by Poppy Rhys
Suddenly, a lack of sound assaulted her. Silence descended, and then the powerful, jarring howl of a horn. The clang of hard objects and muted thumping of flesh followed instantly, a garbled, wet wail trailed by the roar of a crowd.
The arena.
She had heard stories with the Vishik prostitutes of gaming planets as one of the worst forms of retirement... they were the thing of nightmares.
The announcement... the roaring crowd...
The monstrous buzz must be the fighters. The clanging of tools had to be weapons.
Dania’s fingers shook with the need to see what was happening, who was winning, who would win her.
But she couldn’t. Her hands clenched her legs closer to her core until her forehead dug into the tops of her knees.
The pungent odor of blood and loosened bowels wafted in through the holes of her crate, leaving an acrid taste at the back of her throat that had her gagging. Bile rose from her stomach and burned her tongue as she tried to gulp it back down and failed.
Her middle heaved, bile spilling from her mouth as she shakily wiped her lips, ropes of the slime sliding down her chin and chest. It was soon forgotten as the sounds of the clanging of tools and the crunching of bones and the cracking of hard objects simmered to quiet. The crowd erupted.
Her crate vibrated beneath her, the sound of stomping feet feeling as if they were going to shake her apart.
There! A voice she could understand.
“The Emperor’s prized fighters! The Prince of the Arena and The Liberator of Limbs!” it boomed to the cheering crowd. “A team from sector nine, and your victors!”
Dania’s blood drummed in her ears and her breath hitched.
It’s over.
This was it. These were the last moments of her life, and she was stuffed in a crate, soiled with her own bile, and soaked with snot and tears.
In a swift, frenzied burst, she pulled the blindfold off, blinking repeatedly to wash the blur away and focus on the hazed, massive figure lumbering her way.
“Take your prize!”
Dania’s vision wouldn’t clear but she saw enough to suddenly wish she was blind and unable to see even the outline of the beast who would violate her then eat her remains. Painful imaginings flitted through her mind’s eye, one after another, all slow, excruciating, grueling deaths.
She screamed. Screamed even as she felt her bladder loosen and warm urine pool beneath her bottom. Screamed as the crowd laughed at her and cheered for their victors.
The lumbering beast towered over her, over the crate, but Dania didn’t care. She only wanted to get away.
It pressed the sensor, the door lifted.
Dania’s lungs gasped for more air as she belted another scream and pressed herself into the corner, even when there was no more room to squeeze.
One of its large mitts, tipped with bloody claws the length her fingers, reached inside for her. It curled around an ankle.
She kicked, flailed, grasped for anything to keep her inside the crate. The squeaking sound flooded her ears as the flesh of her palms slid against the glass, slapping into her own urine in her bid to stay inside.
The beast yanked, another paw grabbing onto her hip, and then she was free, grasping at air, kicking as she dangled above the ground.
It growled, giving her a rough shake.
“No!” Dania screeched, thrashing again.
Another rough shake.
It flipped her over its wide shoulder, its two left arms wrapping over her body and the tips of its claws digging into her skin like it was trying to subdue her.
It worked.
At the feel of those daggers, she stilled, breathing heavily through the sobs that wracked her body. It was hard to draw breath, being tipped upside down. She couldn’t see much past her frizzed curls that hung in a matted, yellow curtain.
She couldn’t see where it was taking her. Could only hear the crowd as it faded, feel the atmosphere change as a heavy door shut behind them.
****
JRUVIIN
His breath rushed out in heavy gusts, each one filled with her. Her underlying scent—the one beneath the stench of piss and bile and the lingering aroma of carnage—was addicting, torturous, delectable. It hit him square in his center, worse than any blow he’d received on the sands.
Her hair, the strands so fine they tangled and matted together, was a jungle of coils and shades. Darker at her roots, like the brown husks of fruit shells, but it lightened into golden wisps reminding him of the idols some races prayed to.
She hung upside down over Val’Koy’s shoulder, her once frantic movements lax. She’d submitted—accepted her fate, perhaps—and his base nature reared its head like never before. His mating nature screamed that she was one step closer to accepting a mount.
Jruviin shook himself.
She belonged to Val’Koy, and she was not Draekiin. Yet neither was she Melier...
The feathers along his spine stiffened.
A Melier prince was mated to one so fragile and deformed? Her lack of six limbs didn’t bother Jruviin—four limbs was all his people had too—but Melier were an arrogant race. Her lack of feathers disturbed him more than anything else.
She was extremely bald.
Why this unsettled him about her, and not the Melier, he didn’t know. Many races had no fur or feathers to cover. Maybe because she looked so soft and vulnerable. She had no visible muscle—just skin and softness. Plush flesh padded her entire body, and Jruviin’s fingers twitched to touch and press against it, curious how pliable it would be.
Certainly, the universe wouldn’t be so cruel as to leave such a sentient creature defenseless. It was possible she had hidden armor. Maybe her kind strived to appear exposed to lure in prey.
Unbidden, his tail-end hardened, quills stiffening in preparation to defend himself.
