up at his face. “You look a lot thinner than the last time I saw you, son. Aren’t you eating well?”

“I am, Mother, don’t worry about me.” He slowly pulled away and looked around. “Where’s Father?”

The moment he said that, a man with Falkoner’s features and flaming red hair came downstairs.

“Hey, you’re back, son!” he cried and the father and son embraced each other as well.

Camus watched this scene silently, feeling rather envious – he had lost his mother at the age of eight and his father right after that, and he knew that Rapheon couldn’t even remember their faces as he was only three then.

“And who’s this?”

At the voice, he shook himself out of his thoughts and looked up. Both the parents were looking at him, the mother approaching slowly as she raised a hand towards him. He backed one step away, but the hand moved past his face and touched Rapheon’s gently, concern evident on its owner’s own face.

“Dear, what’s wrong with him?”

Falkoner’s eyes narrowed in anger and hatred. “It’s Hugo again, that bastard. He gave the blue-haired one some Grayland poison.”

“Grayland poison?!” the father exclaimed, then shook his head. “Of all things…”

Camus spoke up at once, “Can you help him?”

To his horror, the red-haired man shook his head again. “I’m sorry, but I can’t, not without the antidote. We haven’t been able to get our hands on the antidote for a long time now, ever since Hugo took control of the trade.” He sighed. “The best we can do is stopping the poison effect for a day or two, but after that the symptoms will worsen. I can’t take the risk.”

The older Sarphoenix hung his head in disappointment. Is there no way Raph can be saved…?

“But we’ll take care until we get the antidote, don’t you worry!”

Camus looked up in surprise. “Huh? B-but why–”

“It’s our job, dear,” the mother spoke, smiling gently. “We’re potion-makers, something like healers. We help people and we won’t charge you anything, okay?”

“I… Thank you…”

“I’ll take the patient to the guest’s room.” The red-haired man took Rapheon in his arms and carried him upstairs, while his wife went to another room to get some warm water.

Camus was left alone with Falkoner in the room, rendered speechless by the kindness shown by the family.

“…Falkoner,” he finally spoke after a long time of silence. “Why… are you helping us?”

The green-armoured young man shrugged. “I’d be lying if I said I simply wanted to help, though that’s not completely untrue either. I want to help.” Once again, his eyes glowed with intense fury and hatred. “And I wanted to fight that damned master of mine back secretly. It’s not the best solution, but at least I won’t go mad from working for him.”

“Then why are you working under him? Couldn’t you just stop or anything?”

He sighed. “No, Hugo may look ridiculous, but he’s really dangerous. There’s no telling what he’d do to us if I just ran away, and my friends might be punished instead.” He shook his head. “Anyway, I have to go now, or Hugo’ll start looking for me.”

He just nodded.

Falkoner left the house, but no more than two seconds later the door burst open once again. “Oh, by the way, you didn’t tell me your name yet.”

Camus was surprised, but he answered anyway. “Camus Sarphoenix, and the other one is my brother Rapheon.”

The young man smiled and shook Camus’s hand. “I’m Falkoner Lawrence, Nice to meet you!”

“Uh, nice to meet you too…”

With that, he disappeared through the door once more.

Camus shook his head and went upstairs to find his brother.

Things were really different in the outside world, and the people were too. So very different from how it was in Yurhosha…

 

It was three days later, the day of the tournament… the day everyone dreaded.

Mrs. Lawrence gave Rapheon a strange looking potion that had a ghastly green colour, and he was most reluctant to take it. After a moment of spluttering and a look of utter disgust, he started to look fine and not so tired out. He was still a little pale, there was no denying that, but at least the fever was gone completely for the moment. The young boy was even doing an occasional happy jump on the way to the battle arena; he was feeling that much better.

Camus sighed. He didn’t know how long that potion would last, and he was still terribly worried about the poison that was slowly eating his younger brother’s life away. What kind of opponents would he meet? Even if he had won the tournament, would Hugo let him go free with the poison antidote?

The older Sarphoenix’s spirit fell even further when he saw the people gathered in the waiting room of the arena – all of them looked strong confident, most of them with bulging muscles and the others didn’t look too weak either. Even the female fighters looked strong.

Rapheon looked cheerful even when it was his turn.

“Don’t worry about it, Camus,” he said. “I’ll be fine!”

His elder brother shook his head. “But…”

“Like I said, don’t worry about me, I’m sure I can do it!”

He smiled. “Go do your best, okay?”

“Of course!” With that, he braced himself and entered the middle of the arena.

Although Rapheon did not show it, the older of the two knew that he was afraid – not afraid of his opponents, but of the little time he had. Could he finish the tournament before the poison finishes him first?

“I wonder...” Camus muttered. “Be careful, Raph…”

“Wow! I don’t believe it! Rapheon won!!” the announcer yelled into the microphone and the crowd cheered.

That was exactly what happened after every round – the young boy managed to defeat his every opponent, no matter how ferocious the battle went. Camus was beginning to feel quite proud of his brother – was this his little brother who was always getting picked on back in Yurhosha?

