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Round 2 Prolouge

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The Doctor, or so he had been chosen to be called for this tournament, sat slumped in his chair in his office in Sarun hospital. The evening had been a long one, a VERY long one.  So many contestants had needed his attention.  He had the nurses take care of those not seriously injured, but there were still many with crippling injures he needed to tend to.  It had drained him and he was exhausted, but everyone would be fit for the fights the next day.  A mug of dark liquid was clasped in his bare hands as he sat with his mask sitting on the table in front of him.  His hood served to conceal his face well enough and he took a sip of his drink.

"Already room temperature…" He sighed and set the mug down, gently touching his fingers to his cheek, they felt only slightly chilly against his skin "But at least it served its main purpose."

He carefully pulled a pair of soft gloves back on his hands, feeling as if even that simple act was exhausting.  The first round always seemed to be the most chaotic.  As the Doctor began to pluck back up his mug to return it to the microwave his office door flew open.

"Doc!!!" Mondshein's panicked cry split through the quiet air and the Doctor had nearly lost his mug to the floor in the process.

"Mondshein please don't shout." He spoke softly yet firmly "This is a hospital."

The female champion stood in the doorway, half carrying Lotti, who looked limp and was coughing horribly. "Don't tell me to keep it down Doc and get over here and do something!"

"Oh dear!" Quickly slipping his mask back in place the healer helped guide the panicking Mondshein to laying Lotti on a nearby cot.

The smallest Champion, Gebroken-Ogen, ran in after her, nearly clinging to Lotti's side when he was set down. "Is Lotti gonna be ok Doc?!"

"Enough both of you!" Lotti coughed "I…I'll be fine but give the Doc some space!"

Mondshein looked to the Doctor, he could see the anxious twitch in her hands "Don't worry Mondshein." He said, placing a gentle hand on her shoulder "I'll see to it that he'll be alright, but I'll need some help, can you please send Azul to me?"

"Fine." Mondshein released a heavy sigh, her eyes trailing on Lotti who was again coughing and convulsing slightly from the fit. "I…trust you Doc."

A short while later found a very distressed Azul added to the mix, but with the calm and collected orders of the Doctor the pair of them began going through a number of Azul's texts.  In the time it had taken to retrieve the mage the masked healer had done basic diagnostics on Lotti and found a list of symptoms, now it was up to Azul and his memory and fast reading skills to match them to an ailment in one of his books.  Though some basic chemical tests however one thing was evident.  Lotti had not contracted a simple virus, someone had intentionally poisoned him.

"So far as I can tell it's not life threatening…whoever did this to Lotti only managed to slip him a small dose…but it's plenty to keep him out of commission for a while, even with his tendency to heal quickly I don't know to what extent it might spread and get worse if it's left alone…"

Mondshein had nearly gone on a murderous rampage at that, and Gebroken seemed to want to join her.  Thankfully the Doctor had been able to keep them both relatively calm and Gebroken resumed his vigil of standing by Lotti's bedside while Mondshein paced.

"I've got it!" Azul cried and then let out an involuntary squeak as everyone gathered around him in seemingly an instant.

"Brilliant Azul!" The Doctor nodded, looking over the description of the particular magical poison "Now all we need is the cure…"

"Let me guess," Mondshein groaned "More reading…?"

Both of them nodded but the Doctor spoke up "This will take some time, I can send a messenger with the news later if you'd like."  He approached Mondshein and spoke quietly "Please my friend…get some rest, you're far too stressed and it's doing you more harm than good."

Mondshein sighed once again "I'll…try Doc."

"Gebroken!  Stay here with Doc and Lotti, keep an eye on them for now."

"Yes ma'am!" Gebroken saluted Mondshein.

With one last glance over to her fellow champions and a gentle nudge from the Doctor, Mondshein made her way out of the hospital.  The sun was nearly set and people moved about to get indoors, mumbling and sulking over the new curfew.  The purple masked Champion found herself by the entrance of the stadium, her feet having automatically taken her there.

"Come on we need to get you back before curfew…" she mumbled to the boy standing there.

Alto turned from where he was reading over some papers, nearly jumping. "Oh! Mondshein…I can walk by myself you kn-"

Alto cut himself off, noticing the way Mondshein seemed to fidget and tense before trying and failing to relax. "….right well…let me get my guitar and you can tell me what happened."

The two of them began their walk back to the castle, Mondshein explaining the situation through clenched teeth, her stress becoming more and more apparent.  When they got behind the castle gates Alto turned to her.

"Mondshein you need to calm down…I know you're stressed right now but Lotti's in good hands…"

"I can't…I can't…" she seethed, and suddenly Mondshein lashed out, her hands clenched around a pair of gardening clippers she slipped from her belt, she slashed the clippers into the nearest inanimate object and were buried a good inch into the poor tree "I can't do this again!"

