The November Report: page 1

[Miranda Frost]

On Departure's Eve, the day before our town ships its contestants off to the Colliseum, each contestant is given one item to help guarantee their survival. Our town is a farming town. We are as rich as the food we grow. For nearly a decade we have failed to reach our surplus amount. Without the surplus crops, its hard for us to trade if merchants decide to stop by our poor corner of the country. Champions of the Colliseum are sent money monthly. By this town's standard that amount is considered filthy rich. With both of our parents as champions, our family donates where we can but we cannot support an entire town like this. If we can obtain more champions in the name of this town we may be able to.

There is not a limit to how many champions a town can send, but they have to send a minimum of two. If there happens to be more than enough contestants, preliminary rounds are held. Well this town won't be the ones to cause that. That's for sure. Lucky, or unlucky, for Miranda and I we get to be the only representatives of this town this year. Everyone else is too young to qualify, and the adults aren't eh... in their prime anymore. Our parents would no doubt go in our stead, but champions are prohibited from entering.

For Departure's Eve, I was given our family's sword. The name changes from wielder to wielder and I was to find out later that that blade usually didn't keep that name for very long. My father was one of the lucky ones. It was something straight out of the pages of those stories Miranda loved to read, and probably one of the largest swords I'd ever seen. At six foot in total length, this double edged sword was lighter than it looked. I still haven't figured out what exactly kept it that light, though I found that by twisting the hilt in a certain manner, the blade width increased by a large margin, to a maximum of one foot. The wider the blade, the heavier it became. I believe it may have to do something with the black crystal that's revealed when I do this, but I never did have the smarts to look into it. All I know is that it's good for training.

I think I'll call it Frostbite: after the cold aura my dear sister bears. Hell, it is the only think she would have received that day. She would fight without weapons and without armor. She carried only her pride with her.

To be honest... I worry gravely for her.

I'm confident she will do well, but we have no idea what we are up against. For the first time in ages I prayed: To whatever god hangs above, to the spirits within us, to our ancestors, to whatever power this world may have to swing the course of destiny in our favor. As I prayed, I remembered a verse of a song once sung some time ago.

"Gods of darkness, heed my words of warning.
When the worlds collide and skies fall down -
In a pit of hell we'll be.
In damnation, crucified and tortured -
Our spirits guide us through the fear to our immortality."

I pray that this may be true.