Welcome back everyone! The Pit should only be two chapters, but at the time I'm writing up this A/N, I haven't actually finished Chapter 35 (I've been playing Final Fantasy 14 and Pokemon...) so who knows? That said, there may be a delay before I get it out to you guys ^^;
Dog City was a towering bastion amidst the sprawling dunes of the desert. Dotting the landscape, jagged outcrops of stone towers spiraled high in the air, twisting unevenly as they did. The city was built amidst a sprawl of these pillars, its streets winding through the pillars like a maze.
The spires stood tall above the animals- mostly dogs- as they went about their days. Many of them had been dug into, mostly hollowing them out to serve as places of commerce and homes. Above their numerous entrances and windows stretched awnings of tattered red cloth. Even in the shade they cast, the desert heat was sweltering and made Leopara long for the cold air of the mountains.
The din of indistinct chattering rose to greet them as they approached the city's edge. Metal junk and scraps littered the floor of what looked to be a saloon to Leopara. It was a little dim, a little dingy… the atmosphere of it was rough, looking crudely dug-out. Exposed metal pipes climbed the walls, strings of mismatched lanterns were hung haphazardly, and the room was almost full to bursting.
Leopara skimmed gaze over the scene with her ears laying back. Crowds were loud, both physically and with their emotions; someone was always having a bad day.
"I say we get the supplies and get out of here. I have some real bad memories of this town." Panthro said.
"You've been uneasy all morning."
Leopara looked back at the Thundertank. She hated leaving Snowmeow behind again, but they didn't need to draw any more attention than being cats would bring. She imagined Snowmeow was still in the cockpit, watching them through the holo screens or curled up to take a nap.
Taking a deep breath, she followed the others before they could leave her behind.
"What exactly happened here, Panthro?" Lion-O was asking.
Panthro brushed Lion-O's inquiry off. "Forget it, kid. I don't wanna give you nightmares."
"He's probably just worried about catching fleas from the locals." Tygra smirked a little, eyeing the panther for his reaction. Leopara shuddered a little at the thought. She hadn't had fleas since she was taken to the Clerics Hall.
"Come on, guys. Dogs aren't so bad." WilyKit said.
"Yeah. We used to hang out with them all the time in the slums of Thundera. They made the best bone stew." While WilyKat melted at the thought, WilyKit clasped her hands and nodded with excitement.
"Mm! Bone stew!" she exclaimed, taking a deep sniff of the air. "Let's find some while we're here!"
"Maybe you two should stay close."
The twins stopped to look back at Cheetara. "We can take care of ourselves." WilyKat reassured her before he and his sister ran off around the corner.
"Have you noticed how tall they're getting?" Leopara asked. They must have had a growth spurt recently…
Lion-O chuckled at her question and crouched down beside Snarf and gently scratched his fluff. "Just make sure they stay out of trouble, Snarf." Snarf nya-ed and nodded before plodding after them.
"Hey, guys, look at this." Tygra beckoned them. He stood beside a pillar with a flier on it, but Leopara couldn't make out what was on it until she got closer. Standing against a dark background with a proud, stony stance, was a cat. She held a spear in one hand and a shield in the other. A light circle framed her, containing imagery of axes and swords crossing, a shield with spikes, and, at the top, a structure that looked similar to the stone structure that loomed over Dog City.
"A cat? What's she doing here?" Lion-O asked. Leopara glanced at him, considering expanding her senses… but it was too crowded in this place. Any emotions she would sense would surely be muddled by everyone else around.
"She must have survived the fall of Thundera." Cheetara said.
Lion-O reached up and tore the flier down. He stared at it pensively. Leaning over his shoulder, Panthro stated, "Now, all she has to do is survive The Pit."
"The Pit?"
Leopara did her best to shrink into herself as they passed the archway leading into the stands of "the pit." From the flier, she suspected it would be a coliseum, but it was… smaller than she expected. The entire arena could fit into the coliseum of Thundera at least a few times- but size wasn't the only thing different. The sport they spectated was inherently different, too.
Thundera's coliseum was used for games and competitions- toms trying to show off and impress their peers, their superiors, and women.
The Pit was a glorified, brutal fighting pit.
The machine in the center of the ring held up its head in triumph as the crowd went wild with cheers, hollers, and even howls. Electricity crackled from the coil on its back. The two dogs it had been pit against lay motionless in the dirt, but she didn't think they were dead. "This is The Pit. It's where slaves and criminals fight to survive."
"And to entertain." Tygra added with obvious disdain.
