Greetings my fellow Readers
I hope your week has been far less eventful than mine has been up to this point. I need another vacation after this month, seriously. Between the flue, middle ear infection, a family death, and multiple family pet deaths, I am so done for this year to be over with.
Other than that, I have been kicking back at night with the new Pokemon game. I must say, Scarlet, isn't as bad as a lot of people say it is. I enjoy it quite a bit when I'm not getting lost!
Anyway, you're all here to read today's part. It's a doozy! I hope you enjoy it! PS, some poor language today.
Saita had forced herself down to the cafeteria early that morning to see if there was something worth her time in eating and found herself soon accosted by Toma and his pack. Toma, from a species similar to the Vulpine, always travelled with at least five others of his kind. Each looked like a different breed of dog to Saita, but she had learned a long time ago that bringing up such things would land her in boiling water.
“And here’s the human.” mocked Toma.
“What do you want, fleabag?” she asked as she walked past him without being stopped.
“A little respect from you,” he growled. “I am after all an S-class fighter.”
“Only because you fight with your pack and not alone.” Saita scratched around in the bowls that contained fresh fruit meant for breakfast. “If you were ever challenged to a one-on-one you would be no better than an E-class fighter.”
Saita selected something that looked like an apple and was about to take a bite of it but it was slapped from her hand by Toma. She looked at her hand, shook it twice and ground her teeth when she noticed the scratches on the back of her hand. She was not in the mood. She had woken with a start this morning, not realising that she had fallen asleep. Her blankets were soaked in sweat and her throat was raw from screaming. She just wanted something to eat and then go train.
She turned from the group of dogs, intending to ignore them but found a black mongrel crouched behind her, snarling. She flicked her eyes to the kitchen and saw that several cooks had already slipped away. She knew she had to just remain calm for five minutes before the enforcers arrived. They were the top-tier fighters who had retired but still stayed to maintain the younger generation.
“I do not want to get into it with you,” she said softly. “Let me go.”
“Well, maybe I want to get into you.” snarled Toma as he came to stand close enough to her to sniff her neck. “You know, females only got so far in the fighting world. Eventually, they want babies, and they have to bow out.”
“Then find a bitch to have puppies with because I am not interested.” she stood perfectly still.
“As if you can actually have pups!” he snarled in her ear. “I know your scent and I know it doesn’t change with the moon. You are not receptive, are you?”
“Toma, let me go.” she turned to face him. “Neither you nor I can afford a disqualification in our next match.”
“As if my pack would rat me out.” he snapped his jaws in her face.
Saita barely moved and instead counted the seconds to when the enforces would arrive.
“There is fury just below your skin. I can taste it!” he made to lick at her face, but she jumped away.
“I will warn you one more time,” she said softly as she put a table between herself and him. “Touch me and I will…”
“What will you do, D-class? I saw the last fight you had. Five minutes and you barely made it out unscathed. You have reached the peak of your power. Didn’t have far to travel, did you?”
He and his whole pack started laughing but Saita and her eyes flicked to the kitchen staff that had arrived with some enforcers. She would have sighed with relief if it weren’t for the black monstrosity that suddenly leapt at her teeth bared. She was able to easily evade him but then Toma lunged from the front over the table. With the enforcers having seen that pack had made the first move she was free to finally act.
Her right hand shot forward, down Toma’s throat, much to his surprise. He tried to bite down but was met with her fingers curling around the base of his tongue. This triggered his gag reflex and his jaws locked in an open position as he vomited. Saita seemed unphased by this as she squeezed. Toma saw nothing in her eyes, but he was sure that she saw fear in his.
“Well then pack? Anything you want to do while I have your boss by the...I would say short and curlies but in this case, it would rather be cat got his tongue and by the looks of it, all of yours.”
The enforces stepped forward and one, who resembled a humanoid-like octopus with human-like legs but four tentacles for arms and a bulbous head, came to stand next to Toma.
“Well then Toma, seems that you have bitten off more than you can chew there.” the enforcer chuckled wetly at his joke.
