Page 5 of The Kraken Games

“You’re right. Stupid mind.” Luna muttered. She did think too much. Her brain at night was consumed with memories, with planning, plotting.

“Your mind is a tool that must be trained. it’s not good or bad unless you let it be,” Marrick said.

“I know.” Luna nodded. She’d been working on that of late. Not letting bitterness consume her thoughts continuously. Clearing her mind with meditations. Trying to heal.

“One more time— let me prove I can focus,” she pleaded.

To her annoyance, Marrick shook his head. “No. You’re trying to correct what you perceive as a weakness. I’ll beat you again, you’ll get more annoyed, you’ll tense up and make more errors. Let’s take a break.”

Luna pursed her lips. He was right, of course. She was pushing herself. Having lived alone, a fiercely independent human on the edge of the marshes for so long, she’d used her determination and sheer bloody mindedness to survive. But sometimes, like now, she was finding that it could work against her.

She took a deep breath. “What’s my practice then, for tonight?

“Visualization.”

“I thought I’d go practice my foot work in the mud flats.”

Marrick shook his head. “Swim if you must. But I want you to focus on relaxation. When I took you in that last hold, you went rigid, just staying relaxed would have given you a chance to find the gap in my hold, wriggle your way out. Especially if my arm had been a tentacle.”

Luna grabbed her towel and flicked it at him, before drying the sweat from her neck and armpits.

In the middle of summer, it didn’t take much in Motham’s heat to work up a sweat. At least that was one good thing about the games taking place in mud. It was cool.

“Will Acha compete this year, d’you think?” She mused, as Marrick joined her at the edge of the ring, slugging a long draft from his water bottle.

He smacked his lips. “No way. My win was deeply humiliating for them. They’ll be looking for a new contestant. Less braun, less bravado. More subtlety… they’ll choose an enigma.”

“An enigma?”

“Yeah. A kraken who is hard to read. Other species have been analyzing my win. Trying to glean tips so they can do the same. But you can bet the contest will be very different this year.”

“Yeah,” Luna laughed. “Because I’ll be competing.”

“Sure. That’ll be a surprise for them. Have you signed up yet?”

“Nope. I’ll do it last minute. I’m planning to be an enigma.”

He barked a laugh. “Well then, whoever you’re up against, you’ll be well matched. Want to grab a bite to eat?”

Luna hesitated. “Sure, why not.” Truth was, she needed to be more sociable, be seen around the quay, eating and going to clubs even. She stifled a grimace. She’d only ever frequented clubs to get laid. And those days were well over. Competing meant she’d be the center of attention suddenly. Hard for a reclusive human in a monster world. The humans who did well here were good at promoting themselves, but Luna had just a tiny handful of friends.

Marrick being one of them would surely go in her favor. He would drum up support for her.

“Thanks for believing in me,” she said as they left the club after a quick shower and made their way toward the little diner on the corner.

He gave her a brotherly hug. “You’ve got talent, moon girl. And I know how important this is to you.”

“It feels like my only bargaining chip.” She sighed. “If I win, maybe I can force them to tell me what happened.”

“I hope so.”

She cast Marrick a quick glance. He didn’t sound as sure as she’d like him to.

“How else do you think I could get the truth out of them? They’re impossible to even get near— except once a year.”

Marrick nodded. “This is your best bet, for sure.”

As they ordered and sat down at the table she fidgeted. “I saw a kraken the other day actually. In the waters near their sacred caves.”

---