Cassius felt as if his heart was going to beat through his ribs. Cannibal steppe archers? I start with nothing, and I'm thrown into a one versus thirty situation? Those men all looked brawny and vicious, not something he was going to be able to kill with just his lack of muscle, sweatpants, and a freaking drawstring. Cassius again cursed the Trial. He felt frustration and anger well in his stomach. He wouldn't be remembered, he would just die in his bed for his mom to find in the morning. Cassius decided to put all his anger into visualizing the absolutely insane plan he'd come up with in his head. Visualize it, and you'll have an easier time… yeah right.
Cassius laid in wait. Slightly above a small valley between the two knolls. It wasn't a lot, but he'd be maybe a head above the rider of a horse. Maybe a head. Cassius tried to keep his breathing silent as he heard two riders approaching his position, he was flattened out, dirty, and naked against the hill, on the slight backside of the knoll. As they got closer Cassius could hear their conversation.
"I'm starving. Nothing but root and a bit of rabbit for a week. I was starting to eye you up." One said in a low, scratchy voice.
"You wouldn't get within a foot of me, now shut up and look for this pale, naked meal of ours." The other snapped in a stronger voice as the scratchy voiced one let out a short laugh.
"Meet here in ten?" scratchy asked.
"Hmm, I'll go this way. Check the knolls, it's where I would hide. Shout if you get him."
"Alright, don't get a scratch, big man. If we don't find him I'm eating your balls first."
Cassius didn't hear the other man's response as blood began to rush in his ears. One man was coming his way. The hooves got closer as the other horse's hooves got farther away. The moment was drawing near. Cassius had dug himself slightly into the ground, he was small so it hadn't been hard to make a depression to fit into. His hands were raw and bleeding, but it was enough to give him a good amount of cover. The soil was cool on his body as he laid in wait. The sound of hooves got closer, he felt the vibrations, he thought he could hear the man's breathing. It was most likely his own slightly panicked breathing. Cassius looked up, he saw the man passing slightly below him. A skinny man dressed in dirty furs, he was holding his bow and scanning around. His horse flicked an ear. He had a long knife at his side, and his quiver was attached to his saddle. He had one arrow knocked onto his bow. Ready to shoot his prey.
Cassius steeled himself, this man didn't even bother to look up at all. His dads words rang in his ears. "Everyone forgets to look up, Cassius."
The boy was up in a flash, fast in short bursts. He wasn't wearing shoes so he made almost no noise as he leapt at the rider. He had aimed well. Cassius felt adrenaline flow as he reached out with his twisted up sweatpants, wrapped the taut makeshift rope around the man's neck and yanked him out of his saddle. The man's yelp of surprise was cut off as he fell to the side and back and landed in the grass with Cassius pulling him down. Landing on his back, and above the rider he held on for his life, choking the man who was kicking and struggling, his horse darting with a loud whinny, cutting Cassius's time till his buddy arrived in half he was betting. Racing against the clock and his endurance Cassius wrapped his skinny legs around the stronger man's waist and put his full weight into choking him with his pants.
Cassius made sure that his leg was over the hilt of the man's knife and wrapped the pants around his left forearm. Freeing his right hand. Cassius could feel the rider beating him. He was slipping already, trying to throw elbows into Cassius's body to break him loose. He held on for his life, if the man got away it was over. He would die and be cooked as a meal. An internal clock was ticking down in Cassius's head, an internal clock till Big Man came and saved Scratchy Voice. Scratchy was tearing at his pants, he felt the other hand clawing at his leg to get at the knife. The movies made this seem so easy! This was taking forever to kill him, he was struggling like a demon and Cassius struggled to keep from yelling out as he felt hot blood well up from the deep gouges in his leg.
Suddenly Scratchy rolled and Cassius was on top of him as the teen went on a piggy back ride. Scratchy shot to his feet as Cassius held on for all he was worth. He was getting weaker. His leg was on fire from the dirty nails clawing at him. Cassius had made the right call at wrapping the fabric around his arm. He did the only thing he could think of to drain the man's strength, he took his thumb and rammed it into his eye. The man smelled horrible and the pain from Cassius's thumb driving deeper, gouging through the eyeball drove him to fall back to the ground. Scratchy tried to scream through the pants in agony at the thumb being driven into his eye socket.
Scarlet blood ran down Cassius's leg and stained the grass, when he withdrew his thumb from the eye Cassius almost vomited at the sight of his hand being covered in blood and a chunky red substance. He was glad the man was choked because he wasn't screaming all that loud, but Cassius was still running out of time. He knew that the other rider had heard the horse and would be coming to check.
Finally, Scratchy dropped to his knees, he made a light gurgling noise as he tried to throw Cassius over his shoulder, but the boy was attached like a tick on a dog. The two fell to the side on the ground, blood flowed freely from the gouged socket and his leg, his arms were on fire. It wasn't enough. He'd partially blinded the man but Cassius was almost spent and the rider knew it. He fought harder as he felt the boy weaken. Cassius growled and took a chance, he unclasped his legs and his hand flew to the knife. Scratchy was already there, from experience and age he was faster, knew where it was, and was obviously more skilled. He flicked it out of the sheath and drove it into Cassius's side.
Cassius screamed and his grip loosened, a quick elbow to the jaw sent him reeling and the man rolled away, gasping for breath. The color came back to his face and fury stained his one good eye as he pinned Cassius to the ground and began to pummel his face. Raining blow after blow on the boy. Cassius didn't block, fury filled him. He'd promised that he would take one of the bastards with him. He'd come so close… he would finish the job. Cassius, against all the knowledge that his father had drilled into him about first aid, pulled the knife from his side where scratchy had left it and as he pulled back to punch again, Cassius slammed the knife down to its cross guard into the side of his neck.
Blood flowed freely as Scratchy fell to the side, feebly trying to staunch the bleeding from his neck. However Cassius had made sure to jerk it a bit so that the knife sliced a gash into the jugular and withdrew the knife that couldn't be covered with any efficiency to stem the arterial blood spilling down his neck. He was dead in less than a minute. Cassius wasn't far behind him though. He tried to cover the puncture in his side with his pants, it did nothing. The gray sweatpants turned black as blood soaked them. What a shitty trial, what a shitty start and end. Cassius looked up at the forever day sky and wondered if God was watching. Everything went cold as Big Man appeared above Cassius.
He looked down at the boy, then at Scratchy. He looked at Cassius again with… Respect? In his brown eyes.
"Gods be with you boy, we have our meat. You don't have enough on you. Even if Dai isn't much better." Big Man took the knife Cassius had used to kill Dai and placed it into Cassius hands, crossing them over his chest. "The Eternal Sun has witnessed, and blessed."
Cassius realized that he was giving Cassius a Warrior's death, out of respect. He'd fought to the end. He'd fought with everything he had in his body and it hadn't been enough to survive his Trial. He didn't feel like a Warrior, just a failure that got lucky at the last second. In the end he was still bleeding out in the grass and dirt, far from home.