Tru Grit’s Fight Pit, First Tourney (Pt. 10): Prize And Exit

  --- Maya Williams ---

  It wasn’t much longer until the fight pit medic came around to see her, and after a series of semi-aggressive questions and an explanation that the elf girl had left on her own, she found herself sort of just sitting around her waiting room.

  On the one hand she was kind of disappointed that she hadn’t actually won the whole thing. (Which is only fair given how we’ve only been at this for a few months and some of the contestants very clearly have years of training and experience.)

  But on the other hand she couldn’t help but be a little proud of herself because even if she lost she still, (Kicked the ass of three different pendejos who dared to pick a fight with us, and got the phone number of a hot genius. That’s double win bitches!)

  (So we’re over the fact that said ‘hot genius’ is a magic user?)

  (I am ignoring that because she is also a real life elf girl.)

  (Which is mildly derogatory towards her, you realize?)

  (She’s a filthy magic user. I can be a lot more derogatory about a lot of other things about her. I’m just setting them aside like you would a person’s craziness for their hotness.)

  That made her pause. “Uh, where would we fall on that scale?” Because she was nowhere near naive enough to believe having whatever she had going on with the voices in her head was anything but crazy.

  (...)

  (...)

  She narrowed her eyes at the world around her. “I’m not liking how quiet you two are.”

  (Well, factually we’re not unattractive. Especially with our slowly becoming athletic figure…) Her inner reason assured her. (It’s just…)

  Her inner madness cut in saying, (We be bat shit fucking insane, and I make no promises about not experimenting on someone we date. And I don’t mean that in the fun way…) She could feel her mind pausing. (Well, I don’t mean it in just the fun way…)

  “Is… is it bad I’m realizing I have all kinds of red flags?”

  (We are sadly very self aware.)

  (Actually, thinking about it both ways are the fun way.)

  (Two thirds of us at least.)

  “Red flags?” A voice asked curiously.

  She jumped up from where she was sitting, quickly turning and finding, “Anavi!” making her face blush for several reasons. “What are you doing here?”

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  The older woman blinked with a bemused grin, before holding up an envelope. “The tournament has finished and we were handing out the prizes. When your name came up I came to find you and give it to you.”

  “Oh… but I… didn’t win?” She pointed out, unable to help how her face twisted with the admission.

  “True, but Tru makes sure that all fighters get paid when or lose. Though the more difficult the tournament and the better you do the better your prize.” Anavi happily explained. “This one was mostly for teenagers, those who are still figuring out their abilities and wish to test themselves more than anything. In fact, apparently a good half of the fighters here today aren’t even going to come back next time, though the winners will be offered an easy entry to the next rank.”

  Maya’s face twisted a little more. “Oh, uh, is that a… suggestion or?”

  “Oh? Oh! No, no, I was simply explaining things. You actually did fairly well, a bit better than I expected even!” The older woman quickly assured her, before her own face twisted into something distasteful. “You probably would’ve done even better if that cheat hadn’t faked a surrender.”

  She was a bit taken aback by that, because while she was frustrated with the way she’d lost, she… was mostly over it after her talk with the elven girl.

  (Speak for yourself.)

  (I reiterate: mostly.)

  Either way it wasn’t something she’d expected Anavi to be angry about on her behalf.

  With a warm feeling in her stomach, she rubbed the back of her neck and told her, “Uh, don’t… worry about it? I uh, I don’t think she was really interested in the tournaments anyway. Apparently her friend made her enter with them?”

  Anavi didn’t seem quite convinced by that but still shook her head. “Still, it was dishonorable and the kind of offense that would’ve been heavily punished in Yggdrasil.”

  An awkward sort of silence filled the air after that, a touch of culture shock apparent between her and the female traveler, one that had her scrambling to end. (Come on, think of something to change the topic…)

  Her eyes fell on the envelope Anavi was carrying. “You, uh, you mentioned something about a prize?”

  “Oh, yes!” The older woman nodded before offering the envelope. “Your draw was unfortunately treated as a loss by the rules, but I’ve been told the total earnings are still a fairly decent amount for one your age.”

  Accepting the envelope, she went ahead and tore it open before pulling out and quickly counting, “Six hundred and fifty dollars?!”

  “Is that a lot for your age?” Anavi frowned with mild concern. “I mean I trust Tru when he says his wages are fair, but I’m also aware that an organization this big…”

  “Oh, no this is…”

  (Roughly two weeks full time at minimum wage in our state.) Her inner reason helpfully supplied.

  “This is… probably more than I’ve carried at once in my life.” She assured the older woman. “It may not be a whole lot to someone older but… it’s a lot to me at least.”

  “Ah, that’s good.” Anavi gave her a relieved nod and smile.

  “Yeah…” She nodded back, her mind thinking of all the things she could build with this much money.

  (We are going to burn through all of this in a week tops.)

  (We will not! With some careful budgeting this can last us a good few months.)

  (Eh, if you can drag it out long enough that rumors about the human trash panda fade I’ll be impressed.)

  She was very glad no one could actually connect those rumors to her. (Last thing I need is that kind of embarrassment…)

  “Oh, there was also something I wanted to ask you about though.” Anavi admitted after a moment.

  She blinked. “Uh, yeah?”

  “Well, I’m still learning the local culture and you said something about you being a red flag? What’s that mean?” Anavi asked.

  “Nothing important!” She blurted with a nervous laugh, already inching towards the exit. “Just a… sports thing! Oh, look at the time? I’ve got to go, can’t be late for dinner, bye!”

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