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The sound of carnage was heavy in my ears. I couldn't stand to keep my eyes open to watch what was happening before me. I laid my ears flat to my head. This wasn't what I had expected when they had told me I was going to be brought back to health. The retriever bitch, as I had recently come to calling her, had not deigned to inform me why she was healing me. A beating... and then this... these people knew no boundaries of punishment. The cries of the crowd were sickening...to know they were rooting on this killer..

The roar of the crowd died down and I opened my eyes to see the result. Behind the bars that kept me in a holding cell was a vast arena. The ground a sea of yellow sand spattered with the blood of many fights. They hadn't even the modesty to clean the pieces of the others from the ring before sending in the next victim. The animal that was nothing short of a beast stood tall, in his hand the head of one of my jackal brethren. The beast was no creature I had seen out in the mills or among the shepherds of my village. I didn't want to even know the depths of hell he was probably from.

His face was a cross of beauty and terror, a face that held the eyes of those in awe as he killed them. When he caught your stare it seemed as though you fell into the depths of the darkness within him. His eyes were so dark that no pupil could be seen. His black fur brazened only the top of his head and wrapped down the back of his body leaving most of his front the shiny wet look of scales. The scales of his front and head also seemed black in color, but upon closer inspection were the deepest of blood red.

And he was their champion, so far unbeaten. I shivered and cast my eyes to the filthy ground. Many a jackal stood in my place, facing the death of the arenas. The great cats had suffered more than even my race when the bullies had taken over the kingdom. Many things suffered when the bullies took over. The dobermans were the first to get their greedy paws upon the stadiums when the king died. Then the Rotties and the Pitbulls followed.

“Don't worry, your not next...” The sound of a female voice woke me from my thoughts. I looked to my right see a very scarred female snow leopard. She sat tense, the tip of her tail twitching, never taking her eyes off the beast in the arena. I had thought that the bullies had eradicated the cats years before. She turned her head to look at me and I realized that she had only one eye, the one closest to me. She held the anger and hatred in her eye of one that had been in the arena many years. But I did not have to read her eyes to know this.

Her body was riddled with scars and roped with the muscle of the hunters that had long ago gone extinct. Her coat was no longer the white that the snows would have hidden her well in. Her coat was dull and grey like she was many years older than she really was. Her black rosettes barely shown through the grey, only a phantom a touch darker than her pitiful coat. I realized as I stared at her that her mane, that would have normally given away that she was a female, had either fallen out or been shaved... I didn't want to know which.

“...what?” I managed to say finally after what seemed like forever. A faint growl rumbled from her chest and I suppressed the urge to let my hackles raise.

“I said you aren't next.” Her voice was raspy and rugged like someone who had been screaming for too long... like mine had been in the dungeons. I stared at her for a moment until I heard that raspy sound again in what was blatant mockery of a laugh. “what's your name kid?” I began to answer but was swiftly cut off by her. “not that it matters here, you'll either not speak to say it again, or die and never tell anyone.” she lifted her head and showed me a jagged scar across her neck as though someone had tried to sever her head. The scar was still pink around the edges, revealing that it was not as old a scar as her others.

My eyes widened a touch and I looked into the arena where the beast had walked back into his holding cell to await the next match. Two skinny tan jackals ran into the arena and began dragging away the remains of the one the beast had killed. The head of which still obviously in the possession of the beast.

“Yeah, it was him.. He was my latest opponent.” she paused and continued to stare off into the arena a distant look in her eye. I didn't want to know the carnage she had gone through; what it was she was remembering. She suddenly turned to me. “Would have sliced my head clean off if I hadn't had a team-mate that caught him off guard.” I stared into her one eye. Its golden depths were nearly as hypnotizing as the beasts were. I dared ask the question that was rattling in my head.

“And your team-mate...?” She looked away back into the arena, that hardened look steeling her face. I looked away as well, back into the arena where the bullies counsel leader was standing and applauding the beasts victory. He was a straight backed red doberman garbed in what I assumed were the softest white silk robes. His ears, like many of his breed, were cropped to stand giving the appearance of horns and his long muzzle adorned scars as though he too had once stood where we did. He began to speak, presenting the next contenders to compete in a few moments.


I looked back at the ground again, thinking what I could to try and win.

“i wouldn't try to win against him...because if you do you'll have me as your reaper.” She looked back at me ominously, almost like she knew I was thinking of trying to. Her face showed a moment of pain, so brief I wasn't even sure I had seen it. I again dared to speak against this feline, though she had not treated me rudely, seemed to command nothing but respect and obedience from me.

“How is it you won, but neither of you are dead?” She smiled an evil grin. It was terrifying to behold of such a broken and beaten creature. Her top canines, and many of her smaller teeth were broken.

“You think a rare bird like me, that can stand my own against the beast, wouldn't win the favor of the crowd and therefor be spared?” She laughed that raspy laugh again. “No pup, I am a champion of the bullies counsel. A piece of their rare collection of misfit creatures. They give me shelter and feed me the rotting scraps they call food. Though I can't say its any better than being dead, but I win enough and they may release me....or kill me themselves. Be careful how you fight though runt...win the favor of the crowd and they may take you in. You are a rare bird yourself.”

I looked at her in high hopes she did not speak of what I knew she must have seen in me. She stared back at me in full understanding that I knew her meaning, though felt enough to say it anyways.

“you pup, are not of a common color. As much as the filth may disguise your pelt...your breeding... you are royalty, though your manner suggests you grew up far from it.. you are royalty none the less...”