I felt a pinching in my eyes, surfacing my consciousness. My eyelids glowed red, meaning there was most likely a bright, piercing light outside. Not a good idea to open my eyes. I lay there, allowing my consciousness to seep in as I felt the sensations of my body. They felt good.

I felt beautifully rested, and felt powerful, and even though I just woke up. The only thing that did not feel good was that my hands and feet were tied together, and the slight chafing on my body, one at about shoulder level and the other at mid-thigh. That and that I was slanted at somewhere around a 45 degree angle, my head up. Finally, I grew curious enough to want to know what was going on outside my own little bubble, so I peered through my eyelashes...

...And wanted to go right back to being obliviously asleep.

I was in a brightly light arena - looking right at one of the damn spotlights of course - and was most likely tied to something. I looked around, trying to look as asleep as possible. There were two stone slabs to either side of me - facing at angles so that I could not see what was on them, and it looked like they had ropes around them. I shifted a little on the cold rock beneath myself, and deduced that there were at least two other people in here with me.

The arena was filling with alien thingamabobs, the dull roar of clicks, clacks, clucks, and hisses growing louder. My mind ground away at the information given to me almost instantly. I was in an arena, filled with spectators. I was tied down so that wasn't good, and I was expected to be fighting this 'Great /'oi~', so that's probably where I was, but the two others to my sides didn't make sense... Who were they? I had assumed I would be alone in the feeding...

The kid. That one alien told him he would be feed too. But then who was the other? I feel like it would have to be a freaking huge monster to devour more than one or two creatures at a time, even if one was a little kid.

I shrugged and shook my head, deciding that it wasn't worth dragging this out.

I opened my eyes fully, ready for whatever they wanted to throw at me. I heard a swell in the nose level of the crowd, and started to scan the area for anything that would be useful.

The arena was quite remarkable, actually. From what I could see, it was oval shaped, the walls were a good twenty feet tall, and it was a good hundred to hundred and fifty feet or so to the closest part of the wall, which was made out of something that looked like metal, but despite that modern feature, the arena in general looked quite old. There were two posts to either side of me, and looked to made of ancient wood. They had gouges in them, and both seemed to be coated in layers of dust, most likely from the ground, which was covered in a dark, coppery-crimson colored dirt, a hazy layer of dust-like dirt seeming to hover above the actual ground, which was packed down by countless who-knows-whats before me.

I glared around the arena, but I'm not sure why. It just seemed like the thing to do. The crowd seemed to stare back at me, clicking and clacking to themselves. I looked for anything that would mean a weakness in the security of the wall of the arena, but not only was the wall tall, but there was a band of three suspicious green lines on the inside of the wall - kind of like how the three layered barbed wires stick in from their fences - that looked like lasers.

I heard a low, long, drawn out sound behind me, and did everything I could to shift positions enough to see over the back of the rock. I had no such luck, but as soon as I stopped struggling, an alien stepped out in front of my rock, holding a long, brass-colored, pencil-thin stick in its hand. It strode out from my rock a few paces, then stopped and looked up at the crowd. It clicked the back of the stick like a pen, then started making noises into it.

I heard the noises repeat from the stands, like an echo, while the thing speaking waved its arms around, making motions and jesters, reminding me of a stage announcer. As I thought it, I knew it to be true. The thing in its hand was a microphone, and the noises I heard coming back were it's, repeated through a sound system.

It spoke for a time, then swung back to me, it gestured to me with two of its arms, and the crowd went wild. The creature in front of me went quiet until the noise died down, then started speaking again. But it only made a few noises before gesturing to the wall in front of itself, and as it did so, a short, wide door opened from the seemingly flawless metal walls. Two other prisoners were escorted out onto the field with tight mustard colored sacs on their heads. The crowd went ballistic.

The prisoners were led to the two posts to either side of me, and their hands were tied around the thick posts by the guards escorting them. The guards finished quickly, and retreated quickly followed by the announcer alien. Right before it left the arena though, it turned back, made a few noises, waved it's arm, and jumped into the closing doors. As soon as they banged shut, though, I heard another one open, but it was to my right behind the other rock. I strained to see over the other rock, and eventually shuffled far enough to see the top of a ginormous door opening from that side of the arena.

I shuddered involuntarily and tried to get farther up on the rock. Another violent shudder racked my body, and I finally shifted far enough up to see what was going on. I felt my body shudder again, but now I knew it wasn't just me. The whole arena was shaking.