Toma gagged and more bile ran down Saita’s arm.
“Oh, don’t look so blue!” he laughed again.
Toma’s gums were starting to turn a blue colour and his eyes were starting to roll back into his head. His jaw went slack, and the Enforcer turned his large watery eyes to Saita before saying. “Human I think he has learned his lesson. Let him go.”
Saita released the dog’s tongue and then shook him from her. Her arm only contained slight scratches that were red with no blood drawn. Toma roused quickly, coughing, and splattering as he went to his haunches. There was a murderous rage in his eyes. Saita saw his leg muscles bunch as if ready to pounce and she said. “I will kill you.”
She watched what savagery was in his eyes die away and his tail went between his legs. It must have been instinctual because he looked at it with shock when he noticed it.
“Get!” said Saita as she pointed to the main hall.
Claws scrambled against the tiled floor and Toma fled on all fours.
His pack stood around wondering what had happened before the enforcer raised two tentacles and pointed after Toma. “You heard the girl, get.”
They fled after their pack leader.
“Well now, you handled that better than what I would have in my youth.” said the enforcer with a grin.
Or at least Saita thought it was a grin, his bulbous head seemed to tighten at the corners. She shook her arm to rid it of the vomit and grimaced when she realised that the sleeve had been pushed up to her elbow. She rolled the sleeve down.
“Bruno always says you are the one we need to watch, and I believe he was right. Yet, you didn’t kill Toma, I mean I am sure you could have but you didn’t.”
“I needed you to see him attack me.” she half grinned.
“Thank you for that because now I can…”
“Don’t jot it down in your little book. He just gave me a reason to challenge him for his position in the S-class fighter group.”
The enforcer raised a tentacle as if to say something but then run it under what Saita thought was a chin. “Normally a D-class can’t challenge an S-class unless the S-class is stupid enough to scratch where it shouldn’t.”
He laughed wetly and said. “Would you like to make the challenge official?”
“As soon as I have a shower. This reeks! What does he eat? Garbage?”
“I’ll inform Bruno then.”
Saita stepped over the vomit and reached for the fruit that had been swatted from her hand earlier with her clean hand. She was grinning, now she could reach the level where death was certain if she messed up. Finally reaching a point where her life could be snuffed out in a single moment if she misstepped. Death, was something she had not been able to bring upon herself but now, now it could happen naturally, and it wouldn’t be seen as suicide. She was tired. Tired of the nightmares, tired of missing people who didn’t care for her, tired of the pain of the marks that steadily crept along her skin. Aidan would be nearing his sixth birthday soon and she had no idea if he even remembered her.
That thought haunted her. She had struggled to form a bond with him when they had been together but now that they were lightyears apart, she found that she missed him and his lightheartedness.
Sighing, she retreated to her room. She made sure to lock the door before running a shower. She tossed her vomit-drenched clothing in the hamper, which would be collected soon as it was nearly full, before stepping into the shower to scrub the smell from her. Her thoughts drifted to her son. Had Kiai taken him in? Had he been given to his genetic father? Did her parents, no, Myla and Karesh, even consider looking after him, visiting him?
She sighed again before shutting the water off. She stood there, dripping as she looked over the surgical scars and marks. The scars clustered around her chest, trunk, and lower legs while the marks twisted like thorny vines from her collarbones to her wrists and ankles. She felt the urge to scratch at them. They itched and burned, and she just wanted to be rid of them. There were only two ways to do that. To die in the fights or to live long enough to wear them down.
She dried off and went to her cupboard to find something to wear. Anything long would do. As she dressed, she took the time to trace a few of the marks. If she hadn’t known better, she would have thought them extensive tattoos. But she did know better, she felt the movement of the thing inside of her and its influence on her life. She got angry and pulled the clothes on in a hurry. She needed to vent. Needed to run the anger away.
That would have been the plan had there not been two booming knocks at her door. She unlocked the door and pulled it open. She had always been bemused by the two heads on Bruno’s shoulders. They always showed different emotions yet echoed the same thoughts.
“What the hell!” screamed the one head.
