The following days were much like Alexa's first. She'd wake up to find Marcus sleeping in his folding chair just after sunrise, she'd eat breakfast and then head into work with her chaperone still mostly asleep in the chair next to her section of the forges until yard time, then she and Luna would return to the cells, enjoy a late dinner and camp out on the cot with a terrible romance novel until the lights were cut off.
Marcus, she found, was a good sort. He appreciated her waking him so much that by the third week she was able to convince him to let her do some decorating in her cell. It wasn't much, just a poster on the wall of a character from one of those vampire romance movies that Sonya had forced her to sit through, but it was enough to begin her real work.
By the end of the fourth week, after some serious progress was made, Alexa found her day interrupted by an alarm going through the Gargareans' base. Immediately, excited chatter spread through the forge. Everyone dropped their equipment and began heading for the stairs and elevator.
"What's going on?" Alexa asked a bleary-eyed Marcus. Marcus responded with a yawn, opening the door and slapping a pair of cuffs on Alexa's wrists.
"Politics." Marcus muttered. "Someone's making a bid for the throne."
She followed the crowd up the stairs, Marcus trailing behind her, ostensibly to cut off any escape attempts. The herd, mostly made up of boys, made their thundering way up to the main floor and into the gym area. They were shuffled into bleachers, set around the lightly padded ring. On one side was the speedo clad king of the tribe, his arms open wide as he basked in the tumultuous roars of his subjects. In the other corner was another young man, sitting stone faced on a stool.
"So how does this work?" Alexa whispered, leaning towards Marcus.
"They fight... whoever wins is king, whoever loses is usually dead." Marcus whispered back. Alexa blinked, looked at the king who had just picked up an ax, and then his competition who had just picked up a spear.
"That's…" Alexa started.
"Barbaric? Yeah, we know. The king is either forced out by combat or he retires. If he ever retires that means Chad, as his eldest son, will get the throne." At his words, Alexa shuddered.
Before she could get another word out the bell was rung and the fight began.
The two men began to move, the spear wielder moving sideways as the laughing giant of a king charged.
The ax came down and the spear wielding challenger stumbled sideways to avoid it, only managing the feat by a few inches. With the ax's blade now buried in the floor the blonde with the spear charged, thrusting his weapon at the Monarch's middle. The king sucked in his stomach and tilted his hips at a slight angle, turning what might've been a kill shot into a glancing blow. He then let go of the ax and grabbed the spear just under the head with his left hand, bringing the right elbow down on the wooden shaft. The crowd roared as their king broke his stunned competitor's weapon.
Not wasting the opportunity presented to him, the king then drove his fist into the younger man's face. A crimson fountain arched from the broken remains of the man's nose as his head snapped back.
The younger man stumbled backwards, but the king grabbed him roughly by the shoulder before he could get too far. His opponent drove his fist into the oozing cut that he had made on the king's rib cage, but his leader didn't even slow down. He yanked the boy off his feet, one hand secure over his shoulder, the other gripping him by the hip. Alexa realized what was going to happen as the Gargarean king planted his knee. The man drove his opponent down as hard and as fast as physically possible, slamming his spine into the solidly planted knee. The sickening crack that rang out was quickly overwhelmed by the sharp cry.
The king let his opponent drop, and Alexa knew, just by the fact that he hadn't even attempted to catch himself, that the younger man had been paralyzed.
"And that's the match!" Laughed the king. He whistled to a few of his subordinates, gesturing vaguely at his opponent. "Clean up! Somebody collect gimpy!"
The crowd roared their approval, while Alexa sat there, sick to her stomach. She turned to escape the sight of the proud king and his twitching and bleeding opponent to find Marcus staring down at the arena with a look of disgust on his face. At this angle, Alexa could just make out his eyes. For the first time ever she realized his eyes were brown, with tiny flecks in it, like ore hidden in stone.