She tried to imagine Thundera forcing its criminals and slaves to fight. How much lizard blood would have filled such an arena? Dog blood? And most cats wouldn't have cared, because they were lesser, barbaric animals in their eyes.
Leopara's stomach twisted in knots.
As if the other animals didn't have enough reasons to resent the cats.
They recklessly destroyed the lizard's hatching grounds, killing an entire generation to make their aqueducts. They kept the best farmlands to themselves and rarely exported their food supplies, making the rest of the animals "fight over scraps." And they had the audacity to look down on other animals for being weaker and less prosperous than themselves… but the only reason cats had such strength and prosperity in the first place was because their ancestors pushed other animals down to get there.
Her heart weighed heavily. She knew all of this, but it wasn't something she had actively thought about in… well, months. It was easy to miss Thundera and how peaceful life had been, but that was just a pretty illusion obscuring the truth.
"Like I needed another reason not to like dogs." Tygra remarked.
"Just remember, Tygra, we made them like this." Leopara cautioned him.
Tygra gave her a sharp look.
"Who's in charge?" Lion-O demanded of the nearest dog. He was an older man with long, dropping ears, a white beard, and a lick of white hair running down the center of his head. Without a word, the dog pointed towards the spire standing over the arena.
Like the saloon and so many other buildings they had passed by, exposed, iron pipes snaked their way up the walls of the spire and tattered red awnings stretched above nearly every hole in the stone, including a large balcony that looked out over the battles. Pieces of machinery seemed so casually part of the architecture that it made Leopara wonder if cats had been the only ones who forgot its existence.
How ignorant and sheltered we were.
"You sure about this, kid?" Panthro had faced down Grune, his oldest and once-dearest friends, and even sacrificed his arms to defeat him… what could give the unwavering general such pause?
What in this city could possibly be more difficult to face than an old friend?
"There's no way we can leave her here."
Lion-O made a bee-line for the tower, weaving through the crowd. Leopara followed him closely and glanced over her shoulder at the others. It was with obvious reluctance that Panthro trailed behind Tygra and Cheetara.
When they finally finished climbing the stairs, Cheetara grasped the ratty, grey curtain and yanked it back, revealing a lone figure sitting in a lone chair looking down at the fight below. Even sitting down, Leopara could tell the figure was tall. He had a long black neck and narrow ears atop his head.
Lion-O marched forward and thrust the flier in front of the dog. "What do you know about this cat?" he demanded.
The dog tilted his head and humored Lion-O, answering in a deep voice, "She's a fighter. Belongs to me."
"She doesn't belong to anyone."
"That so?"
Leopara did not need to hear the words, "Do you really want to try that?" to know this was not going to go in their favor. Nor did she need to sense the dog's emotions to know he was displeased.
"Yeah. She's a free cat now, so we'll be taking her with us."
The dog stood to his full height, taller than Panthro by several inches. He was lean and almost lanky, but his black and brown body rippled with muscles and old battle scars. "You're welcome to try."
Leopara put her hand on Lion-O's chest and gently pushed him back. "What His Majesty means," she said pointedly, "-is that we wish to negotiate her release. Surely there is some sort of trade we could make?"
Panthro scoffed. "Don't let him scare you." Leopara's gaze slid towards him. To her frustration, he was striding forward when Tygra and Cheetara had smartly stayed back. "He may have been tough once, but now he's too old and scrawny." He leaned in trying to size up with the dog. What Panthro lacked in height for this encounter, he more than made up for in bulk.
"What are you doing?" she hissed.
"Oh brother." Tygra sighed.
The dog growled, a gnarly snarling sound. "You filthy little furball."
"You stupid ugly mutt." Panthro shot back, rumbling into his own growl. Just as she thought they were going to come to blows, they instead clasped each other's hand and grinned at each other. Panthro chuckled. "Been a long time, Dobo."
"A lifetime, Panthro."
Panthro patted his arm. "I can see that."
"Are… they friends?" Tygra murmured.
"I can't tell."
Leopara's ear twitched with irritation. Seriously, you two? Dobo turned back to her and Lion-O. "You wanna see your cat? Well, you're just in time." He pointed down at the arena, specifically towards a gated tunnel shaped like a bulldog's head. "She's up against Gormax next."
As if the whole crowd could hear him, all eyes turned towards this gate with anticipation crackling in the air. Cheers and howls of rabid excitement erupted from the audience as the iron gate drew up into the dog's head, and out stepped the cat.
