"Where is that mindless beast!"
Even from a distance, Roxa heard the angry Timanror, whose scream of rage echoed through the long corridors. When the fight was over, he made his way back through the dark corridors to his secluded day cell, where he spent most of his time. Here he sat cross-legged against the wall and let his thoughts run free. He couldn't really do anything else either, as he had to wear hand and foot shackles even in the cell. Most of the time he could meditate to himself, but today was different. His master was extremely unhappy with what was happening and might not let him off the hook so easily this time.
"My lord, please calm...." Whimpered someone.
"Silence! Take me to this beast so I can kill him!"
At the words, a smile flitted across Roxa's lips. This time, perhaps, he had really brought his master to the point where he would kill him. With the amount of money Timanror must have spent on the fire bull, it was no wonder.
'It seems that my short fight was not to the liking of the master of the house.'
Roxa did not usually provoke such situations, in which Timanror was beside himself with rage. He had got used to the peculiarities of the human world ages ago and had lost interest in it by now. Torture, however, was something he could not tolerate under any circumstances, whether it was a Yokai or a human. Not that he had anything against an opponent whose life depended on it, for it did in their life and death struggles, but to deliberately torture a living being was cruel. Whenever Timanror stooped to something so heinous, Roxa made his displeasure obvious by deliberately finishing his fights quickly.
The fights in the Colosseum not only cost a lot of admission money, from which Timanror already earned a fortune, but they were also supported by purchasable food and drink and one of the main sources of income - betting. Everyone was free to place bets on who would win and after how many minutes. You could even bet on the cause of death. Timanror instructed Roxa every time when and how to kill his opponents. In this way, he had already been able to collect several thousand gold crowns without lifting a finger. But for this fight, Roxa had completely ignored his master's instructions and caused an immense loss.
"You fucking moron! Come here!"
With several guards gathered behind him, Timanror stood directly in front of the dark cell. In his right hand he held a torch that illuminated Roxa's cell, while in his left he held a sword. His fist was clenched to the point of tension and Roxa did not rule out that this encounter would end in blood. The slaveholder's narrowed eyes held nothing but anger and contempt for Roxa. Timanror's whole demeanour betrayed how angry he was and that he didn't even begin to try to hide it.
"As you command, my lord," Roxa replied and smiled.
He slowly straightened himself against the wall, supporting himself with his bound arms, as if standing up alone took an infinite amount of strength. With each step forward, the chains rubbed across the floor as Roxa did not even bother to lift his feet a little more as he walked. Unlike in the arena, where he killed his opponent with only a few movements, here he presented a completely different picture. Not a dangerous Yokai with great strength, but an old, fragile man whose best days were behind him.
"Stop the act!" hissed Timanror.
After a few steps, the two were face to face, separated by no more than a few thin bars of iron. They were so close that Roxa effortlessly spotted his master's trembling lips and in less than an instant could have bent the bars and killed Timanror.
'Inside he must be bursting with rage right now.'
Just the thought of the anger this man must be feeling gave Roxa a feeling of satisfaction. In the long run, nothing changed, even if Timanror was angry for a few days, but that was the only pleasure he could get from his master. Timanror was one of the most corrupt and inhuman of his kind and would never change for the better. Even Roxa with his protest would not change that. At least he could occasionally drive him up the wall and make him lose a few gold crowns.
"You think this whole thing is a joke, do you?" hissed Timanror. "You think I wouldn't hurt you just because you bring in some money?"
All at once he raised his left arm and stopped the blade only a few centimetres from the Yokai's larynx. Neither Roxa nor Timanror moved a millimetre but stared into each other's eyes. While the two did not move a bit, the guards around Timanror trembled under the tension that existed between slave and master. It was far from the first time that this situation had occurred, with Timanror just a push away from killing Roxa. Until now, however, Timanror had never the guts to drive the blade through the Yokai's neck.
"You'll see what you get out of this," Timanror growled, putting the sword away.
Without giving Roxa another look, the slave master turned away from Roxa and disappeared through the dark corridors with his guards and the single torch. Only Roxa was left behind in the already familiar dark surroundings without food or drink.
"Haaa.... Coward," Roxa sighed after they had gone.
'Once again, he didn't have the guts to just pounce. I have to admit it's starting to bore me....'
Now that silence had fallen, he took a few steps away from the cell bars again and sat down on the floor. Since there was no light or entertainment, he had no choice but to meditate and sleep. He didn't feel like the latter right now, so he closed his eyes and let his senses take their course. The cells around him were all empty so at least he wouldn't be disturbed anymore for the rest of the day. Being isolated was the general punishment for his rebelliousness, as Timanror had explained, but Roxa didn't really mind the isolation.
'For today I can rest at least.'
Before he could indulge in his silent meditation, however, a bright light entered his eyes through his closed eyelids. Roxa knew it could not be Timanror, as he would still be lamenting his losses for the rest of the day, maybe even the week. He wouldn't get anything to eat or drink either, so there was no reason for a guard to visit him in his cell. So who would visit a slave like him down here in his dark cell with no light? Plagued by curiosity, he opened his eyes and cast his gaze on the person behind the bars.
'A child?'
