Elemental Wolves

prologue

The hot, stuffy room was dimly lit by the torches on the stone walls. The flames danced in a teasing yet strangled manner. The back wall was strung with chains, made of thick, heavy links that bound a young man to the wall. Replacing the cuffs were hollow, iron balls that fitted over his hands and wrists. There were also cuffs over his ankles and a large band around his torso.

The way the young man was chained pulled his arms back and up, forcing him to kneel.

His upper body was bare other than the band, and he had on a pair of thinly threaded shorts tied up with a rope. His back and body bore scars of other fights he had taken part of along with whip slashes that scarred his back.

'It was a favor," they said. 'After this you won't feel a thing' That was true; he couldn't feel a thing, but he would never know if a wound would be fatal.

His damp and wild bronze red hair covered his eyes from sight, not that he could see. They had blind folded his eyes for a 'fair advantage' to the opponent.

Beyond the metal rimmed wood door the crowd cheered as the first gladiator entered the arena. The young man growled as the opponent speeched his mighty ego to the world. The opponent hadn't realized who he was fighting. No one ever does until it's too late.

Even with all his fights and a few necessities, such as plenty of water or decent food, the young man still had stamina to defeat any fool who was dense enough to challenge him.

Suddenly the gate in front of him opened and the cuffs dropped from his hands, wrists, and torso.

"And entering the arena from the north is our champion, Caldeolo!"

The crowd roared his name, but he acknowledged the scoff from his opponent.

They first went to the center of the ring, Caldeolo taking even steps until he felt the silver ring in the ground, in which he stopped and stuck out his hand.

The opponent, Culmacio, roughly gripped his outstreched hand giving a firm shake. Closing the deal of the rules the two faced each other. Seizing each other up. Culmacio by look, Caldeolo by hearing.

Finally the battle horn was blown and Culmacio lunged. Missing as Caldeolo easily dodged. The fight went on when all of a sudden Culmacio landed a hit on Caldeolo. With Caldeolo's temper spiked, he growled as his body shot on fire as he shot out his hand to his opponent for an accurate strike.

Stunned Culmacio didn't move as a blast of fire burned his body. Scowling and snarling Caldeolo lunged and gripped the fear filled Culmacio by the neck, burning away the skin and killing him.

All the while the crowd cheered to their champions. In the end Caldeolo headed back to his cage to wait for the next fight. He, of course, extinguished himself before entering and just from the brief flair the flames had destroyed the blindfold. Once inside he found all the guards dead or knocked out with three males in a semi-circle all around the same age as him.

"Who the hell are you?"