But he started to doubt when the semi-final round came. The opponent this time was a creature from the wilderness, looking rather similar to a lizard with a mane and tail of fire, but it was at least twenty feet tall!

“It’s outrageous!” Camus yelled into the crowd as some broke into a loud cheer and the rest into an angry yell.

“This time the opponent is a Salamander that can burn anything and even melt steel!” the announcer shouted gleefully. “Can our young Sora-Ryuken fighter emerge victorious this time?”

Rapheon could only stand and stare at the huge creature in front of him, flabbergasted, and that moment of hesitation gave the Salamander the chance for the first strike. Its fire tail knocked him onto the ground some distance away and singed some of his clothes.

“Ouch, that gotta hurt!” came the announcer’s booming voice.

That fire tail attack was so powerful that it already left him breathing hard, feeling pain in his right arm where he had hit the ground hard. He looked up, and quickly rolled away and got to his feet, narrowly missing a claw swipe, continuing to breathe heavily.

All of a sudden, he felt completely out of strength, and he found that it was terribly hard to breathe. His eyesight became blurry, so much that he couldn’t even see what his opponent was doing, and he felt feverish again.

The poison-repelling potion was losing its effect already!

He heard the Salamander roar and then felt something hitting him hard on his back, which was strong enough to throw him onto the ground once more. This time though, he was too exhausted to get up.

And the announcer’s voice came again, “Oh dear, what’s wrong with him? It looks like he’s down already!”

“No… I… can’t… give up… now…” Rapheon gritted his teeth, trying to force himself up but no matter what he did, his body would not obey him. He struggled repeatedly, becoming more and more frantic as time went by, and felt another hit on his back.

Crying out loudly in pain, a thought came to him.

Will I… die here…?

His brother’s face came to his mind, and he sighed.

All was lost.

Camus… I’m sorry…

He stayed still, giving in to defeat, and awaited the final blow that would end everything. Yet it didn’t come. Instead, a voice spoke in his mind.

“Do not give up,” the familiar voice told him, the same voice that had spoken before. “Focus your mind on the swords, and they will lead you to victory.”

That voice… focus…?

He shut his eyes as his hands gripped the hilts of the Ryuken swords as tightly as he could, throwing all of his attention to both weapons. He felt a weak power surging in his veins, caressing gently like the wind, and then it slowly grew into a burning power like a maelstrom inside him. A power that desperately needed to be released.

He stood up slowly, swaying a little as he tried to keep his balance, his swords supporting him. His eyes looked up, yet not exactly seeing because his eyesight was still obscured, but that would not be a problem… the power inside him heightened his spiritual senses, enabling him to sense his opponent’s strong aura.

“He’s standing up! But will he be able to defeat the Salamander?!” the announcer said, stirring the excitement in the crowd.

The boy closed his eyes once again, letting the power continue to surge inside him, and a blue barrier surrounded him. Once again the swords were vibrating in his hands like the heartbeats of a creature, their blades glowing a soft blue light, and raising them to his sides, he sprang forward towards his roaring opponent.

The enemy had its fun. Now would be his turn to strike.

“Dragon’s… Frost!”

The Ryuken swords came in a form of blue multi-slashes while its owner moved around its target swiftly in a tight circle, ignorant to the cries of the Salamander. Rapheon then stepped back and jumped into the air, swung his weapons downwards as hard as he could, and the Dragon spirit – the one that had appeared a few days ago in Goran – charged into the enemy in a brilliant blue light that encased it in ice. The young boy landed on the ground, lunged forward, and shattered the ice with one swift blow.

The giant fire lizard threw its head upwards and gave a long, loud roar, before going limp and collapsing onto the ground. Moments later, it slowly disappeared away in a cloud of smoke, just like other monsters.

Wow! He actually WON!” the annoying announcer shouted so loudly that most of the audience’s ears were ringing. “He made it to the final round!”

The crowd cheered.

Rapheon just stood there, feeling strangely calm over his victory, yet rather light-headed. His body swayed again as he momentarily lost his balanced, and he raised a hand to his eyes and closed them.

The sun was getting too hot… he had better get inside.

 

“Here, this should help you feel better.” Camus handed his brother a cup of warm water.

Rapheon took the cup with shaky hands. “Thanks…” He drank thirstily, as though he hadn’t drunk for a long time, and it did make him feel a little better.

Both brothers were the only one left waiting in the waiting room – the other participants either left after getting over their defeat in battle, injured in the infirmary, or joined the crowd to watch the finals. It felt strangely quiet in here now…

Concern was showing on Camus’ face. “Raph, you look tired. Maybe you should forfeit.”

The young boy felt anger burst out of him and suddenly stood up. “I WON’T!!”

The cup fell onto the floor and broke into a million pieces

He drew back. “R-Raph?”

“There’s no telling what Hugo will do to us if I forfeit!” he continued yelling. “I’m not worried about myself, but I’m worried about you, Camus! What is Hugo decides to kill you?! What if–”

A suddenly wave of dizziness took over him and he collapsed to his knees, breathing harder and feeling more feverish than before.

