Chapter Text
She was screaming, she realized. Her voice was hoarse and her throat raw from crying and screaming. It was gone! She had it just a second ago, tied around her neck. Did she drop it when she feigned death? She scrambled around her makeshift home, tearing up floorboards and decorations that she had carefully made (and stolen). It was gone! Nowhere to be seen! She collapsed onto the ground, hemolymph staining her torn tunic, and a dent in her carefully crafted helmet.
She clawed at her chest where it once hung. Had she forgotten what they had told her? “It is yours to keep, but you must keep it well. One day, when you are bested, you must pass it on to the next champion.” That, that thing! That had stolen it! It was not the next champion! It was a thief! And now she had failed her King, her Lord, her God!
She stopped squirming for a moment, thinking deeply, chewing on her ring finger to help her think better. It had long since been reduced to little more than a stub, but it served its purpose.
Perhaps she could fix this. She scratched the side of her head through a crack in her helmet, her sharp claws digging into her hardened carapace. Perhaps… maybe… yes! She would sneak in, steal the key from the Fool that had taken it, and then she would apologize to the Lord Fool, and then, before they saw her, and before Tamer saw her, she would retreat back.
She rubbed her wrists, thinking about what had happened only a few moons ago— and then she stopped thinking again. Her chest still stung from the scars they’d given her. She’d go get the key back, and then she’d come back here.
Careful claws hugged the metal beam that connected her home to the secret back entrance to the Coliseum. To her dismay, it was broken open. She froze for a minute, getting down on all fours and preparing to be assaulted again. They must have learned that she never left, surely they were waiting for her to step inside so they could— so they could hurt her again. She shook in fear, slowly inching back away from the hole in the wall. A voice echoed from somewhere behind her and her head shot up. No one was there. No one came out of the hole. She was safe, for now.
Carefully, quietly, silently, she crawled into the hole in the wall. The stables were just as full as they always were. Caged creatures and bugs sat, trained to wait until they were released into the arena to die. A lot of the cages were filled with dead bugs. It hadn’t been that long since she left, they must’ve not fed them since. She searched the room for the beast she knew. He was gone. Perhaps Tamer had left and taken him with her. Perhaps they were both dead already. It did not matter.
She crept to the gate that kept her from her arena, her home. There was a Mawlek, one of the great beasts that she had once fought with ease. A bug in a blue hood was fighting against it, slashing at it with the blades on his shield. Did she know this bug? They looked familiar. She clicked her tongue and chewed her finger as she thought about it.
The Mawlek jumped and he froze, and a moment later it landed on him. The crunching of chitin, the shattering of his shield. It was delicious, what she had been starved of while cut off from the rest of her world. Disappointed boos echoed through the arena as a Menderbug flew out to collect the corpse of the bug in blue.
That wasn’t good, boos weren’t good. That meant the crowd wasn’t happy. Lord Fool said that the crowd always needed to be happy. She would have to fix that later. She continued her mission, crawling deeper into the Coliseum, moving through the secret tunnels she had carved long ago. She peeked through a crack into the Coliseum hot spring. It was empty, to her surprise. Most of the time, there was at least one lazy bug in there. Perhaps the Fools were going back into the City of Tears? To the Pleasure House? She thought for a moment, thinking of that beautiful playbug she had met there. She had promised to meet up with her and go to the diner just below the Pleasure House. Oh, how disappointed the playbug must have been when she didn’t show up. That poor, poor, beautiful bug with her beautiful voice.
She dropped out of the tunnel and into a hallway, only to realize someone was coming. Getting on all fours, she quickly squeezed herself under a bench. The four Fools walked past. She felt scared, terrified. They’d see her and then they’d hurt her again. Her chest hurt with the memory of the damage they’d done to her. She leaped out at them, crashing into the wall past them. They were gone, the hallway was empty. She growled at the nothingness, rubbing her wrists again before slinking back into the tunnel.
She continued her crawling quest, finally arriving at the Champions room. Surely, surely, surely the little thief had entered her long-sealed room. When she dropped in, she froze. No dust flew up from where she landed. She ran her finger along the stone floor and then licked it. She grimaced, it tasted disgusting. The masks of beasts lined the walls, and a large saber was mounted, along with a club, a whip, and finally, one of her precious retractable blades. All of this was new, how long had they been living here?
She climbed up the wall and retrieved what was hers, accidentally knocking one of the other weapons off of the wall in the process. Someone had broken in and made her room their home. A bed of moss sat on the far side of the room, and the door to the private hot spring was to her left. At the front of the room was a window covered in a metal mesh. She approached it, sticking her fingers through it and gripping it tightly. Through this, she could see the cleanup in the arena, as well as the crowd. It was nearly empty, besides the four Fools who had… and the Lord Fool was slumped in their throne.
Next to the moss bed was a stuffed tiktik, and next to that was a bowl of water. She dipped a finger into it. It was cold, fresh. Much colder and fresher than the water she’d been drinking and bathing in. She took a quick sip before moving on to the much more interesting object. She carefully lifted the tiktik, it’s button eyes staring at her lovingly, reminding her of the stuffed gruz she had owned as a child. This was good. This was hers now.
She stuffed it under her arm and continued her search. Leaning against the corner of the room was the broken mask of a beast. She knew this beast. It was Tamer’s mount. Tamer would have never parted with her beast. She pressed her calloused fingers against the cold mask and let out a wail of despair at the realization that Tamer was dead, killed in the arena. She must be.
She lifted silk pillows, fur blankets, searched inside of cabinets made of chitin and smooth stone. It wasn’t in here. They must have claimed her room and then returned to the arena. She saw something shining in the corner of her eyes, but when she turned to focus on it, it was gone. She frowned, rubbing her wrists again.
One of her bent antennas twitched, picking up on a sound and a smell. Someone was coming, speaking, talking to someone else. They smelled of hemolymph and sweat. She went into a defensive position on all fours, preparing to use her thin, boney arms to defend herself. A soft laugh, not one that could have come from one of the brutes, the brutes who grabbed her, and… she rubbed her wrists again, chitin still uncomfortably tight. There was a click at the door, surely it was the thief. Another click, and a twist of the doorknob. The door slid open, and Tamer stepped inside the room, her visor up and her face a cherry red, sweet laughter still coming from her mouth.
She froze, and when Tamer’s eyes landed on her, Tamer froze. It was awkward, uncomfortable, terrifying. She was prepared to run back to her tunnel, prepared to defend herself when Tamer struck her. Tamer did not strike her, she just stood, staring at her. “You’re back.” She said, like it was the most unbelievable thing she had ever seen. “Where have you been?”