Claws dragging through fur and into its skin.
Muzzle tight against its jaw.
Even as its own fingers wrap tighter and tighter around
The other beast's throat.
Pulse pumping under its thumbs.
The other animal will have no mercy for it.
Mercy is a death sentence
(Even if living is just to suffer).
There’s something to get back to
Even if he- she doesn’t want to remember what.
Blood dripping from them both.
It has to beat the bear growling in front of him.
His/Her It’s own growl silenced in the face of its gag.
Drool dripping from the sides of it
As bones start to crack under his fingers.
Howls of agony echoing in the pit.
As the sounds of cheering finally enter its ears.
Finally coming back to everything
And pressing with all of his weight on that spot!!!!
Or Will the bear finally take our champion out?!?!?!”
As it uses the last of its force to finally kill it.
To kill the other animal forced into this place.
To kill another innocent.
It's hands covered in blood
Feeling the bones under its finger tips.
It feels the trembling in its limbs.
Underfed and forced to fight to the end everyday.
Survive or blood spilling out.
There are only two choices.
Falling back against the blood soaked arena
It looks up into the blinding lights
And wishes again for even a speck of mercy.
It would give anything for a single shred of kindness.
Too fast to be the handlers.
Too quick to be its trainer.
To beastial to be the owner.
It moves as fast as it can.
Tired and shaky it tries to run away from the new threat.
To get away from the arms
Grabbing it and hosting it over his shoulder.
It's nails digging into the meat of the bastard's shoulder.
Any weakness and it will get free.
Any loosening of their grip.
Any moment of opportunity.
But the man clutches it tighter
Bruises and scars bright in the light
It hadn’t felt this in a while.
The shine dazing him as the warmth changed him.
It could feel the arms around her loosening.
Giving her the freedom to pull out of his arms.
Link knew they needed to run.
To get far, far away from this location.
But he also needed to check if she was okay.
She had been there for so long.
At least he made it back in time.
The portal had dropped them into another Hyrule
Before he could even try to get to Blue.
To grab her back from the people who had stolen her away.
He should have just rampaged in and grabbed her at the beginning of this….
But he wanted the support
He knew numbers would help
(They’d take him back if he went alone)
They had guards and people and terrain
And that sealed her fate.
As soon as he had made it back to camp a portal opened underneath them.
Leaving her alone in their hands
And forced to fight for her survival
Broken down by fights, and punishments
And the cruelest praise, “Good Boy.”
Looking down at his dear friend,
Just standing there as if any movement would bring punishment.
Beg for the Blue he knows to come back.
For her to spit and curse and yell at him for being late.
He knows how hard it is to do anything for yourself at first.
How it was hard to do anything more than just survive.
He remembers how he used to growl and bite
At any hylian who came close to him afterwards.
How his fear pushed him to isolate and run, run, run.
She won’t be alone though is all he thinks
Before he steps away to turn into Wolfie
And walks up to her with an intentional calm.
Trying to radiate a, “I’m not a threat.” vibe to her.
Why would he leave her here?
Did he have friends he needed to grab?
To make it regret letting him grab it.
It wouldn’t be the first time it was punished like this.)
She could try to get away.
Maybe it could finally get free
But the last time it tried…
Her hand reached up to her shoulder.
To where they took that piece of metal
Made it hotter than the sun
And then pressed it into her skin
Until she stopped screaming.
Until her breath shook with held back sobs
And she stopped fighting back.
Until it just let them do whatever they wanted.
It can still clearly feel the indents in its skin.
The name of the pit burned into it.
With the year at the end.
Her finger brushing back and forth
As her mind wonders what it should do?
Freedom was the biggest risk,
But also the greatest reward.
Did it have the strength to survive the punishment if it-
Covering its hand in warmth.
Fluffy ears pressing against the tips of its fingers
And the inside of her wrist.
A soft boof drawing its attention to a wolf
Now sitting right beside her.
Why was a wolf just sitting beside her?
It's head tilting to the side in question
As the wolf stared back at it in confusion.
The wolf pushed its head up into her hand more firmly
As if to direct it on what to do.
It pulled its hand away thinking that was the answer,
Only for the Wolf to give a sad howl before pushing its head back under her palm again.
Does the wolf want something from it?
Maybe it needs something with its hand?
Maybe if it runs its fingers through its fur
*Fingers gently brushing through the thick fur*
Not like it has any food to give
*Working the knots out of the fur*
Or anything else to help with survival….
*Til the fur flowed through its fingers like silk*
Nothing besides its body; and it really doesn’t want that.
Happy rumbles come from the wolf’s throat
Distracting the beast from its thoughts.
Tail hitting against its thighs like a battering ram
As the wolf grins at the motion.
Her fingers gently untangle his fur.
Almost making him feel pampered by her care and attention.
His tail starts speeding up thwacking against her thighs
As she digs deeper into the knots and pulls the ruffled hair free.
And as she gets closer to the wolf’s belly,
She kneels to reach the fur better.
He would look fantastic when she’s done with him.
And it's clear her mind is on that and that only.
Barrelling her over so that he can lay on top of her
His muzzle right beside her ear
Squishing her into the ground. )
An easy distraction from everything else.
Keeping her calm and collected
In spite of the unbridled fear from earlier.
Her body slowly relaxing as she continues.
Laying on his side so she can get to him better.
They spend the morning in that field
Pets and cuddles given out generously
As Link watches Blue slowly come back to herself.