She was… tiny, compared to Gormax. The teal-skinned machine towered over her by several lengths- his spiked head alone was as big as her. Unlike the dogs before, she carried no obvious weaponry- but she stood proudly and unfazed despite this.
"She doesn't have a chance against that thing." Lion-O murmured.
Right off the bat, Gormax grasped one of the spikes of his head and yanked, launching his head at the cat. She vaulted easily out of its way. It crashed into the ground where she had been and raced in a circle around the arena. She jumped again out of its path, and it flung itself back to Gormax's body, where it popped back in with a crackle of electricity.
Once the electricity died down, he flung his head again. This time, Pumyra jumped up- and fired pebbles into the hole where his head connected.
With a muted boom, flames exploded from Gormax and electricity danced wildly around his body. He staggered back, clanging loudly, before careening to the ground with flames still bellowing from inside him.
As the flames and electricity extinguished, the cat strode forward and hopped onto his body. She thrust her left hand towards the blue skies in triumph.
The crowd, which had already whipped itself up in a frenzy at her mere appearance, went wild with adoration.
"And Pumyra wins again." Dobo stated. "You cats train your soldiers well. That warrior is making me a fortune."
Leopara watched the two dog guards approach her. Without any resistance, she allowed them to shackle her and lead her back to the tunnel.
"Let us buy her freedom." Lion-O said far more diplomatically.
"With what?" Dobo demanded. "She'll earn her freedom if she survives one-hundred fights."
And then, foolishly, Lion-O said, "It'd be a shame if she escaped before then."
A snarl distorted Dobo's features, rumbling from his chest. "Make sure your friend doesn't do anything stupid, Panthro." With that, Dobo pushed past them and into the spire.
Lion-O growled and took a half-step forward, as if to follow him. If Leopara stepping into his path didn't stop him, then Panthro's giant, metal hand on his shoulder definitely did.
"The lizards are bad enough. We can't afford a war with the dogs too."
Lion-O looked down at the arena. Leopara could hear the chains of the gate rattling as it shut. "She's a Thundercat, Panthro, and I won't let her be a slave."
"She's not a Thundercat, Lion-O. She's just a cat." Leopara rebuked him. "And Panthro's right; we have enough enemies as it is. If you want things from the other animals, you're going to have to be diplomatic, Lion-O. Being King of Thundera means nothing to them when Thundera is just a pile of rubble." With a swelling of frustration and anger, Lion-O glared at her. To soothe his temper, she added, "Let me speak to Dobo, and maybe I can convince him."
Lion-O wrenched his gaze away and even Panthro was uncomfortably quiet. Anger and frustration continued to roil within her king, while doubt and regret swirled within Panthro.
Leopara sighed. She looked at Tygra and Cheetara. "Go get the supplies while I deal with this." As an afterthought, she added, "Please."
"Come on, Lion-O." Tygra looped his arm around his brother's shoulders. "This is what advisors are for- let Leopara work her magic and we'll be on our way in no time." he said smoothly, easing some of Lion-O's tension.
Cheetara nodded, falling in step on Lion-O's other side.
She and Panthro stood there, watching them disappear. "I hope you know what you're getting into, kid." he said ominously before striding after them.
"Dobo!" Leopara called out. Finding the dog hadn't been easy. He was good at controlling his emotions, so she couldn't just follow a sense of annoyance. His spire led straight down into the rock formation that made up the coliseum walls and into tunnels that twisted beneath it.
The tall, lanky dog stopped and looked back at her. "You again?" he asked, unable to completely restrain the hint of annoyance that bled through.
Me again. she thought. "I wanted to speak to you about Pumyra. There must be some sort of arrangement we could reach for her release." Leopara reasoned. "Perhaps there are errands and favors we can do for you?"
Dobo eyed her with a sense of curiosity. That was better than hostility.
"I thought I told your king already. She'll earn her freedom when she wins a hundred battles." he said.
"How many has she won so far?"
"Twenty."
"Twenty?" Leopara shook her head. "From the way you spoke about her, I thought she must have won more than that…" If each of us battled at least once a day, how quickly could we go through eighty battles? she wondered.
Too long, was the answer. They didn't have weeks to spend here- they had to gather information and set out to find the next stone before Mumm-Ra.
"She hasn't been here long." Dobo explained.
"No wonder you're so reluctant to give her up…" Leopara admitted. Money was a compelling factor- how much would he make from Pumyra that he would lose if he let her go eighty battles early? Besides the Book of Omens and Sword of Omens, what did they have to offer that could compare to that value?
Whiskers!
