Blood on Sand

TAKING A NAP

Zoe heard a gate, or maybe it was a door, squeak. The sound of human voices travelled through the room. Human. Didn't they think him more dangerous than that? If he could manage to hurt—or even slay—one of them, they would kill him for sure. That may be his best bet. He sighed. Did he really have the energy to try? Maybe it would be easier to just let them do what they were planning to do and then make sure he got killed in his next fight in the pit—screw honour, there was no honour in dying anyway.

But maybe he should try. If he succeeded, he wouldn't have to suffer through the week or two it would take before they deemed him fit to fight again. He could do it; he just needed a few minutes in a warmer environment. He wouldn't be fast enough to take them by surprise unless they came really close, but he might be able to hurt one of them enough to gain his freedom—his death.

A lock clicked and electric lights came on. You never knew with these animals. The arena was ancient, and the slave quarters even older, but they'd had electric lights installed everywhere. And they had a wine cellar, he realised now. He'd bet there would be a fancy living room with a TV up above. He hadn't seen a TV in over three years.

"Change," came a harsh voice, and Zoe wanted to laugh. They really didn't know shit, these clowns. "I said change." A growl followed the command, and Zoe thought that maybe he wouldn't have to do anything at all to get himself killed. He could just be his normal self and that would be infuriating enough for this creature to rip his head off.

"Erm... I don't think he can." Oh, so now they suddenly had an expert on reptilians; that was something they sorely needed down in the slave quarters. They always kept the stalls too cold and the food was never what they needed. He didn't eat meat, something these monsters never seemed to get into their thick skulls even though Zoe had told them several times. He wasn't like the other fighters; they were carnivores. Crickets and other insects were what they preferred though, not the slabs of raw meat they usually got. Zoe couldn't digest that. He'd tried eating it and ended up puking his guts out. His usual luck made sure he was the only herbivore in the lot.

"What do you mean he can't?" The harsh voice was talking again. Zoe just closed his eyes. If they didn't get him out of here soon he would go into hibernation. It would be a relief, but he'd rather they killed him so he'd never have to wake up again.

"I mean that he's too cold. We need to get him out of here and give him a chance to warm up before he'll be able to change."

"Huh."

A strong hand gripped his arm and pulled, the heat coming from it was almost burning. Zoe would've helped if he'd been able to, but he didn't have much control over his limbs. His movements were too slow. He spread his toes, trying to gain as much stability as possible as he was pulled to his feet. His fourth toe was almost twice as long as the rest in this form, and the big toe was shorter than the little one, but it was the most important one for his balance.

The hand let go of him, and he took a stumbling step toward the entrance. The world tilted and he saw the floor coming closer. Sluggishly he tried to raise his hands to soften the impact, but they wouldn't cooperate. Just as he accepted that he'd be a heap of lizard-mash on the floor, two burning hands gripped his shoulder. He hissed as the movement pulled on his stitches, but there was nothing he could do about it. He was too slow to follow easily.

"See! It's already starting," the kinder of the two voices said, though it didn't sound very kind at the moment. Zoe looked up and saw a dark-haired man glare at him. He'd hardly ever seen any of them in their human form, but the ones he'd seen were huge. This one wasn't small, but he'd seen bigger.

"What?" The fingertips of the one holding him dug into his arm, making some of his scales loosen. Zoe couldn't find it in himself to care. It wasn't enough to break the white skin underneath, and beauty had never got him anywhere with these monsters. He'd once been considered a magnificent warrior, not only because of his fighting skill but for his looks as well. Before he was captured, his skin had been a vibrant green. The dull colour it held now was just another sign of poor nutrition and bad living standards. It didn't matter; he was done living.

"Yesterday you would've let him fall, and you'd probably have laughed when he failed to get up on his own."

"Yeah? This makes you more comfortable?"

The hands pushed him away. Zoe closed his eyes; he didn't need to see the floor coming closer to know that was where he was heading. The sound was almost like a wet towel hitting a tiled floor when he made contact with the ground. His head bounced, and he squeezed his eyes shut tighter to brace himself for the pain. Red fireworks exploded on the inside of his eyelids as he tried to breathe through it. Pain was the only sure way of knowing you were alive, but Zoe didn't want to be alive. He wanted it all to end.

****

Wojtek wanted to wince, not because he cared about the lizard, but the sound as his head thudded against stone tiles was a bit sickening.

"Remarkably enough, it doesn't." Satul's snide remark echoed in the cellar as Wojtek bent down and picked up the reptilian from the floor. He didn't try to help this time; he was out cold. The corner of Wojtek's mouth twitched. Ha, out cold. And he really was cold. His skin was the same temperature as the wine cellar, which meant about twelve degrees Celsius.

"Shouldn't he manage twelve degrees without going into hibernation?" He'd always thought they were tougher than that. He couldn't really remember how cold they kept the fridge, but they threw the lizardians in there every so often. They hated it, which made it the perfect punishment.

"I think they hibernate in temperatures between seven and fifteen degrees, but he's injured, so he probably didn't stand a chance."

"Since when did you become such an expert in reptiles?" If he sounded grouchy, it was only because he was beginning to feel it. He should've come down here earlier, but he didn't really know what to do with the lizard, so he'd put it off.

"Well, we've been trying to breed them for a few years now so I've tried to understand a little about their natural habitat and such."

Huh, he hadn't known Satul had taken an interest. He'd been opposed to the breeding program—not that it was much of a program. The fucking crawlers wouldn't breed. "Yeah, so when will he wake up?"

"If it's hibernation, and not just that the fall knocked him out or the blood loss made him faint, then it would take months. Just the waking up process takes about three weeks."

"Three weeks! I'm not running a fucking spa here. He'd better wake up and make himself useful." Claws prickled at Wojtek's fingertips as they dug into the cool skin once again. He couldn't remember ever touching one of them before, other than to deliver a punch. The skin was softer than he'd thought. Even though it looked wet, he knew it wouldn't be. He'd handled snakes—real ones, not shifters—and he'd thought all creepy-crawlies would feel the same. This lizardman was softer, his skin consisting of small overlapping scales, making it feel almost like velvet, cold velvet. There were some coarse patches too, where some scales protruded like small horns, but mostly the skin was very soft.

"I don't think you have to worry. Going into hibernation usually takes weeks too, so he's probably just cold, weak, and... now he probably has a concussion too."

If Satul didn't watch it Wojtek would show him what a concussion felt like.

Wojtek hauled the lizardian, whose tail was limp and useless, over his shoulder. He'd seen that tail swipe at the legs of his opponent in the pit more than once. It was a sad sight to see it flaccidly flopping about as Wojtek juggled him around. God, he didn't weigh much.

"So, I just put him to bed somewhere a bit warmer, let him rest for a while?"

"I guess." Satul shrugged and started walking toward the stairs.

"Good. We'll put him in the guest room, and you'll stand guard till he wakes up." Wojtek smiled at the growl he heard coming from Satul.