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The sound of the gate to our holding cell grinding open made me look up. A loud rumbling roar erupted from the other side of the arena. Obviously the beast. I wondered if they would ever pit her against the beast again, knowing that she was the only one to have survived attacking the creature. My thoughts faded my mind as she stood and stared through the open door into the arena. She turned to me and held my gaze, almost daring me to join her. She took a step toward the arena then paused, still staring into what seemed like the depths of hell.

“Devi....” Her voice was soft and reserved, like she was lost in the memories of a long forgotten time.

“what?” I said softly, hoping to preserve the moment of almost tame behavior from such a beaten being.

“My name,” she turned and looked at me again, with such sorrow that sank into my soul and shattered my heart. “it's Devi..” It was such a foreign but beautiful name, and it belonged to one of such powerful breeding. I pitied what she had become and all she had gone through just to survive.

“My name is Faye.” A soft smile brushed her face for a moment.”

“Faye....” my name sounded so foreign on her tongue, like it didn't belong in the mouth of one so thrown away and trashed. She turned back to the arena and began her approach to hell. “Pray you live to bypass me, my prince.” and just like that the gate closed and she was fighting once again for her life. Like so many cliches of doors of opportunity closing and fighting once again to open new ones. I couldn't watch as she tore into another of my brothers. It seemed as though the bullies prided themselves on killing my kind. We had always been regarded lowly, seen only as scavengers and not the true hunters we are.

I hadn't realized that her fight was over until the door ground open again and she came walking back into the cell. A short limp accompanying her tired walk. Fresh blood spattered her dull coat in an agonizing pattern and her paws dripped crimson. She panted heavily and didn't care enough to glance my direction as the gate back to our imprisonment cells opened for her. I looked after her for a few moments, vaguely wondering if I would survive were I to come against her. I prayed that day would not come, but had no choice but to view her as nothing but an enemy.

The bullies counsel leader, that red doberman, again stood and spoke giving the audience something to focus on until the next victims entered the arena. From afar I could hear the sounds of the beast dragging his claws across the stone of his cell; sharpening his claws for a bloodier battle. The door to my cell again opened, my heart beat fast. It was at last my turn to face the arena's challenge. I stood and urged my legs to stop shaking, my heart to stop beating so fast. As I took my first steps into the arena my holding cell door closed behind me. The arena was riddled with bodies and abandoned weapons. At least I had something I may be able to use to protect me..

The door to the beasts cell began to open. It seemed like the door was opening in slow motion, as though everything were slowing down just to show me the harbinger of my death into focus. The vision of my wife and child appeared in my mind and I closed my eyes for a moment, hoping the rage and sorrow of their deaths might protect me.

The beast let out a crashing roar as he rushed from his cell towards me. I immediately dropped to all fours and uttered a snarl of my own. My audacity seemed to throw the beast off. I saw a brief moment of hesitation in his otherwise emotionless eyes as he rampaged towards me. The beast gauged my height and slashed his claws at my throat. I took a chance and dodged into his chest, using the one advantage I had; being small and lithe. The rumbling growl in his chest showed his displeasure as he stepped back, quicker that I thought possible for one of his size.

He dropped and flattened himself to the ground, having the appearance of a lizard. He lashed his lizard-like tail at me, sweeping me off my feet and into the wall. I rolled from the wall quickly as spikes shot from holes inside the walls, setting off the entire ring of walls into spikes. He was on top of me in a matter of seconds and sunk his razor like teeth deep into my shoulder. I screamed in agony as I attempted to claw him away from me. He jumped back on his own, half circling where I lay. I got up slowly, taking a defensive posture. My left arm hanging uselessly as blood poured down both my arm and my front.

He continued to circle where I stood. What was he waiting for I wondered.... I narrowed my eyes at him and lunged for one a spear, hoping I could get to it before he attacked again. He launched towards me with unimaginable speed. Just as I touched the spear he collided with me, tearing into my chest with his claws. I brought the spear up and slammed the butt of it into his cheek, throwing him off balance beside me. He shrieked something I had never heard before, it made my ears feel like pouring blood. I backed a few paces from him before he got to his feet. He again started circling me and I realized that he was toying with me.

I backed a few more paces and felt a sharp prick in my back and glanced to realize I was against the spikes on the wall. Taking my moment of distraction he lunged at me again and I aimed the spear at his heart, only to bury it in his shoulder as he sliced at my leg. Blood poured to the ground, his claws like searing razors slicing clean anything they touched. He roared and rolled away from me, yanking the spear from his shoulder. He stood a few paces away from me, glaring me down, blood seeping more slowly from his wound than mine.
A slow smile spread across his face that made my heart grow cold. He began to speak, a tongue of which I had never heard, slow and steadily. His voice was deadly cold, like shadows in the darkest realms of the world. I got the meaning of his words without even knowing what he had said. He launched towards me and pinned me to the ground, his dagger clawed hand holding my throat. I felt the first pricks of his claws tearing into my throat and somewhere before complete darkness I heard him speak in his cold voice, clear as day.

“Tell my brother I said Hi.”