****
DANIA
The trickling sound of running water hit her ears, humidity kissed her skin, and the smell of chemicals swept into her lungs. The thump of wet limbs slapped against slick tiles.
The beast set her on her feet.
Blood drained from her head as she quickly pressed herself against the wall, covering her chest and sex, shrinking back from it. Bodily fluids, some her own, most of it transferred from the beast’s skin, covered her torso.
Dania shivered, hurriedly brushing off a chunk of purple flesh.
Out of the corner of her eye she saw the alien pound a sensor in the wall, and lukewarm water sprayed down from the nozzle above her. Dania squawked, turning her face away and shrinking down to the floor.
“Bathe,” it told her, the voice... familiar. She scrubbed more of the blur away from her eyes and blinked repeatedly, finding the courage to look up at the imposing alien who removed the strange fabric belt, revealing his sex.
Dania sucked in damp air when she saw his face.
It was him! The businessman from her one-night stand.
She scrambled to her feet, slick soles sliding against the white tiles as she rushed him and bashed into his body, arms slinging around his waist as she buried her face against his unyielding, rippled torso.
“It’s you!” she gushed, hot tears of relief sliding down her cheeks to mingle with the spray of water. When he tried to peel her away, she wiggled her limbs free only to tighten around his middle once more and cling to him like he was her lifeline.
“Water is overpriced.” His tone was scolding. Dania looked up, her chin scraping against his warm, wet skin. That time he successfully peeled her off, his black gaze trailing over her body as he started scrubbing the filth off himself. “Bathe.”
She didn’t want to leave his side, but the shower nozzle was only a few feet away. Dania nodded, quickly rubbing her hands together under the stream. She cupped them together and gulped greedily. Her throat burned from the bile, parched from the screaming.
Movement to her right stole her attention, and she shrank back at the sight of an alien using his tentacle arms to
jerk on two long, puke green appendages protruding from his forehead as he watched another male get his erection stroked by a blob-like alien. Others lined up behind him, as if waiting their turn.
Her gaze darted around the room, noticing there were other fighters in there, and some eyeballed her.
“Ignore them,” the alien told her in his deep rhythmic language that sounded too hypnotizing for how feral he appeared now. So different from how she remembered him.
Three golden loops pierced the curve of his ear, tucked close to his skull. The bottom one rested against a jagged, pale blue scar; as if someone had ripped it out. Dania didn’t remember those being there the last, and only, time they’d been together.
She watched with cautious fascination as he bit off his lethal claws, each definitive crunch pinging her nerves. Behind wide lips were large, white, sharp teeth that added to his dangerous aura. The hint of a golden stud in the center of his big tongue flashed when he assured, “We will not let them harm you.”
We?
His dark gaze lifted, looking past her. Dania slowly peered over her shoulder.
There, on her opposite side, caging her in, was the figure of a being she’d come to recognize so well. The broad shoulders, the mesmerizing berry blue feathers that reflected with an aquamarine sheen every time the light hit them... they covered every bit of his well-built, svelte body, including the tail that flowed from the base of his spine to curl up at his high ankles.
Feet in the shape of a velociraptor’s back legs, he balanced on the balls of his blue-skinned toes. Four of them. Longer than a human’s and sporting curled talons, reminding her of an eagle.
He was lean, like the businessman, both seemingly created for speed and death.
Dania startled when he turned, and his eyes pinned her still. Black, bottomless.
The businessman broke through her terror when he said again, voice low with authority, “Bathe.”
SEVENTEEN
DANIA
The nozzle turned off sooner than she thought it would, but at least she’d been able to wash the filth off her body. Hair soaked, and still a matted mess, she stood there, arms crossed over her body once more, shivering.
Aliens of all kinds filtered in and out of the showers, and from her quick, downcast glances, they all seemed to be male or unspecified to her eyes. Realizing she was the only female in that room made her shake a little harder.
A loud rumbling surprised Dania. Her head lifted to see the businessman glaring at something off to the side.
She followed his line of sight, jumping forward at the appearance of a four-legged, marine green shelled alien that looked more like a beetle standing on its hind legs. Rainbow hued mandibles, wider than her head, snapped; green bug eyes with pupils the size of pin pricks followed her. The left one glued to her retreating feet while the right regarded the businessman.
A fist closed around her upper arm before she could scream, and she was yanked behind the massive blue alien. His damp, furred tail curled around her middle, as if to keep her in place, while Dania rubbed her shoulder as it grew sore. He must’ve not realized his strength.
The beetle alien hissed, mandibles snapping twice, left eye still watching her until she hid her face in the back of the arena victor.
She belonged to someone now.
The thought made her empty stomach bubble.
Would he protect her? Would he expect payment for his protection, or simply force himself onto her, no matter what? Was he making a deal right now? Would he pass her around to his friends?
The hissing stopped. The growling did too.
Dania peeked around the side of her protector, seeing the beetle guy turn his attention to the nozzle she’d been under moments ago. He poked the sensor with one of his hard-shelled limbs and went about washing his translucent, lime veined wings.
The victor turned around then, startling her out of her thoughts.
That soulless gaze regarded her as he towered above. She craned her neck to look up.
