"Oehler Hersul. Approach for judgment!" the booming voice called over the temple. "I can't believe it.." he thought frantically as he rose, adjusted his chest plate, and practically ran to the kneeling board. At last, after those grueling days of Training, he'd finally made it to the Judgment. The three hooded figures loomed ominously on the slight ledge, and only the faint glistening of their armour coming from the depths of their robes reminded him that they were Wareiphean.
It was said that becoming a Triumvirate Judge twisted your mind, that it made you nothing but a sensor used to find worthy Battlemen. Those who were gifted (cursed?) with empathy or second sight immediately went into the Triumvirate training, where you sharpened your abilities and were kept locked in a section of the Radim to prevent tampering, though how you could tamper with a person, Oehler did not know. One of his childhood friends who was slightly older and passed the Great Test not long ago had empathy. He was whisked off to the back of the caverns and never heard from again. Mostly, it was a dreaded thing to become a Triumvirate Judge. Some boys and girls did aspire to be that rank, but your powers were pre-determined, and you could not change them.
One stepped forward and stretched out a sharply clawed hand, which he rested on Oehler's head right between his rapidly growing horns. They itched madly, worse than when new teeth grew in. But he kept them polished, and had his roommate sharpen them to a deadly point. A faint hiss and a reeking stench came from the figure above him, but he resisted the urge to pull away and look. To gaze upon a Judges face was forbidden, flogging was not a thing Oehler tried for. It hissed again before backing away and counseling with the other two. "Please, please..." he begged under his breath. "I know I can passss the Test, just give me a chance." A slip of parchment appeared from the Judges sleeve, and he handed it to the High Protector who read it and nodded to someone behind Oehler. "Did I passss?"
The mourning sound of the wailing horns drifted through the temple and down to where Oehler knelt, head still down. "Oehler Hersul isss prepared to take the Great Test, open the entrance!" Grinding and crunching echoed as the heavy stone door to the Arena was rolled back slowly, and the gush of air escaping the tightly sealed room caused the fires in the braizers to flicker. "You have three hoursss to find your way through the maze, where many obstaclesss await you. Enter now or turn back, it isss your choice." To his knowledge, no one had ever turned back. Maybe not in his lifetime anyway. Oehler rose and bowed to the High Protector before entering the first part of the maze. Behind him the door was closing, both literally and figuratively. His youngling days were forever gone once he'd left that temple, for if he didn't make it through this maze in the allotted time, he'd allow one of the beasts that lurked inside to kill him. The very thought of becoming nothing but a simple Taev worker, cooking or cleaning or...something else made him want to vomit. In Elmnkim Radim, if you didn't fight you were no better than the tiaod dung that was spread on the dwindling fields. Even the eggs of the Taev were destroyed to prevent their genes from being passed on. An angry roar from within the maze made Oehler jerk his head up. Something in there was hungry, no doubt on purpose. What if it was a kallt?
A hungry or brooding kallt was nothing to mess with. They were huge polar bear-like creatures with tusks that they rubbed on stones to keep sharp, and six inch claws that had been shown to rip through even the strongest Sacred Ore. In Training, tattered helmets were shown to the younglings to keep them from challenging the usually hibernating creatures. Before turning a corner, Oehler used his shiny elbow guard to see if there was anything around it and charged on. His heart lurched at remembering those dulled helmets that had once been someone's soul. Nothing would make him challenge a full grown kallt without a whole Radim of support. The feral roar shattered the air once more, and he was never more sure that it was a kallt.
Fear closed an icy hand onto his heart and he furiously tamped it down. "Even the High Protector himself would not ssseek out a kallt, there must be sssome way around it." he murmured.
Quite suddenly, Oehler came upon his first challenge, and it wasn't quite what he expected. It was a short, lanky, knobby-kneed little man sitting on a pedestal roughly at Oehler's eye-level, smirking. "Well, a new friend for Akeeni. Good, because he was getting bored." The man beckoned forward him with a bony finger. White tufts of hair sprouted from random places on his skinny frame, covered by a ratty piece of fabric of who-knows-what origins. "Akeeni supposes we should be getting on with your testing, unless the young one wishes to speak?" Akeeni, Oehler assumed that to be his name, tilted his head to one side in question. "Um, no? Let's just ssstick to the test old man. What am I to do, fight you?" he asked sarcastically, brandishing his claws. "Oh nonono, Akeeni is not for your physical testing, he is for your mind!" He cleared his throat and began.
"Before you may pass the wise Akeeni, you must answer his riddles three. First riddle:
I have many feathers to help me fly.
I have a body and head, but I'm not alive.
It is your strength which determines how far I go.
You can hold me in your hand, but I'm never thrown.
What am I?"
