A Life Beyond by Mark Church (ebook reader web TXT) 📕

'Guess I'll see you afterwards mate' said Harvey as he walked off slowly in the direction of the Arena.

'Bye Harv..' came the sad sounding reply from Daniel as he watched his friend walk away.

'Oh come on Daniel. Let’s hurry, we might get right at the front if we are quick!!' said Tobias as he pulled Daniel along towards the huge doors to the Arena. The doors opened and Tobias’ eyes lit up with excitement, Daniel on the other hand stood there totally open mouthed at what he was seeing in front of him.

Chapter Twenty-One

The Arena

Right before Daniel's eyes stood The Arena, an oval shaped area that stretched as far as the eye could see, surrounded by large seating structures which stretched all the way around the entire area, high walls towered over the games surface suggesting that no one was to be able to leave the arena by climbing up them or going through them, the walls were solid and brick like in their appearance and were as thick as they were tall. The seating area contained hundreds of seats for the school pupils to sit and watch whatever was going on inside and on the wall just below them sat a name plaque which held the name of every class at the school which meant that every person who went there knew their place not just by name but by class colour as each stand was painted in the classes chosen colour, there were twelve seating areas reserved for pupils and countless others for anyone else who came to watch and this year was extra special due to the Tri-Yearly-Night-Games being held here which would mean more people than ever would be coming to watch the games taking place. There was a special seating area high up around the centre of the Arena which was reserved for The King and family plus whichever guests he had requested the company of. As expected it was the plushest looking tower of all the areas and could accommodate hundreds of guests at one time and this year would be filled with the most important people from all across Vaymia attending this Tri-Year.

Daniel was totally awestruck at the sheer size of it and couldn't actually move his feet, Tobias was tugging at his robes,

'Daniel…' he said 'we need to get in quick, all the seats are being taken up and I want a good seat to see him'

'Wh...it...it's huge!!' Daniel said not really listening to Tobias and what he was saying, 'how far does it go back?..I mean from outside it doesn't actually look that big!!'

'Well that's the amazing thing about this place, it's sort of magical, I mean it's been built by the most accomplished wizards across the world' Tobias smiled as he explained the story behind the Arena 'from the outside it looks like a small sort of….err...training arena, but the great thing about it is that it's protected by ‘The Light of Erwin’, it's a sort of magical dome that protects the people inside while they are here'

'Oh right' said Daniel looking still confused 'and what does this dome thingy do apart from that?'

'Well first of all no magic from the outside world can penetrate it meaning everyone inside is safe, anything brought into the Arena can easily be contained as the King holds all power over it and is the only one who can use magic if he is needed to, oh and it's party piece is that from the outside it looks like an empty training area, as I said, but inside its size is magnified a hundred times, meaning it is not seen from above and everyone inside can safely watch whatever is going on' Tobias knew every fact about the Arena as he spent most of his time inside it just taking in its size and magical aura,

'I think I get what you're saying...well as long as we are safe in here then that's fine by me' smiled Daniel who seemed to be a little more at ease with every passing second he stood there,

'Oh the last thing I forgot to tell you is that the Arena floor and up to the height of the walls is protected by another dome, that one is only used when we have the games and also the final of the Inter-Class-Cup, it's to protect everyone who is watching' Tobias said as he and Daniel started on their way to find their seating area,

'Oh why did something happen here or something?' asked Daniel

'Well sort of...you see quite a long time ago. Before I was born there was a story which I had been told about, and it was about a traveller who had managed to get into the Final Games, not one person knew his name and no one knows how he made it that far even to this day but some had suspicions of magi-foul play, his story supposedly checked out according to one soldier who was in charge of the entrants, he battled all the way through the heats but he got into the Finals and before anyone could stop him he managed to destroy the entire Arena and the people inside, totally vaporized by him using some sort of dark magic' Tobias shuddered at being reminded of this, Daniel was seemingly fascinated now,

'So what happened after that?' he asked,

'Well it seems that the King at the time was not quick enough to spot the danger this traveller possessed and couldn't do anything to stop him, the traveller escaped somehow and was never seen again, and that's why we now have a ‘dome in a dome’, meaning if there's any hint of trouble on the Arena floor then it will be contained to the ‘inner dome’ and we won't be harmed, the King insists on using it wherever possible to keep us safe, he realised that for him to be the King we need he would have to have total control over every aspect of the Arena, so that's why he insisted on using it for every event'

'Oh right I get you!!' replied Daniel who had a look on his face that screamed ‘CONFUSED!!!’ 'So where do we need to go now?' he asked,

'Well if you stop asking me so many questions then I'll take us to our area, come on...follow me' Tobias said as he sped off past scores of students and teachers who were all making their way to their own class seats, as they neared the centre of the Arena Daniel spotted Harvey about to descend the set of steps that went high up into the heavens, but as he walked forward he accidentally barged into another pupil,

'Watch it Ordie!!!' the boy said angrily as he rubbed his shoulder 'you'll pay for that I promise you!'

