We moved over to the area in the camp where they trained. I had my axes and he had his pike. "Okay Adius. This is a sparring session. Nothing serious. No going for the vitals. We stop if either of us says to stop. If one of us gets disarmed, it's over" I listed out. He nodded and said "That's a lot of rules". I said "That's how you stay safe and don't kill each other by accident". He narrowed his eyes at that. It seemed he did not agree. "How did you get so strong if you limit yourself so much?" he asked me in all seriousness. "Because I survived long enough to get strong" I replied. He leveled his pike and said "I hope you're ready. You asked for this". He seemed really fired up and I pointed it out. "If this goes well, I will finally become a stallion. All of us that you had to choose from had never been with a filly before" he said as his eyes sparkled with excitement. I asked how old he was. "I am 16 years old" he told me. That made him a year younger than me. "I understand. You better do your best then" I said. The spar began when I raised my greataxe.
Sparring with Adius was nice. He was pretty aggressive with me, but I was holding my own. As more time went on, some members of the tribe came over to watch. They had nothing better to do and began to cheer for him. He looked pretty encouraged. When it was clear that he was not going to instantly defeat me, they began to heckle him. That made him double his efforts. He was definitely taking it seriously. I had to lean into his strikes, but I held on. Soon, the crowd began to say really hurtful things to both of us. Him for not being able to beat me and me for being female. Adius was pissed off and taking his anger out on me. At that moment I had two options. One was to beat him and shut all the centaurs mocking and hating me all up. The other was to take one for the team and let him win. If he won, it would probably reinforce all the stereotypes that they had about females. On the other hand, a loss might diminish him in the eyes of the tribe. I already chose Adius, so I could not up and leave him either. That would be too cruel for me to do to the warrior.
I came to the conclusion that I needed to support Adius. He was my stallion after all. Stirring the pot and leaving the tribe could wait until Suzie came to rescue me. He lashed out with a heavy strike with a grunt and I purposely let it rip the axe out of my hands. It flipped in the air before embedding itself in the ground. He pointed the pike at me and I raised my hands slowly. He smiled and raised the pike in the air. There was quiet before the tribe all at once began to cheer. I shrugged and went to take my axe. Just as I was about to pick it up, Sotemon snatched it. I reached for it before he moved it above his head. "You don't have any use for this now, do you?" he said mockingly. I glared at him and said "It belongs to me. Even if I didn't deserve it back, don't you think it's pathetic to steal some else's trophy. If anyone deserves it besides me, it's Adius". He looked upset as Adius came up to him and held out his hand. He looked at the rest of the tribe, but they all seemed to agree. He angrily shoved the axe in his hands and stomped off.
Adius held the steel axe in his hands and all his friends in the tribe crowded him around to inspect it. It was much more ornate than anything they would encounter on the plains. It was not even a master work. Since their pikes were made from crude iron, it must be pretty precious to them. I sighed. There was little to no chance I could get it back from him. I better keep a tight grip on my other axes. I went over to the hut to rest. It took an hour before he returned. He had the axe proudly on his back. He looked totally happy. "I guess there's no hope in asking you to give it back to me, huh?" I said. He smiled and shook his head. "I think I won this fairly. I won something else if you remember". I certainly did not forget. "Well, a deal is a deal" I said with a sigh. Adius brushed his cheek against mine and said "I will do my best to make this feels good for the both of us". He took a deep breath and straightened up his back before walking around and standing directly behind me. "Lift your tail already, Althine!" he said with excitement. It was too late to back out now.
