Chapter 13: Chapter THIRTEEN

"Mia, wake up! We are going to be late!"

The blonde slowly emerged as her shoulders were shaken. She finally opened her eyes with a groan to find her fairy friend. Mia had never been a morning person, or someone that loved waking up, and her bad mood never failed to rear its ugly head when she was dragged out of her sleep by force. Nevertheless, she got up quickly so as not to keep her friend waiting too long. Every time she met one of the fairies within five minutes of waking up, she always felt like she was still dreaming. Wishing to dispel the fog that reigned in her mind, she went to the sink to splash her face with cool water. 

Lily tapped her foot impatiently.

"We really have to go now!" grumbled the young fairy.

"Yes, yes, I'm coming," Mia grumbled.

When they crossed the corridor, the blonde could see that they were the last to leave. She felt a little bad for her friend who had agreed to accompany her so that she wouldn't be alone since she had no idea where to go. Maybe she had initially planned to go there with her peers before remembering that the blonde would be lost without her.

The two young women quickly left the castle's interior (the infirmary was the first wing on the left when entering the building) and walked around it, following the small asphalt path surrounding the building.

Once at the back, Mia could see the famous centaur forest. She hadn't explored that part from the outside yet, since Arry had told her not to get too close to their territory. In itself, it was a very mundane forest. It was made up of thick trees with dense foliage, not showing much beyond its edge. However, it didn't seem very big, since the blonde could clearly see a cliff delimiting it in an arc. A bit like an erected wall, except that it looked more like the mountain had been cut to accommodate the small forest. They took a small dirt road that seemed to lead to the mountain, which ended Mia's observation of the centaur's habitat.

"This entrance is reserved for students of the school. There's a bigger entrance on the other side to welcome visitors," Lily informed her.

A few steps later, the dirt road led them into a kind of tunnel that crossed the mountain. They were truly going to walk in it. Mia wasn't claustrophobic, but the thought of walking down a path barely narrow enough for two people to walk side by side and buried under the mountaintop didn't thrill her that much. Nevertheless, the small balls of light twirling on the rocky ceiling and illuminating the place reassured her when she remembered that the whole structure must be magical and that, therefore, she did not risk much a priori. She hadn't yet fully assimilated the existence or the reliability of magic to trust it foolishly, but she was slowly beginning to get used to the idea that it was quite functional.

Lily led the way, folding her wings behind her back to make enough room in the path for them to walk at the same level. Watching her, Mia had to admit that having wings didn't seem to be as wonderful as she thought. They even seemed rather cumbersome in such situations. Besides, the blonde had never seen any fairies use them before. Could they really fly with it? Or was it just some kind of ornament in the end?

Before she could ask the question, the young human changed her mind, her mind focusing on the rising volume of the hubbub she heard at the end of the tunnel. The closer she got, the more she felt like she was entering a gigantic stadium, the noise was so deafening.

Lily stopped a few yards from the exit and turned to the blonde.

"There are bleachers for students who are not taking part in the tournament on the left. It's the one that offers the best view, and you'll be quieter there than among families. I'm sorry, I have to go now."

"Won't you stay with me?" Mia inquired, half shouting, as much to make herself heard through the shouts of the crowd as because the prospect didn't appeal to her at all.

"Oh crap, didn't Arry tell you? The fairies have a special place closer to the field to pick up the injured. I have to work, you know," she explained with a sorry grimace.

"Yeah, it makes sense, excuse me. I'll be fine, go ahead, you're already late."

"Sorry..."

They walked the last few steps separating them from the end of the tunnel together. Just before the exit, a staircase plunged into the heart of the mountain. Lily waved her goodbye and disappeared, leaving her alone.

Mia took a long breath as she turned back to her destination. From here, she could hardly see anything. The excessively dazzling light completely blocked her view. After a final exhalation, she crossed the opening. Her eyes blinked a few times to get used to the new brightness of the environment. Before she could begin to observe the scene, she was stopped and asked for her ticket. Nervously, she pulled it out of her pocket and handed it to a woman in her forties who returned it to her after checking.

