Last bit for now... (My brain is stuck in neutral right now, not quite writer's block, just... not in a writing mood, I suppose.) I have a bit of Ch 5 written, but not enough to post.
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On the other side of the complex to the main ring, the arena boss watched dispassionately as the vykker medic – a certain doctor Melox – gave Aura a quick check-up. His nose was wrinkled in some distaste at the maskless little creature, who was putting up a spirited fight as the vykker tried to examine her.
“Yes,” Melox nodded; he held her with two clawed hands, leaving the other two free to poke and prod. “She looks healthy enough…” he roughly turned her head to one side, prompting a throaty snarl, and laughed. “Plenty of spirit, too. Should hold up under pressure better than the last one.”
“Hm,” the glukkon narrowed his eyes, mistrustfully. “Yer said that last one would hold up well, but we lost her after two months. You know how damn much moolah we paid fer her to be created? Thousands! Hundreds of thousands! She was meant t’last a year, at least!”
The vykker shrugged. “This one’s different, Parink…” he said, unfazed at the Boss’ annoyed manner. “She was wild caught, which means her genetics will be more stable than the last one. We had to build the last one’s genes, no wonder she didn’t last…”
Melox had let his attention drift from Aura for a second or two, leaving his hand stupidly near her. Quick as a wink, she twisted and sank her teeth into the unwary appendage. He gave a howl of pain and all but leapt out of his skin, and whacked her smartly across the face with one long, clawed hand, drawing a set of bright crimson grooves in her dark skin. She jerked her head backwards, jolting her teeth free, and he snatched his hand back, dropping her.
Parink laughed openly as the vykker scowled and examined his injury; there was a fine circle of bright dots on the pale, waxy skin where Aura’s delicate teeth had punched through it. She backed into the corner, shoulders hunched, snarling softly.
“You oughtter be more careful,” Parink said, with a knowing grin. “Them wild ones are like animals. Uncivilised little barbarians…”
The vykker gave him a baleful glare. “Yes, yes, I know,” he replied, thinly, annoyance poisoning his tones. “If you hadn’t distracted me perhaps I wouldn’t have been bitten…”
“Maybe we ought to give her to the lads now,” the tall glukkon mused, ignoring the scientist’s gripes, beckoning to one of the guards. “Break her in a little.”
Melox looked down at the snarling little female. “I’d rather run a few more tests, if you don’t mind,” he said, measuredly, turning back and watching as the guard lit Parink’s cigar for him, noting with an odd sense of satisfaction that the bony male was taking something of an interest in the female. “I’d like to know if it’s related to that one we lost a few years ago. If they’re breeding out there, you could be in for more problems than you bargained for.”
If they’re breeding… Aura felt her hopes shrivel. If they considered them barely more than animals – clearly evident in even that insignificant little sentence – what hope did she stand of getting out of this mess, ever?
Parink nodded, ruefully. “Yeah,” he said, round the cigar. “May be a good idea to check things out. Besides, we don’t want the lads to go start thinkin’ they’re special or anything, may start makin’ more demands…”
Tired beyond belief, Jan only just made it back to his cell without having to be carried; as it was he tripped over his own feet at the cell door and landed on his chest with an “oof” of pain.
“We’ll come get yer same time tomorrow,” Arrun said, as he locked the door. “So yer better get yerself some kip.” Then he was gone.
Jan grunted, and sat back against the wall, with a wince, trying to unkink a sprained ankle… his knee felt like a knot of pure bruise, and his head hurt, his heartbeat making a dull thud-thud-thud in his ears.
“If you were wondering, I’ve had my first lesson in fighting…” he commented, annoyedly.
No reply.
“Aura?” he looked up, and groaned. They must have taken her away while he was gone…
Aura sat on the cold worktop in Melox’s laboratory, and worried at her wrist, trying to loosen the over-tight cuff around it – it was pinching at her skin somewhat painfully, but the vykker didn’t seem to be bothered. Likely making up for that bite she’d given him; she scowled and watched him bustle about, promising herself that she’d bite him again if he got close enough…
In spite of her snarling belligerence, however, she felt sick and scared inside; everything they had done so far had been done in such a way as to make her feel small, worthless, and everything they had said had been calculated to scare her as much as possible. She was trying to keep up a brave face, but every now and then it would slip…
Eventually Melox had apparently done everything he needed to do; he walked over, a long, evil syringe held lightly in only long, clawfingered hand. Aura gave a thin squeak of sudden fear and stumbled backwards, overbalanced on the edge of the table and fell, sharply; the cuff caught her a foot off the ground, jerking her to a savage stop and almost ripping her arm off.
