Enemies
"Enemies"
by Tagenar
Copyright 2010
It was the witching hour, nothing so crude as midnight of course. Anyone can be a witch at midnight under a full moon. It was past 3 am and he had been awoken by a hand on his shoulder, shaking him urgently. His eyes opened to an unfamiliar ceiling and the usual questions of "Who am I?" "Where am I?" "Am I wearing clothes?" filled his head and were promptly banished. A finger pressed against his lips and words were whispered into his ear barely above the threshold of hearing, the voice one of a distant memory his sleep addled brain could not yet recollect.
"I want to tell you a secret."
He didn't move.
"I regret every time I kill you."
Now he recognized the touch. The scent. The voice. The finger lifted from his muzzle and his enemy moved away.
He stared at the ceiling for a while longer, sprawled out on his back, trying to figure out what room he was in. Trying to remember who he was. Waking up after death always left him foggy.
Gradually, he remembered his name. Loy. He remembered where he was. He remembered the room now, but it was still unfamiliar. This was the first time he looked at the ceiling. He never noticed the circular discs protruding from it before.
Loy sat up. His enemy knelt in the corner, grooming his enormous claws. Likely he was cleaning off Loy's blood. He did it to him every time; waited until Loy was patched up and alive before cleaning the blood off.
Loy gathered himself and stood up. As usual, he wasn't wearing clothes or armor. Both he and his enemy had not worn a shred of clothing in weeks. He was naked and vulnerable with his enemy. No weapons in the room either, except for his own claws and teeth. And his enemy's.
"What do you mean?" Loy asked the creature in the corner.
The creature continued grooming his claws. His scales were covered in dry blood. Loy's dry blood.
No answer.
"How long did it take them this time?" Loy said, trying to start a conversation.
The reptile groomed his claws again and again. Loy sat down on the bed and looked around. In the arena he had felt strong and solid. In here, he felt like a newborn puppy.
Loy was hoping to talk to his enemy again. For weeks he'd been trying to get him to say his name. He knew Loy's, but the reptile refused to give up his. Loy doubted he could pronounce it, but that wasn't the point. He enjoyed talking to him now. He enjoyed their time between fights.
When they first woke up here they were at each other's throats, both inside and outside the arena. They were at war, and they were enemies, so they held no trust for one another. But the longer they stayed together in this room, the more those feelings subsided, and they began talking to each other between fights.
They discussed the war. It was the first thing they had in common, so it was the natural choice. Loy had been on the front line, deep in battle with the reptiles. He remembered getting shot, falling down, and when he woke up here was here. His enemy had also been on the front line, fighting the canines. He, too, had been knocked to the ground, and when he lifted himself up here was here. In this small, metal room with only a bed and a shower area.
The conversation became racially charged, but no matter how violent their words became, neither lifted a claw to the other. They never spoke of the war again. Instead, Loy's reptilian enemy asked about rumors he heard of the canine kind. Was it true they still fought over who eats the placenta after the birth of a new child in the pack? ("No. We don't even live in packs anymore.") Was it true the largest planet in their system was artificial? ("Yes. One of our proudest achievements.")
Loy in turn asked his enemy about the many rumors his kind spread about the reptiles. Do they equate fighting ability with sexual attraction? ("No.") Do they really smell with their tongues? ("Yes.")
They got along surprisingly well in here. Loy was glad for that; they were both imprisoned here, so they may as well be at peace when not under the rage of the arena.
Loy relaxed. He closed his eyes. His enemy was bigger, stronger and more aggressive, so he always claimed the bed, leaving Loy to sleep on the floor ("where you kind belongs"). But tonight the reptile was preoccupied with his claws, and as far as Loy was concerned that left the bed for him. First time he slept in a bed in as long as he could remember.
He watched the scaly. Still grooming. Still cleaning his claws. He'd known this warrior long enough to see that his claws didn't need cleaning. This was how he handled anxiety.
*
Loy woke up to cheering. He assumed it was cheering; it might be jeering. The audience was there, looking in, but Loy never saw them. The arena surrounded him in all directions. Thick resin formed the walls. The audience had a clear view of the action, but Loy couldn't see anything outside. Brushed metal formed the floor and ceiling. A completely self-contained box of resin and metal with rounded corners. No doors. No way in or out except by teleport.