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When Mia was finally able to peer around, her breath caught in her chest. She was on a gigantic place entirely made of stone, on the side of the mountain and on the other side of the school, covered with bleachers rising several meters. The place merged with the mountain as if it had voluntarily left room for it. At the end of the bleachers, a small ledge separated the square from the void by a few meters. The entire structure overlooked what she assumed was the arena. In a way, it reminded her of the huge ancient amphitheaters erected on Earth. Except that the structure was twice as large as the Colosseum itself, and that the stands did not form a circle all around the arena, but rather a semicircle covering a quarter of its surface.

Her gaze then fell on the people in the stands. At first glance, they all seemed human, some chatting, others already cheering on the fighters. For a second, she felt like she was watching a football match. Except it was about fights between different potentially deadly creatures encouraged by other potentially deadly creatures.

Looking closely, the blonde could see a space without bleachers reserved for centaurs further down the square. She watched them for a few seconds since it was the first time she had come across them other than hearing their hooves in the distance. They were discreet, and she suspected they weren't in the busiest corners of the castle. As she expected, their anatomy was split between horse and human at the waist. Their hair was similar to a horse's mane since it was actually made of horse hair. Most individuals had them long and styled in thick dreadlocks. Their human and animal skin was uniform in colors ranging from white to black. Each seemed to have different pigmentation since none looked alike. It was as if individuals representing all the human skin colors of the world had gathered in the same place to offer an impressive panel of diversity. It pained her for a moment to think that it was rare to see such a unity of diversity in her world without people screaming at each other.

As she was lost in her observation, a fist grabbed her forearm and pulled her forward. She let herself be dragged a few steps before realizing what was happening to her. When the young human recognized her attacker, she tried somehow to gesticulate to detach her hand, but he held on and continued to move her forward.

"Let me go!" she screamed, ignoring the attention she was bringing to their person.

"Shut up and move on," he ordered, "everyone is watching you."

She wanted to protest, but he silenced her again. She swallowed her pride when she saw that indeed some were staring at her outrageously. To make the pill go down, Mia admitted to herself that she was keeping quiet because she didn't want to show off and not because he had ordered her to. Finally, Ethan released her in front of an empty bleacher and asked her with a wave of his hand to sit down. Which she refused to do, of course. The last thing she wanted was for him to start thinking she was getting docile.

"What the fuck do you think you're doing? What do you want from me? Last I heard, we don't know each other. I'm starting to think this is harassment", she roared with rage.

The Vila winced, visibly annoyed from her tirade, taking a long breath to calm the angriness that was rising in his mind. At least it wasn't hate. He seemed to have swallowed it down enough that his gaze no longer glared murderously at her.

"You were still as a statue in the middle of the entrance with your mouth half open. Everyone was looking at you thinking you are a dumbass, which is exactly what they expect from a human. You could at least thank me, I could have let you ridicule yourself a little more," he sneered.

The embarrassment she felt when he described her attitude quickly dissipated to give way to annoyance. Who did he think he was, exactly? She shook her head as she rolled her eyes and waved her arms, acting scatterbrained.

"Wow, thank you! What would I have done without you, what a hero!" she sneered sarcastically. "Want a medal and a cookie for the trouble?"

"A human with a shitty character and an incredibly irritating voice? It's starting to make a lot of faults for such a small person."

"You..." she began, immediately interrupted by a symphony of trumpets indicating the start of the tournament.

Ethan took the opportunity to slip away a few meters and sit on one of the bleachers overlooking hers. She had the impression that he had chosen this exact place to be right behind her and watch her every move. It wasn't as if there was no room since for the hundred or so people that could be seated in this gallery, there must have been a group of five or six students occupying the seats farthest from her. Not all students who did not participate necessarily wanted to observe the tournament. They were happening every two weeks, after all. Some also preferred to watch the event alongside their family, thus abandoning these bleachers. Before sitting down with her back to the Vila, Mia gave him a last glare which he replied with a sly smile. 

What a hateful man, she thought. Although she had to admit that, this time around, the hatred and contempt in his gaze and demeanor seemed to have eased a bit for some reason she couldn't explain.

Not wishing to spoil the discovery of her first tournament, Mia preferred to hide all traces of the Vila from her mind. Either way, she didn't care much and didn't want to waste a single moment trying to figure out his attitude. He didn't deserve it.

Finally, the tournament began.

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