It’s as it's leaning against the wolf
His left paw comes forward
And with it the sound of metal clanging.
Looking down it sees the-
The band still holding his paw captive
As the chain moves this way and that.
Ringing against each other in the motion.
Her hands come down to press against the metal.
Looking for the insignia on the band
That would prove this is indeed Twilight.
Until it at last finds it.
She wants to shout, “Twilight!”
She wants to yell and scream.
She wants to tell him that he took forever.
Only for the press of the muzzle against her face to remind it
It can say nothing at all
It looks down on its sharpened nails
And remembers how they tore through so many beforehand.
It's hands come up to its face
And start scratching away at the edges of the muzzle
Looking desperately for a weak point.
Her force becoming worse and worse
As she can’t find a place that would release her.
Cutting into her skin like butter
As she digs her nails in harder.
Desperation slamming against a well crafted muzzle.
Growls building up in her chest with nowhere to go
While blood drips down, down, down.
Rough hands grab her fingers
Pulling them easily from her bleeding cheeks
Body freezing as it waits.
Moving would just get it punished worse.
It already has “escape” in the books now.
Survival is doing what you don’t want
Clean hands reach for its face.
Rough hands brush against the cuts on its cheeks.
Gentle hands push back her hair to mess with the band,
The band that was keeping the muzzle glued to her face.
Gentle hands that touch her no more than is necessary.
Her body is buzzing with a confused terror
Held still only by her fear of worse.
They don’t have to be though.
Twi’s hands searched and searched.
Trying to find the lock before Blue broke down even further.
But if you pushed a terrified animal too far they bite
And he had no doubt she’d manage it even with a muzzle.
Running his fingers along the back of her head,
Rubbing his thumb over the mechanism
He finds a complicated locking mechanism.
Something much worse than what they used in his time.
Multiple locks and puzzles to keep the person from opening it themselves.
Maybe if the others were around
His fingers rub against the restraint.
Checking its material, checking to see if he can break it.
It’s strong, but not unbreakable.
Sitting back on his haunches
He looks Blue in her eyes,
“I can cut the muzzle off, Blue-”
He can’t even get out the full sentence before she is nodding.
Her hand going for where he keeps his knives
As if to hand him his own knife.
“Woah! Blue! I didn’t finish.
If I do this I could easily cut you.
The blade will go under the band right next to your skin-”
Her own hands come back up to her face
One digit trying to slide under the band
As if Twi wasn’t moving fast enough for her sake.
His hand comes up in a hurry to pull her sharp nails from her face again.
“Okay! Okay! I’ll do it!”
Twi cries out while his heart decides that Blue is bad for his health,
“Just please stop trying to cut your face open.”
Pulling his sharpest knife out
He places it flat against her cheek
Right under the thick leather band.
He slides the knife underneath.
The knife pricks her face at points
Making Blue want to flinch before Twi reminds her to stay still for him.
The blunt edge pressing into her cheek
As the sharp edge bites into the leather.
Her heart rate picks up, dizzying her with its speed
Before pushing closer to her eye.
She knows this is how it has to be.
That she has someone with steady hands helping.
That it should free her if she stays still.
Watching that knife seesaw closer and farther from her eye?
She’ll just have to trust him because it’s too much otherwise.
One wrong move and her eye could be gone.
She doesn’t wanna see that.
The band loosens as the knife rips through the material.
A final motion snapping the material in two
As the bands fall around her face.
The knife is pulled from her cheek
Before a hand is checking her for damage.
And the muzzle and gag fall from her face.
It had been on her most hours of the day for so long
((She leaned back against the grass flowing around her,
As the Sun brought warmth to her still cold fingers.
Her nails digging into the ground
As she whispered, “I’m free”
To the dirt and the grass and the blue sky and warm sun
And finally screaming it into the air
As Twilight stares at her before laughing at her bright grin and enthusiasm. ))
She didn’t know what to do,
How could it put how it felt into words?
It wanted to growl in frustration
To huff at the frustration
But it also wanted to laugh and scream and yell
And use every curse word she knew
Just because she could now.
Ready to finally speak for the first time in a year.
“I-” Paws beat against the dirt
As howls echoed into the sky.
Twi: (Start path to Renado)
Twilight froze at the sound.
“The hunting dogs” were out
And they had their scent.
He could hear their panting breaths
It felt like an arrow pulled back.
Ready to strike as soon as their target was in sight.
He wondered if it was one or two scents they picked up.
He wondered if it mattered at all.
It wasn’t like he was leaving Blue again.
Together they would face it
However this chase turned out.
The burn of his transformation
Nothing against the need to run, to escape;
To flee halfway across the country.
Yipping at Blue to get her to hop on,
He sees her frozen in fear
Waiting for the hammer to fall
To be locked back in chains and a muzzle.
He grabs her as gently as he can with his canines
And starts dragging her away.
Hoping she’ll wake back up,
Anything but just stand there
And let them take her back quietly.
Her feet tumbling against the ground
Before she catches herself
And the fear turns from ice to wind.
Grabbing at his fur tightly
Fistfuls of it in her hand
As she jumps as far as she can.
Just barely making it onto him.
He’d howl in delight if that wouldn’t give them away.
Farther and farther away from the pit.
And toward the sinking sun.
(It has been awhile since I posted on Tumblr but I hope you all enjoy! -Rowan)