"I think I've seen enough…think we could go back to work?" She asked quietly. Marcus turned to face her, the sunglasses covering his eyes once again. He nodded silently, and got to his feet. He grabbed her cuffs by the chain and silently walked her back to the elevator as the crowds continued to chant and scream for their leader.
Hours later, after Alexa had finished her workday, she was surprised to find the king waiting just outside her cell. When he saw her, still toweling her hair dry from the shower, he grinned.
"Did you enjoy the match?" He asked with a slight laugh.
"I enjoyed watching the other guy nearly gore you." Alexa responded cooly.
"I bet!" The king guffawed. "He won't be doing that again anytime soon! Full quadriplegic! Gonna put him to work as a doorstop!"
Alexa barely resisted the urge to ball her hand into a fist. Luna responded to the joke by growling, low in her throat, a canine growl overlaid with the whine of a power tool. Marcus stepped between her and the king, unlocking the cell door. Alexa and Luna stepped in, and again, to her surprise, the king followed.
Alexa looked back at him, his large frame filling the narrow door to her cell.
"Was there something else?" She asked.
"Glad you asked, girl! I wanted to know if you reconsidered my generous offer." He had confidence, Alexa had to give him that.
"If you're looking to renegotiate, my terms are still firm... no marriage, or whatever sham you dress up as a marriage, and I take the ring back to Olympus." Alexa responded, putting her hands on her hips for emphasis. The king looked at her stance, his ever present smirk fading a little.
"You could get out of this room. Forget about your ridiculous quest and live with me. I'm not really such a bad guy, if you just get to know me." This earned him a set of rolled eyes.
"I don't need to get to know you. The first things you did when we met was insult me, insult the goddess I serve, and look down on everyone around you, including your own son. I know the kind of person you are; You're a blow hard who is clearly over compensating for his own lack of worth. I don't need that kind of person in my life, let alone married to me. There's the door, you're welcome to use it." For the first time since she had met him, the king frowned. He glowered down at her and took just one step forward, into her cell.
"Sire!" Marcus yelped from the corridor. "The law-!"
"Cram it, goddess-born! No one asked you!" The king barked, his eyes still focused on Alexa. Alexa glanced behind him, at Marcus. The younger man looked mutinous but he held his spot opposite her cell.
"You think I don't know what's going on here?" The king asked with narrowed eyes, one thick finger jabbed in Alexa's face. "We've all seen The Shawshank Redemption!"
With one quick motion he reached out and yanked her poster clean off the wall to reveal…a smooth concrete wall. He blinked in obvious surprise, feeling the pristine cell wall.
"I'd prefer it if you left. You're crumpling my werewolf." Alexa pointed out. The king growled, balled up her poster out of spite, and tossed it at her. He stomped out of her cell, and the door slammed shut again.
After his footsteps had retreated down Marcus finally spoke.
"Are you alright?" He asked.
"Yeah. I'll be fine. What about you…?" She asked, her voice losing the frost it had worn while talking to the Gargarean king.
"I'm fine." Marcus grunted in a very un-fine sort of way.
"Goddess-born… he really just made your mother into a slur like that?" She asked quietly. Marcus turned to stare her down, her face and the cell reflected in his sunglasses. He didn't say a word. She sighed and shook her head. "No one deserves a leader like him."
A little over an hour later, after the poster had been put back up and the lights had been shut off, Alexa hunkered down under her bed. The hammer she had stolen wasn't exactly made for stone work originally but she had modified it to withstand the forces at work. She was just thankful that the king hadn't thought to check under the bed, the camouflage fabric Luna had packed inside her wouldn't have stood up to more than a quick glance, and she was too far along to quit now.
According to Luna the spaces built in between the walls and floors of the concrete structure were only just big enough for her to crawl through, the memory charm around her neck had allowed her to map out her route to the forges, all she needed now was a way into the crawl space and the opportunity to use it. That, she hoped, wouldn't take long to procure. Things were starting to come together.