When I woke up, I was in bed, bandaged up in a dimly lit room.. I felt my head was being squeezed in a tight vise.. and I had difficulty breathing.. there was a lot of noise coming from the outside.. a big celebration.. I looked around to see that I was not in my room.. I tried to get out of bed, but severe pain forced me to abandon the idea.. I fell back in bed trying to remember what happened and how I got there.. after a seemingly long time, the door was opened and Alore walked in,

               “Welcome back to the land of the living.” He said trying to cheer me up.

               “Why, did I die already.”

               “Almost.” He said, then he drew close and whispered, “You  might as well.. I think Deemeon is extremely angry.”

               “I hear noises outside.. celebrations.. why is he angry then.” I asked, “By the way, where am I.. what is this place?”

               “you are in the BLP .. Deemeon palace.. and never mind the sham celebration outside.. the battle was lost.. big time.. not a single captive.. a lot of dead though on both side.”

Before I asked my expected next question, the door was opened, Wyee came in with a fake smile, asked Alore to leave and come back later, and when we were alone she sat next to my bed,

               “How do you feel now?” She didn’t sound like she is concerned about my well being.

               “Why are you here exactly?”

               “I am concerned about you.. of course.” She lied with a bold face.

               “No.. you cannot even lie cleverly.. you are here to tell me I messed up and I deserve what is coming.. all right .. I know a lot of people hate me, but I couldn’t guess you would be one of them.”

               “You got this all wrong. I really had great expectations for you.. Yes, you made a tremendous mistake, you are still a novice. We all thought you forgot the instruction given to you, but it seems after all that your assertion that Geetieh had screwed up royally by keeping you in the dark about certain critical information is true.” She began to sound more pragmatic.

               “Ok.. I’ll go along.. what did I miss here?”

               “You don’t seem to realize that you were about to kill the son of the supreme chief.”

I almost jumped out of the bed, groaned loudly.. and for a while I was dumbfounded,

               “Say what?” I uttered, “Pryade?”

She shook her head to agree.. I sat back in bed moaning and very slowly, a wicked smile started to force its way to my lips.. eventually the smile turned into a loud painful laughter.

               “I cannot believe it.. are you serious?” I said again, “Why nobody told me? I don’t know if it would have changed anything.. we already hated each other more than anything.. he would kill me if he had a chance”

               “Yes, you are right.. but he was restrained by his father.. you see, his father seems to adopt you as if you were his son too.. it infuriates Pryade and the rest of the council too.” She sounded like she was complaining.

               “Adopt me?” I asked in utter disbelief, “I don’t think so.. he is just using me, like he uses everyone else.”

               “If you were to be treated like everyone else, you would have been now already sent to DC.. and that is a place no one ever wants to see.” She said and got up to leave.

               “DC.. what is that.. what is that? .. delightful castle.” I tried to be funny.

She turned to look at me piteously.. stopped for a moment, then said as she made her way to the door,

               “try to be so funny when he comes to talk to you, and you will end up there and see for yourself.” She walked out and slammed the door shut.

I sat there in my bed pondering what was just said. It couldn’t be true.. somehow that sneaky woman was trying to pull a fast one over my head.. but what was she trying to pull? Was she trying   to push me to further resist the will of Deemeon depending on his indulgence.. or was she trying to mislead me altogether and frighten me.. why did she come to see me anyway? I kept thinking about her words until finally I got to the point about Pryade.. that was a total shock.. he assumed that I knew.. everyone assumed that I knew.. I wonder what other information did Geetieh withhold from me?

There was a knock at the door and Alore came back in,

               “The official results of the battle were announced.. they are trying to call it a success to save face.” He snickered

               “You said not one soldier was captured, did you see if Freddy was killed?”

               “I don’t know who Freddy is.” He said, “but almost all the ones who died were low ranks, if he was a high ranking officer, then he escaped.. anyway, Pryade has been transferred to the mountain castle called TC. And Oldefol became the commander of Primore.”

               “Anything about me?” I was curious.

               “No, I think he shall come to tell you himself.. but, oh, Bryane.. who was just promoted to become the commander of OC Front.. he has been transferred to DC.” He snickered again.

               “Oh yeah?.. what is that DC anyway..?” He pricked my curiosity.

               “Oh, they say it is a horrible place.. the commander there is also a monster .. very few people get out of it alive.. if they get out at all.” He sounded scared.

