Breakfast with Champions

I can no longer fight the sunlight, so I drag myself from my bed. I am not as anxious to leave this unfamiliar room as I was yesterday. My mind is washed again and again with the tidal waves of my thoughts. I want them to cease. I want to be free from this. I want to be free to be a child again. They tell me how young I am, but they do not know how much my soul has aged in a matter of moments. It must have for the ache in me for my parents seems to have become dulled in only a couple of days.

I feel very mature in this moment, released from the ties of need and love that bound me to my parents. I don't like it. I want to defy all of this. I want to defy the Superdudes and their high expectations of me. I want to defy Decay for forcing me to leave the safety of my home and accept a call that seems so overwhelming even to the aged creature that my soul has transformed into. I want to be a child again. I want to play without fearing what might come for me if I let my guard down. I want to relax without my mind wandering to what may happen if I am not completely aware of my surroundings at every moment and in every way.

I find myself digging through the toys that have been placed carefully on my shelves, exactly as I had them in my old room. I quickly find the toy that I want. A pink rabbit whose head is about the size of my hand and whose ears are longer than my forearm is buried behind the rest of the stuffed animals. I say pink, but over time it has faded and been stained so that it appears gray. Its blue eyes have been dulled by rubbing against rough surfaces, but still I hope to find solace in their inanimate depths.

"Bounder, help me. Help me remember what it is like to be a child."

Those dull eyes just continue to gaze back at me. The thin pink lips which can not cover the goofy buck-toothed grin of my old friend do not move. The grin remains as if to mock me and my desires. Tears fill my eyes again, making me feel less mature but not as carefree as before. Sobbing, I toss Bounder across the room. His eyes make a gentle click upon the wall as a knock sounds on the door.

I hurriedly wipe my eyes, sniffing hard to clear my nose and using the sleeve of my nightshirt as a makeshift tissue to blot away the water upon my cheeks. Then I go to answer the door, peeking through the cracked door before opening it wide to Little Lizard King. He smiles at me, bowing gracefully as he steps across the threshold.

"Good morning, Bellabooo, I hope you slept well," he says with a smile.

"Well, of course, I did," I reply, trying to put on a cheerful face.

"Hmmm," he says, looking at me, through me.

I can tell by the look on his face that he isn't buying my ruse, but he doesn't pursue it. Instead he smiles at me and continues.

"William is on a mission this morning, so he asked me if I would mind helping you get familiar with the arena. Of course, I hoped that if I came early, we could have breakfast together and I could introduce you to what Ed calls Super-O's and Knugg Juice."

"Okay," I say, as I find myself smiling at the notion that he wants to spend more time with me than was requested.

"I'll be in the hall," he says, taking notice of my clothes as he steps out of my room.

I feel my cheeks burning and close the door, so I can hurriedly put on some comfortable jeans and a t-shirt. I am not sure exactly what the arena entails, but I have a feeling I will want to be dressed in something that won't restrict my movement. LLK looks at my attire with a hint of approval as I open the door and venture into the hallway.

We don't say much as we make our way down the hallway to the stairs. I ask why such a tall building doesn't have an elevator and am informed that it is to help us to remain healthy. Even if we don't exercise as we are counseled to do, we will still be forced to stay in shape simply to get around the grounds. Aside from explaining that the fruit-flavored, sugar-encrusted cereal in the top cereal bin of the cafeteria is "Super-Os" and the juices distributed from the juice dispenser are really "Knugg Juices", "fortified to help us grow nuggier brains", LLK still doesn't seem to have much to say.

Somehow I think he knows that it is just nice to have someone to trust. Maybe he felt as lonely and out of place when he first came here as I do now. As I swallow the last bite of my Super-Os, he stands up and takes his tray to the clean-up window. I follow quietly. A slender man with mouse-like features takes my tray with a paternal smile, and I find myself being led into the hallway once more.

"You asked about the elevators earlier. Well, this is the closest thing we have," he says, directing my attention to a hexagonal pad in an alcove of the wall.

I had noticed a couple of these panels during my tour, but assumed they were special stands for some statuary that had not been put in place yet. Now I notice a small keypad on the wall behind it. As LLK explains the buttons to me, I swear I seem a glimmering image of a beautiful woman creeping out again. I shake my head.

"I'm sorry, did that confuse you?"

"Oh no, it was just...never mind," I reply.

He smiles at me and continues, "Okay then. It's time for your first ride into the arena. Just stand right here on the pad."

I step onto the pad and hit the buttons he indicates, "What now?"

"Just wait."

"It ting..." I say, as a flash of blue fire blurs my vision for a second, and then the rest of the word pours from my mouth, "les."

I find myself still on the hexagonal pad, but I am nowhere near the cafeteria. I step off of the pad into a huge room. The walls have been painted to look like the ancient Coliseum of Rome as the ruins must have looked when the gladiators fought there, before it became ruins. Looking up, I see a curious array of lights. I don't have long to look at these before LLK is beside me.

"Beautiful, isn't it?"

"Yes, it is."

"More importantly, are you ready to defend your head?" He inquires, as he produces a sword from thin air.

"What?" I say.

He simply laughs and though it is the same friendly laughter I have heard before, I can not take my eyes from that sword. I take a step backward, trying to get away. Somehow I lose my balance and fall sprawling on the floor. I throw my arms up over my head as the laughter stops, and I await the inevitable.