A Warrior's Redemption (The Warrior Kind)

I could hear the crowd crying out in a pitched fervor of excitement before I even saw them. It was a sound I hated and had never wanted to hear again and yet like a bad toothache it was back with throbbing intensity.

Before I emerged out of the tunnel into the arena I whispered out to the Creator suddenly overcome with the fear of what would happen to Zarsha, if I failed to survive whatever test they had lined up for me in the arena this time, "Are you with me Lord?" I felt nothing in terms of an answer.

My spirit felt heavy within me as I continued to trudge towards the arena. I couldn't believe how my last experience in the arena, where the mouths of tigers had been stopped supernaturally seemed to have been completely forgotten. I was such a terrible follower of the Creator to doubt His abilities to save me given what He had already done for me!

I didn't have any more time to think about my sudden and complete lack of faith as I was thrust out into a scene from hell. The arena was large and as grand in appearance as any of those in the five cities of Zoar.

The crowd was cheering, but it wasn't me they were cheering for. It was him! A face from the past that I had hoped to never see again, the unholy creature of a man with dead eyes and a hollow laugh, who I had been celled next to so many years before in the arena. His demented sounding laugh could be heard above the din of the crowd and I knew I was in for the fight of my life.

What made everything worse was the sight of Zarsha strapped to a pole in the center of the arena. My trepidation over my opponent vanished upon sight of Zarsha. I had to win at all costs as I could already guess what lay in store for Zarsha if I failed to protect her.

I felt the old uncaring anger rise up inside of me and I embraced the hateful quality of it, as it coursed through my veins and settled over me like a well worn cloak that I hadn't worn in a very long time. Every fiber of my being was alive and tensed for the struggle to stay alive, as I strode purposefully toward my opponent locked on his every move.

The crowd noise dimmed to a hushed calm, like the calm that precedes a storm, as they caught sight of my purposeful approach across the sands of the arena floor. My opponent had never been beaten, but neither had I.