There was, they said, something – happiness – to be found in the little things. I don't know who they were, but I wondered what 'they' would think if they were in my position. There was nothing little about that place that could have created happiness. That was not to say that we didn't have happiness. There was just nothing little about where we found it.
In that dark and dreary place, with little to our name, we somehow – against all odds – found happiness. It was found in the sound of two sets of footsteps returning, the sound loud and echoing. There was nothing simple about two dragons returning from what was meant to be a deathmatch. There was happiness, and something like fierce pride, because this was something I had started. This was something that I had caused.
There was no joy about that place. Nothing to laugh or smile about. But there was this – no body being carted out, the fading smell of death, the diminishing scent of infection. There was life to be found in this disastrous place. I called the feeling that rose within me happiness, I called it pride. It started in my stomach and rose into my throat, not bubbly or burning but making me feel on the edge of something – it was like exhilaration but completely different. It existed. I knew that. It was something that I was certain of.
Despite the happiness and pride I felt, there were still bad days. Days I wouldn't hesitate to call terrible. There was nothing I could do about them. They were always going to exist, always going to be there. There were days when I fell into one thought and came back to myself, feeling as if days had passed but not knowing; never knowing. The days that were the worst was what always got me, what always took me back into my mind and locked me there.
Those days were the ones when I felt that if I reached enough, that if I tried harder, my wings would move. It was those days that I felt like my wings were still there, just out of reach. It was those days when the smell of recent blood filled my nose. It was those days when I felt like my teeth and claws were tearing through flesh and I was yelling from my mind to stop, but I couldn't. It was those days when I found myself locked in memories of battles where I murdered and murdered and murdered and never stopped, never died.
Without a sense of time, there was no way I could tell if it had been an unusually long time since I had been forced out into the arena and forced to fight. It felt like it had been longer, but there was no way of knowing. It made me anxious, hating the idea of going out there again but hating the idea of being unable to do something. I wanted to see the sky again, even from behind bars. I wanted to feel the sun. I wanted to know what free air tasted like, if it was the same as I remembered. I wanted to feel the wind.
I wanted to fly again.
***
I woke to the sound of muffled words; a conversation I couldn't quite make out. The words echoed and rebounded, the sounds becoming warped. The emotions underscoring the words were still clear. I could hear worry and what could be excitement.
I was already on my paws when they came to my cage.
I growled, lips curling back as I bared my teeth at the two humans. "Might actually work the way Boss wants it too," one said, tone flippant.
"Seems that way," the second person said. "Shall we send this one up?" The first human nodded, and I instinctively crouch as metal clacks somewhere out of sight. I knew where I was going. I knew what was going to happen.
"To the arena," the first one said, jeeringly. "The crowd's been promised blood, and one way or another they're going to get it."
I closed my eyes, knowing that the brightness of the arena will hurt my eyes otherwise. I couldn't help but worry about what the humans had said. Anxiety laid thick and heavy in my stomach, and I wondered what was going to happen, wondered if this was going to be my final stand.
I opened my eyes, and once again, I stood in the arena. Chains stretched the top, forming a patchwork ceiling of sky and chains. The sky was blue today – bright, clear, and calm. It was everything I wasn't.
The sand felt hard beneath my paws. My breathing started to increase. Something was going to happen today. I could sense it.
There was a loud yowl from somewhere close, and I spun, searching for the source of the noise. In the direction I was now facing, a door started to drop open, rock rumbling and chains groaning. Before the door had sunk fully into the ground, two creatures were racing out into the open. They quickly stopped upon seeing me.
The creatures were identical to each other and looked like a big cat of some kind. They appeared black, with white teeth and overly muscular with long limbs and glinting eyes. One of them flicked their tail, and the other charged towards me. I growled, snapping my jaws in hopes to scare them off. As they got closer, I realised they were bigger than I had thought. They looked three metres in length and at least one and a half metres in height.
The pair separated, circling around to attack me from opposite sides. As they got closer, I crouched, readying myself. When they seemed to be seconds away, I leapt up into the air, hoping that they would simply pass beneath me before I landed. I grunted as one of the animals slammed into my side, momentum shoving me sideways. I stumbled upon landing but twisted enough to almost bite down on the creature. It yowled and fled.
Having seen the creatures up close, I could now see that they had armour on. It glowed slightly, and I guessed that it had probably been put on with magic. The creatures seemed to cope fine with it, but the way they flicked their tails suggested that they were annoyed and angry. I didn't think it was only aimed at me. I send a blast of fire towards one of the creatures, stopping it from charging, while the other charged at me.
I swiped out with one paw, but the creature was agile enough to manoeuvre around it. I didn't have any time to defend or attack as the creature reached me. It slammed into my shoulder, feeling more like a charging rhino than a slender panther-like creature. I grimaced, and reared up onto my hind legs, snarling and feeling fire rest on the back of my throat. I spat the fire out, and it hissed over the top of the creature, which yowled and fled, moving away from me.
I roared, daring the creature to approach; to attack. I was the apex predator here, not prey. I twisted, feeling claws rake against hard scales, and my paws smashed into the side of the creature. It went flying and the scent of blood filled the air. The scent reminded me of past hunts, of diving down and catching quick-fast creatures that died so that I could live.
I was hungry.
The other creature attacked first, ramming hard into my shoulder. I dug my claws into the ground, striving to not give ground. My shoulder raged in pain and I twirled away from the creature, swinging wildly with my forepaws. I missed the creature and it recoiled, prowling away with quick strides. I growled and backed away, putting my back to the cage walls so that I could keep both creatures within my line of sight. They were on opposite sides, keeping distance between them, but their eyes were on me, only. I bared my teeth. I wasn't afraid. There was no reason for me to be afraid. No reason at all.
