They separated us,
And although we seemed so far apart,
We were still so close.
They can question our relationship
All they like.
But we both know that friends like us,
Will always reunite...
...
It was the second day of the werewolves' arrival, and deal to work for Aries. The day that Ariain would have to fight on her own in the coliseum where her life possibly could've ended. Once again she was risking it again, and for what? Just to survive in the place she now called hell. It didn't seem right. She was living, fighting, for a purpose, but all she was doing now was spending her life in a cell and following Aries' orders like she was a peta good, obedient dog.
"What?! But, Ebony's awake, why am I still doing this fight alone?!" Ariain demanded with a snarl to Aidan standing before her, but safely on the other side of the bars.
"She woke up," Aidan corrected her warily, frightened by her temper but tried to smile through it still. "And now she's resumed healing. Aries says that she still needs to rest. He also said that you'd be able to see her tonight if you win the fight."
It sounded bitter-sweet. The 'wolf was glad she'd be reunited with her friend, but then why did she need to rest for another day? Surely all her wounds would be gone by now, Ariain figured. Aries was defiantly hiding something from Aidan, so he was hiding something from her as well. But how could she find out what? She was met with a dead end, no possible way to get out of the situation she was in. "Fine," The werewolf would play Aries' little game, for now.
"Good," Her caretaker said with a little surprise, he didn't expect such an easy and straight-forward surrender, but he was more joyful than suspicious. Aidan retrieved the chain that hung below the torch and began to open the cage door, not even thinking the were' might run off.
This was the moment Ariain had been waiting for, just a few more seconds and her plan would begin to unfold.
The door opened and Aidan entered with a little smile, regretting what he'll have to do, what unwanted force he was planning on having to use. But the 'wolf allowed him to attach the chain to her collar without any trouble. When he gently tugged on it for her to follow she did not retaliate, everything was going suspiciously well.
Aidan and Ariain walked down the hall, back up the stairs and through the large wooden doors. Each greeted by the blinding sun set high in the sky and the loud roar of cheers and bellows from the large audience. Every seat available was taken; the people who came were mostly the rich type who had the money to come see such an amazing event. But since that type was still rare other types of people came, some there for much more different reasons. For Aidan it wasn't bad, but Ariain had been shrouded in almost complete darkness for an entire day and needed a while to adjust to the light. Not to mention the yells made her almost go deaf. Busy dealing with the new light and sound Ariain failed to notice Aidan take off the leash until he spoke up. "Good luck," He said with a warm smile and left through the massive doors.
The werewolf stood still, a bit perplexed, with the expression to match, by Aidan's quick departure. She figured that her opponent would be coming out soon and the battle would commence right after, though.
Aidan had made his way up flights of stairs to make it to a higher floor of the coliseum where he met up with a bandaged Damien, so confused by the bandages that his attention remained off Ariain. "What happened to you?"
"I don't want to talk about it." Damien muttered with crossed arms and closed eyes, ashamed to tell that he got the wounds from a girl. It'd seem maybe his ability to recover wasn't as good as he claimed.
Before the battle was to begin Aries said a few words, welcoming all those who came and guaranteeing a great match, along with a few words about Ariain herself, though they weren't needed as everyone could see she was in wolf form during the day. The 'wolf didn't care to pay attention to Aries' pointless babble, she just wanted to win and see her friend.
On cue, when Aries's voice stopped, the doors opposite her opened almost tauntingly slowly.
Ariain expected a grand beast, a terrifying monster that Aries would hope tear her to shreds. She was wrong.
What came out was nothing but a weak, little Catoblepas: A four-legged bull-like creature with a head that is large for its body, and blood-shot eyes. It has "high and thick" eyelids and a long hanging mane.
The wolf's gaze was dull and her faade showed great annoyance.
"You're joking, right?" She said to herself. "I mean, c'mon, I'm supposed to fight this thing?" Ariain said louder with disbelief as a laugh began rolling out of the back of her throat. Aries might be a dumb-ass for underestimating my skills, but I'm not complaining. If this is all I have to do in order to see Ebony again, then so be it. The werewolf lowered to a squat before the creature and began poking its head. "Hey, mini-bull, whatever you're called, why don't you just make this easier on yourself and drop dead!" Arian's attention, poking, and loud voice frightened the timid "bull".
The Catoblepas whined and opened its mouth and emitted a certain sharp and horrible green breath, which infects, and poisons the air near.
Swiftly, the were' fled back out of the toxic air, "What the hell!" Ariain cursed between coughs. This thing's poisonous? Damn... Ariain growled to herself. She was made a fool by such a simplistic thing. She fell right into Aries' trap. I'll have to be careful... The werewolf tried to think of a way to attack without inhaling any of the lethal air. She recalled how the noxious fumes came from its mouth, which could be opened to expel the poison at anytime, unless she could somehow close it. It's worth a shot...
Now the Catoblepas was even more frightened of the threatening creature before it. When the 'wolf advanced as though stalking its prey the Catoblepas opened its mouth and release more toxins into the air. It was a whole new, larger and deadlier mass of harmful poisons that would infect the 'wolf. The toxic air was inhaled into Ariain's lungs more than once now. She could feel her conscious slowly slip away, fearfully her life possibly with it. Her vision was becoming blurry. The werewolf had to finish this now.
Desperately Ariain held her breath, though she wished to cough with her throat burning and itching irritably. Through the green, poisonous gas she ran at the Catoblepas. With blurry vision and her life at stake she launched her hand forward, it grabbed something. Slowly, the colored pollutant vanished. The 'wolf fruitfully seized hold of the prey's mouth, and put an end to its spewing venom. Without wasting another second the werewolf perfectly slashed off the Catoblepas' head.
