Chapter Three

I felt eye began yo water, wiping my light pink nose with my paw as I gently stepped forward. "Biskit?" I asked, ready to throw up. He just looked at me with the same expression of horror and anguish.

"Biskit?" I repeated, louder. No reply. I continued to step forward, and stopped about half way through. At that point, Biskit began hesitantly stepping towards me. It was hard to tell what he felt besides the obvious, and what he was thinking.

Once we were only about a feet's distance apart, we both stopped and stared. My face dropped, and I couldn't stop myself from crying. Biskit seemed to just be holding back tears.

You fight until one is too hurt to fight or dead. The words echoed through my mind, sending me in a greater state of panic than I already was in.

"Biskit!" I shouted. Still, no answer. He seemed more upset every time I opened my mouth.

The bloodthirsty crowd began hurling things towards us; empty cans, crumpled up paper, empty bags of peanuts--one animal even threw a tire I narrowly dodged.

If we didn't fight, we'd definitely be killed by the object flying towards us. But I couldn't hurt my best friend--I'd be absolutely fine punching anyone else, but not him. I didn't know what to do, but Biskit did.

Suddenly, he threw his body to the ground with tremendous force. Dust flew in the air, making him cough. His side was now covered in blood from the dry ground.

"Biskit!" I fell to me knees, sobbing. Still, he didn't answer. This was so frustrating. "Biskit, Biskit, Biskit!" I threw my fists to the ground with every mention of his name.

He took a deep breath, and began sprinting towards the white stone walls. "Don't!" I screamed. Nothing would stop him. As his hit it, headfirst, blood instantly sank from his forehead. All I could do was sit there and cry. His body dropped to the ground.

Piper ran across the field to him. A smile spread across her face. "89540 is the winner."

I gasped. "No!" I called. "H-he's only hurt, right? Unconscious but alive?" I tried to fake a hopeful look, but couldn't through all my misery.

"Dead," Piper smirked.

The crowd roared with laughter. I tried to run up to them, to hurt them all, but I was held with great force suddenly by Piper. He locked her wing around my neck, giving me just enough room to gasp for air as she dragged me back into my cage.

As I was thrown back in, Prince looked confused. I didn't have a drop of blood on me, but was bawling my eyes out. "How'd it go?"

I rested my head against the metal bar, trying to pull myself together. "Biskit killed himself for me," I sniffed.

"You should just be glad you lived," Prince said.

I flushed in fury. "Listen here, you worthless toad." Because our cages were connected, I could easily reach through the bars to grab his neck. "Maybe if you had a single friend, you would know how it feels to lose one. Especially when they give their life for you. But I guess your just too inconsiderate to realize that someone besides you has a care in the world." I released him, throwing him back a bit. I really wasn't strong, just good at faking it.

I lent back, felling sorry for myself. As soon as I realized what Biskit was doing, I should have did the same. But, no. I was too selfish.

A bit later, Prince spoke again. "If I get us to escape, will you still hate me?" he asked pathetically.

I looked at him, my eyes sorrowful. "You couldn't."

He sighed. "Probably not. But I can give you information you want."

I turned to him. "I can't guarantee I still wont hate you, but okay...When I called his name repeatedly, Biskit never did or said anything. What was with that?"

Prince frowned. "That must be his Handycap." I opened my mouth to ask, but he explained before I could say anything. "Everyone gets a Handycap. They use chemicals to give you one; they must have put one in his ears so he couldn't hear."

I thought about this for a moment. "He still didn't speak; what about that? He had to see my mouth moving."

Prince stopped to think, but answered. "Maybe they made him drink something to lose his voice, too," he suggested. "Or maybe he was too sad to speak."

"What's you Handycap?" I asked curiously.

"Blindness," Prince explained.

"But..." I thought. "You seemed confused when I came back. I thought that was cause I looked fine but was crying?"

"I heard you cry," he told me. "If you win, you go back to your cage. If you lose, therefore can't fight, they take you to a medic so you're well enough to fight again." He shook his head at the thought.

"Will I be getting a Handycap?" That was when I realized Piper was behind me. Had she been listening to0 our whole conversation.

She smiled at me. "Yep."