The door was opened wide and Deemeon entered with a face I never saw before.. angry? May be.. vengeful? Probably.. he looked like an animal about to strike for a kill.. Alore didn’t wait for the gesture to leave, so he scurried out of the room.. Deemeon, paced the room for a while, then he stood at the far end and his voice came to me like the hissing of snake..

               “You proved yourself to me .. not the way I expected, but you proved yourself. And you proved your point.. hate can be too strong, it can blind the person and block all his brain functions.. but you can use your sword well.. only you used it in the wrong direction” He stopped talking and then he walked toward the bed slowly until he was inches away,

               “for the first time ever.. I don’t know what to do with you.” It was a huge admission, “what happened at these games is unprecedented .. it never happened before.”

A long silence followed as I didn’t want to aggravate the situation .. he walked away again.. then he turned to look at me in a little quieter mode.. it seemed he had discharged his fury and was getting a bit relaxed,

               “You realize everybody is looking at me and if they dare, they would say ‘I told you so’ .. they all expect me to send you to DC.. or even to TC that would prove that I was wrong all along.. but.. I am never wrong.. I know what I have and I know how to mold you and shape you and make you exactly what I expect you to be.” He was standing now very close to my head..

I looked straight at him without betraying any emotions,

               “And.. what is that? What is it you expect me to be?”

               “This.. you see .. this is what I expect.. no one else would dare to ask such question or even utter a single word under the circumstances. But you.. oh, you are different.. you are fearless.. and vicious .. and you know how to use your brain.. and the amazing thing, is that you do it all, with such innocence and ease.. it baffles the competition.. you are almost as clever as .. as.. as if I taught you myself.”

It took me a great deal of effort to hold back a sneaky smile. But to say I was amused, would be an understatement.. He walked towards the door and spoke without looking at me,

               “I shall decide what to do with you later when your injuries have healed.”

He left the room and slammed the door shut.

It is really strange what goes into your head when you are laid in bed, incapacitated, thinking.. how did I reach this point .. in this place? Why did I do what I did? Was there any rational reason for my behavior? What will the next step be? Am I ready or willing to deal with whatever consequences might be coming my way?

I spent a lot of time trying to find answers to these questions, in vain .. the more I think about it, I end up with more questions.. it became like a circular chain feeding on itself.. then I finally convinced myself, if he wanted to destroy me, I would have been already destroyed.. but that means he has something up his sleeve prepared for me.. then I remembered his last statement “I am never wrong” he will do everything he can to prove himself to be right.. to prove I was valuable to him and as useful to his plans as he wanted me to be. Now the question is how shall he go about doing that? Oh, wait, should I go along, or should I try to prove him wrong myself.. at my own peril?

As soon as I was able to move around inside the room, even though I was not fully recovered yet, I was told the time to leave was set for the next day early in the morning. Alore was given another assignment and was no longer helping me.. and at the expected time, a soldier came to lead me respectfully to the outside of the palace where I found the usual carriage waiting for me.. when I asked about my destination, no one could give me an answer ..”you shall be told later” so off we went.. I was alone in the carriage, followed by a small procession of mounted soldiers .. I had a lot of trepidations, was this a funeral or a coronation? More likely Deemeon was doing everything possible to keep me in suspense to strike fear in my heart.. yes, he even made that passing remark, ‘you are fearless’ .. well.. maybe I can hold onto this notion for a while longer..

The little procession ran at a fairly fast speed for a long time, passing through some familiar places and gradually there was a change in the surroundings, until it became almost a wilderness  with sporadic populated spots, small villages and a lot of brush and waste land .. then the Carriage slowed its pace, and one of the riders came close to the window to speak..

Now .. only now, my heart melted and almost stopped.. this is a very ugly creature.. he almost had no cheeks, just prominent bones and eye sockets with deep rolling eyeballs.. no brows, and when he smiled he looked all the more scary.. like a hideous phantasm or ghost, revealing a huge set of teeth like those of wild animals.. his voice sounded like the rubbing of two pieces of rough wood, he looked like a man with a skull made of gnarled skin and bones,,

               “We are approaching the DC district.. but it is getting dark, looks like the weather may change, so we shall stop at this small village and spend the night.”

He didn’t wait for an answer.. clearly the intention was to frighten me.. it almost succeeded. The only reason, I still had some remains of what you may call ‘confidence’ is my understanding of the planned strategy.. I was determined to show no fear, no matter how scared I might be.

