Page 5 of Gladiator's Bite
The arena housed more dragon-sized seats than I would’ve guessed from looking at it from the outside. Underneath the arena the crowd of draconic spectators above us were a mere murmur and hum of noise. Selt popped his neck to one side and then the other. We hadn’t received our matches yet and those who were the powers that be hadn’t felt inclined to introduce us to any of the regular competetors. I kept an eye out for anyone who looked like the elderly woman I met on the shuttle. My sire would’ve brushed it off as an enclosed society thing, but my carrier didn’t believe in coincidences. Two folks had mentioned the same dragon to me. There was something going on there. Maybe he was a seer after all. Maybe he knew something about this nameless door lady. Maybe he was just the omega who’d hand my ass to me.
My phone was tucked safely inside my locker. Teddy had sent a few texts, but I hadn’t read them. Couldn’t bother to read them right now. Teddy would always be Teddy – my best friend but I needed a bit of space for now. I didn’t want to talk about last night – ever. It shouldn’t have happened. We were lonely and homesick and ---
“Horny,”my dragon filled in the word that I didn’t want to think.“And it did happen. Of course, it happened. It was always gonna happen. Now we know and he knows it’s nothing --- well, we don’t feel like that.”
I wasn’t sure Teddy would know that at all. I wasn’t inside his head.
“Hey, Moony!” Someone called from the edge of the room. “Over here! You need to go a floor up! The rest of you quiet down! We’ll put the match list up soon.”
Selt’s dagger eyes followed me as I left behind the dragon who called me over. He was a head shorter than me, wore a lanyard whistle around his neck, and carried a clipboard.
“You’re match three – left side,” he read from the clipboard without looking up. “Match three, left side, with Laken.”
“Laken?” I double-checked that my ears weren’t liars.
“Laken,” he nodded. “Just go through that door at the end of the hall. The guys in there will tell you when to go. If you’re really as dumb as some of the fighters just listen for the guy on the speaker system to call your name, okay?”
He left before I could slug him for clumping me in with dumb jocks. I mean, I was a jock, but a dumb jock wouldn’t have gotten a spot on Castor’s crew.
“Are we still a jock, though?”my dragon asked.“Aren’t we too old for that now? We don’t play team sports anymore. We work out. Are we a gym lizard now?”
I didn’t answer him as I walked to the left of the building. Left and right made sense. Competitors wouldn’t enter from the same side. That wouldn’t make for an interesting setup to entertain a crowd of dragons. The murmur of words and feet grew louder the closer I got to the ‘waiting room.’ The door was propped open and led to a locker-ish room.
“You’re Laken’s guy!” a short dragon said, pushing himself to his feet and headed over.
“Huh?” I said before my brain wrapped around his words.
“You’re fighting Laken,” the dragon tried again, reaching out a hand with knuckles already wrapped to shake mine. “I’m Frey. Glad I got to see you before Laken did. Never know what part of his opponent he’ll rearrange. Though, you might stand a chance.I’ve heard some of you Moonys are hard to read over the flight link. That can be a good thing here.”
“Sunny,” I shook his hand, deciding not to answer anything else he said.
I should be making friends or at least networking on the Starscale worlds but wasn’t sure my opponent’s friends were the ones to do that with.
“Eh, we’re all buddy-buddy here. Except for Selt and them. They have to fight each other though. They like to play grab ass like it’s the purple district instead of the arena. If you ever have to fight one of them – elbow them in the nuts and try to knock them up inside them. They’re too proud to wear cups. Use that to your advantage. Now, I don’t need to know if you are or not. Probably are. You don’t look dumb, but Laken won’t hit below the belt and he’s not a Sir Grab Ass either. He fights fair.”
“Good to know,” I said, unsure if the dark-haired Frey was always the welcome wagon or if he chose me to start the job with.
“Stop fan-boying over Laken and get ready for your fight!” A dragon who probably would’ve towered over me if he stood up said from the corner of the room. “Why in the hell they put you on first, I’ll never know.”
“They want the omega fight,” Frey laughed. “Besides, been weeks since they let me in. Something about waiting for the healer to clear me.”
“I wouldn’t want to fight you,” the big guy said. “Fresh out of laying. Nah. I’m not fighting the nesting carrier.”
I waited to see how offended Frey was before I said anything. He smirked and laughed.
“Is your mate here tonight?” one of the other fighters asked.
“Nah. He’s watching the stream. Someone has to stay home with the eggs. I won’t be staying for drinks after tonight. So, one of you make sure that Laken doesn’t kill Selt or one of them.”
“That’s who you should’ve been matched with,” someone teased Frey.
“We’ve gone this long without a murder. Let’s keep it that way,” Frey shrugged and headed toward the biggest door in the room. He fluffed up his hair and snarled his lip up. His scent turned from amused to fierce.
“At least we’re not fighting the nester,”my dragon said.
I couldn’t see Frey’s fight from inside and there wasn’t a monitor set up to watch the stream. Since none of the other fighters seemed interested in introducing themselves, I did a few stretches while the crowd cheered, groaned, and cheered again.
The doors swung open, and I glanced over to see Frey limping, grinning. Half his left pants leg was burnt away, and he looked a bit cut up. His shirt was torn.