Chapter 77 - Hope

I scan the room and the moment I took notice of Selshruuk, I didn't care about the others, and right before I approached him, Ulrrek starts talking.

"okay everyone listen up, all of you have been chosen to participate in this tournament, and as some of you know the prize for the winner is an amazing week filled feast of tasty foods."

all of the inmates faces light up with what he said, but not Selshruuk, he just stood there with a blank stare on his face, Ulrrek continues.

"all of you are probably asking yourselves, why am I here?"

he pauses and answers his own question.

"well It's tradition around here for all the participants to see each other a week before the tournament."

I then think to myself.

"this was a waste of time then."

Ulrrek then snaps his finger and signals a guard to bring something over to him, and a few moments later he pushes a cart with a box on top of it, he then says.

"now before, we send you guys back to your cell, we are going to pull you numbers out of this box, and have you see the tournament bracket."

Ulreek starts to pull numbers out of the box and starts placing them on the wall behind him, and as he finished posting the last ones, we all approach the wall, to see he who we will be facing in the first round, I then look for my number and for Selshruuk's number to see on what potential round we'll fight each other, and I notice that if we both win our matches, that we'll end up fighting in the semi-finals, and as I'm lost in my thoughts someone asks.

"who is seven, zero, two, nine, seven?"

"that's me."

he then laughs as he says.

"ha I got a human, my round will be no challenge."

he then pats my back and says.

"you know that if we fight you can just stand down and take the loss, so you don't have to endure a beating from me."

I respond gritting my teeth.

"I'll keep that in mind."

and then after everyone got a good look, at the brackets, Ulrrek gives the order to all the guards to return us back to our cells, after returning back to my cell, I ignore Aktosh's questions, and just go to straight to sleep. I wake up to the sound of a guard shouting.

"number, seven, zero, two, nine, seven you've got a visitor."

"I really hope that it's Ellena."

I get escorted to the visitor's building, and I sit down, waiting to see who will sit on the other side of me, and after patiently waiting, Ellena sits down, she looks at me and starts crying as she asks.

"I haven't seen you for a year, what happened to you?"

I begin to tear up as I answer.

"I've been dealing with some things, but now everything is fine."

she lets out a sigh of relief and responds.

"that's good, I came here many times asking for you, but they would tell me that, you weren't available and every passing month I didn't see you, my concern for your well being increased."

I reply with sincerity.

"thank you, I'm glad that you've been taking time out of your day to come visit me."

"of course I would come visit the father of my child."

after hearing her say that, I feel like a weight has been lifted off of my shoulder and I ask her.

"so the birth went on fine, no abnormalities?"

she answers still smiling.

"yes, and you're now the father of a healthy baby girl."

I close my eyes and just take in the overwhelming feeling of joy flowing through my body, I then start to cry because of all of the bad thoughts I had while locked in solitary confinement and then I say with my voice cracking.

"I'm so relieved that nothing went wrong, I've been torturing myself in my own thoughts, thinking up only the worst case scenarios about our child."

she keeps smiling at me and then softly says.

"our baby is fine, now all you have to do make it through this so you can meet her."

"you can't bring her?"

she replies.

"you know that I can't do that, for now I have her in hiding until you get out."

I ask.

"why?"

she answers.

"my dad can't ever find out about her, and if he does know about her existence, he will eventually

investigate and figure out that she is not a full blooded elf, and."

she stops talking and starts sobbing.

"that's right, the last of the half breeds were brutally hunted down after the great war, and because of that, there were no more signs of their existence."

I then say to her.

"listen to me Ellena, right now I've got a friend working on trying to get out of here and when I do, let's disappear together and raise our baby girl as a family."

she responds.

"you really want to do that with me?"

I ask.

"sure why wouldn't I?"

she replies.

"but wouldn't you be abandoning your family?"

"my mom and dad have not made the effort to come visit me, so most likely I'm probably dead in their eyes."

I pause and continue.

If anything the only family I have now.

"is you, our baby, Gresnor and Klein."

she smiles and replies.

"alright of your serious about disappearing together, I'll keep you to your word."

she then places her open hand on the steel cage, and I also do the same, until our skins make contact in between the small gaps in the steel fence, and then after enjoying this small amount skin contact, I then ask her.

"oh before I forget, what's the name of our daughter?"

she responds in elvish, and I just stare at her blankly and ask.

"what did you say?"

she responds with a smile.

"it means Hope."