We stopped at a small building, which looked like a way station.. consisting of two stories. It looked abandoned, or maybe it was regularly used for this purpose. I went to the only room on top, and started to undress.. but the fiend who talked to me at the carriage, opened the door without knocking, and stood there looking at me and smiling .. that horrible smile.. most people when they smile, even when they are not pretty, the smile itself improves their appearance .. but not this creature.. after a few minutes of a staring challenge he spoke again,

               “My name is Trapp.. they also call me Katcher, I am the deputy in the OC Front, now that commander Bryane has been moved to DC, I am expected to be the commander there”

He stopped.. expecting me to comment.. but I just looked away in a gesture of clear boredom, so he continued,

               “You are going to be stripped of all your privileges and ranks, and you shall join my castle as an ordinary basic soldier in a ceremony first thing in the morning.. Deemeon will attend and supervise the ceremony..” His horrible voice seemed to betray a hint of gloating..

I pretended to be nonchalant ..

               “Very well..” I put on a contrived smile of my own, “For now, I still have my yellow coat.. so shut the door on your way out.”

He was surprised for a split second, then he laughed and left.. if his smile was nasty, his laugh was disgusting.. indeed, I never hated, or feared, anybody the way I felt about this Trapp.

I pondered my situation for a while. It seemed that I was out of options. Then I thought, what am I going to lose if I try something crazy? What if I try to run away and disappear somewhere.. I don’t know the area, true.. but any where is better than here? This is what I hear runaways always say.. most of the time they live to regret it.. but at least I must try.. Oh, wait.. he said I am supposed to go to the OC Front. Who knows, maybe I like it there.. Nah, I shall be at the bottom of the barrel at the mercy of this disgusting creature Trapp.. he seemed to be determined to give me a hard time and humiliate me anyway he can..

I was tired, my injuries were not completely healed and I didn’t fully recover, so if I try to run I might not be able to go too far.. I was at the end of my wits, so without further thinking, I put on my full uniform.. the uniform they were supposed to strip off of me.. I stepped out of the room.. and slowly but steadily climbed down the creaky wooden stairs.. by the time I reached the first floor all eyes were fixed on me.. there were six soldiers eating and drinking at a table and the ugly one was not with them..

               “You are not___” one of them tried to speak, so I cut him off firmly.

               “I am going out for a walk to get some fresh air..”

               “But Mister, we have orders that___” he tried to speak again.

               “These are my orders.” My voice was rising angrily while I was trying very hard to walk steadily towards the door.

               “But Commander Trapp___” Another soldier ventured to speak.

               “Trapp? You mean that filthy soldier I just kicked out of my room?” I snapped at them and they all looked at each other obviously confused..

               “I’ll return shortly.” I arrived at the door and instantly I was swallowed by the darkness outside.

I ran as fast as I could without knowing where I was heading.. it was a very dark moonless night.. even the stars were hidden by a thick cloud cover.. it did not rain but it was cold.. shortly, I began to shiver, but I kept going.. my brain racing in a feverish attempt to figure out what am I actually doing? What good does this serve? Shall I really succeed to run away.. then I stopped .. a sudden insidious idea flashed before me.. was I being manipulated in order to try to escape? Where did the ugly guy go? They wanted me to try to run.. to seal my fate, and prove to me that there is nowhere to go.. I heard the lapping of water at a distance.. at the same time faint sounds of shouting started behind me.. I looked back to see, I made quite a distance between myself and the creaky building.. the sounds were getting louder fast and I had to hurry.. I started to run but my injured body was not helping me.. I fell several times until I found myself falling into what seemed like water .. yes..it was water alright .. but it smelled awful ..

I had to think fast and make a decision .. run into the water.. crazy ? or run staying by the edge of the water.. then the horrible voice of Trapp yelled clearly at the distance,

               “stop yelling idiots, your voices betray your locations.. search fast and quietly.”

I had to smile, and without thinking I ventured into the filthy water and slowly got immersed up to my neck.. somehow I felt safe .. yes, dirty but safe.. the voices no longer bothered me.. the darkness and the dirty smelly water were giving me cover.. but .. there was no telling what happens when daylight breaks in.. yet, I didn’t have to wait for dawn, because my body was shaking, and one of my wounds seemed to break open and I felt some blood leaking out.. I knew if I lose blood I may faint with unforeseeable results.. I tried to push my soaking clothes against the leak and concentrated my mind on staying alert..