"Excuse me."

I rap the gaurd on the head, his helmet clanging. He turns around with start, almost tripping over his spear. Humph. Such incompetence.

"What do you think you are-"

"Please show me where Box number 3 is. My shoes are hurting me and I wish to sit down."

He stares at me and I snap my fingers in impatience.

"Hurry, hurry, I haven't got all day. Though I am sure a common person like you wouldn't understand what us nobles go through on a regular basis. It's just dreadful." I finish with a sigh.

"Box number 3 is up the stairs all the way and to the left three places. It is marked with a golden three." He gives me a look of utter disgust and points towards the said box.

I sweep away, my group following behind me in complete silence. Onlookers stare, and I deal them looks of cold indifference. We sweep up the stairs, Major and Minor helping me up.

We find the box and settle ourselves. I have a great view, and I am sure that we make quite a sight from below. After all, I coordinated our outfits quite well.

Pisces leans towards me.

"Milady, when will the fight begin?"

I wave her away. "Patience, patience. I'm sure they will begin soon. If not, we can do a little bit of persuasion and get this thing going. Now, look like we are all having loads of refined fun. The people are watching." 

Jaaws~

Jaaws reached the arena long before the crack of dawn. It was already filling with people.

Kyngdom will be much better off when this execution is over, she thought to herself as the air whistled around her scales. I love a good execution. Especially one so formal.

Someone was bound to try to ruin the execution, and Jaaws would not let that happen. Such an evil event did not deserve to be destroyed!

Jaaws circled the arena for a moment, wondering how best to infiltrate the crowd. Should she stay herself, invisible under the stands, or hypnotize someone else? The dragon surveyed the scene--a fanciful seating arrangement surrounded an elaborate arena, which was protected by a forcefield that was decorative in itself. Unfortunately, there weren't too many places to hide.

A small girl caught Jaaws's eye, something on her wrists flashing red despite the darkness. She was packing refreshments into a rolling cart near a shed at the foot of the stands, presumably for the nobility in the box seats. A servant!

Jaaws could hypnotize her temporarily and walk from seat to seat, spying on any possible intruders. But where would she hide her own self while she did so? "That tree right there," muttered Jaaws to herself, eyeing a large oak at the edge of the stands.

Jaaws tucked her wings in and dove towards the giant tree. She plunged into its leaves and grabbed onto a branch, digging her claws into its thick bark so she wouldn't fall. How will I get the girl all the way over here? Jaaws wondered. She gazed through a gap in the leaves. The servant was still near the small food shed, which was too far away for Jaaws's powers to reach.

Just then, a guard walked right under Jaaws's tree. "I'm telling you, I saw this tree start swaying just a second ago!" he shouted, standing and looking around, bewildered.

His partner, who wasn't visible to Jaaws, snorted. "Ever heard of wind?" she scoffed. "Let's get back to our station before we get into trouble."

"You go...I don't want to get in trouble for letting an intruder anywhere near here...," he said distractedly. "I'll catch up." The man looked up into the tree. His face whitened as he saw the blackness occupying its branches...and then a tail...some legs...a scaly chest and pitch black wings...he whimpered as the dragon opened its mouth in a smile, and the last thing he remembered was a purpley smoke drifting down towards him...

------------------------

"Hey!" the guard shouted, fast approaching the servant girl. "YOU!"

The girl looked up in surprise. "Um...yes, sir?"

"Why are you still standing here?"

The girl glanced back at her rolling carts. "I'm not done loading up the food..."

"Get over there to that tree," the guard ordered. "There's a group of hungry people waiting for you."

The girl's eyebrows knitted together. "Um, I thought--" The guard pulled out his weapon. "What are you--Okay, I'm going, I'm going!"

The girl toted a cart of food across the space between the tree and the shed and stopped underneath the tree, where she cast about for the group of hungry people that was, she then realized, not there. "I hate it when the guards make fun of me like this," she muttered to herself, turning around. "Someday I'm going to get myself killed falling for their jokes." A few moments later she saw a purple haze surround her. She looked at it curiously for a moment before her senses faded away.

-----------------------

Jaaws, in her new disguise, grabbed the food trolley and toted it back to the food stands, where a bewildered guard was recovering from a sudden and inexplicable blank in his memory.

"Sir, pardon my asking, but isn't your station over there?" Jaaws asked the man politely, who rubbed his head and looked over to where she was pointing.

"Uh...yeah, yeah it is. Thanks," he said, forgetting that he wasn't supposed to thank the help.

Jaaws, now alone, finished packing the food and drinks and then rifled through the servant's most recent memories until she found the instructions the girl had been given earlier that day.

"...before the event begins, you are to begin handing out refreshments. Each drink costs five copper coins, and food costs one silver. Remeber, your wristbands will be activated as soon as you are to begin handing out refreshements, meaning if you leave the area or speak, you'll be electrocuted. Also remember, no being clumsy, no insulting people, no spilling things on peoples' laps...," Jaaws skipped the list of do's and don't's, "To get to the audience [for she was still outside the safety barrier surrounding the arena and seats] you must scan your cuffs THRICE at the servant's entrance. Oh, and make sure they're clean, because if the scanner reads them wrong you'll be instantly elecrocuted. Don't forget!"

Jaaws looked down at the her wrists, both of which were wearing a metal bracelet. A red light blinked on them, but as Jaaws watched, the light turned green and the bands began to vibrate. The execution would soon begin.

I stand at the metal doors, the latches waiting to be opened. The windows are visible to the outside where the audience is, but I still cannot see the environment. Suddenly a muffled voice is heard from the outside, and there are polite claps from the crowd. I can tell Rigga turns on the environment while they all cheer. The doors make a hissing noise and then opens, and the artificial sun glares at me. But the sun dies down, and the air is instantly cooler. I look around to discover that I am in a forest setting. Ooh, forests. Good thing I chose the bow and arrow.

I can see that there is a small patch of snow in the distance, where there are snow covered trees also, but for now, I focus on the landscape in front of my while Rigga finishes the introduction.

“...and this will not only be a test of physical strength, but it will also be on of mental strength. The SOCS programs and the Academy programs have always chosen this way of execution, as the fighters will suffer, attack, and be attacked before they die an agonising death…”

I try to block out most of what she is saying, because I’m just not feeling the positivity level. Instead, I go to the highest tree that I can spot, and begin my climb. Who am I going to fight? Once I reach the top, I look over to discover it really is a forest, but there is a small barren clearing. I guess that’s where some of the fighting will be done.

Suddenly, after about 20 minutes, the doors on the other side of the Arena open, and in walks…. Oh my Claaws.

Headmistress Luna Rigga.

I try to keep my sanity. The Resistance never understood. No one ever did, but the students that she killed. Rigga is better than me, she is better than everyone. So she’s going to fight me. Of course Rigga would play a game like that.

She makes a bee-line for the clearing, and begins her shouts of invitation. “Come down and we can have a party, Alexandria dear.”

I inhale sharply and draw back my arrow, aiming directly for Rigga’s head. She looks at me.

“You want to make it so quick? After all the suffering that I put you through in your training? Don’t you thirst for revenge, making my death slow and painful?”

Mental and physical. So. That’s what she meant.

Oh how I want to go down there, but I know that I should end this as quick as I can. I release the first arrow, and with cat like reflexes, she deflects it with her titanium shield.

“You’ll have to do better than that, Alexandria dear.”

“I was never dear to you,” I scowl, leaping down from my tree and charging towards her. I swing my bow, which has a sharp tip, and she is knocked down. I take another arrow and shoot her again, and she deflects. She leaps back up and sidekicks me. I fall over, and she takes her sword, holding it above her head. I grab my bow, hoping it will do something, and it does, deflecting the swing. We fight hand-to-hand, until finally Rigga swings her sword at my face. I dodge most of it, but it leaves a nasty gash on my arm. She then punches me full force in the chest, and I can’t breath. She broke one, if not two, of my ribs. She smiles and advances for me, but I take her sword that she dropped when she swung at me, and I throw it at her leg. It cuts deep, and she yelps before dropping to the ground. I then kick her leg, and she draws back, screaming in pain. We are about 11 feet away, and she reached for her sword while I reach for my arrow. I shakily set my arrow, feeling the effects of blood loss. I draw it back with a lot of pain to the point where I quietly shout, and I release. I hear a thump, and realise I’ve hit Rigga in the side. It’s over. I stagger up, and look at the crowd, grimacing. There’s a stunned silence, and I don’t know what to do. I turn and start to walk for the doors, but before I’m even three feet away, I hear a small whizz.

Pain explodes.

I barely turn my head to my side, and see a throwing knife in my back.

I can hear the faintest scream through the force field, and looking at the audience, I see a pair of wings. I crumple to the ground, and I slowly lift my head up, and see Rigga rolling over and grasping her side, hissing through her teeth.

I slump my head down and desperately reach for my back. I yell a couple of times, but my voice is almost gone, so I grit my teeth. I can feel the pain going to my heart. I’m not going to make it, but I’m still going to get the cheater’s blade out of my back.

I reach it, and with a struggle, pull it out. I’m crying, and I turn over, looking up at the artificial sky. I saw my hands, caked with blood, and now there is a pool of blood around me. I can see dark splotches everywhere, and I can see those whom I loved in the clouds.

Poe Allen. Sprocket. Mina. Trillian. Icy. Ronan. With a bit of humour, Alexander. Heather. Lycaella. Lia. So many others. Shadow. I never really got to be her sister.

I cough and I feel as though my ribs are crashing in all around me.

Suddenly, the sky seems to open, and a huge silhouette of hawk wings comes on me.

“Alexandria!”

“Shadow?” I sputter.

She holds me in her lap, and cries.

I must be hallucinating.

“I’m sorry.”

She shakes her head and offers a weak smile. “No.”

Shadow grabs my hand, and I smile. “Remember me?”

She cries out loud, and the sun glaring at me completes the darkness that surrounds me, and I feel my head slump to the side. Everything is clouded and gone.

You fought to the end, Alexandria.

Author’s note~ Yes, that did just happen. Don’t worry, I have at least one, if not two, other charries on Kyngdom. Like Mina killed Heather off, I will kill Alexandria off. Make her death as dramatic as you want, and funeral preps will be made. I’m sorry for anyone that shipped Allenxandria, but sometimes these things just have to happen.

Come and catch me, Shadow.