A voice echoed across the metallic arena. The language was unfamiliar, but he guessed it was an announcer introducing the fighters to the audience. Loy wished he could understand it. He'd like to hear what they told the audience about him. About his enemy. Perhaps they were mocking his stature, wondering if the weak would triumph over the strong this time. Loy outsized most of his own species, but next to the reptile, he looked tiny.
At the other side of the arena his enemy materialized. He was as naked as Loy, and weaponless except for his claws and teeth. Their captors apparently liked physical tooth and claw combat.
As soon as Loy saw him, his head filled with rage. His enemy licked the air and charged him. Loy charged without fear of pain or death. He was determined to make the scaly suffer for every death he suffered.
Loy leapt onto his enemy and went for the throat. His enemy smacked him off and Loy fell to the floor. His shoulder broke. His enemy knelt and shoved his enormous claws into Loy's gut.
His enemy never made killing strikes right away. He preferred to break Loy one piece at a time to make the suffering last. In his hyperenraged state, Loy was glad for that; it gave him more opportunities to strike back.
Loy kicked his enemy, driving claws into his skull. His enemy fell with the kick, straight into Loy's waiting jaws. He closed them around his head and chewed. Scaly flesh ripped from his enemy's skull. Loy ate it. Reptile scales tasted awful, but it tasted like victory, too, which enraged Loy even more.
Something happened to them whenever they entered the arena. No matter how calm and civil they were in their quarters, as soon as they saw each other here, all they wanted to do was rip each other apart.
The fight stretched on for another twenty minutes. There wasn't a part on either of them that wasn't bleeding. The more they bled, the more enraged they became. The unseen audience cheered.
*
Loy woke up in their quarters. He immediately sat up straight. He tested his arms, one joint at a time starting with the fingers, then wrist, then elbow, then shoulder. He did the same for his other arm. Everything worked, and they were only mildly sore.
Loy heard claw sharpening in the corner again. He turned and looked at the reptile.
"You cut off my arms," Loy said. He didn't feel enraged by this. He didn't resent the scaly for it. There was this sense that what happened in the arena stayed in the arena. They'd talked about it frequently, how rage overtook both of them out there, only for there to be this sense of calm and civility when they woke up here.
"I also got both your legs after you were dead."
"Why?!" Loy tested his legs. Sure enough, they were sore, too.
"I was trying to make sure they couldn't put you back together. I didn't want you to come back. I'm tired of killing you. Hoped if I tore you up enough..."
Loy waited for his enemy to finish. He didn't. He just kept grooming his claws. Loy sighed.
"Does this mean I get the bed again?"
"I don't care."
"Good."
Loy got up. Sat down on the bed. It felt so good to lie down on a soft surface. The arena was solid metal, probably designed to break bones with a fall from the smallest height, so this was luxury.
"Did you regret killing me that time?" Loy said to the scaly's back.
The reptile growled. Loy took the hint and shut his muzzle. He kept grooming his claws. Loy watched him for a while. He waited for his enemy's muscles to relax before speaking again.
"Why are you so nervous? You've never done this before."
His enemy hesitated. Lowered his hands.
"I've known you long enough. You groom your claws when you're scared. You can't be scared about the next fight, since you always win, so what's going on?"
The reptile remained crouched in the corner. He huddled his long muzzle between his scaly knees.
"Have we accepted this?" said his enemy. "Imprisoned here? Forced to fight each other over and over for a species we can't even see? The war may still be going on out there, and here we are locked in pointless combat."
"I know... If I could resist the rage I wouldn't fight you. And if you resisted it, too, we could go on strike."
"But I can't. It's too strong. Out there all I want to do it kill you slowly, so it'll hurt."
"Why didn't you want me to come back? I think we get along pretty well when the rage isn't there."
"It's pointless. We're fighting for nothing. I want to get out of here."
"So do I."
"There must be others. Other captives forced to fight each other like this. If we could contact them, get their cooperation, we could start a revolt."
"How do we know there are others?" Loy said.
