Surprised to find the fight on pause, Arialla took a deep breath. A paranoid part of her suggested that this was a trick, that Wessex would attack again while she looked around, just to teach her to never let her guard down -- but that was ridiculous. So she lowered her weapon and turned to look at what was behind her.
They stood on packed sand, but Arialla had come within a foot of the edge, where the safe footing gave way to loose, dry sand. "Stepping in the sand would throw me off-balance, especially if I didn't realize it was there. And even once I realized, it'd be harder to move in."
She'd spent a lot of time on the beach in her life -- she knew how annoying dry sand could be to walk on.
And beyond the strip of sand ... "The fence, of course -- running into it would be bad."
A wooden fence, slightly taller than waist-height, marked the edge of the little arena.
please don't take my sunshine away
