The Dragon and the Fox

Nobody said anything about Kira’s singing the next day, but she could tell that the atmosphere was much brighter in the cellblock. Prisoners that passed by on their way to the arena often glanced in her cage, some curious and others admiring.

It appeared that the entire arena had heard Kira. None of the prisoners fought with one another that day, much to the disappointment of the crowd and the announcer. Kira was surprised that they were getting away with this, and she wondered how long they would let it continue.

The next day, Kira was summoned once again to fight in the arena. Only, this time it was different.

As she walked onto the arena, Kira noticed that not one but two opponents were looking back at her across the sands. Rogue had told her that it happened occasionally, but she had never seen it before in her days as a prisoner.

Will both of them listen to me? Kira thought, unsure of herself. Her tail twitched nervously, and her ears folded back.

One of them was a white weasel. He smirked viciously at Kira as she walked on, clearly noticing her doubtful stature. His paws were bloodstained, and his expression not entirely sane. One of his ears was torn, and he had several scars along his body and across his tail.

The other was a beautiful purple-grey falcon, who was examining her razor-sharp talons as if she didn’t have a care in the world. Her feathers were perfectly pristine, and her silver eyes were sharp and alert. Her wings, like Kira’s, were bound to her sides with black cords. Somehow, she still managed to look graceful despite the weird-looking additions.

“And here on the battling grounds, we have…” the announcer started, “Dainn of the Weasels, who has won three consecutive fights in a row, Laila of the Falcons, who has won twenty fights in a row, and Kira of the Foxes, who has won exactly zero fights.”

The crowd jeered and booed. Kira suspected that everyone here had not witnessed her last fight, and that the announcer had purposefully failed to go into detail about it. She wondered what would happen if word were to spread about the arena and what actually happened inside.

“Zero?” Dainn sneered. “What a loser!”

Laila rolled her eyes. Kira said nothing.

“Three…” the announcer called. “Two…one…FIGHT!”

Dainn made the first move, lunging at Kira. She ducked and swung around to face him, tail swishing behind her. She bared her teeth at him.

Something slammed into Kira from behind, and she twisted to see Laila digging her talons into Kira’s back. Pain shot through the fox, and white lightning blasted Laila off of her in a bright flash. The falcon flew high in the air, then shot down to the earth and landed majestically on her feet, skidding backwards in the dirt.

“You gonna use your magic to protect you the whole time, coward?” Dainn taunted. “Or are you going to fight like a real creature?”

“We don’t have to fight,” Kira said, trying to keep her voice steady.

“You only say that because you know I’m going to kill you,” the weasel replied smarmily, circling around Kira. In the corner of her eye, Kira saw Laila approaching them, but she kept her focus on Dainn.

He lunged, sharp teeth showing. Kira ducked once again, but this time she rolled on the ground to come up from behind the weasel. She pounced on him, and her anger made her eyes blaze white. She ended up on top of him, one paw on his chest and the other on his throat.

Dainn growled and squirmed, trying to bite Kira, but she clawed at his face and he stopped, blood pouring down his cheek through the three deep lines she had created. He twitched, gazing up at her fearfully.

“I will not kill you,” Kira told him, lifting her chin. “I will merely break you until you’re unrecognizable. Do you really want that?”

“Just do it,” Dainn snapped. “What is wrong with you? How hard is it to kill me? All it takes is you twisting my head one inch too far, and everything ends for me.”

“No,” Kira said.

Dainn snorted, then wriggled out from underneath her. Startled, Kira whipped around, backing up at the same time, but she was too late. Dainn swiped at her, and in the next moment all Kira could see was his sharp claws coming towards her face. Then all she knew was pain, pain in her eye and down her cheek and all throughout her head.

Kira cried out, covering her eye with one paw. She tried opening it, but all she saw was red. When she took away her paw, she could see blood all over it with her other eye.

“That’s what you get for not killing me!” Dainn yelled dancing around her.

