<em>What the fuck?  What was happening now?</em>he thought.<br/><br/>Patrocles pulled his attention from the sands below as he heard the impact of bodies crashing together and he saw in his periphery the two bodies spill over the edge of the balcony into space and crash into the sand below.  As all of this happened he wheeled around to face the doorways coming from the villa.  And as he turned his gladius seemed to simply appear in his hand and his eyes swept the doorways from which he expected any attack to come.  Seeing nothing in the doors he continued to scan across the balcony and noted that the legionnaire was gone, presumably one of the bodies that had fallen.  But what had happened?  Who had attacked him and pushed him to the ground far below their observation perch?  It was then that saw that the stunningly beautiful female gladiator that he had noticed earlier was not standing among them either.<br/><br/>He began to piece things together in his mind and then feeling satisfied that no additional attacks were coming that might put his Domina in danger he returned the gladius to the scabbard on his hip.  Trying to continue keeping his eyes on the people on the balcony he moved forward to the railing of the balcony and looked down to see the legionnaire trying to stagger to his feet several feet away from the woman who had tackled him over the edge.  He watched and willed her to get up.  He scanned the sand around the pair as well looking to see if the blade that had been cast aside by the Egyptian warrior in the last match still lay on the ground near by.  He hoped that she would recover herself enough not only to defend herself against the big legionnaire but that she recovered her wits enough to remember the blade and to go for it before he did.<br/>