This time, I didn't bother waiting for the creatures to attack. I picked one and charged at it, kicking up dust with each heavy, pounding step. I covered the distance in seconds, jaws opening and snapping down around the torso part of the creature. It screamed in pain and thrashed, claws raking and breaking through my scales. I shook my head, hoping that the force would break the creature's neck and end its life, even as I tried to bite through the armour. I dropped the creature, having forgotten about the second one, as it pounced onto my back. I reared up onto my hind legs and twisted, trying to buck the attacking creature off.
A half-crazy idea entered my head, and I threw myself sideways and rolled, grunting at the impact. The blasted creature managed to escape without any serious harm, but the other creature was limping and had lost most of its armour. Without the armour, the creature was much less bulky and actually looked familiar. I had never seen one in real life, but I had seen pictures in a textbook, once upon a time.
Handi'azkar arriskutsu-katu. They were creatures from the savannah, dangerous and quick. My knowledge was useless here, but at least I had a name – not that that helped me at all right now.
I sent a stream of fire at one handi'azkar arriskutsu-katu, and charged at the other, jaws shutting on open air. I growled, halting my charge and turning to watch the creatures once more. The big cats were circling, warily. One was limping and still bleeding, badly injured from my attack. The other still seemed in good health, but surely both creatures were getting tired – they weren't made to keep attacking and attacking.
I lunged at the injured one – always go for the weaker prey. It tried to move quickly but put weight on its already injured leg. It stumbles, its leg folding beneath it, and I took advantage of that moment, jaws closing around the unprotected back of the handi'azkar arriskutsu-katu. The spine cracked beneath my jaws, and the creature screamed before falling silent, dead. I dropped the body and locked my eyes on the last creature. It was time to end this.
***
This time I was awake when Mark came. His eyes were bright, gleaming like they always had whenever he had some idea that he thought was spectacular. I watched him coolly. Dismissively. I didn't care that he was here. I let my eyes slide half-closed, allowing the tiredness in my muscles to grow and expand and take over my body.
"I have it," Mark told me, smirk sitting smugly on his face. "I know what I'll do. The publicity will be huge, people will love it," he continued, not bothering to explain what his idea was. I watched, uncaring yet feeling uncertainty rise within me like a wave. Something didn't feel right. It was like I was missing part of a picture, a piece of a puzzle. Some important bit of knowledge was out of my reach, and I hated that feeling. "I bet you thought taking care of those big cats was easy, yeah? This has all been part of the warm-up, get you all ready and battle-fit for the finale. It'll be grand. And while everyone's attention is focussed here, those pests who keep disrupting everything will finally leave their holes, and that's when I'll strike!"
I glanced up, eyes wide, at Mark. I could vaguely recall him mentioning, previously, about a force rebelling against him. Moreover, I could easily recall the sense of hope the news had instilled in me. The fact that they were still fighting, still rebelling was important. It meant something. It meant that not everything was lost; it meant that people were still fighting.
Hope wasn't lost!
I lifted my head, meeting Mark's gaze dead-on, challenging him, daring him. Mark crossed his arms, and his weight shifted backwards. If anyone were to attack him now, his only possibility to fight was to step back, which meant his opponent would have the advantage – swords... shifts... power... bonds... magic...
"I bet you're scared," Mark said with a taunting tone. "You're finally going to meet your match," Mark continued, sounding completely certain. "You may've been able to stop fighting in a one-on-one fight, but against everyone else... they'll all want to take you down. They hate you. You're their enemy after all. All of you will be in the arena at once, and you will all fight. The last one standing will be the sole survivor... They'll be rewarded for what they did." Mark smiled. It wasn't a nice smile. I shivered. "You'll be all together in a giant arena, high in the sky, with everyone watching. I can't wait to see the result."
I leapt forward, snarling, fire escaping my mouth in a stream. I halted just before the stupid doorway and roared at Mark. He didn't move at all.
"I can't wait to see what you do this time," Mark smirked, before turning and leaving. I roared after him. We would do this! We would live! Mark was a damned ni-yoth yol gruth. He could never win against us. Ha! He would never expect what would happen. I would prove that I was more than my scales, my fire. I would prove it!
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
I apologise for the long wait - I'm eleven days late. My school life has been hectic as, I've already completed 6 SACs and a few tests, and I have more coming up soon. I'll try and be better, though. I really will try. Not to mention, I've had quite a few problems come up recently - my two best friends were having problems with their friendship and felt like neither of them could handle being friends and even now it's all a bit iffy, one of those best friends was hit by a car (they're fine though! She's all good now and doing so much better, but it was a bad day/week for all of us then), and one of my friends got Listeria (four people dead from it so far, but she's on the road to recovery and I'm so thankfully), and then add in my own issues and stress and school, and let's just say I'm really glad that I have writing to turn to, despite not putting in tons of effort into this book. I have been thinking about it, though. I'm pretty sure I always spend at least 3/7 days a week thinking about something I'm writing.
We're getting quite close to the ending of this book! We're something like five chapters off or something - so that's like five months for you guys! So... a while, I guess.
Anyway, I've been doing some hard work on the next book, and I can proudly say that I'm really getting somewhere. I've completed all my plot points, so now I'll be ordering them and so forth. And typing them all up... I'm not looking forward to that too much.
Please comment! For every comment I'll... write 100 words. Yeah, I'll do that.
This is Gabby/SilentSilverSlip heading out to go... look at the planning for the next chapter and try to get a head start on it. My wishes are with all of you! Live your life and live it well. Be proud and cherish everything you have right now, it doesn't last forever. Smile because it can make the days so much brighter. Live.
Edited: 1/02/2021