While she thought about that, Dobo started walking ahead of her, down the dimly lit tunnel. She hurried to keep up with his long, effortless strides. "I want to apologise for the way Lion-O behaved. He's not usually so rash…" anymore. He hadn't acted that way for a while; it really spoke to how strongly this affected him. Leopara's resolve swelled. Blast how long it takes, we'll see her free. "Pumyra is the first cat we've seen since Thundera fell. Perhaps we could help fight Pumyra's remaining battles? I am a sorceress- you had a machine fighting in there, but I doubt you've ever had magic like mine in there." She opened both hands, a flame dancing in one hand and a small tornado whirling in the other. "And Lion-O is quite the spectacle."
"An interesting proposition." Dobo said. The brown dot of an eyebrow arched a little as he contemplated the offer.
"You would still get all of your money," albeit over a shorter time, "-and maybe more. As far as your crowds are concerned, if they miss one of Pumyra's battles, they can always watch the next one- but who would want to miss a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to watch a Thunderan sorceress fight?"
Dobo tilted his head. "But who would be foolish enough to bet against you?"
Leopara shrugged. "One cat versus a crowd of seasoned fighters… There are many who underestimate the power of magic."
He thought about it for a long time. Three heartbeats, five, seven. Her heart leapt into her throat. What if he doesn't accept?
And then, he spoke, "Tell your king I acc-"
"Get away from me!" a hoarse voice shouted. "I said get away from me!" Leopara straightened with alarm. Dobo's expression darkened. Without finishing his sentence, he turned and strode down and out of the tunnel. She followed, heart racing even faster. Please don't be Lion-O, please don't be-
Two giant bulldogs, each dressed in a dark blue, spiked vest stood in front of a cell containing the brown-furred cat. Her fur stood on end and her face was twisted into a look of absolute hatred. Anger rolled off of her in waves.
Wrapped in the arms of one of the two guards was…
"Lion-O? What are you doing?" Leopara asked, shocked and disappointed all at once. Without a word, Dobo strode forward and took the gauntlet from his belt.
Lion-O let his head fall with shame. "I thought while you spoke to Dobo, I could sneak in and…"
Anger burned in her as well, red hot and almost blinding. "I told you to let me handle this, Lion-O! All you had to do was just trust me."
A wicked feeling of petty gratification sparked through Dobo. "You care so much about her, Lion-O. You can join her." While one bulldog opened the iron bar door beside Pumyra's cell, the other threw him in. "In fact, you can be next in line to fight her."
Leopara stepped in front of Dobo. "Please, Dobo, reconsider. We'd reached a deal- let us help fight Pumyra's battles for her freedom, and I promise I won't let anything like this happen again." she pleaded with him.
Like a shutter closing, Dobo looked down at her with a dark expression. "The deal's off, kitty. Your king tried to steal from me." Dobo turned and stepped back into the shadows of the tunnel. "Escort her out." he commanded the two guards.
Leopara's mind raced. "Wait! … let Lion-O go, and I'll take his place."
Half obscured by darkness, Dobo stopped.
"What? No, Leopara, I can't let you do that." Lion-O protested, hands clasping the iron bars. "I'm in here by my own actions. I won't let you take my place."
"He doesn't deserve it anyways." Pumyra sneered.
Leopara approached Lion-O and wrapped her hand around the bar. "Lion-O," she murmured, "-they can't do this without you. Everyday you spend here, Mumm-Ra gets closer to the next stone; I'll be okay."
Lion-O stared at her silently.
"Very well." Dobo said. "Release Lion-O."
"No!" Lion-O shouted. "Wait! Leopara…" the bulldog guards paused, glancing between them and back at Dobo, who watched curiously. "As your king… I order you to return to the others. I can't let you pay for my mistakes." Looking past her to Dobo, he said firmly, "I'm staying."
Dobo silently nodded. The bulldog guard closest to her placed his giant hand on her back and pushed her towards another tunnel.
"Lion-O-!"
"I'll be fine, Leopara." he interrupted.
"But-!" The guard pushed her around the corner and out of view of the cells. As Lion-O disappeared from her vision, her shoulders fell.
Thank you for reading! A special thanks to Hestia28 (hehehe, as if I'd waste an opportunity for consistency~ I promise everyone that Pumyra's drama will look different to that of the show; it just wouldn't make sense with Chapter 30's developments as it is in the show), Heart of the Demons, The Night Whisperer, AndrianaWarrior7, and Frankannestein! Hopefully I will see you guys next week~ Finishing up chapter 35 is definitely a priority for me right now!