Chapter 7: Strange Creature
Stahl was getting pretty bored waiting for the games to begin. She had sized up most of her competition already, and didn’t find anyone too worrisome save for a handful of big house names.
The pairings were random, but a bad match-up early on was costly. The Selection happened once every year in Alora, at the beginning of spring. Any warrior from age twenty to twenty four was eligible to participate, regardless of their upbringing, for a total of 5 maximum chances to pass the Selection in a lifetime.
Stahl was twenty two, twenty three in the summer. If she failed this year, she would only have two more chances. This wasn’t, however, because she had failed before. This was her first time attempting the process. She enlisted into the army at twenty, and served two years beforehand.
What had made her try for the Elite Guard this time around was simple. She was worried about her father, who was nearly on his 60th year, and wanted more time at home with her family. The Guard was an easy way to make sure she would stay stationed in the capitol.
Shortly after the sound of thunder echoed through the stadium, signaling that the time was growing near, Stahl’s attention was snagged by a very peculiar looking entry heading towards the seating.
There weren’t any dress restrictions for competing in the Selection, but nobody in their right mind would attempt it with anything on that could restrict their movements... Certainly not crazy enough to fight in whatever exactly this particular entrant was wearing.
For starters, he was small. The average beastman height was around 7 feet. Stahl herself was 7 foot 6. The creature before her was a hair under 6 feet. Even more astounding was the daunting wardrobe. The creature’s entire upper body and arms were covered with a cloth wrap, small bits of fur stuck out of certain spots where the bandages met, giving the wardrobe a lumpy and prickly appearance.
The entrant had on basic tan trousers, but also had on leather boots. Most beastmen fought barefooted, as their paws were suited to it, and for balancing during a fight. Boots were mainly used by workers under certain conditions that called for them.
As if that made little enough sense, the whole cherry on top was whatever the weird helm was supposed to be. It looked almost like some kind of long skull, like that of a horse, but the wrap extended over it, seemingly to secure it in place.
The creature’s eyes remained hidden behind their mask, just as any visible part of their body was also hidden behind the wrap, save for the extruding tufts of fur scattered about. The guy looked absolutely ridiculous to the she-wolf, and pretty much everyone else who had noticed the peculiar entry.
All Stahl could assume at this point was it was some kind of mangled rodent under there. It would explain the bandages and the height.