emile fischer

Vayko: Never Again

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Nothing compares to the feeling of flesh separating. Like raw meat torn by a razor, the skin parted, giving way to a scarlet river washing on the ground. The screeching sound of a sharp object, slicing through muscles in a single sharp up and down motion, the intense pain, mixed with panic... the panic of staying there, if not losing an eye ... But a panic softened by the adrenaline already present. The obligation to stay alive, at all costs.

This is how this poor little beast felt, as the clawed paw of an adult vornskr had just rested on the ground, stained with blood.

The heart of the cathar in front was beating so fast. Her small hands groped her face at full speed to understand the extent of the damage. His eye was intact, by some miracle, but this beautiful triple scar was going to remain for life.

On the other side of the fighting cage, the black vornskr waved its long tail above its head, and hissed like a raptor. His opponent knew the effects of the poison present at the end of the hairy caudal appendage. A single small friction could paralyze her, even send her directly to death. If the dog was about to use it, she had to surpass her cat's agility.

Now the duel was in the eyes... The little red eyes stared at the big yellow eyes, as if each could read the other's strategy there. Under the stupid cries of the half-drunken crowd, under the blinding spotlights and the frankly chaotic atmosphere, while the drops of his blood fell in a small puddle, in rhythm, like a metronome, Vayko was about to pounce.

An empty bottle went to burst against the fence of the arena, pushing the hound to act. He scampered away, arching his long, pointed ears back, his tail still high, showing his slobbering fangs at the cathar he was charging.

The moment only lasted a few seconds, but every movement, every sound, everything passed through the tigress's head and was analyzed, as if time had slowed down.

As the mad dog was less than two meters from his throat, time resumed its usual rhythm, and Vayko narrowed his eyes, whose large round pupils turned into vertical blades. While the vornskr had given its last impulse to leap towards her, the cathar compressed the muscles of its four legs, and untied them from the ground in turn. His body rose above the hound, spinning like a flying top under the dazed eyes of the spectators and the total incomprehension of the vornskr, then flying towards the reinforced fence. When she got to the poisoned tail, Vayko used her spin and raised her clawed hand.

As the tiger's four legs fell to the ground, and the dog went crashing into the corner of the cage, there, between the two fighters, a hairy, bloody tail fell like a plucked feather.

A few seconds later, without having had to hesitate, without hatred or sorrow, without any pity or remorse, Vayko was above the weeping vornskr, and cut its throat with his own hands.

In front of her, the customers of Hutta's 'Glorious Cage Fight' lowered their heads, and emptied their pockets for having lost their bet. The bell rang, a gate opened, and Vayko went off like a wild animal to find its own cage.

And the next day it started again. Again and again, every day, the fairground beast was exploited for the pleasure of the mercenaries, crime lords and other scum of the smelly neighborhood that was Hutta. And in the evenings, her owners made her return to her rusty cage, so small that she could only sleep in a sitting position, in a ball... when she managed to sleep...

This iron box of less than a square meter had been a luxury when she was small. Today, when she was 17, it was a tool for contortionists.

Vayko had been the gladiator for a bunch of heartless scoundrels ever since they caught her in her youth. She was 9 years old, and had just lost sight of her parents in a crowd, during a sudden riot between the Taris workers and the Imperials. The chaos had separated them for a moment, but it was enough to kidnap a child. Her head in a bag, she had been loaded into a freighter and a few hours later, here she is on the smelly Hutta, no longer as a young child citizen of Taris and the Empire, but as a slave killer, attraction, beast of a circus.

Ding! The cage would open, someone or something would die, and she would go back to the kennel, waiting for the next fight.

The food was awful, always the same, a patty of meat...probably uxibeast. The guard who fed her was always in a bad mood. Poorly paid, always complaining when he met someone, only came to feed the animals. He opened a box, emptied portions on the corner of the cages and left, sometimes hitting the bars of his scrap club attached to his belt, just to excite the noisy beasts and annoy the others.

Ding! The cage opens, someone dies, she returns to the niche, to the next one.

The cages beside him were all occupied by wild animals. The “intelligent” fighters either came by themselves, free but brave and stupid, or were slaves and were therefore locked up together in a prison further away. Those who tried to escape were always caught and killed on the spot. Vayko was therefore the only wild beast who understood basic, and learned hutt. Its owners probably did not know the Cathar species well, and it must be said that the tigress never spoke.

Ding! The cage opens, someone dies, back to the kennel, to the next.

After nine long years of fighting on Hutta, the cathar had to follow the group for their relocation to Nar Shaddaa. The clandestine box had been a certain success, and the swamp did not pay enough. On the new moon, the arena was similar, the team was the same, the opponents were different. The resting cage had also been taken on board, but this time it was stored away from all the others, because only a few days before the trip, Vayko had cut the throat of a too noisy wild neighbor, whose cage had been shifted quite close. A few sticks and isolation, that's the goalkeeper's verdict... Too easy.

Ding! The cage, death, the kennel, next.

Five years later... The night of his flight. The night of his freedom. The night of his life.

Aged 23 at the time, the now famous 'Nocturne Tigress' returned to her cage after butchering a Gamorrean with her own axe. One less pretentious customer, ten more the next day. It was the motto of the boss, a rather tall man, dressed in a brown hat and a red cape. Whatever his name was, he was just 'The Boss', and he had the best place in the crowd for his fights... when he had time to enjoy them.

The night had been long. 6 duels during the day and 22 once the sun has set. No more customers stood up. The reasonable ones had gone home, the others were snoring in the bleachers or in the alley, clutching their favorite bottles in their hands.

And as always, the pet peeve returned to his cage, tired like everyone else...like the keeper.

She walked through the creaking door, curled up, and let the fat man close the gate. But the click of the lock was brief...slightly but too brief enough. When the man turned around and Vayko realized the fatal mistake when he saw the door not closed properly, the fate of the 'Glorious Cage Fight' was sealed.

Under the erratic claps of thunder and the sky dark as his fur, Vayko finally opened his cage, and rose to his feet, tall and powerful as ever. A small smile displaying sharp white teeth appeared under his cat nose. Its yellow eyes gleamed in the dark and its claws, hands and feet, slowly emerged. Make way for the slaughter!

About ten minutes later... the Boss, the guard, all the gang members and the witnesses in the wrong place at the wrong time, lay in their own pool of blood, neck or throat devoured. In the back alley, outside in the rain turning to snow, Vayko faced his freedom, and turned his back on his past. She took a deep breath, and let it out in a small mist of steam. Although Nar Shaddaa's air was not the purest in the galaxy, it was the best she had inhaled since her childhood on Taris. The taste of iron on his lips was the same as in the arena, but the smell of freedom was what made him smile...

His smile faded for a moment. She stood motionless in the fine snow, then turned her gaze back.

No...it wasn't over. As long as this building was standing, as long as people inside were breathing in it, as long as this neighborhood remained busy, it will never be over... No one shall ever know this life again... Never again!

The nocturnal lioness returned to the cages, freed the worst beasts, and gave them access to the building. The last cries of the night gave way to perfect silence.