“Raph!” Camus panicked, and gently helped him back onto the bench.

“…sorry…”

The older brother shook his head. “Don’t worry about it, just save your strength for the next battle. It’ll be the last.”

Rapheon nodded.

If I could even fight…

 

“Ladiiieeeessssss aaaaaand gentlemmmmmmeeeeeeennnn!!” the announcer shouted. “Here we are, at the final round of… the Baycross Tournament!! The final showdown!!”

The crowd gave a loud cheer.

“Good luck, Raph,” Camus stated, smiling slightly.

“Thanks,” his brother said.

Rapheon walked towards the middle of the arena and stopped a few steps from it. Even as he drew out his Ryuken swords, he was breathing heavily.

The steel doors in front of him slowly opened and his opponent came out from there – a very tall man with long silvery hair that covered the right side of his face. His grey armour and the hilts of the two broad-long swords at his waist gleamed brightly in the sunlight that shone onto the arena. There was a long brown cloth around his waist – which looked rather like the bottom half of a trench coat – dancing in the wind, and he had two jagged line scars on his face that formed a cross on his left cheek.

“The opponent this time is Skye the Steel Stallion, another Sora-Ryuken fighter!” the announcer yelled. “He’s never lost a single battle before in his life, and was the Baycross Tournament Champion for five years straight!”

And the crowd cheered loudly again.

Rapheon watched his challenger. During his journey here, he had seen different adventurers, but never before did he feel calm towards a complete stranger. Even so, he could feel a dangerous air around this white-haired man in front of him. He had to be careful.

The two Sora-Ryuken warriors stared at each other silently as the annoying announcer went on rambling about how powerful Skye is, but the moment the taller one unsheathed one of the broad-long blade, held it in his right hand and pointed it at the boy, the crowd became silent.

“Even though you are but a young boy, I will not go easy on you,” he stated calmly.

“Did you hear that?!” Once again the announcer was shouting. “Skye doesn’t show any mercy to his opponents, even a boy like Rapheon!”

Rapheon was staring at the man before him – if he was a Sora-Ryuken, then why is he using only one sword? Had he actually decided to go easy on him?

“But now that we’ve wasted enough time, let’s start the battle immediately!” There was a pause. “Fighters, get ready, and… FIGHT!!!”

Skye charged forward with the speed of lightning and slashed swiftly several times, too fast for Rapheon to dodge but slow enough for him to block with his swords. However, he couldn’t block the last one fast enough and a line of blood appeared under his left eye.

As the Steel Stallion backed off to observe the result of his attack, blood started to slide down Rapheon’s left cheek… however, it wasn’t completely red blood that flowed from his wound.

It was also streaked with blue.

The young boy closed his eyes and formed a cross with his swords while Skye held his single sword vertically with both hands, and the sky suddenly grew dark. A dazzling light surrounded their weapons, forcing everyone else to shield their eyes from it, and the air around them grew so dense with energy that little rocks were being lifted into the air. Even the audience could feel the growing energy.

“Whoa, this is getting exciting, folks!!” the announcer cried excitedly.

Rapheon’s eyes snapped open and he charged forward with a loud yell as Skye lunged with his blade raised. When they met in the middle, there was a blinding light from their weapons and several sounds of metal hitting against metal could be heard.

Once the light dimmed, both of them were standing a few metres away from each other, their backs facing the other. Their swords were raised as they remained still, as though they were frozen, except for the fact that Rapheon was still breathing heavily. He felt a great pain in his chest, making it harder to breathe, and he felt exhausted. He had never felt this tired in his life before.

“Who do you think will win, folks?!”

“I… can’t… take it… anymore…” Rapheon muttered, just before falling to the ground.

There was silence for two seconds, and then the crowd erupted in a cheer.

“WE HAVE A WINNER!!” the announcer screamed. “The Steel Stallion is the Champion for SIX YEARS STRAIGHT!!!”

Skye calmly sheathed his sword and turned, glancing at his fallen opponent.

“RAPH!!” Camus exclaimed from where he stood in the waiting room. He wanted to run to his brother, but Hugo’s men held him back for a moment before dragging him away. “No! Let me GO!!”

“Get up, you fool!!” a voice yelled from the nearby spectator stand – it was Hugo, furiously picking up a nearby rock and throwing it at Rapheon. “Get up and fight!”

The rock hit the boy on his back, but he remained still. He remained that way even when two of Hugo’s men dragged him back to the waiting room, leaving a staring Skye in the middle of the arena.


 

Pronunciation? =P


Henara = Hair-nah-rah (something like that ^^; )

Hugo = If you don’t know this, I really don’t know what to say =P

Grayland = Well, you know this =D

Falkoner = Fal-co-ner (the A in ‘fal’ is pronounced the A in ‘far’, ‘co’ as in ‘cold’ without the L and D, and ‘ner’ as in ‘nerd’ without the D)

Skye = Sky! I love this one! =D