The nearby guards winced, turning towards the female Champion for a moment, but Alto quickly shooed them away.  Alto himself seemed to be keeping his cool, though his face slipped into a frown. "Seriously Mondshein…"

Again she lashed out, ripping the clippers from the tree and making a slash down the trunk "I CANT FAIL SOMEONE I CARE ABOUT AGAIN!!"

It was then that Alto could see how much Mondshein was truly shaking, he caught her arm gently as she finished the slash.  On reflex she tried to jerk away, but since Alto's grip held she just turned her face away.

"Don't try and tell me I haven't." She growled "I failed the few people I cared for when I was younger and I've failed to protect Lotti now!"

"I wasn't going to say anything." Alto said with a small smile "Except that the moon is up…let's go into the garden."

The tension in Mondshein seemed to lessen at that and she allowed herself to be gently led into the garden.  Alto made his way towards the rose garden, the one area he knew served as her sanctuary.  Most people probably didn't realize it, just assuming Mondshein liked the garden and liked her privacy, but the rose garden seemed to be so much more for her.  As soon as they entered all remaining tension left her, and her anger and anxiety began to subside.  The whole area of the rose garden was bathed in silver-white light, not all of it from the moon.

"They bloomed tonight…" she murmured, her eyes locked on the roses, her bracelet opened up in response, the bud on the end blooming into a silver rose.

They weren't like ordinary roses, the flower itself was a brilliant silver/white color.  But when the moonlight touched the blooms something else would happen.  The flowers would light up with their own soft silver glow, as if each gave off their own tiny version of moonlight.

Mondshein collapsed to her knees in the middle of the garden, still shaking from her stressed outburst.  She stiffened when Alto wrapped his arms around her in a light hug, carefully replacing one of the roses with the clippers still gripped in her hand.

"Don't worry…Lotti'll be ok, so will Gebroken…" Alto offered her a small smile again "They've got you looking out for them after all."

Mondshein's voice came out as barely a whisper when she spoke again, though it wasn't for many more minutes.  Her forehead had come to rest on Alto's shoulder as he hummed a quiet song to help calm her, her eyes locked on the flower in her hand. "Thank you…Alto."

He opened his mouth to respond but footsteps approaching made both of them stop.  Mondshein stood up quickly, the rose disappearing inside her cloak and she crossed her arms and straightened herself out.  Alto hopped up as well, his usual spunk and energy seeming to come back into place, rather than the quiet calm he'd shown minutes before.

A guard appeared, bowing "Apologies for disturbing you Champion Mondshein…but I have a message for you from the doctor, he said I should bring it right to you."

"Well give it then." Mondshein snapped, her own voice back to its usual tone.

"Well I don't…exactly have it…he does." The guard jerked his thumb behind him and Digger's large form appeared, a letter tied to his collar.

"Ah..well…off you go then." Mondshein made a shooing motion to the guard.

The guard scrambled off, knowing if he stayed any longer he was likely to get a less polite version of that request, plus he really preferred not to stand next to Digger much longer than he had to.  Alto meanwhile was mentally counting down from ten in his head.  As soon as he hit one the guard was totally out of sight and Mondshein let out a happy…well it was a squeal.

"Digger!" she cried happily and ran over to the Gravehound, scratching his ears and giving him plenty of pettings.

Alto shook his head, scrunching up his nose at the smell of Digger's breath, and took the note off the collar.  He read through it, and then waved it at Mondshein.

"You'd better take a look at this…it's the list of ingredients we need for Lotti."

Mondshein took one look at the note and cursed "Those are going to take me forever to get!"

"Wait…" Alto mumbled to himself "Eight…there were eight ingredients right?"

"Yeah what's your point?"

Alto suddenly looked as if a light bulb had just lit up over his head, his face breaking out into a grin "Mondie we need to go talk to the Doc, I've got an idea on how we can get all these in one day."

Mondshein didn't even bother snapping at him for the use of her undesired nickname, curiosity shining in her eyes, wondering what the announcer had planned.

--------The Next morning------

"Goood morning citizens of Sarun and welcome to Round two!" Alto grinned as he spoke into his microphone, listening to the cheers of the crowd.

Mondshein sat perched in her usual place, Gebroken-Ogen sat next to her.  Several of the contestants noticed that Lotti was missing from his seat, and whispers began to break out.  Alto let them all speak for a few minutes before continueing.

"Listen up folks because this round is going to be an interesting one, we're changing things up!  We're throwing out the traditional match style for this round and doing something a little different!" Alto grinned widely as everyone quieted, their attention on him.
Match ups and further round two info coming soon >D the plot thickens and we get a slight bit more of a look inside Mondie, Not to mention a cameo from our soon to come Doctor :3 oh and until she reveals her weapon if Mondie ever needs to fight she's using those clippers or some other sharp gardening tool...or you know...Digger XD

Each NPC to their respective Judge XD you guys should know who goes to who by now (Doc is mine though in case there's any confusion there)
© 2012 - 2024 EnfieldKit
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Houkou-NRL's avatar
Feels like an item rush, maybe? Anyway, STORY!! So excited to see how this round plays out!