Carelessly throwing it away she weakly scanned the area. All she could see were the blurred figures of the audience cheering at her victory. Her weak coughs no match for their roars of pleasure.
"Ariain!" A familiar voice called, catching her attention.
Slowly the were' turned to see Aidan with more worry than she would've ever imagined. "Are you okay?!" He quickly asked.
"Ye-yeah..." Ariain replied weakly. Soon she became disoriented and dizzy from the poison taking hold of her.
The last thing she saw was Aidan's concerned expression before everything went black...
"I hope Ariain will be okay," Aidan's soft and concerned voice came out.
"I don't see how you can care about something so vicious and worthless," Damien said as he leaned his back against a white wall, eyes closed but eyebrows narrowed with frustration. The only reason he was even there was because he had to carry the werewolf for Aidan.
Slowly, a pair of bright green eyes opened slightly.
"And I don't see how you can be so cruel. They're living breathing things, just like us." Aidan retaliated, taking a step or two away from the medical bed Ariain was lying on. The room they were in looked like a hospital almost with its white and very clean interior. "Besides, I'm not the one kissing my responsibility." The fellow caretaker added with a sly smile.
"What?! Its not true! I didn't-! It was an accident..! How'd you know?!" Damien demanded, but in a rather weak way, to embarrassed to sound threatening.
Aidan was too busy making fun of Damien to answer, "Damien and Ebony sitting in a tree, K-I-S-S-I-N-OW!"
"Stop that!" The half-dragon hit Aidan on the head furiously.
"... No need to be so violent." He whined weakly rubbing his sore head as little tears swelled in his eyes.
"The only way to get through your thick skull is with violence." Damien muttered.
"You kissed her, huh? Well, I guess that explains the smell of blood on you." The werewolf said as she lifted herself to sit up. Immediately her line of vision landed on Damien with a little smirk, which was returned with a big grin form Aidan, to see her awake of course, and an angry expression from the man that wasn't her caretaker.
Down in the dark depths of the abused laboratory, which didn't look any better even after Damien cleaned up after the duel, Ebony consciously floated in the green liquid back in the glass cylinder. She wasn't growling or glaring, or seem angry at all, though of course she rather be else where. This time she didn't require aid in breathing and didn't need to wear the air mask.
Aries was in the room as well, but in the one he had closed earlier, the one Damien discovered. Inside that room was a much larger computer of advanced technology. There wasn't a single scratch on it unlike the rest of them. He was typing on the keyboard, with his back to the werewolf, looking at the information that appeared on the screen, the results from different tests Ebony went through presumably. Aries didn't appear too pleased with the results.
"I'll be able to see Ariain soon, correct?" The sooner she got to see her companion, the sooner Ebony could get away from this ridiculous room.
"Yes," Aries answered monotonously without looking to her. "..."
Back above, with the other three, they exchanged strange looks.
"I didn't kiss her, okay?" Damien defended himself. "I don't know what either of you heard but you're being misled, nothing happened!" He added, crossing his arms and closing his eyes angrily, appearing to almost just barely contain his furry.
"Well, I heard it from Aries, he specifically told me, 'Make sure to stop Damien from kissing the werewolf'." Aidan recalled.
Damien was left starring oddly with utter disbelief; he couldn't believe Aries would actually say that and embarrass him like that.
Ariain just laughed, "Well, whatever you did, I'm sure you deserved it. Or maybe Ebony just didn't like you, can't really blame her." The werewolf added the last part to herself but it wasn't exactly said so softly that the boys couldn't hear.
"What'd you say?!" Damien was fuming.
"So, how long was I out for anyways?" She questioned Aidan, who was finding everything rather humorous.
"Two days," He replied more seriously but still kept a smile on his face.
"Two days, huh? ... Ebony must be better by now." Ariain told herself. "Oh, yeah..." the 'wolf turned back to face Aidan, "I breathed that poison, who saved me?"
Aidan found it almost stupid to ask that but didn't say anything, "Aries, of course. Why?"
"Aries!?" Ariain was greatly surprised. "I thought for sure he'd leave me for dead."
"You're of no use to me dead," The familiar, cold voice that belonged to the one and only Aries, rang through the sterile, white room.
All heads turned to see Aries exiting the elevator, the recovery area, or supposed hospital, just another of its destinations.
Ariain displayed a strong glare in his direction, Aidan was smiling as always and Damien didn't seem to have any sort of reaction to Aries appearance other than the usual little startle someone gets when someone just comes out of nowhere. Though, a faint frown could be discovered on his face.
Aries held something in his hand, a long chain, just like Aidan used on Ariain. The chain led behind him, and what was behind Aries was a long-awaited face, Ebony. She didn't portray any kind of emotion and merely looked to Ariain with her softer look reserved only for her companions. Like her comrade she was dressed in the uniform, but the leather strap was removed from her right shoulder to relieve any minor pain that still occasionally lingered from her damaged, sensitive nerves.
"Ebony..." Ariain whispered almost with doubt. It had only been four days since they saw each other, but to the black-and-blonde were' it was too long. "Ebony!" She repeated louder with a smile and as fast as her stiff body would enable, ran to her friend. "You're all right, I was so worried. I thought... I thought it was my fault." The 'wolf admitted with remorse as she stood before her friend.
The pitch-black were' was confused, why would her comrade blame herself when no one was to blame? "I'm fine," Ebony tried to assure her with a small smile. The next thing she knew she was being embraced by her furry friend. It put her into an even more puzzled state. "Ariain-"
"I'm so glad." She said with a smile. And upon closer look, one might say a tear escaped her eye.
Ebony didn't say anything, she just warmly smiled back. This kind of friendship and caring was new to her; everything Ariain gave her was new and another reason to be thankful for having a friend, having someone as special as Ariain to be there for her.
..
This is a Catolepas--Arian's opponent in this chapter.
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