He sat back, waiting for the answer. Oehler couldn't help but laugh aloud. "You old fool, that isss a child'sss riddle told on the first day of weaponsss training! The answer isss an arrow!" Akeeni nodded and smiled even more, showing crooked and broken green teeth. "The young one has a strong memory, he does! That was but one to test your remembrance powers, for those who forget their past mistakes are doomed to repeat them!" He waggled a thin finger in warning before he continued. "Second riddle:
I cannot be seen, cannot be felt,
Cannot be heard, cannot be smelt.
I lie behind stars and under hills,
And empty holes I fill.
I come first and follow after,
End life, kill laughter.
What am I?"
"Hmm, that isss a tough one, little man." Oehler paced as he thought. "Lie behind ssstarsss...ssspace, black...darknessss...Fills empty holesss, water...dirt...but those don't lie behind ssstarsss...a hole is dark. Come first, morning, and follow after, night. Morning can be dark. The answer must be that! No one movesss around at night, end life kill laughter!" "Is the young one confused? Tsk tsk, his thinking is costing precious minutes!" "I know the answer, twit. It is darknessss that liesss behind ssstarsss and fillsss holesss." Akeeni slapped his bulbous knee in joy. "Excellent young one! That mind does possess skills other than fighting! Now, for your final riddle!
I make you weak at the worst of all times.
I keep you safe, I keep you fine.
I make your hands sweat, and your heart grow cold,
I visit the weak, but seldom the bold.
What am I?"
"What, isss that all? You, old man, must get out and learn some new riddlesss! I can figure that out aloud. 'I make you weak at the worst of all timesss' Love can make one weak at a bad time, but it visitsss even the bold and doesss not make your heart cold. Your mother keepsss you sssafe, but ssshe to doesss not make your heart cold...I know thisss answer because I felt it for the first time today, I admit. It wasss but a fleeting moment, however, quickly replaced by anticipation. The answer, dear Akeeni, isss fear."
Rising up from his perch, Akeeni bowed low to Oehler, who bowed back, only because it was customary. "You may pass, young one, but allow an old Akeeni to provide you with some advice before. You must learn not to be so overconfident, because arrogance is a snake that picks the worst moment to bite you in the rear." Rolling his eyes, Oehler jogged down the hall, calling back "Do not worry about my arrogance old man! No sssnake hasss ever sssnuck up on me!" Turing the corner, he hardly noticed Akeeni had disappeared.
After progressing for some time, scrabbling claws behind him alerted Oehler to a challenge. Whirling with a savage growl, he spotted a rabid tiaod. Tiaod were normally docile and stupid, but a rabid one was angry and stupid. It screeched, it's thin trumpet-like voice filling the corridor. "At last, battle!" The bird leapt at him, sharp foot-claws outstretched. A quick glance told Oehler that it had on battle spurs, sharp barbs that were often filled with poison. A mighty leap sent him high over the screaming bird and he came down hard on it's back with a satisfying CRUNCH!
With a faint whistle, the tiaod collapsed beneath him, back effectively broken. Oehler didn't take the time to pluck a few feathers as a trophy, and continued on toward the inner maze. His anger and blood-lust quickly peaked as he came upon more rabid tiaod and even one mad tiawor. Each was effectively dispatched, some more messily than others. He laughed loudly as he ran, and called out to the bloody hall, "Where isss the challenge to thisss?" Ahead, a teenaged kallt lumbered around the corner and bellowed. Blinded by ferocity and a savage need to kill, Oehler leapt at it before he realized just what he was facing. It raised it's tusks and charged, the two meeting with a grating metal-on-bone clang.
He dug his claws into the creature's back and sank his teeth into it's neck, sending the kallt screaming down the halls. Oehler couldn't angle his head enough to use his deadly horns, but he scraped at the soft flesh of it's neck, hoping to catch a vein. It managed to take his thigh into it's razor-lined mouth and bit fiercely, shaking the leg from side to side in order to maximize the amount of damage. He roared in pain but clung to the stinking matted fur and swung himself onto the kallt's back. The creature bucked and slammed into walls trying to dislodge it's passenger but Oehler wouldn't budge. Watching intently, he saw the pulsing neck vein and ripped at it with his claws. More blood painted the walls, floor, turned the white fur pink and ran down Oehler's armour.
One last angry bellow with a strong buck and the kallt shook Oehler to the ground, stabbing him in his unprotected side with a tusk as it fell, dead. Oehler was trapped by the weight of the kallt, and without a sharp object he couldn't cut the tusk off. "NO!" he screamed. The pain was making his vision blur and darken. "I can't loose like thisss!" he screamed again without the same power as before. Slowly, Oehler slipped away as he tried to remove the tusk. Just as his eyes closed, he saw a tiaod approaching with a rider. "Just relax, you're going to be fine." a voice said as the darkness claimed him.