[Teal]

     Three

     The Arena was a large complex; all dark stone and dull metal, towering into the sullen purple sky. Lar’s team parked the tank outside, and just clattered about outside, for a while – sounded to Jan like two of them had got into an argument about something and had now finally come to blows… Ten minutes yammering seemed to clear up any argument, and it went quiet outside; Jan hugged his arms round himself and dozed, fitfully, wondering absently if they’d been temporarily abandoned – like Lar had said, the rest of the pack had got very noisy once they’d woken up that morning, and although he’d tried to get some sleep, only Aura had been able to sleep through it. They can sleep through anything, he thought, vaguely bitterly. He looked down at her - she was still asleep, curled up at a funny angle, teeth visible – then hugged his blanket closer and huddled down against the wall.
     Jan was drifting when they finally hurled the rear doors open, the resounding boom as the solid metal crashed into the vehicle’s hull startling both him and Aura into wakefulness. Aura staggered sharply upright, and winced and subsided back to the deck with a whine when her wounded skull complained at the sudden movement.
     “All right, you two, on yer feet…” it was the biggest guard – Lar’s Second, Jan guessed; he clambered up into the rear of the vehicle without waiting for the tail-lift to grind into action, and leered at them. “Welcome home.”

     Aura huddled close to Jan’s ankles as they were marched through the dank corridors into the underbelly of the complex, so close she almost tripped him up several times. “Don’t like it, Jan…” she whined, softly. “It smells bad, here…”
     “I could have told you that,” he replied, faintly, vainly trying not to their situation get to him too much. “And I can’t smell worth toffee-”
     “No, I mean it smells bad,” she cut in. “Smells of badness. Corruption… like the whole place is evil…”
     “How can something smell of evil?”
     “I don’t know, it just-”
     Lar’s second gave her a sharp clout on the head, right on the bruise. “No talking,” he barked, and sniggered when she growled under briefly her breath at him, unable to rub the wound and walk at the same time.
     “All right,” Lar stopped the little party at where the corridor branched. “You lads can clear off wherever it is yer go after work, I can take ‘em from here…”
     “Sure yer can cope wi’ ‘em, Boss?” one jeered, halfway down the first corridor already.
     “Yeah,” another echoed, to hoots of laughter from his friends. “We don’ want that delicate temp’rament of yers gettin’ knocked around by them kids, do we?”
     Lar grumbled darkly at the departing forms, and turned his nose into the second branch. “Come on, then.”
     The corridor sloped slightly upward for the first few yards, then turned a corner to a flight of steps, seemingly down into oblivion. Aura gave them one look and blanched, backed off a few steps.
     “Yer might like t’carry her,” Lar suggested, having seen the pained expression on her face, and lit a lantern with his cigarette lighter.
     Jan nodded. “I wouldn’t like going down stairs face-first, neither…” He picked her up; immediately, her arms went round his neck and she jammed her nose under his chin, shivering. “So…” he picked his way down the steps behind the elder slig, the flickering lamp lighting the way for only a few steps above and below where they walked. “Where are we going?”
     “Cells,” Lar replied. “May be dark down here, but at least it’s warm an’ yer got a bit of peace from them rowdy lot upstairs… Yes jus’ have ter watch out fer the Gladiators; they’re all stationed down here too, as they make the rest of th’staff jumpy.”
     “Oh… well, uh, what happens after that? Once we get there?”
     “I ain’t sure, at moment,” Lar glanced back over his shoulder; the corridor levelled back out at that point, and the dull glow of luminescent fungi provided enough light to see by when Lar extinguished the lantern, and Jan put Aura back onto the floor. “Most muds we see was slaves to start with anyway, an’ they never get down here. I suppose someone would come see yer, see if yer look like yer’d make a good worker, or…” he left the sentence unfinished, but then he didn’t need to complete it. Jan knew what he meant.
     Whether you’d be a good worker, or a good fighter…

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*wonders*