My eyes drifted open, the harsh sun light hitting without warning. I lifted onto my hands and knees. The soil of the forest melted away into thick red dust, the noise of the wind and animals transformed into a harsh roar. I stood, as my eyes adjusted to the light, the shape of a vast arena, stretching all the way around me 360° , it’s taupe exterior rising 160ft into the crystal blue sky appeared through the fog in my eyes. Around me 50, 000 people stood cheering, singing, screaming. Their eyes wide with excitement until they looked possessed. The seating rose steeply, and so did the wave of people. The sun moved to where it’s light hit me directly in the eyes and it’s heat made me sweat. To my right their stood three men, they each wore strange garments made from leather, red cloth and moulded metal, their helmets scratched and dented. Scars ran deeply along their arms, bulging with muscle. Their sandals ripped and dusty, hands gripped tightly around swords or pikes. To my left stood a man wearing only a cloth tunic and leggings, armed only with a whip, and next to him three more men wearing the same, their tunics torn and bloody, deep wounds showing through, non of them armed.

A huge wooden gate shuddered as it was pushed open to the far left of the arena. A huge roar erupted from the crowd. I attempted to move to get away from this, from the blood that dripped through the shadows as ten or twenty naked, but alive bodies were pulled from the darkness, but I was unable to move, stuck, my feet planted firmly in the coarse dust. Around me silence drifted with the sun, but people still continued to scream nothing. The poor souls from the shadows were dumped in front of me, their eyes wide with fear, swollen with their tongues in need of liquid. On my right the men moved forwards, eyes blazing, relishing the horror. I looked at the pile of bleeding, tortured humans in front of me, one caught my eyes, a hand reached out from the cool blue as the silver red glint of a sword sliced through the flesh, the eyes glistened with a bright all-knowing light, pulling on my soul, reaching for life, threatening to pull me down. My soul reached out, but the red stained silver descended again and the light went out. Thick red blood seeped through the dust towards me, suddenly everything stopped.