Kira growled, and her gaze went white once again. Kira couldn’t see properly, but she was pretty sure that her eyes were emitting white smoke as well as tears.

Kira ran at Dainn and crashed into him with all the force she could muster, toppling him over and putting her on top of him once again. Blood poured into her eye, but she hardly cared.

“Go ahead,” Dainn breathed. “Do it. Stop being a scaredy-fox.”

“I won’t.” Kira dug her claws into his fur. “Yield, weasel, or face never walking again.”

“Never.” Dainn snapped his teeth at her, but his neck couldn’t reach.

“Then you leave me with no choice,” Kira said mournfully.

She steeled her resolve, then took his front leg and used her back leg to push hard on it. She could feel the limb flexing under the pressure of her foot. It broke with a crack, and Dainn screamed.

“Are you sure you don’t want to step down?” Kira asked, a little shaky at what she had done, but still ready to do whatever it took to save this weasel’s life.

“No,” Dainn refused. He looked at his arm and winced but gave Kira a defiant look.

Kira shrugged, then moved onto the next arm. It too broke, and tears of pain rolled down Dainn’s cheeks. He said nothing, merely lashing his tail and struggling slightly under Kira’s grip.

“DEATH! DEATH! DEATH!” the crowd shouted. Kira glared up at them angrily, cursing their thirst for blood and violence.

That was her big mistake.

While she was distracted, a purple and grey blur shot under her arms and snatched Dainn out from under her.

“NO!” Kira screamed, reaching towards the weasel. Laila took one emotionless glance at Kira, then placed her talons on his neck. Dainn pushed against the falcon with his back legs weakly, looking terrified. The crowd cheered.

Kira ran across the sands, but she knew she wouldn’t reach Dainn in time.

Laila looked Kira straight in the eye and snapped the weasel’s neck, then dropped his limp body on the floor.

The crowd screamed and yelled, and the announcer cheered as well.

“And Laila goes in for the kill!” the alligator cried smugly. “Now we’ll see how well the little fox does against this ferocious predator!”

Kira and Laila faced off, staring at each other. Despite how hard Kira searched, she couldn’t see any trace of feeling in the falcon’s gaze. Her eye flickered to Dainn’s body on the ground, then back up to the falcon.

“Why did you do that?” Kira asked.

“I had to,” Laila intoned, approaching. “We will die otherwise.”

“No, we won’t!” Kira cried. “We can change things here. We don’t have to fight.”

“Why would you spare me over your own life?” Laila tilted her head quizzically at Kira. “Don’t you want to live?”

Kira gazed at the ground. Did she want to live, with the burden of the world on her shoulders and the sorrow of death in her mind? Wouldn’t it be easier to die?

“You only care about yourself!” Blizzard had said.

“I’m opening up to you. Can’t you see that?” Deya’s voice penetrated her headspace.

I don’t want to be selfish anymore.

“I may want to live,” she said slowly, “but I don’t want other creatures to die for that to be possible.”

“Interesting.” Laila raised her eyebrows. “So, tell me, right now…why shouldn’t I kill you?”

Kira looked into Laila’s eyes. Right then, everything seemed muffled. The roar of the crowd, the screams of the announcer, the blood running down her face…it all was deafened in her mind as Kira considered the question.

“I guess I don’t have a reason,” Kira said. “I’m no more significant that anyone else here in this arena. I know why I want to live, but I don’t know why I need to live. But can anyone really answer that question?”

Laila paused. “Maybe not.”

And then she backed away.

“BOOOOO!!” the crowd howled. “BLOOD! WE WANT BLOOD!”

Kira looked up at Laila with her painless eye, tears of mixed emotions building up inside.

I convinced another creature. Deya would be so proud.

Laila turned around and glared at the crowd, then called, “If you want blood, do it yourself!”

Then she turned and stalked off to the archway she had come from, holding her head high.

Kira looked reverently at her, wondering if she could ever muster that much dignity and grace in such a place as this.

And so she walked slowly back towards her cell, happiness in her heart and light in her soul despite her the pain in her face and body.