...scrape scrape lick scrape ...
"We've never seen anyone else," continued the canine. "We've been here for weeks and you're the only living creature I've seen."
"There must be! No one would build an arena just for us, much less a medical staff dedicated just to putting you back together after every fight. There are others. We just have to find them."
The scaly groomed his claws faster, more diligently.
"Why do you regret killing me?" Loy said.
...scrape scrape lick ...
"Will you look at me!"
The scaly in the corner rose to his feet and faced Loy.
"What's bothering you?" said Loy.
"You're getting better at fighting me. Last few times I've actually had to work to keep you from killing me."
"Thank you. One of these days I swear I will kill you."
"You will."
"Is that why you regret it? 'Cause every time you kill me, I come back better?"
His enemy growled and walked to the shower. There was no divider, just a place in the wall for a spray of water to come out. He tapped the button, which started the flow. Loy never had to shower; they always cleaned him up while they put him back together. His enemy, however, needed little medical attention and he arrived just as he left the arena most of the time.
"Look, other than the obvious being captive and all, what's bothering you?"
His enemy faced Loy as he washed the dried blood off his scales.
"I was raised to hate your kind. I used to hate you as much as in the arena as I did outside it. That's fading. Little at a time. I don't like it."
"So you hate me less than you used to. So what? I already don't hate you at all."
The most hateful look flashed across his enemy's eyes. He turned from Loy and faced the wall as he washed himself. Loy closed his eyes and fell backwards on the bed. A soft surface. Nothing felt better.
His heart raced. His heart always raced before he went to sleep in this room. There was this overwhelming feeling that if he slept, he would wake up in the arena, and to more pain. Loy avoided sleep as long as possible. He felt that if he didn't sleep, they couldn't take him to the arena, and the pain would never come.
But it always did. Even if he wasn't asleep, he'd suddenly materialize in the metal and resin arena, full of hate and rage at his enemy, eager to endure another round of excruciating pain leading up to a slow, gradual death.
Loy shuddered. He lay wide awake. He tried to stay awake. It was a false sense of control over his situation. He knew it. But it was all he had.
His enemy finished washing. Loy heard him grooming his claws again.
*
The canine leapt onto the scaly's rock solid chest and sunk his teeth into the muscle. His enemy grabbed him and hacked his claws into his back, tearing long lines deep into his muscles. Loy slid off his body and crumpled on the metal floor.
His enemy tasted the air, his rage intensified by the smell of blood and pain. Loy lay still, bleeding profusely from the gouges in his back. Loy whimpered. His enemy circled him, tasting his blood from a distance, reveling in the suffering of his opponent.
He approached, and stood over Loy. He raised his claws-
Loy jumped and uppercutted his enemy. His claws slipped through the tough flesh under his enemy's muzzle and disappeared. His enemy staggered back. Loy opened his mouth and grabbed his enemy's arm. He chewed through the scales and grinded his teeth on bone.
His enemy staggered back, bucking his head to get free. Loy shoved his claws deeper, hoping they penetrated his brain, hoping he was suffering right now. Loy chewed and shook his muzzle, trying to break a bone.
His enemy stumbled around and ripped his muzzle off Loy's claws. Loy immediately stabbed his eyes, but his enemy shielded his face, and Loy instead struck his hand. His claws drove into his enemy's palm.
Blood flew from Loy's back every step he took. Seeing his enemy leaking blood filled him with pride and he vaguely hoped a female was watching. Loy struck. His enemy jumped back, his hand sliding from Loy's claws.
The metal floor was slick with blood.
His enemy stumbled backwards. Loy leapt into the gap and struck. His enemy staggered backwards, reeling from the wound under his muzzle. Still leaking blood from the slices down his back, Loy jumped on his enemy, knocking him to the ground. He chewed on his neck. His teeth broke through rock hard scales and muscle and to the soft flesh underneath.
Loy's heart stopped. He released his enemy and looked down at himself. Both the reptile's hands were buried to the fingertips in Loy's chest.
*
Loy woke up on the bed. He raised himself. His hips hurt. He cursed. Every joint was on fire.
"What's wrong with you?!" he shouted to the scaly crouching in the corner.