I was looking right at one of the biggest creatures I had ever seen in my life, and it was slowly making its way over to me. The walls and stands of the arena started to raise higher as the giant made its way out of the doors. The creature was easily twenty feet tall, but it was hunched over, bringing it closer to fifteen feet. It's head was long, and looked like a big watermelon. A big, pac-man watermelon with giant, pointy teeth and a mouth that was leaking thick strings of steaming drool. The head was attached to a thick neck which was about as thick as the head itself, and continued down for a few feet before attaching to the strangest body I had seen on a creature yet.

The body started out thick and bony by the arms, like some kind of rib cage, but under that, it thinned out to just about half the size. The legs were short but thick, and a stumpy tail dragged along the ground behind it. It had an awkward gait - kind of a slow swing of the body to throw the leg out in front - and it moved slowly, shaking the ground with each step. The tail of the beast swiped the dirt, throwing up clouds of dust.

I gaped like a fish for a moment, trying to grasp the situation. I am supposed to fight that?!

Then again, the original aliens that we're trying to FEED me to the the great thingy, not make me fight it. It was the scientist one that wanted me to fight it. The ground shook again, bringing me back to my senses. I struggled like mad to get out of the ropes holding me on the slab, shimmering and flopping around like a fish out of water.

I soon shifted far enough up on the rock to let myself flop backwards off the rock, and so of course I did without hesitation.

And the rope that was still holding my feet to the rock caught and all I did was slam my head against the ground as I fell upside down.

"Great. Perfect. Totally freaking brilliant." I muttered to myself as I shifted around, trying to free my legs. I finally got them out from beneath the rope, and pushed off, grateful to be free of the stupid rope. My body fell to the ground, and, my feet being tied together, hit the ground solidly, but it didn't hurt. I arched my butt up, then pushed myself up onto my feet with my face.

I started working my way out of the ropes holding my hands together, but when they didn't want to budge, loosen or slide off, I got mad, and started to strain my arms in different directions without thinking, trying to break the ropes. I felt my heart quicken and the blood pulsing in my neck as the ropes dug into my skin.

I grunted and pulled, feeling the blood filling my face as I strained. The ropes on my hands suddenly started popping and cracking softly, groaning as the minute fibers slowly relinquished their singularity. They groaned louder and louder until I felt my wrists start to inch apart. Then suddenly with a sigh from the ropes, my wrists were free. I quickly got to work on loosing the bonds from my ankles, ignoring the throbbing and tickling of liquid from my wrists. The old ropes on my feet were easily broken since they were old and I had a better leverage point.

I spread my feet to shoulder length and rolled my neck, put my arms out and slowly raised them to the sky as I stretched my whole body upwards, trying to dispel the stiffness. I jogged to the post closest to the creature - which was only halfway there with it's slow saunter - and found the little kid I broke out earlier hanging from the post by his wrists, unconscious. I grabbed him by the armpits and shook him, trying to wake him up. He just kind of made a snoring noise and his head flopped around.

'Fuck'. I thought, annoyed. I reached up and started working on his bound wrists, muttering angrily to myself. I fumbled for a moment, feeling the ground shudder beneath me with every step the monster took. I finally got the knot undone, and the rope fell from his wrists, letting the feline flop onto the ground unceremoniously.

"Fuck," I mumbled to myself as I realized what happened. The kid, on the other hand, immediately pounced up into a crouch hissing, his ears back and eyes in slits. He scanned the area hysterically, not seeming to see anything until his pupils seemed to contract and focus on me. He suddenly seemed to shift from an angry and slightly threatening animal to small and frightened little kid in the span of a second. He shuffled over to me and huddled close to me as he took in his surroundings.

"Hey you," I said softly, trying not to scare the poor kid to death, "I need your help. We're going to get everybody here out, so go and try to untie the people on those rocks over there, okay?"

He looked up at me with wide eyes uncomprehendingly for a moment so I nodded encouragingly, and he took off to the slabs in the center of the arena.

'Good,' I thought briefly. 'At least the others might have at least the hope of a fighting chance if I fail.'

I turned to face the beast towering above me. It's many beady eyes glinted wetly, like grapes in it's head, it's jowls dripping thick, steaming ropes of drool.

I sighed, a feeling of heavyness and thickness settling into my body. I had never felt it before, but I knew now what it was.

True dispair.

Hey guys. I'm sorry that this chapter took forever and a half, probably more so for you than me. My excuses are that I was tired, I had schoolwork, and I got sick for a long while, but those aren't good enough. The real reason was probably that I was just super unmotivated up until now. I did have a lot of school stuff, and that just seemed to drain all creativity and will out of me. I know I should have just muscled through it, and I'm sorry. I really didn't even have a clear plan for this chapter at all. I just wanted to get to what I had planned for next chapter.

Again, sorry for the super-long wait, and I hope you enjoy, even if the wait makes it bitter.

DisturbedFire.