His chin dipped, as if silently asking if she was alright.
Wait, what? Why would he care?
The tail around her waist tightened, tugging as he began to walk. She quickly fell into step behind him, relieved to get the hell out of the shower room.
The bird man came up close behind, causing the skin along her nape to tighten. When she looked over her shoulder, their eyes met. At least, she thought they did. It was hard to tell when the entirety of his eyes were black. His head was tilted down as if he watched her, though.
Dania had never seen his face until today.
He’s real.
How was he real?
She’d thought he was a figment of her imagination or a ghost.
The fine feathers along his face formed an obsidian mask—like a bandit—that slashed over his almond shaped eyes. His nose was straight, the bridge wide, almost leonine. Beneath it, a golden septum ring that resembled two loops fused into one. It barely dangled.
Long feathers sprouted from his head—flecked with gold and green—and cascaded back, the rounded ends brushing his shoulders, similar to the hair of a human. A few plumes held golden beads that made small chiming noises whenever they touched.
Dania faced forward once more. The businessman walked with his head held high. His posture was perfect, and she didn’t think he even knew he was doing it, it looked so natural.
She might think it was the walk of an alpha who’d dominated in the arena, but that wasn’t it. She’d seen the cocky strut of men, and this was something different.
Confidence exuded from him—the kind that spoke of wealth, and status. He moved at a hasty gait though, like maybe he was angry. She remembered the bodyguards he’d had that night so long ago. How had he even ended up here?
Her rambling thoughts were cut short when they stopped in an empty area of what she could only describe as a half-lit locker room. The crude gray stone walls and ceiling were tightly packed with crumbling mortar, and sand dirtied the floor that’d probably never seen a broom. Tube lights streaked the ceiling, half of them burnt out, and dingy metal lockers created aisles, split up the middle with bolted down benches.
The tail let go of her. He whirled and grabbed her upper arms as if to shake her senseless.
Dania squawked at the sudden change, a zip of fear shooting through her.
“Where is he?” he snapped, face only a foot away from hers as he stooped to her height.
“Wh-what do you mean?” she stammered, trying her best to shrink away. The bird man moved to her peripheral and watched the exchange, but quickly checked to his left, then his right, as if he were the lookout.
“Where is our son?” Eyes wild, completely flipped from the calm, confident person she’d come to see him as, he grated, “If you are here, where is he?”
Dania was so confused. Her breath came in short, scared gasps. “What do you mean? I-I don’t have... younglings.”
That must’ve been the wrong thing to say, because one of his lower fists, that weren’t gripping her, shot out to bang the closest metal locker.
She squealed and tried to escape his grip when the door caved, leaving behind a monstrous dent.
“I saw you.” The low tone of his voice etched along her back as if he’d raked her with his claws. “Vu’Mal’Su showed me you... and him... the youngling.” His breaths were heavy, matching her own—his gusts of anger, hers of fear. “Do not lie, Therran.”
Dania trembled, shocked she could even decipher those last words as he growled them at her.
“I don’t have younglings,” she whispered, gulped, and loudly repeated herself. “I don’t have younglings!”
His top lip curled, revealing his lethal teeth while his black eyes stared her down.
“I mean, I don’t have my own!” She was babbling now. “But I do babysit one. Evvip. Evvip! He’s not mine!”
His lip fell back into place, hairless brow releasing his dangerous scowl. “Not yours?”
“No,” she murmured, shaking her head, watching as his expression shifted into one of confusion, maybe even... disappointment.
“We don’t have a son?” he asked.
How could he even think that? She was human, and he was... he was... No. Even if it were possible, she’d been on a restriction serum and she attended her appointments religiously.
“We don’t have a son,” he whispered, brow pinched.
Without another word, he let her go, seemingly lost in his own head as he stalked away, leaving her cold, naked, and shivering.
****
VAL’KOY
He had to walk away before harming anyone.
This couldn’t be happening.
His brain wasn’t computing correctly. Random synapses fired, and nothing made sense. A suffocating urgency to get the fuck off Tundrin—out of this hell—erupted a wildness in him that had his lips pulling, baring his teeth like a beast. The planet was closing in on him.
All a lie.
All lies!
He’d left everything behind—his life, his family, his people—for a fucking lie!
Breath rushed in and out of his chest. He couldn’t get enough air. He was asphyxiating. Had to be. His vision went blurry and he swayed, leaning heavily against the dingy stone walls.
Risked my life for months.
Tiny scars marred his body; pale blue scratches that would never heal. Soon to be more from the fresh cuts of today’s battle. Nothing compared to how bad it could be, but they’d be reminders of this shitty existence. If he ever got out.
A body full of shameful souvenirs—reminders of how he let Vu’Mal’Su dupe him.
His jaw clenched, and he sank to his knees, forehead pressing against the wall as air wheezed in and out of his lungs.
He wanted to scratch the scars off, peel them away with his own claws so the visible evidence was gone. They were no longer proof that he’d cared about Dania and his son more than himself.
They were no longer proof of noble acts.
No longer proof of a selfless deed.
A joke.
