Re: Tenport Arena [Anyone]
"You're late," Aaron said flatly as Tierra hurried into the rooms beneath the arena. She shot him a wicked glance, but otherwise said nothing. "If you don't hurry out to the gate, they're going to start without you."
Tierra nodded as she patted herself down, checking to be sure she had everything. Aaron frowned at her, his voice was concerned, "I had some trouble with entry for the event. Don't worry, no one's dead." She stretched quickly, popping joints in her neck, back and arms. She reached up to the gray-blue scarf that kept her hair in check and wrapped its tail around her face, securing it to the knot at the back of her head. It wasn't the most ideal mask, but with a little adjustment, it kept her all of her face beneath her eyes covered, and thus prevented people from recognizing her for a woman. She glanced at Aaron, then took her warhammer out of its harness, the quarterstaff of her back, and clasped the two of them together into a bec de corbin. As a polearm, it was shorter than average, barely more than seven feet long, but fit the young woman's stature finely. With a glance and nod to Aaron, she ran for the gate.
The arena was large, sand-floored and mostly empty. In a cross of gates, she could see that there were other fighters, but their features were hard to make out from her vantage point. The basics were already given, though. At the most, she'd be fighting three other warriors. The Warmaster began called out names, "Blackharrow! Fresh of the ships and into the sands!" He paused briefly, then called, "Nevisu! The young albino!" The gates fell. The fighter on her right threw something small out onto the arena, and it exploded into light and smoke as the Warmaster called out, "Nena! The fire-eyed hellion!"
Tierra grinned to herself and cursed at the same time. On one hand, she didn't know she scared the clerks in charge of entry enough to be awarded a title like that, and it amused her. On the other hand, the explosive phial had dazzled her, and the billow of smoke that filled most of the arena didn't help, either.
There was definitely movement in the cloud, but Tierra knew better than to charge into that mess. She stayed back, and began talking with Gilda, the spirit of her earcuff, questions about the other fighters. Not that anyone would hear her, or even see her speaking with the tail of her scarf covering her mouth. With her bec de corbin in her right hand, she climbed the stairs into the arena, lingered on the edge of the smoke cloud, and readied herself in a defensive stance.