An ordinary flower picked gently by the gladiator's master.
He made a brooch with it and pinned it on the gladiator's chest. It came to symbolize his gentler side.
Before the gladiator became a living legend, he once strolled with his young master in the garden.
The master picked a flower and gave it to the silent slave.
"Not all gifts are given out of benevolence. Sometimes they are nothing more than acts of whimsy."
One day in the far-off future, the gladiator's sly master would say these words to him.
The invincible gladiator finally fell at the foreign girl's feet.
At that moment, he recalled a dream he had had many years ago.
"Such beautiful flowers. I wonder when I'll be able to begin my own journey to see them."
"I'd like to see how beautiful the wild flowers are."

A helmet of the gladiator adorned with feathers.
To zealous spectators, this helmet was the symbol of invincibility.
The legendary gladiator had fought numerous battles. None had ever stood a chance of survival before his sword, be they human or monster.
On each triumphant day, the champion gladiator would walk through the gate to a hero's welcome from the adoring crowd.
Only in moments of victory could the slave have a taste of what it felt like to be a master. But the cost of this vain aspiration was for the faint glow of freedom to be shrouded by darkness.
On the day of his triumph, the gladiator finally caught a glimpse of the world outside his cell. He was a step closer to freedom.
But only when his helmet fell down on the arena floor did he and the spectators alike realize that it was all just a farce.
The offering of his petty life made no difference. He would always be a worthless slave in the eyes of his master.

A lavish goblet made of gold. It was a gift from the champion gladiator's master.
From this goblet the champion gladiator drank, be it fine wine or the blood of the defeated.
Another victory for the gladiator. Covered in wounds, he dedicated the victory to his master.
More intoxicating and pain numbing than the fine wine was the victory, honor, and applause from the crowd.
The master allowed him to join the feast and presented him with this goblet.
It was an exquisite goblet, made specially for him. A symbol of how much his master cared.
But the golden chains of vanity had bound the gladiator and the poisonous snake of desire had strangled him.
By pausing to wait for the wine of victory, the gladiator missed his chance to seize a fleeting chance at freedom.

The end had finally come for the triumphant gladiator.
The young challenger paid her final homage to the gladiator.
When the vanity of victory and desire for freedom dissipated into the air like the morning fog,
and when the light of dawn finally shone on the arena through layers of blood-soaked clouds, the gladiator saw a flying bird.
One battle away from being free, the gladiator was defeated by an anonymous girl.
Cries and howls burst out in the crowd like pounding thunder, but the victor refused to humiliate her opponent by execution.
She refused to plunge her sword into the opponent's throat and end his life like that of a slave.
The gladiator's healing wounds were covered with invisible feathers.
He eventually set off on a journey, finally as free as a bird.
His destination was the place where flowers bloom and birds soar.

The gladiator crafted this hourglass himself. He would flip the hourglass before each battle.
When the hourglass stopped flipping, the gladiator had long since died in a pool of his own blood.
The gladiator would put this hourglass aside before entering the arena.
When the fight had ended and the crowd started to cheer for him, the sand in the hourglass was still flowing.
In the gladiator's final fight, he faced a young girl.
In her eyes, he saw both the timidity of a young girl and the ferocity of a young lioness.
From his steps, the girl saw the unbreakable shackles of age that the gladiator wore.
It was a fight like the old gladiator had not had in years. Fierce, yet satisfying.
But the fight ended in a flash. The sword plunged into the gladiator's heart, and the sand in his hourglass crawled to a stop.