'Whoa, whatever, it was only accidental, I'm sorry if my little tap on the shoulder hurt you!!' Daniel replied sarcastically as he always did when faced with someone who wanted to hurt him,

'You'll be sorry for that, don't you know who I am?' the boy asked as if Daniel should actually know,

'Not a clue, are you Barry the wonder dog??.. Or Simon the chicken farmer!!' Daniel laughed out loud as the boy grew angrier by the second,

'He has no clue!!' the boy laughed as he stepped forwards right into Daniel's face almost pressing his nose up against his 'You will know soon enough I promise you, I'm Cahlid...and I run this school, everyone and I mean EVERYONE answers to me got it??' he snarled as Daniel took a step back waving his hand in front of his nose,

'Could you at least brush your teeth next time, your breath is awful!!' Daniel replied whilst laughing out loud,

'Oh that's it now you’re gonna get it' Cahlid said as he lunged forwards towards Daniel as if going to attack him but he stopped mid-air, inches from Daniel,

'That's enough!!!' shouted Garin who had been following Daniel from a distance 'I will have no violence today!!' Garin had frozen Cahlid in mid-air, he stepped in front of him and released the spell causing him to fall to the floor with a ‘THUD’, 'You will leave this place and go to your stand right now!!',

'Or what??' Cahlid replied hoping to provoke a reaction from Garin,

'Or...Young Cahlid I shall have to bring down on you the punishment that you so desperately deserve, now get out of my sight and DON'T look back!!' Garin pointed to the stand where they were supposed to be going to, Cahlid dusted himself down and muttered under his breath as he stormed off angrily, Daniel smiled at Garin as they both stood there,

'Thanks for that Buck...sorry Garin but I didn't need any help with that boy' Daniel said as Garin stooped forwards slightly,

'Daniel...please remember that this place is new to both you and I it has changed so much since I was last here, I cannot allow you to get hurt, but that boy is evil beyond belief so please just be careful' replied Garin, knowing that he couldn't afford for Daniel to be hurt in any way 'Now go...find your place and please stay out of trouble',

'Yeah yeah..I'll be ok I promise' he said as he turned and started to walk off then he spotted a familiar figure, 'HARVEY…' he called out 'HARV….it's me' Harvey didn't hear him so Daniel shot off towards the ‘Muddy Bog’ stand, he reached the steps and looked up, he could see

Harvey just up ahead,

'Harv...wait up mate, I'm shattered running after you!!' but just as he went to climb the steps two huge school pupils stepped out in front of him, they were decked in the uniform of Muddy Bog,

'Where do you think you're going Ordie?' asked one of them as he stood there arms crossed and grinding his teeth,

'Err it's none of your business weirdie!!' Daniel cheekily replied,

'Weirdie??, I reckon he's making fun of you Don' replied the other 'I think we need to teach him a lesson!!' he cackled as he rammed his fist into his other hand,

'Oh you two bone heads are going to teach me a lesson eh?, Oh excellent but I bet I'm smarter than both of you AND can outrun you', Tobias appeared at the bottom of the steps panting heavily,

'There you are Daniel!!, what are you doing on the steps of ‘Muddy Bog’ ?'

'I'm going after Harvey. My friend!!, and these two numbskulls won’t let me past!!' Daniel said as he started to feel slightly angry as Harvey had disappeared out of sight now,

'Don't you remember what we said about not being allowed to go into another classes seats?, it's against the school rules for one thing and you're likely to get thumped if you get caught!!' Tobias tugged at Daniel's robes hoping to get him off the steps quickly before something bad happened,

'But I need to see Harvey...and these two aren't going to stop me!!' Daniel said as he tried to push past the pupils who were blocking his path 'Get off me!!' he shouted as he was hoisted up into the air and then thrown to the dusty ground,

'You've about as much chance as getting up there as you have becoming King!!' laughed Jon the smaller of the two pupils 'Now clear off or you'll be sorry!!'

Daniel picked himself up off the floor with Tobias helping to dust his robes down, 'I'll get in there don't you worry!!', not letting those two clowns stop me',

'You know we can't get in there, it's impossible. You’ll just have to see him later on in the King's Chamber, now come on we must go find our seats!!' said Tobias who was practically shaking on the spot as he felt he was missing seeing his hero in action. And with that they both headed off to where their class seating area was, at the base of the steps was a huge wooden shield attached to the side of seating wall, ‘DAWNFALL’ was written across it in two foot high letters