Ten feet might not be a huge distance, and Kre had certainly jumped into hay bales from a greater height back home, but somehow it was more intimidating here with everything going on around them. Gnore had simply stepped off the side and landed on his feet, legs only barely slightly bent. Henric chose to push himself off from the wall’s edge into a tucked-roll once he hit the sand. He ended up sprawled out on his back with a small smile on his face as if he truly enjoyed it.
Out of the two, Kre figured he’d try Gnore’s method, as he didn’t think he would be graceful enough to time his roll effectively. Instead of stepping off though, he intended to dangle himself down from the wall to spare his legs at least half the distance.
With his hands placed where he thought best, he looked up to offer a silent prayer that they would make it through this whole weird night alive when he noticed an odd-looking pair staring directly down at him from the balcony far above.
From the area where the Master and his important guests had been sitting.
Distant as they were, it felt as if their eyes were burning a hole directly into Kre’s mind. A dark, dour feeling seemed to be seeping in at the edges of his imagination, small tendrils of fleeting sadness reaching out tentatively, testing… probing.
His fingers started to tremble, their hold on the wall starting to falter. If he had been dangling over the wall already, he’d likely be on his rear end in the sand by now. As it was, he forced himself to sit but he couldn’t seem to tear his eyes away from the gaze of the duo across the arena.
“Who are you?” he whispered, knowing they couldn’t hear him even if he were to shout at the top of his lungs given all of the commotion behind him.
‘The crowd,’ he suddenly thought to himself, as if he just now remembered where he was. The thought seemed to break whatever strange hold he had been under, and he tore his eyes away and looked back at the stands behind him.
The handful of guards in their area were busy battling unusually sized rats, impossible creatures seemingly the size of newborn horses. Seeing the size of the creatures, it was no wonder the general audience had scattered in fear.
As good as the guards might have been, they simply couldn’t seem to do anything to the rats. The creatures were fast and seemed to be everywhere all at once. People were still screaming as the exits were far too crowded to get everyone to safety.
A tickle at the back of Kre’s mind reminded him of the odd couple he had caught staring at previously. He looked back tentatively but found no one up in that part of the stands.
The voice of an out-of-breath announcer sounded over the cacophony in the arena. “Ladies and gentlemen! A short break has been called! The final bouts will continue in twenty minutes at the fourth bell!”
“Hsst!” the sound of urgency came from the pit below Kre, reminding him that his two colleagues were still waiting for him to make his way down. With his hands no longer shaking, Kre swung his legs out and proceeded to ease himself down. Just as his head dropped down below the wall, he thought he spotted the grinning face of Kersath from the shadows at the back of the arena, a small rat held gingerly in his hands.