If he was not mistaken, the strange visitor was a human child aged 14, maybe 15. By human standards she was almost an adult, but in his eyes she was just a small child. What could someone like that be doing here? Had she sneaked past the guards and if so, why? But the girl did nothing more than stare at him in his cell. For a few seconds she stood there, silent, so that Roxa lost his interest and closed his eyes again.
'She doesn't even have anything to eat with her...'
"Is fighting fun?" she asked, tilting her head.
"Huh?"
'Is fighting fun?'
What was that ridiculous question about? And who was this girl anyway? She was definitely not one of Timanror's chosen servants who brought Roxa something to eat or took him out of the cell for his fights. Nor had he ever seen her in the arena, he was sure. Her eyes were almost as light blue as his and her long blonde hair reached her waist. Add to that her scrawny, starved body and the slave collar carved with Timanror's insignia. No, if he had seen her before, he would definitely have remembered her. Her collar, after all, revealed that she belonged to Timanror's property.
'But what is she doing here?'
"You can understand me, can't you?" she asked.
"Yes," Roxa grunted, nodding.
"Do you like fighting in the arena?"
"Who are you, little girl?" asked Roxa, completely ignoring her question.
"I asked first," she said.
She crossed her arms in front of his eyes and looked at him sulkily without averting her eyes for a moment. Were they really holding something silly like a staring contest until someone would give in? Roxa had no real intention of participating in something so silly, so he closed his eyes again and paid her no further attention.
"All right, I'll go first then," she pouted. "I'm Faera, a house slave of Timanror. And you are Roxa, the fearsome yokai?"
'Fearsome? What exactly do they say about me...'
He nodded. "Yes, I am Roxa."
"Somehow I had imagined you scarier than this. You sure are old. But scary?"
"Watch out who you call old. Soon you will be old, too. Time is passing by…." He responded. "What are you doing down here anyway, little girl Faera?"
'People like to tell stories, huh'
"Hmm."
For the first time since the conversation began, she averted her gaze from Roxa and held her left index finger to her lips. A few seconds later she closed her eyes as she replied smiling.
"I was curious and wanted to see the creature everyone was talking about," she replied, "But you seem more like a grandpa than a scary creature."
He saw no sign of a lie in her way of speaking and there was no other reason to doubt it, but that did not necessarily make the whole situation any more understandable to him. In all these years, no one had ever visited him, apart from Timanror and his personally selected servants. So why now and why such a young girl?
"You shouldn't linger too long," Roxa grumbled. "If your master finds you here, he will surely punish you."
Faera merely shrugged her shoulders.
"You are incredibly strong after all.... Why don't you free yourself? Is it true that your will has been broken?"
"Ha...hahaha!"
'This girl really doesn't mince words.'
The very thought that people believed they could break his will amused him immensely. If it weren't for the danger that his loud, resounding laughter would alert the guards, he would have broken out into it by now. But the risk of them discovering Faera was far too great, so he held back as best he could. This funny girl was at least an exhilarating change in contrast to the grumpy guards.
"And then what, little girl? When I have thrown off the chains that bind me, killed my pursuers and gained freedom, what then?"
"Is there nothing in the world that you want to see? Nothing at all?"
Was there a hint of disappointment in her voice? Roxa was not quite sure. He had never come into contact with human children before and therefore didn't really know how they thought or felt. But what he could answer to her question he knew all the better for it. It wasn't as if he didn't know what freedom was. He had been free for more than half of his life and explored the world. But whatever the world had to offer was taken away by the humans and Yokai in their eternal war. If there was only war and destruction out there anyway, what exactly was different from his life as a slave in the arena?
"I'm afraid this world has nothing more to offer me."
"That's a shame... you know, when I grow up, I want to be free and explore the world. See other cities and meet Yokai too. I'm sure that....."
Unasked, she rattled off to Roxa her entire list of dreams and goals she wanted to achieve in her young life. Among them were some wishes that he didn't know whether to laugh or cry about. But most of all, he didn't know what to do with this unexpected meeting. What exactly was her purpose here? Okay, she wanted to see if Roxa was really as scary a monster as everyone told each other. But now that she had seen that the rumours were not as true as she imagined, she suddenly opened up? It seemed she had no intention of disappearing for the next few minutes and instead babbled like an incessant waterfall, telling him about her dreams. To him, the Yokai who had given himself into human hands because he could no longer bear life in freedom.
"What's going on down there? Who's there?"
The voice came from the entrance of the dungeon.
"I must go now," Faera whispered "but I'll be back tomorrow, I promise."
She threw the torch to the ground in front of Roxa's cell and left the dungeon towards the guardroom. In all likelihood they would catch Faera, but she was unlikely to get much of a punishment. Maybe a few lashes, or extra work.
'Hmm.... How naive. But never mind. She'll be fine.'
Before his eyes, the torch burned brightly and only died down after a few hours. No one would approach his cell again for the day anyway. He had forfeited his right to get food with the short fight and apart from the guard who brought him food, there was no one else with a request. Everything was the same, except for this strange, little girl, who visited him out of curiosity. Not that it was a bad thing, yet it felt strange.
'She wants to visit me again, huh?'
In the days that followed, Faera had kept her promise and visited Roxa several times. Even if he didn't understand what she was actually doing, her presence was a pleasant change from Timanror and the guards who threw his food into his cell. She never missed a single day, even if the times always changed.