... scrape scrape lick scrape ...
"You cut my spine to pieces!"
... lick lick lick scrape ...
"I was still alive!"
His enemy snorted.
"You really don't want me to come back, do you!?"
"YES!" His enemy jumped up and faced Loy. He was still covered in the blood from the last fight. "Why won't you stay dead!? Why do I have to keep fighting you!? Why you!? Why are we here and why do they make us sleep in the same room when we're not fighting?!"
"Maybe you should let me win for once! Mix up the routine! Then you can see what it's like to die again and again and have to sleep with your killer!! I'm afraid to go to sleep! I'm tired of the pain! I'm so tired..." Loy cried. For the first time, the pain of previous fight had followed him here. "Tired of pain... It hurts. Hurts so much..."
Loy expected his enemy to growl. To call him weak and ramble on about how superior his species was to the canines. He didn't. Instead he softened and relaxed. Leaned against the wall and waited.
Loy regained his composure as the leftover rage from the arena dissolved. "Did you move me to the bed?"
"I did."
"Why are you letting me have the bed lately?"
The reptile turned away and growled. Loy recognized the gesture; he wasn't growling at Loy, but inwardly, at something he couldn't face directly. His enemy stepped away and started feeling the metal walls up and down.
"Please talk to me," said Loy. "I enjoy talking to you. It's the only thing that makes me happy now."
"How about we do something useful and try to get out of here?!" his enemy said.
"These walls are solid metal. We can't get out. There isn't even a door, or an air vent."
"That is not how my kind thinks. My race makes a way, and I will make a way out of here!"
"Good luck. You're strong, but not that strong."
"Only someone as weak as you would criticize someone else's strength."
"Don't let it stop you. You don't want the bed again?"
"Sleep on your plush. You are content to lose your rage outside the arena, but that rage moves us! Determination will set us free, not lying down and waiting for the next fight! I will make a way out of here!"
"If I could do anything else, I would! We can't get out in the arena. I can't even think straight in there I hate you so much. And when we're in here, I don't want to do anything. I'm totally...peaceful. Not happy, just...calm."
"Exactly!" his enemy shouted. He was examining the shower area, looking for a gap in the metal. Perhaps a plate to pry loose, a vent to pull open. Any sort of seam he could exploit. "Fight it! Don't let yourself become complacent, Loy! Stay angry! Don't lie down and rest!"
"I can't help it. It's all I want to do in here."
"Help me stay enraged. Think about the war we should be fighting! I should be on the battle lines holding your species back from my territory! Not trapped here fighting you again and again!"
"Mm hm, same for me."
"The reptiles didn't start this war! But we'll finish it! I was hatched to be part of that, and here I am instead! Trapped like a canine!"
"Didn't start the war? You invaded the Porben system, breaking the treaty."
It was the first time they had discussed the war since they first woke up in this room weeks ago. It made anger rise up in Loy.
"We were reacting to your capture of a vessel lost in the system," said his enemy. "It wasn't an invasion, it was two ships sent to retrieve it from your army."
"A vessel that happened to be lost on the border? Do you really believe that?"
"And you believe your superiors sent you on your mission for self-defense?"
"Look at yourself in the arena. You're more aggressive than I will ever be. You think we'd want to attack your kind first?"
His enemy was trying to pull the shower head off the wall. It wouldn't budge.
"We had a peace agreement! My kind never backs out on their word!"
"Tell that to the Porben system!" Loy shouted. It was working. He was getting angry. Suddenly he wanted to do more than lie down on the bed. "How many civilians did your kind slaughter?! If it was self-defense why'd you do that?!"
"We were reacting to your destruction of the planet Ke'hrr! How many did your kind kill?! There was no threat to you on that world, it was only to provoke us!"
"No threat?! Every planet your kind touches is prepped for war! You turn every world into a military outpost! There's no such thing as a civilian!"
"Because my race is united! Yours...specializes." His tongue slipped from his mouth and tasted the air to pronounce that last word.
"United to dominate! Why take prisoners when genocide is easier?!"
His enemy clawed the wall. His claws didn't even scratch the walls. He saw this, became even more enraged and slashed the wall harder, faster. No effect. His enemy screamed.
