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Telatl crouched down into the traditional starting position, eyeing the racers lined up beside him. He'd raced a few of them before, but none were too much of a threat. He had his spot in the final race before he even ran.
"Get Set!" the announcer barked, voice splitting the cold morning air. The woman standing in the middle of the track raised her arms and all eyes except for those of the runners were on the announcer.
"Go!" The woman's arms came down and the race began. Telatl launched himself smoothly ahead of the runners, coming up out of his crouch easily. His legs ran almost on their own, all Telatl had to do was keep his eyes on the lap marker. A quick glance to either side told him that he was well in the lead but he did not allow himself to slow. That and a hole in the track were what had cost him his win against Surindi, who was probably in the crowds with that annoying smirk he wore on his face.
Before he knew it, Telatl was sailing past the lap marker. There were cheers from the crowd but Telatl barely noticed them. Someone was coming up on his left, and he put all his energy into powering ahead. He rounded the first corner and saw that he was safely in the lead again, most of the runners just finishing their first lap.
As he thundered down the final straight of his second lap, Telatl saw Surindi. He was at the edge of the track, looking at and appraising the racers with a disdainful sneer. Their eyes locked for a second and then Telatl completed his second lap, the image of Surindi's sneer burned into his mind.
The third and fourth laps were a whiz of brown track and multicolored crowd for Telatl. He knew his legs were moving, but he didn't put much thought into it. He rarely had to work to maintain his lead and even when he was challenged it took only a few well timed strides.
As he caught sight of the lap marker for the fourth and final time, he was far ahead of the other racers. His legs were tiring, but he didn't allow himself the luxury of slowing down. He powered past the lap marker and came to a stop, trying hard not to pant.
The noise of the crowd reached his ears and he could hear the announcer saying that he had won. This all faded out again, however, as Surindi swaggered up to him.
"Well, I didn't think you'd do it, butter-foot," Surindi chuckled, clapping him on the shoulder a bit too roughly. "That was a pretty tough bunch to beat, for you."
Telatl wrenched his shoulder away. "If you didn't need that arm for me to beat you tommorow, I'd take it with me."
"Hey, no hard feelings, Tel," Surindi held up a hand. "Just wanted to congratulate you on staying on your feet the whole time."
"I didn't have any help falling off them today," Telatl snarled.
"You don't need help, all it takes is a bump in the road to throw you," Surindi snarled back.
Telatl didn't think, he couldn't even remember wanting to punch Surindi. His fist, on its own, curled, aimed, and hit Surindi right in the middle of his smirking face. "Shut that or I might try closing it again," Telatl warned and stalked away.
"Hey! Tel!" Telatl looked up to see Arisun and their group of friends coming towards him. "We've been looking for you! We saw you win and we've gotten our hands on a little celebration."
"I'd love to join you guys, but I've got that race tommorow, I can't show up for it hungover," Telatl explained.
"Oh, c'mon, it can't hurt," Arisun encouraged, throwing a companionable arm around his friend's shoulders, "plus, a certain holder's daughter by the name of Lamira is gonna be there to congratulate you."
"Oh alright, just to say hi to Lamira," Telatl gave in finally. "But then I am leaving! No wine! I really can't be stumbling around with a headache for the race tommorow!"
"Suuure, Tel," Arisun chuckled. "We'll tell your mother you got hit real hard in the head when you stumble home tonight."
"Or we could just hit 'im!" Farlik suggested. "That'd save 'im the trouble o' gettin drunk!"
"I'd rather be drunk than take a hit from you anyday," Telatl chuckled. "And I'm not staying long enough to get drunk anyway!"
Half an hour later, Telatl was roaring drunk, singing off key drinking ballads with Lamira perched happily on his lap singing along with them, as drunk as anyone. "One more!" Telatl demanded, raising his empty wine skin as the last line of the ballad ended in someone's contented belch.
"Aw, shuddup!" Ortol told him and belched again. "I know! Howbout we have a belchin contest? I betcha I can out belch all of yah!" He contorted his face magnificently and then gave a sample belch.
"Hey! There'sa lady here!" Telatl reminded him, giving Lamira's arm an affectionate slap. "You can't have a belchin contest with a lady around!"
"I can belch better than Ortol!" Lamira piped up, and let out the most impressive belch anyone had heard all night.
"Can all girls do that?" Arisun wondered. "Thatsa preddy good belch, for a girl!"
"Girls can belch better than guys any day!" Lamira told him, and belched again to prove her point.
"Oh yeah!" Ortol roared, jumping to his feet and downing the rest of his wine skin before letting go a terrific belch.
"Yeah!" Lamira replied and slid off of Telatl's lap. She swaggered up to Ortol and belched twice as loud as he had.
"She's beatin yah, Ortol!" Girson called out. "Hey, loser gets us all another wineskin!" There were cheers from the crowd and it was decided.
"Hey Telatl!" Telatl turned away from the belching contest to see Surindi, obviously drunk, come stumbling up to him. "I wanna finish what you started today after the race!"
"You're drunk Surindi! Go home and dunk your head!" Arisun jeered. "Wouldn't want Telatl to whup ya too bad!"
"He's drunk too!" Surindi bellowed. "That makes it a fair fight!"
Before anyone could do anything to prevent it, Surindi launched himself at Telatl. The two went down fighting to mixed jeers, encouragements, and gasps from the watchers. A few tables were moved as the fighters rolled down the gently sloping hill, still throwing punches, unaware that they were rolling closer and closer to a steep drop.
Telatl punched Surindi hard in the nose and then sat up. "Lay off already! I'm not lookin t' fight!"
"Well that's too bad, isn't it?" Surindi hissed and aimed a punch for Telatl's stomach. "Letsee you run like this t'morrow, huh!"
"You won't be runnin either!" Telatl reminded him. "Doncha care about the race, you dimglow?"
"Not nearly as much as I care about makin sure you're not in it," Surindi snarled back, jerking hard so that both of them were thrown over the edge and were rolling down the side of the ravine.
Surindi hit a ledge and stopped, but Telatl kept going. With each bump, he hurt more and more, but he couldn't stop rolling. He grabbed hopelessly at things as he rolled passed, but nothing helped. He bounced off of rocks, trees, logs, anything that was on the hill until he landed with a sickening crack at the bottom.
"Someone help me!" he bellowed. "Faranth! Can't any of yah dimglows hear me!"
"Stuff it, butter-foot," Surindi snarled, and aimed one last, very hard punch at Telatl's face. Telatl had the vague impression of people around him, of another fight going on, but soon it became too much of an effort to keep his eyes open and his mind focused and he allowed himself to drift away.
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