The War Against Aberon (Rough Draft #1)

Chapter Twenty-Seven

It felt like she'd been crushed by the entire Vale Havon capitol when Zaffre woke up. Her head was pounding with a beat that blurred her thoughts with how loud it was in her head. Her entire body ached and the amount of pulsing going on around her ribs made her want to puke. Truly, she was surprised she wasn't dead or spitting out blood. The fact she didn't have a punctured lung was a miracle. She really just wanted to pass out again and be lost forever. If only to escape all the noise.

Zaffre'd awoken in her cage to a large and roaring crowd surrounding the raised and movable prison. A mass of bodies and people all screaming, shouting, cheering, jeering, any noise physically possible to be let into the world. The sound increased the pounding in her head to a point where she actually felt bile rising in her throat. She wanted silence, for everything to just stop, she wouldn't be granted that of course. They were all too focused on the show they were witnessing. Besides, none of these Aberon residents cared for her, a beaten prisoner.

The boisterous crowd was made up of drunks and people high on adrenaline. Citizens who'd filled this area, somewhere, to watch. Watching what Zaffre learned was a brutal fight. Bare-knuckled and bloodied in the center of a large platformed ring were two slender but muscular forms. Two women panted and circled one another as they sized the other up. They'd been fighting for some time as they both had a number of reddened spots on their skin and blood dripping from scrapes and their noses. They paid no heed to their injuries as they clashed once more.

The cheers of the crowd rose once more as the women swung at one another. The fight was extremely violent and Zaffre struggled to think that even some of the fist fights during the battle had been so vicious. It sickened her stomach watching the two strike blows at one another. One was clearly winning, and one was clearly losing, but that didn't stop either from giving their all to the fight. She cringed away as she watched the woman winning send a hard punch into the face of her opponent. Zaffre swore she could hear the cracking of the other woman's jaw even above the crowd. The dark-haired and merciless woman didn't stop at just breaking the jaw of her adversary. She sent blow after blow into the flesh of the blonde lady like she was a dummy and not a person.

Zaffre couldn't bear to watch as the monster of a human continued her assault. She was the only one who felt that way. The people all around continued to jeer at the fighters. Their noise grew louder whenever a strike landed. Everyone around was watching the brawl. She realized even the guards who stood around her cage paid no mind to her as they eyed the bloody mess on display. Still, Zaffre hesitated to move in case she brought attention to herself and her renewal of consciousness. She was out of her element here. She was definitely in Aberon, she knew that much, but that was all the Felipara knew.

Finally, she held onto her courage and forced her body to sit up. As soon as she moved she let out a loud cry of pain, tears stinging her eyes from her ribs. She held her breath after making the noise, waiting for a reaction from the two soldiers on either side of her cage. They didn't move or react, their eyes still trained on the women. Her noise had been swept in with the shouts of the crowd, but her movement would've been noticed by any around her. So the soldiers were purposefully paying no mind to her. They seemed not to care or notice her presence. Which was a positive in Zaffre's book.

She let out a sigh and attempted slow and careful movements to stand up. She took it very slowly because of her injuries, but still stumbled to be laying down a number of times. It seemed to take forever for Zaffre to be shakily on her feet, ears nearly brushing the top of the cage. However, she'd done it and wanted to pass out for doing so. It had hurt to move that much. She tried not to focus on that in the likely event she did faint keeping her thoughts there. Instead, she tried to take in the world around her.

It seemed she and the crowd were in an alcove of a large street. Tall buildings extended out on either side of the ring and even more on the other side of the cobbled road behind Zaffre. Other people did some milling about shopping as this street or alley was filled with stores and market stalls. Not just people who milled about either. Moving contraptions that Zaffre had no name for scuttled along beside the Aberonians. They were copper like the crabs and had steam shoot out of them as well. Except these things were all smaller and different shapes and clearly did different things.

One Zaffre eyed, was something made of cubes that had arms and wheels for legs. It rolled along outside what seemed like a bar and carried drinks out to people like an automated waiter. She had no idea what these things were, but they both amazed and scared her. Could these creatures rip apart people so easily as the crab ones could? A flashing image of Mercy's death flashed in her mind. She shuddered to think of it and again moved her thoughts to analyze things about the street. One fact startled her in a way she didn't think possible.

It was surprisingly well lit with a number of lanterns hanging along the sidewalks on the side of the street. The surprise in this fact was that they were all underground. Staring at the ceiling of the street, Zaffre could realize that this whole place, this entire section of what appeared to be a city was underground.

No wonder Aberon could hide how advanced they'd become, they were under the sands the entire time. Which brought Zaffre's thoughts back to her and all the other soldiers who'd been pulled under into the enemy's domain. What did they want with them? What were their plans? Why had they taken so many? Why take them at all? So, many questions, and no answers. Zaffre could feel her headache trying to become stronger and decided to leave the questions for another time.

Her eyes were torn back to the fight as movement flashed in the corner of her eye. Tail swishing she took in the sight of her guards joining in on the cheering and looked to the women whose fight was ending. The brunette swung her fist one final and strong time and struck her opponent hard in her gut. The blonde fell back and hit her head forcefully on the floor of the platform. Knocked unconscious by the fall, two men came into the ring and dragged her prone form out like she was a pile of waste.

The winner of the fight was approached by a referee whom Zaffre hadn't noticed before. Her hand was lifted into the air as the crowd roared their joy at her victory. The Felipara in the cage found herself grimacing as the clapping and shouts continued, the victor smiling at the attention. It was like she could feel Zaffre's disapproving gaze as her shark-like eyes met Zaffre's feline ones. Their gazes remained locked for some time, and the purple-skinned woman kept her eyes locked on the brutal fighter even as her cage began to be pulled away.

Soon Zaffre had the attention of the crowd as the gathered people took in the fact that their entertainment was done with. So they turned their eyes to the next best thing, a prisoner whom they could leer at and insult. Zaffre wasn't fazed by the glaring citizens and simply turned her head away from the brunette fighter to face the street. She was being pulled along by the soldiers who dragged her cage, and Zaffre kept her head high as she was dragged to wherever they intended to take her.

Word Count-1387

A/N:

Chapter Twenty-Seven! Tell me what you're thinking! I mean Zaffre's a prisoner, that's crazy, isn't it?

Anyway, thanks for reading, hope you enjoyed it.

Comment, vote, if you wish!

Thank you

S