"That was productive. Good idea, let's dig our way out."
His enemy growled and snarled and attacked the walls.
"Let's stay angry," Loy said, mocking the reptile's throaty voice. "My kind's solution to every problem. Kill it and the problem goes away. It works on females and children, why isn't it working on a wall?"
His enemy dragged his claws off the wall and faced Loy. He charged, leaped on the bed and pinned Loy down on his back, tongue dangling in the canine's face.
"Get that tongue away from me and let me sleep!"
His enemy held his shoulders down.
"Let go of me!"
His enemy growled and licked the air. It sounded different. It wasn't a growl of anger or rage-Loy didn't know what it meant. He straddled Loy and made another strange growl. Louder, more from the chest than the throat. Loy caught a scent. He stopped struggling and lay still. Anger wasn't in his enemy's eyes. His muscles were taut, but somehow not threatening.
The peace infiltrated Loy again. It seeped its way into his enemy as well. The anger faded. All Loy wanted to do was lie down and enjoy the peace before he had to fight again.
The reptile held Loy down, but gently. His penis was out of his slit, long and erect. It pulsed. His enemy's tongue flicked around. The more it did the harder his member became. It started to drip. Loy's member slid out of his sheath in reaction.
The reptile's tongue tasted the change in Loy's scent. He gasped. He snarled at himself and crawled awkwardly off the foot of the bed. He hid the front of his body from Loy and retreated to the shower. He knelt. He cleaned his claws.
Loy sat up and watched. He wanted to say something, but nothing came out his mouth. He lay down, curled up and tried not to sleep. Pain was coming. It always came when he woke up. Loy cried again.
A low voice came from across the room. "I dread the pain, too."
Loy's eyes darted around and his heart raced. No further sounds. Loy tried to stay awake.
*
Loy went for the eyes. Every strike he landed on his enemy was to clear the way to the eyes. They were the weakest point on any living creature. If he could take them out, his enemy would be helpless and in pain, freeing Loy to tear him apart slowly. Giving his enemy pain gave him pleasure, and he was determined not to die this time.
His enemy was on the ground, reeling from the last attack to his stomach. Blood gushed out the open wound in his gut. Loy was covered in his enemy's blood. It made him feel powerful.
Loy stalked to his enemy. He pounced him. He chewed his eye out. His enemy howled and thrashed. Loy felt incredibly powerful and chewed harder, slashing his claws at anything he could reach.
His enemy's hand rose. The claws fanned out, then pointed at Loy's face. They pierced his skull.
*
Loy woke up in his enemy's arms. He felt himself being lowered. The surface was soft. The bed again. Loy raised himself upright and stared at his enemy. His enemy looked down on him. His face was empty. His body was clean for once. No blood. He hadn't showered; he'd been patched up and healed and was cleaned off in the process.
In the arena, this knowledge would make him feel good. But here, in this room, emotions and thoughts like that were muted. The peace was as incredible in here as the rage was out there.
Once again his enemy had cut him apart in the arena. The pain had been unimaginable. At least he woke up without pain. His enemy looked at him not with the rage of victory of his prey, but with a placid look. He and Loy stared at each other for some time.
"What's really bothering you?" Loy said.
His enemy turned and sat at the foot of the bed. Loy had never seen him sit before. Always standing, or crouching, or kneeling, or lying down to sleep. He didn't even know his kind sat.
"Remember when you asked me if the rumors were true? If my species equated beauty with someone's ability to fight?"
"Yeah. You said no."
"I lied."
Loy sat all the way up.
"At the time, I wasn't going to admit everything to a canine."
Loy thought about that for a few moments.
"It really bothers you that I'm getting better at fighting you, doesn't it?"
His enemy grunted. "It was easy to hate you because you couldn't hold your own against me. But now... You are a good fighter. You're very... Very beautiful."
Loy did not know what to say.
His enemy started fidgeting with his claws. "When I look back on what I do in the arena, I regret it. I should be fighting at your side, not against you."
They sat in silence for a long time. Finally Loy thought of something.
"There was a rumor going around about your kind. We were taught that you were all bisexual. That's true?"
"My species is united. Unlike yours, which imposes laws to restrict its people. Affection is an act of respect, not lust, as your kind sees it. It keeps my kind united. We don't need laws to tell us what we can and can't do."
Loy opened his mouth to speak but nothing came out.
"Mating unites us as a species," said his enemy. "The emotions keep us together. We'll do anything for each other because we feel like everyone is, or could be, our mate. We use our instincts to our advantage. We don't repress them, like your kind does."
"It's hard to imagine your species as great warriors when you're all sleeping together."
"It's equally hard for anyone of my kind to imagine how canines accomplish anything. Everyone working for himself. No unity, no common cause. It was easier to live with you thinking of you as my enemy. But the better you got at fighting me, the more I started to react to you like I would one of my kind."
Another longish silence.
"I don't want to kill you anymore either," said the canine.
"You gave me the toughest fight yet, Loy. You almost had me. You're a respectable fighter now."
Loy again did not know what to say, but he didn't want to stop talking. As long as he and his enemy got along, he didn't fear the upcoming pain.
*
Loy and his enemy circled each other. Both were bleeding profusely from dozens of gashes and slices on their bodies. Loy had succeeded in taking out an eye. His enemy had severed one of his arms at the elbow.
Loy was weak, but he couldn't let his enemy live. He couldn't let fatigue end the fight. He had to end it this time. He had to finish it. He charged. His enemy charged, holding his empty eye socket shut.
The canine collapsed. His vision blurred. He growled at himself, willing his body to get up and fight. His head swam. Claws drove into his skull.
*
Loy woke up in the bed again. His enemy was also in the bed, arms wrapped around Loy.
Slowly the last fight came back to him. He was so close to killing his enemy. He was determined to do it. Just once. Even if it happened only once, he wanted to make it happen. His enemy didn't tear his body apart this time. It was a much less painful death than before. Merciful. And now...
Gradually these thoughts went to sleep. Peace replaced it. Peace and comfort. He was glad to see his enemy again. He was happy for the company.
The reptile squeezed him tighter. Strong arms pulled Loy tighter against the reptile's rock solid body. He was clean. Loy didn't smell any blood on him. Loy felt his enemy's growing length beside his tail.
"I know you won't understand this," whispered his enemy. "But I can't help it. When we're in this room together...it's all I can think about."
His enemy adjusted himself. Loy felt solid heat under his tail. He lifted one leg slightly. That was all the confirmation the reptile needed; he pushed in fast and hard.
Loy growled and shouted out. It hurt in every possible way, but not in the same way as pain in the arena. This was pain Loy was glad to endure. In just a few thrusts his enemy was all the way inside him. He squeezed Loy closer. His tongue flicked out and tasted the air.
"My name is Yrhha," said his enemy. It was more a carefully controlled growl than a word.
Loy gritted his teeth and whined.
Yrhha was slow, gentle and careful. Loy held onto the reptile's hands. He lifted his leg as high as he could to try to make it easier.
Loy came out of his sheath. Yrhha wrapped a scaly hand around it. His claws interlocked with his fingers. He tasted the air constantly. Loy wondered what scent he was giving off, and if it was enhancing the experience for the reptile.
Yrhha clutched the canine tightly, but he was still very slow and gentle. Loy wondered if he was always this gentle, or if he was just being extra careful because he was a canine.
He didn't even speed up as he finished. Loy felt every drop, but didn't finish. Yrhha didn't let him go. He didn't loosen his grip. He didn't pull out. He tasted the air again and went to sleep. Loy fell asleep, too. He didn't even think about the inevitable pain that would come when he woke up.
*
Loy materialized in the arena. So did Yrhha.
Loy snarled and hurled himself towards his enemy. Yrhha tasted the air, tasted the rage and fed off it. He couldn't believe he let that scaly rape him the other night. H'd get him back for humiliating him. Make him suffer for violating him, knowing Loy was vulnerable in their quarters.
They met. Claws penetrated flesh and teeth sank into muscle. Bones snapped. Blood covered the floor.
*
Loy sat up. Yrhha, his enemy, was sitting at the foot of the bed again.
"The better you fight, the more I like you," he said.
Loy blinked. He was still coming back to himself.
"If I could stop myself in the arena, I would," Yrhha continued.
Loy gulped. "Why didn't you tell me your name until you were in me?"
"You earned the right to know it."
Loy blinked again.
"I'm curious. What do you feel about it?"
"It was weird," Loy said after a while. "But it felt good. It's what I wanted to do from the day I woke up in this room. I just didn't know it until now."
"I fought it," said Yrhha. "I knew how I was staring to feel about you, recognized the same complacency that made you want to lie down and rest was overwhelming me, too. This is strange for me, too. You're not one of my kind, but I feel the same for you as if you were. I resisted it for a long time, but I can't stop myself."
Loy looked Yrhha over. "How can I hate you so much in the arena, but when we're here...?" His heart raced. His member slipped out of his sheath.
Yrhha tasted the air, and looked down at it. His emerged from his slit and quickly caught up to him.
Loy leaned forward and licked Yrhha's muzzle again and again. He didn't tell his body to do so; it acted on its own. It wasn't confusing. It was all Loy could think about.
*
Blood covered the resin walls and the arena floor. Yrhha stood over a bleeding Loy, flicking his tongue constantly, relishing the pain his enemy was suffering.
Loy growled at him, wishing he had legs to stand on so he could kill his enemy. Make him suffer even more.
Yrhha slashed and sliced Loy while the canine howled and the audience cheered them on.
*
Yrhha was on the bed and on his knees. Loy knelt behind him, member buried deep inside. Yrhha panted and moaned as the canine's knot swelled in him. It locked them together. Loy licked his lover's snout. Yrhha's tongue tasted the air. Tasted the canine's soft fur.
*
Yrhha picked Loy up by the neck and tossed him into the resin wall. He bounced off. The wall didn't even flutter. The impact broke Loy's back, and he lay on the ground sprawled out.
Yrhha jumped on him, reached into his gut and tore out his intestines. Loy howled in pain and relished in the knowledge that he had bitten off his enemy's tail and broken his jaw. He'd get him next time. He dreaded the peace and pleasure that was coming-the civil conversation and tender love they'd share after he woke up; all he wanted to do was kill him. He never wanted this to end. He wanted another chance to make his enemy suffer.
*
Yrhha was curled up with Loy on the bed. They had finished in each other three times each. They wished it would never end. Every time they mated it felt better and better.
Loy loved being wrapped in Yrhha's arms. Yrhha had come to enjoy feeling Loy's fur. It wasn't a sign of weakness anymore, as his species had been raised to believe. It was the most attractive part of his body.
"I figured it out," Yrhha whispered.
"Figured what out?" Loy mumbled.
"Next time we're in the arena, look at the ceiling. There are tiny discs coming out of the metal."
"I noticed that."
"Have you looked at the ceiling in this room? It's full of those same discs."
Loy turned his head slightly and looked up. He remembered now. He never noticed the similarity before.
"They're low frequency E.M. transmitters," Yrhha said. "We've probably been implanted with something that receives the signals. They're manipulating our emotions."
Loy felt Yrhha's powerful arms. The reptile adjusted himself so his newly emerging member was just under his tail. Loy wanted it in him again.
"They enrage us in the arena..." Loy said. "They arouse us here."
"I'd bet my claws an audience is watching us right now."
As if reading Loy's mind, Yrhha slipped in. Loy moaned and his member emerged from his sheath.
"It's the perfect prison," panted Loy.
"They have us. I don't want to fight this anymore. I don't want to escape. If I do, the feeling will go away. I won't love you anymore."
"No... I'd never stop. This is real. This is what I really feel for you."
"The arena is just as real."
Loy sighed. Yrhha thrust gently. He breath was deep and strong, yet Yrhha was gentle as always. Loy wished it would never end. But it would. Soon they'd go to sleep, and then wake up in the arena again, rage replacing their love. He would live for the singular purpose of tearing his lover apart as painfully as possible.
Loy wasn't afraid of it anymore. He wanted to sleep. The sooner he got the pain out of the way, the sooner he'd wake up here, in his lover's arms again.