This head looked furious, while the other was grinning from ear to ear.
“You attacked Toma…”
“No, I defended myself, lodging my arm down his throat. He jumped me.”
All three of Bruno’s hands slapped both his faces. “Chaka is going to kill me. Pull back your challenge.”
“No! Toma must learn that he cannot attack me with no consequences,” she growled.
“He doesn’t fight alone. He will bring his whole pack to the fight.”
“Good. Then we can neuter the whole lot of them.”
“Did he…”
“He gave it a good try.”
“Look, I know you are frustrated…”
“Do you think he is the only one hounding me? Every single day I am accosted by people for my race. Hell, for a change Toma referred to my gender as well as my race. I am not responsible for the god damned war that Karesh pulled. If I was, I would have stopped it! I have that power and it is about time that I show it to all that doubt me!”
“No one doubts you, Saita,” said Bruno as he raised two hands as if to deflect her anger while the third waved in a downward motion. “Did you sleep last night?”
“What of it?” she demanded.
“You always get irritable when you sleep.”
“Just put the challenge through. Because the next time Toma attacks me I won’t wait till the enforces break us apart. I will kill him.”
“The S-class fights are far more serious. Why do you think I have three arms and not four?” Bruno shook both heads.
“People die in them every day, I know. I don’t care anymore. Look here!” she rolled her sleeves up. “I can’t stop it. Every day they inch closer to show the world and I can’t stand it. Do you think I want every living, breathing creature to know what you do? That I am tainted? No! If I need to fight to the point of death to forth them to retract, then that is what I am going to do, and you cannot stop me! It is that simple! I have been here for a year and nothing, nothing, has helped.”
“Anger at your situation isn’t going to help your cause. Anger is likely what fuels their growth.”
“Let me fight his pack or move me to a division where I can get the same challenge.” growled the human.
“How much of this is wanting to kill versus wanting to die?” asked the stony creature.
Saita looked at the wall in irritation.
“Today marks the day that you were banished from your world. Yes? You are emotional. Take a day, if you still feel this way tomorrow, I will put the challenge through.”
“Urgh, fine!” Saita threw her hands into the air in defeat.
Bruno breathed a sigh of relief and muttered. “This is why I usually represent males, not nearly as hot-blooded.”
Saita sat at her desk and pulled a book out to hand it to Bruno. “There. Take it.”
“Memoirs?”
“A donation. I noted the pool has had a crack in it for the last month and it hasn’t been fixed. Our S-class fighters haven’t brought much money in during the last six months, so I assume Chaka has been halting payments for things like this.”
Bruno took the book and started paging through it. It was a ledger of the money she had earned, bets she had placed, as well as investments which were showing considerable growth.
“You taught me about money, and I put it to good use. That should cover the pool at the very least. Whatever is left should be put towards the day-care. I heard some of the female fighters talking about how it would be easier to fight if they had a program in which they could trust their children. Especially if something were to happen.”
“Why isn’t this going towards your further education?” demanded Bruno.
“I have that set-aside. That is what I can spare. Do you want to know why I play the crowd the way I do? So that I get the odds against me raised and thus make a higher commission. The book has a letter in the back with my express permission for you to move the funds over the compound.”
“This is not a good sign Saita. Giving away your worldly possessions is a sign of you wanting to give up.”
“If I move up into S-class then you never know what will happen.” she climbed to her feet. “Now, if you will excuse me, I am off for a very, very, long run.”
Sounds like S-rank is rather serious. Wonder how well Saita will do. Guess you'll have to keep reading to find out!
For those of you just joining us, please note that this is the follow on book from Fell Dragon. Follow this link to read it
Fell Dragon Book 1
Fell Dragon Book 2
As the series continues, it will combine with another book series I wrote. To avoid confusion about what is happening, introductory chapters will be introduced separately so that you don't have to be lost. However, these chapters will contain spoilers. You can find these chapters here:
Races Explained
Banishment
Royal Guard
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Haven't read the other parts yet? Follow these handy links:
Part 5>>You are Here>>Part 7 (Tuesday)