Rosch went up the slope. The first think he did was to walk to the first cave he could see. It was his mother's cave. She was completely isolated, probably seen nobody in the last week, since the competition was going on. She wasn't all alone, guards were standing everywhere making sure she couldn't leave. It was hard to spot them, but now it was like child's play for Rosch.
"Mom, I am home.", Rosch shouted while helping Suz on a chair.
"So that is where Rosch grew up. Rosch is so kind, his mother is probably a kind person, too. Weird why does my stomach feel like I ate something bad?", Suz didn't know why she had such weird thoughts, but she wanted to be liked by Roschar's mother, who made her nervous.
Suddenly a loud bang was heard further back. From the corner a shadow appeared and has thrown herself at Rosch. It looked almost as if she kneeled before Rosch, but since he is still so small not even a meter big, her hugging him looked funny.
"My baby are you hurt somewhere, let me look at you.", said Lunara, but as she saw the scares on his stomach and neck she almost dropped to the ground. That had to be fatal wounds.
Lunara opened her mouth with tears and wanted to ask what happened, but Rosch saw her and explained it first.
" Don't cry mom, that's Suzanna behind me, she is the one that saved me.", Rosch said that with a smile, looking at Suz.
Lunara was surprised. She saw the gaze Roschar gave Suz. As mother, she knew what that gaze meant. He must really like her. She suddenly smiled and started to walk to Suz.
" So you are Suzanna. What a beautiful name. My name is Lunara. Thank you for saving my son. It's nice to see he got a good friend." Lunara said, holding the hand of Suz.
Suz was perplexed. As she saw Lunara, something in her mind went blank. She shook her head blushing a bit, as she said, " No problem, I would do anything for Rosch he saved me more then once, too. ", than she continued with something else. "But why are you looking so much like my mother. You are as beautiful as her, the ears are the same and your skin color, that is just so amazing.", Suz said, becoming more excited seeing that she and Rosch could even share a bloodline.
The eyes of Lunara jumped open, as shock took her by surprise.
" They captured another elf? ", she shouted out loud, grabbing the arms of Suz.
" I... I don't know, mom never told me, she didn't like to talk about it. But I know she was born here, it is just that she never talks about her mother. ", Suz said back in a hurry, a little bit surprised.
Lunara calmed down a bit. She let go of Suz and apologized.
" I see. Your grandmother must have been a kind woman to teach your mother so much about healing. ", Lunara said, because she knew how hard it is to love the child that is from someone that hurt you so much.
Rosch smiled, he didn't know why, but as the two females talked to each other he felt at peace. Right now the most important females in his life liked each other.
"Here mother, there is some meat, berries and other edible things for you inside the bag. I know you are lonely, but I will come as often as I can. I promise you.", he said lovingly to his mother, giving her the biggest bag.
Suddenly Suz eyes went round. "That's right, I know what we are asking for as rewards. Hehehe let's go Rosch. We need to get our rewards.", Suz said happily. She had an Idea that could change all their problems she thought.
Rosch wasn't surprised, because Suz always wanted to win the competition for a high reward and Lunara just saw it as a child getting excited for something random. She smiled and made a hand gesture for them to go.
They disappeared as fast as they showed up and Rosch ran with Suz on his back. They ran past other cave entrances till the reached the plaza. Rosch slowed down and walked slowly to the plaza.
In the middle of the plaza were all the kids and the parents sat around the plaza looking into the middle. It was a bit like an arena, where stones around the plaza were lying around to sit on. On this plaza duells or grudges were taken care of.
Some parents still looked tense because their children weren't there yet, but only a small portion. Most had huge smiles on their faces. After another hour the time limit was reached and it was almost evening. Till now from 144 children 128 made it back, but it does not mean that they are dead. Some come to late and some are lost and found later by their parents. But round about 10 deaths each year is normal. There where times when death tolls were over half because killing each other was normal, but that changed a bit. There are still no rules, but the constant mixing with civilized races made them less feral. They are still brutal, but learned that numbers equals strength as mush as quality does.
A big blackish goblin made it's way onto something, like a podium, to talk. It was Roschar's father.
He looked into the kids till they went silent. After some time of looking, his speech began.
"Kids you did good. But today we will give rewards only to the best. Whoever group thinks that they hunted something worth my time, comes forward.", Randan spoke in a dominating kind of voice.
The first groups went forward and showed their kills. Two-headed boars and black wolves were shown the most. Which are very good kills for children and like Rosch thought it was enough to ensure a place in the top 10 ranking. Top 5 was another entire thing from there on only special kills were shown.
The first to come forward was a blackish-green goblin that looked like the spitting image of Randan.
While walking forward he dropped the head of a huge Warbear almost the same size as the Saberlion Rosch fought. That creature was already an amazing trophy, but what was even more amazing was that he came all alone up there to the podium.
"Hahaha, that's my son and the Nightwalker bloodline. Rastar sit down at one of the 5 open places behind me. That is surly top 5 ranking maybe even first.", Randan smiled from ear to ear, as Rastar sit on the left stone. Another two came up, they didn't kill a Warbear, but an alpha black wolf that is double the size of a normal. It is one of the weakest top predators but has a pack to compensate his weaknesses. Those two were allowed to sit behind Randan. Some parents started to cheer and brag. They are from the family that has mixed with orcs and you could see that on their buff bodies.
The next two went up and that made Rosch almost fume with anger, but Suz calmed Rosch down. They were Sleif and Gundar, the two Bastards that made Suz the bait for the Saberlion so they could run. Suz was really good at calming down Rosch, but the next action was to much to handle for Rosch. Those two claimed the Saberlion body as their kill. The exact same one that Rosch killed. It was missing a leg and the head. At that time Suz could only carry one leg because her foot still hurt, but later the body was gone. Rosch got angry again and went up there to confront them.