'Are there any other challengers!' he (Warano) roared. 'Does anyone dare oppose me now!'The crowd of natives cheered.
Lily sobbed.
But as she did so, in a distant corner of her mind, she heard a strange voice coming from Ono's radio saying, '-picked up a residual heat signature about a half-hour ago. Just found it. Looks like a downed Huey, UN markings. Near a strange-looking forest. Sending you my coordinates now, sir-'
The cheering died down and suddenly there was silence around the Fighting Stone.
Long silence.
The only sound was the foul crunching of the crocs tearing Solomon's body apart.
'So there is no one then!' Warano shouted again, quickly translated by Cassidy. 'Excellent! I shall take my new woman and enjoy her...!'
But then someone spoke.
'I challenge you.'
This time it was Zoe.
The response from the assembled Neetha said it all. They had never seen anything like this.
A woman challenging a royal son.
They murmured animatedly, aghast.
'Unless the chief's son is too cowardly to do battle with a woman,' Zoe said.
Sensing the moment, Diane Cassidy immediately translated Zoe's words for the others and the crowd went to total apoplexy.
Zoe shouted to Warano, adding the sweetener. 'If he defeats me, this Warano can have two wives.'
When Cassidy translated this, Warano's eyes lit up like lightbulbs. To own a white woman might have been the ultimate status symbol, but to own two...
'Bring her to me!' he called. 'After I beat her, I shall keep her, but as a master keeps a dog.'
Zoe was released from her platform and she strode down the long plank that gave entry to the Fighting Stone.
Once on the Stone, the plank was withdrawn and she faced off against the giant Warano.
Wearing only singlet, cargo pants and boots, she wasn't exactly big. But her lean muscular shoulders, glistening with swear, contained a wiry strength.
Standing before the Neetha chief's number one son, the top of her blonde head came level with his shoulders. The great black warrior loomed over her.
He kicked Solomon's sword across to her, saying something derisive in his own language.
'Is that so?' Zoe picked up the sword. 'But I don't think you've ever met a woman like me before, asshole. Let's dance.'
This part is taken from Matthew Reilly's The Six Sacred Stones. What I particularly liked here is that, other than the fact that it's my second book; a reasonably thick book, in the short moment four different people had four different thoughts and also the arrogance - or confidence - Zoe had against someone bigger physically and by status. Especially the tension, where there were so many thoughts going through, I loved the composure displayed, even if this is a fiction. I'm quite sure that typing this exact same title on facebook might send the wrong message, but then again, the idea of putting puns online just makes things very interesting. (: