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The Arena, chapter 1

Right, well at the beginning of a chapter that includes a new main character, I'm going to write out a description for that character. This chapter only has one main character, so here's his description:

Name: Synch Lactos

Current age: 16

Gender: Male

Species: Leopox (leopard/ fox hybrid)

Description: A moderate sized fur, standing at 5'6'' and weighing 130 lbs. His fox side is more apparent in his appearance, being covered with long, orange-red fur all over. On closer inspection though, his bright green eyes are slit down the middle like a cat's and his claws retract. His most noticeable feature though is his tail, being 5'3'' long. His personality is calm and cool, not like the usual teenager of his age.

Alright, this will be the first in a series of many chapters. In this one, it introduces the main character Synch and sets up the theme for the rest of the series. This is the first story I've written, so much feedback would be appreciated.

Synch walked down the street leading to his house at a calm gait, in no hurry to get back home. He smiled and leaned his head back, taking in a deep breath of the cool evening air while keeping an ear open to what his friend was saying.

"Man, I'm tellin' you that crazy old badger is out to get me!" His friend complained, talking about their science teacher in school. Synch looked skeptically over to his wolf friend, a small smile playing across his face. He didn't say anything though, just kept listening to the pointless rant.

"I mean, I do all the homework and everything right and I'm still getting an F. How the hell does that work?"

"Oh, I don't know," the leopox said sarcastically, "Could it be the fact that you suck on your tests?"

"Well, I... Uhh... Shut up!" The wolf said quickly, his ears drooping a bit.

Synch laughed a bit and ruffled his friend's head before turning into a yard, waving. "C-ya tomorrow man. Make sure to study!" He said over his shoulder and walked in the door of his house. Inside, aromas of cooking food and spices mingled in the air, making his stomach growl. Dropping his backpack there by the front door, Synch walked eagerly into the kitchen, his mother cooking at the stove. His mom, a beautiful vixen, had always had a knack for cooking the most delicious meals.

"Hey mom, I'm home," Synch said happily to the vixen. "I'm going to go wash up for dinner now."

"Alright hun, be down in about ten minutes." She said back, flashing a smile back at her son.

"Will do!" The leopox said as he made his way up the stairs. He looked up to the top of the stairway and saw his father beginning to walk down. His father was a big snow leopard with a hard face. Synch had always thought the face was because he was in the military. With a smile, the leopox squeezed past his dad with a low, "Hello," as they passed. Synch licked his lips and went into the bathroom, thinking about the delicious meal waiting downstairs as he washed his paws.

He turned off the water and shook out his paws before drying them off, but paused when a loud crash and a scream came from downstairs. That sounded like mom, he thought to himself, his wet paws forgotten. He went to the top of the stairs and paused, looking down to the bottom.

"Mom? Dad? What happened?" He asked loudly and waited for a reply. Nothing came. Synch was shivering a bit in dread as he walked down the stairs slowly, the steps creaking under his weight. He reached the bottom and paused again, all sorts of horrors running through his mind then. With a shake of his head to clear the thoughts, Synch put on a brave face and went around to the rectangle of light that was the entrance to the kitchen.

"Mom? Da-," His words were cut off and his breath started coming in with small, choked gasps at the sight in the kitchen. There at the table his dad was sprawled, neck gaping in a cruel smile, his bright red blood pooling across the table and floor. With a small, unbelieving sob Synch pulled his gaze from his father to his mother. The vixen was laying across the stove with a knife in her back, her face resting in a sizzling pan of cooking meat. There's no way this is happening, no way this can be real. It's fake, this is some kind of sick joke! He screamed at himself mentally, but the thoughts didn't help him. What he saw here was his parents, dead. Synch was so fixated on the scene he didn't hear or sense the dark shadow walking in behind him.

He let out a small whimper and turned to run, only to head face first into a muscular chest. Quivering and whimpering all the louder, the frightened leopox looked up to see a sadistically grinning face.

"Aw, where you going?" The stranger asked in a soft growl. "I didn't kill them just so you could get away from me." He pushed Synch back slightly and head-butted him hard, sending the leopox crashing to the ground. He lay there, groaning and holding his head, not really sure where he is at the moment until the stranger grabs him and picks him back up.

"You're a strong little fucker. This'll put you out..." He said before slugging the poor teenager across the face, knocking him out cold.

_________

A sound was penetrating the darkness of his sleep. What was it? He just couldn't place where he knew the sound from, but he had heard it before. As his mind drifted more towards wakefulness, recognition began flaring in his mind. Cheering? He thought confusedly. Why would there be cheering here?

Synch sat up suddenly, finding himself in a small cage in a dark room. He whimpered out into the darkness, afraid and confused. His head was hurting like it had been smacked with a baseball bat, and he was pretty sure these weren't the clothes he had been wearing earlier. Light pooled into the room suddenly when a door opened, a silhouette standing there in the rectangular frame of brightness. More light appeared overhead when he heard the flick of a light switch and he saw the stranger clearly. It was a female cheetah with beautiful eyes and a curvy body. She walked into the room and looked down at the miserable looking Synch.

"A wretched cur, but I suppose you'll do..." She spat with distaste. "If nothing else you'll provide an amusing death. Well, I'm Chissa and I'll be your owner until you eventually get killed here. Hopefully I won't have to put up with much of you."

Synch was trembling and looking up at the cheetah with confused and innocent eyes. "D-d-die?"

Chissa ignored the question and instead drew out a knife from her belt. For a minute, the leopox thought he was in big trouble and backed away to the edge of the cave. The female, however, threw the knife in the cage and turned away, walking back out the door.

"You'll need that," she said over her shoulders as she left. Synch picked up the sharp knife uncertainly, wondering for a moment what Chissa had meant. To his side, the cage and the wall opened up and the loud cheering intensified in the room. Outside of the hole in the wall a dirt floor waited inside of a grand, round arena. The cage tilted up underneath him and he stumbled out into the bright light luminating the arena, knife still held in his paw. All around him were stands filled with furs of every species, all cheering and making lots of noise. He took his eyes from the crowd and saw another door open up. From this door a small golden retriever walked out, a knife held in his paw too. The retriever across from him looked more confident, seeming to know what he was doing and what was going on.

The strange fur walked around the arena once, waving out at the crowd, before coming to a stop in front of Synch. The frightened leopox looked at the canine with questioning eyes, but the only answer he got was a hock of spit in his face. Stepping back and wiping his face, Synch whimpered and watched the retriever as he crouched down a bit, knife held in a ready position.

"I'm sorry you have to die here, but it's either you or me..." Was all he said before he ran full speed at the leopox, a primal roar coming from deep within his chest. Synch backed away from the oncoming fur, but not quickly enough. The canine was on him, and the leopox only deflected the knife's plunge into his stomach on instinct.

Synch was hit down to the ground hard, his breath getting knocked out of him in a whoosh of sound. The canine above him was snapping and snarling in his face, trying to inflict as much damage as possible. Out of fear, the leopox extended out his claws and sank them deeply into his opponent's snout, which caused the snapping fur to let out a yelp and back away. Synch whimpered and backed away on the ground, stopping when he hit the wooden sides of the arena. Up above him the spectators booed down and jeered, tossing rotten food down on him. Tears started streaming down his cheek, overwhelmed by all of these unexpected things happening so fast, his grip tightening on the knife in his paw.

"Stop... please, just stop. Why are you doing this? W-what's going on?" Synch asked in a small voice, watching the golden retriever with wide eyes.

"Just don't put up a fight, it will all be over soon..." Was all the canine said, a small hint of regret passing over his face. The flash of emotion was gone in a flash, replaced by the look of anger he had been wearing earlier. He began walking towards the frightened leopox on the ground, holding his knife ready out in front of him.

Synch pushed himself back up to his feet using the wall, trembling and watching the retriever's approach. When the canine got close, he ran at the trembling fur, trying for a second time to plunge his knife into his prey's stomach. With a loud yelp the leopox jumped to the side, the retriever's knife penetrating into the wood where he had been moments earlier. His opponent was furious then, lashing out with a powerful blow to the frightened fur's face, knocking him to the ground.

Instead of retrieving his knife, the now angry canine hurled himself down on the dazed fur, aiming to take a chunk out of Synch's neck. The leopox saw his aggressor jump down and did the only thing he could think of doing; held out his paws. He had forgotten about the knife in his paw, but by the time either of them realized the danger, the canine impaled himself down on the sharp piece of metal. He gasped and yelped out in pain, spraying blood all over Synch's face. Horrified, the smaller fur scrambled out from under him and started backing away, looking down at what he had done. On the ground the dog was squirming, trying to get the knife from his chest, but it seemed to be lodged in something. The movements got slower, the pulling on the knife in his chest weaker, until he stopped moving. The dog died right there, his clouded over eyes seeming to stare up at Synch.

"I... I killed him. Oh god, I killed him." He muttered out in a hollow voice before falling down to his knees. His mind was buzzing, refusing to accept what had just happened. He was so distracted that he didn't hear the footsteps behind him. He felt a paw close over his shoulder tightly and jumped, trying to scurry away from the touch. The paw held fast though, keeping him in the same spot.

"My, my, you are full of surprises," came a female voice from behind him. Synch dimly recognized the voice as Chissa's, his 'owner'. "To think, you actually survived." Shaking and whimpering, the leopox looked back at the female behind him, eyes pleading.

"W-why? Why did I have to kill him? Why did we have to fight like that?"

"Why?" She asked, chuckling coldly. "To make me a profit. You're mine now, and until you die, you will kill and fight so I can make more money." Chissa smiled widely, showing off all of her teeth and smacked the leopox to the ground hard. "And don't think you can cross me. If you so much as even try, I will make you wish you were dead."

All Synch could do was whimper back a small answer, curling up on the ground. The cheetah let out an annoyed growl and kicked him in the back.

"Don't just lay there, get up!" She yelled down at him. He didn't want to get hit again, so he hastened to his feet and stood there shakily, tears still streaming down his cheeks. He didn't seem to be able to do anything else but stand there, the shock and horror of the day were taking their toll on his endurance. Chissa grabbed the back of his neck and led him through a door in the side of the circular arena, making him yelp out his discomfort.

The cruel cheetah led him through a series of halls painfully by the scruff of his neck and came to a stop in front of a door. She opened it and walked into the darkness within, her feline eyes able to see in the gloom. Synch could see too, but it didn't register in his mind. Nothing in the room did. She opened a very small cage on the other side of the room and threw him in there, his head clanging painfully against the metal bars. The door slammed shut and his owner leaned down close to the bars.

"Sweet dreams. You'll need your sleep for what's coming at you, I guarantee it," she said with a sarcastic lilt to her voice and a smirk on her face. Without another word she turned and walked out of the room, closing the door behind her to leave the sniveling teenager there in complete darkness.

When she was gone, he reached up to find out how much room he had in the cage. He let out a dismayed cry when he felt the bars only inches above his head, meaning he had no room to even stand up. He curled up there on the uncomfortable, hard ground and let out a pitiful whimper into the darkness, beginning to cry again. The scenes of the day kept reeling through his mind, the image of his father's throat gaping open at the table, his mother's face cooking on the stove. The cold, dead eyes of the golden retriever looking into his soul... He laid there for hours, crying and sniffling in self-pity and grief until exhaustion over took him and he fell into a light, dreamless sleep. This was his first day in the hell called the Arena.