Melox sighed, and caught her other wrist, lifted her slightly so her weight was hung more evenly between her two arms. “Stupid creature,” he said, coolly, watching as she struggled and pleaded with him to stop it hurting. He lifted his needle, calmly plunged it hilt-deep in the side of her throat and injected whatever it was it contained; she gargled a pained sound, her eyes rolling back in her skull, and her lean frame convulsed briefly before going limp.
It was some hours later when the sedation finally began wearing off. Aura opened her eyes, groggily, and blinked dumbly at the whiteness around her. “Mum…?” she enquired, sleepily, forgetting for a moment where she was, but as she woke fully she recognised that she wasn’t back home. She was in a small room, with two doors, and a thick, reinforced window; one door was massive, apparently metal, the other was standing slightly ajar. She pushed herself upright, looked around herself a little better…
She sat on the foot of a small bunk; bouncing experimentally, she found that the mattress was relatively soft, and covered with clean, if somewhat age-dulled, white sheets and a quilt. Sliding to the floor and padding over to the open door, she found a bathroom of a sort – latrine and washbasin close enough to the floor that she’d be able to reach them, and a small bath with shower-attachment set flush with the floor. The window, she found, climbing onto the table to get a look out, looked back towards the forest; it was a dark smudge on the horizon, only the dull purple of distant mountains looking further away. She frowned. Strange… why were they giving her this sort of luxury? Perhaps it was that they’d recognised who’s progeny she was… were hoping to win her over…
You wish, her subconscious chimed in, apparently taking longer to wake up than her conscious mind. Have you forgotten what they were talking about, when they gave you that check-up, or are you just plain stupid?
She sank to the tabletop, her arms suddenly deciding they didn’t want to support her weight, mouth abruptly feeling as dry and unpleasant as the floor of a scrab’s cage. The world shrank away at the edges, and for a second she was worried she was going to faint. “No no no…” she whimpered. While Melox had been doing his tests she’d subconsciously been able to swallow the fear down and pretend that they only wanted her to study her – now, though, she had no distractions, and the fear came crashing back, settling on her shoulders like some terrible shroud…
When the door creaked open it sent her under the bed like a shot; she cowered underneath, the thin fabric valance little protection from whatever demons had just entered…
“Eh, miss?” a familiar voice asked, and the fabric curtain brushing the floor twitched, and a slig bent to look under the bunk.
It was Lar; she didn’t care, she snarled hatefully all the same and bared her teeth.
“I ain’t here to hurt yer,” he soothed, letting the fabric fall back into place. “I just thought I better tell yer, before anythin’ happens… Me an’ the Boss are working to try get yer out of here. It may take a while, but we’re doin’ what we can, so… whatever happens, don’ you lose hope.” Then the door creaked again, and he was gone.
She lay under her bunk and counted her heartbeats, taking small comfort from his words, and struggled not to panic.
She’d counted enough heartbeats for roughly an hour and a half to have passed when the door creaked again, and she had to fight to keep from screaming right then. There was the soft hiss of mechanical footsteps, and a voice said, softly; “Oh, I see; we’re playin’ hide an’ seek, huh?” and a soft, unpleasant chuckle.
She gulped out a sob and retreated into her corner.
Another of those unpleasant laughs, and the fabric moved. “I can he-ar you…” the voice sang, as though it was all some huge game, and after a second or two a long hand lifted the short curtain.
She felt her throat constrict, and watched as Yax leered at her, and bellied under the bunk with her, having got rid of his pants.
“You-you-you come one step closer an’ I’ll bite yer!” she screamed at him, and crushed herself so hard into her corner that it hurt.
The ugly brute just laughed, and crawled closer; there was just enough space for him to get underneath, the top of his back an inch or so shy of the bottom of the divan. He smiled, cruelly, and put his heavily scarred face close to hers. “Let me tell you somethin’, sweetheart…” he said, softly, baring those long gold fangs at her. “You even think of bitin’ me, an’ I promise yer I’ll break every tooth in that pretty little head…”
She sobbed and turned her face away – his breath was hot, and stank of carrion.
“Now then…” he purred, moving closer still, and his voice shrank to a soft, predatory whisper. “Let’s jus’ get down to business, shall we…?”
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