Chapter 3: United

“Pieces of a puzzle…

Alone, they cannot stand

But connected… They are beautiful.” 

I took a fall just to hug Elise. We stayed there for so many moments, I can’t count them all. 

     “How are you here?” I asked. She told me how she got sentenced to death for killing me and Uncle Brody. She said she had read the signs, and then she asked me to be her teammate. 

     “Yes!” I said. Then, I carried her to the evaluation center. This time, I just told the man at the front to give Elise a pass, and he did, probably because he was scared of me. Once Elise was in, we checked out what items we had to work with. 

     I had the knife, from killing Uncle Brody. Elise had a bullet and a gun. Elise was also a top lever fighter. And, of course, we had my fire breath. Returning to the city, we knew we had to practice for the preliminary. We rented out a piece of land for about 10 days. I promised the landowner I would pay his rent after winning the cup. He didn’t trust me, but I would either do it, or be fully dead. So there’s that. Elise started building a training course. When she finished, we had a training dummy, a punching bag, computers to track our force, and a lot more. Elise started training immediately. But I wasn’t ready. 

     “Elise! I’m going into town.” I walked down the path in the moonlight. As I was strolling, I saw a shadow in the side of my eye. I quickly swooped up, and punched whoever was going to attack me. But weirdly enough, as I punched, the person under the cloak disappeared, and the cloth dropped to the ground. I picked it up, and carried on. I eventually made it into town. There were signs everywhere! Warehouse X: Shop for Clothes! Chestrim Culinary: 5 Star Restaurant. I finally found what I was looking for. Sord’s Weaponry. I made my way inside. At the counter, I found an angry customer. He was arguing with the woman behind the counter, who I assumed was Sord. While I waited for the customer to leave, I looked around for weapons I could buy. There was everything from a dagger to a medieval catapult. Jeez, I thought. What kind of things do people carry here? Just then, the angry customer turned around. He had a tattoo across his face, and a scar on his forehead. He looked menacing. He shoved past me. I strode up to the counter. “What do you have?” I asked. Sord smiled. “Finally, a nice customer! Do you want a bow, sword or spear?” I asked for a bow, and she gave me 3 choices. The first was made of hardwood, and couldn’t conduct fire. I immediately turned it down. The other two could. One was an old creaky metal bow that was way too heavy. I turned that down, and she gave me the final bow. It was light enough that I could carry it, and the string felt perfect. 

     “What is it made of?” I asked. She checked the box. “Arokium. It’s a metal found only on Vurth, and it is very valuable.” I sighed and put it back. I turned around and was about to walk out of the shop, when Sord walked up to me. “Here dear, keep it, free of charge. I’m an old woman now, and no one shows any kindness around here. But then, you came around. Your act of kindness was enough.” I thanked her gratefully, and took the Arokium bow. I headed to the practice range out back, and took an arrow. I lit it on fire, and strung it to my bow. I drew back, and shot. The arrow ripped through the sky, tearing a fabric of the space-time continuum, and lit the dummy on fire. The sheer firepower amazed me. I headed back to the range, and I was ready.