Punishment

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Inside the main building nicely weaved red carpets on the ground were pale and shaggy around the edges. On the walls torches lit up the dark areas and paintings filled up the wall space. Match didn't think much of it besides an idea that having a sleepover here might be really chilly, before the cages were pushed underground to the even colder dungeon. 

All the remcamen were finally quiet now that the sun was gone. They still fiddled with bits of the cage trying to find a weak spot, but they did so with independent silence. 

The walls in the dungeon were lined with prison cells. Only a few of them were filled. It seemed the dungeon was mostly made to house dust bunnies, or maybe the criminals in here were so few because they were some of the worst. 

Using carts, the wereras had moved the remcamen cages against a back wall. 

While they were positioning the cages, Match had been looking for a way out just like all the other remcamen, and she was pretty sure she had found one. 
The bars were up and down and across making small square shaped voids inbetween them. Using her finger Match traced the square holes over and over again, measuring them in her mind.

She was quite a tall object, but she was also rather thin. The more she traced the square the more she knew she could slide on through. She just had to position herself correctly. It would be easy. 
For a few minutes the soldiers left.
Match was just about to try and escape when they returned, but in fewer numbers and with their helmets off. 

Match noticed that ErkTrout didn't share a raccoon coat pattern, but rather looked like a tan and grey wolf with a raccoon shaped head. His injured right hand was covered in bloodstained gauze.

Using the portable staircase ErkTrout climbed up the side of Match's cage and opened the newly placed lid. He aimed a crossbow at Match's chest and pulled the trigger. The arrow deeply embedded itself in Match's wood before she could react, but at that moment Match realized that it had a rope attached. ErkTrout pulled on the rope lifting her up. Match grabbed hold of the point it pierced into her wood but she couldn't get it out before ErkTrout tackled her. 

With the arrow still stuck in her ErkTrout tied the rope around Match's arms, but left her legs. The couple of other wereras around snickered to themselves.

Match glanced at them from the top of the staircase. She kicked ErkTrout. 
"Oh, you wanna fight?" ErkTrout picked her up and slammed her into the stairs so she fell off. The werera then jumped down and kicked her across the floor so she slid. It was more difficult to get up with her arms tied up but with enough effort Match got back on her feet.

She was surrounded by four soldiers who had small bags of something. She noticed that Max was missing from the group.

"So weird," One werera soldier said. Match looked at him and began hobbling over. She might have been far from The Queen or the sewers but the desire to attack with everything she had still burned within her. She screeched and hopped to the werera, but he dashed out of her path, giggling. 

Before she could turn and continue chasing the soldier a rock was thrown at her face. The other remcamen cried out in horror as they watched from their cages.
It really hurt her eye, so she took a moment to look out and see who threw it. She couldn't tell who. They all had little bags. She understood now they were rocks. Bags of rocks. 

The werera closest to her seemed inciting. She charged at them, not letting up. Three more rocks slammed into her. The soldiers were giggling. Match became even more enraged. She looked to ErkTrout and screamed at him. 
The soldiers just threw more rocks her way. 
"Did you hear that?" One of them giggled at her scream.

Match started chasing another one.
"Oh no it's coming ha!" they said. 
Match was charging again but this time she was faster than the werera she was chasing. She slammed her body up against his, pinning him to the outside of a cage wall. 
"Ahh! Haha!" The werera yelped with glee.
Match let him go for a split second so that he would get his arm free. She then pinned him again but now his arm was up in the air. She got hit by a heavy rock but it didn't phase her. Jumping up she grabbed his gauntlet with her mouth trying to take it off. 

"Ow ow ow!" The soldier said, actually getting worried. 
"Get it off him!" Another soldier shouted to the rest. Many more rocks were thrown at Match but she didn't stop. The gauntlet was almost off.

Without warning a fist from behind slammed into her. She let go and fell to the floor, but then she was kicked and slid a little. It was ErkTrout.
Match tried to get up, and ErkTrout helped her, but he then pinned her to the wall with his right arm and began plumbing her with his left. Over and over he punched her face. Match just squeezed her eyes shut and braced for impact until it was over. 

ErkTrout let her go, and she collapsed to the ground. 

"You are under MY command!" He yelled at her, "You cannot fight me. You will respect me! You are mine!"

Match understood what was going on now. This was punishment for eating his fingers. According to ErkTrout himself, remcamen weren't very smart, but maybe he thought that discipline was still necessary somehow. 

"Ok we get it captain. You let it have it. What do you think it's going to do? It can't even understand you," one of the soldiers said.

"Just in case. If they're afraid of me they'll learn to respect me," ErkTrout panted from his punches.
"Uhh, I don't think they fear things either. They're just little zombos cap," the soldier said. 
"Eh, punish it anyway," ErkTrout shrugged, "Then we can see if it works, and if it doesn't then we know that it doesn't." 

Match growled but didn't have the strength to move. 

ErkTrout crouched down to her. 
"Hmm?" He put his hand to his ear.
Match made an ear splitting scream causing ErkTrout to get up. The soldiers giggled. 
ErkTrout kicked her in the face a final time causing the remcamen in their cages to cry out. 
ErkTrout turned to them swiftly.
"SILENCE!" 

The remcamen became quiet. 

"Well whaddya you know? Looks like the monsters understand a thing or two," ErkTrout smirked. 

***

Tied to the roof Match had been left roasting in sunlight for hours. 
Currently she was surrounded by fire pits that the remcamen had put specifically to imitate sunlight after dark. 

She wanted to stab his neck with a blade so he would choke on it. She wanted to pull his fingernails off his other hand. She wanted to gently press a knife into his forehead and sink it in his skull so he could feel his thoughts fry before he died. She wanted to bite down on his snout and pull it off. She wanted to cut all his limbs off and throw him into the moat. 

She wanted him to rot and suffer and be sorry. Sorry that he ever messed with her, sorry he ever kicked her, sorry that he took her away from Boinks, the only place Pencil could find her. She wanted to completely suffocate him, humiliate him, torture him, ruin him. 

As of now the night sky was the only thing in front of her. Luckily the fire pits around her didn't hurt as much as the sun, and for the first time Match felt like she could relax. Softly, she closed her eyes and let herself sink into sleep. 

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