A faint hissing noise alerted me to the fact that my hearing was beginning to return in full, or so I hoped - it felt more like my head had sprung a leak and was losing air pressure, but the rational part of me assessed it as the result of temporary hearing damage from the explosion. The muffled remnants of a high-pitched voice began to filter through the white noise after a few moments, and I found it oddly soothing even though I couldn't quite make out any of the words.

There was a gentle touch on my shoulder. Forcing myself to look upward, I saw a silver blur through my heavy eyelids; it was the servant Lord Runax had brought with him. Had he left her here to watch over me? That was nice. For some reason, the thought of being left alone with my maimed opponent was unsettling.

I probably could have forced myself to get up and move around, but it didn’t seem like a good idea at the moment. As the adrenaline wore off, a profound fatigue began to set in, and soon enough even keeping my eyes open was impossible. Not wanting to be helpless in this strange place, I tried to enter a state of quasi-meditation that would allow my mind and body to recover while I retained a modicum of situational awareness.

It didn't work. The last thing I felt before the dark oblivion of sleep finally claimed me was the odd sensation of being carefully loaded onto a stretcher and taken away from the arena.

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I woke up floating on a cloud... no, wait... I hadn't died, had I? My sleep-addled mind struggled to comprehend my situation until I caught sight of the stone walls of the room I was in, bringing everything into perspective - I was on a massive canopy bed!

Shifting my weight back and forth on the incredibly soft mattress, I looked up at the white canopy draped with fine fabrics, wondering if it was a waterbed. But was that even possible... I had no idea that a civilization so primitive could make something so comfortable. The closest technological analog to my people that I could think of was the ancient Roman Empire, and I had no idea if 'Roman Waterbeds' were a thing or not. We were quite adept at stonework, maybe even better than the Romans, and we had basic plumbing, so who knows?

I rolled over with great difficulty (the price of comfort, I supposed), aiming to reach the edge of the bed. It was so soft and yielding that I almost felt like I was trapped in a warm snowbank, or maybe one of those foam pits that gymnasts use, yet my center of mass would never sink more than a few inches so I was in no danger of suffocation or getting trapped. It was not a pleasant experience...

I was slightly sweaty by the time I freed myself, with tiny droplets of moisture beading between my scales. I took a moment to catch my breath. Looking back at the bed that dominated the space behind me, I saw that it was nearly taller than I was, and it was wider than my parents' entire bedroom back in North Stone Village. Shaking my head, I looked down at myself; I had noticed during my struggle for freedom against the soft tyranny of the comfort monster that I wasn't wearing my own clothes. Now that I got a better look, it seemed like I was wearing the colors of House Flameward.

Bandages covered my body everywhere that had been scraped raw by my tumbles across the stone circle of the arena, and were especially thick around my arms. I didn't feel any pain, strangely, but it made me wonder why they made the bloody thing out of stone, anyway - dirt or grass would be far softer!

The room I was in was just slightly smaller than our entire house, with a ceiling so high that I doubted that even Jaws could reach it without standing on something. Rich tapestries adorned the walls with colorful depictions of beasts I had never seen before engaged in battle (and losing badly) against warriors wearing the armor of House Flameward. There were wardrobes and other pieces of furniture arranged around the room, overwhelming my senses and almost hiding the figure of a young girl with horns similar to mine kneeling on the floor...

"Ahh!" I exclaimed with a gasp when the figure shifted slightly, eloquently expressing my surprise as I did a double-take while jumping a half-step backward. I couldn't see much of her except for her hair and horns, since the rest was covered by her clothes, but she was too small to be an adult.

"Umm, hello?" I said cautiously, taking a step to the side to try and glimpse a hint of her face. Her hand came into view, and I could see that it was silver... oh!

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She still didn't look up. "Are you awake now?" she asked.

I wasn't sure how to respond... so I didn't. Instead, I took another step to the side and looked closely at her fine silver scales. They were much smaller than mine, which were rather well-defined and easy to notice, even at a distance, since each of my forest green scales was developing an individual raised ridge in its center. Nonetheless, between the horns and the scales she was the first person I had met with the same appearance as me, unless she was hiding a tail or something. Well, ok, maybe I was dark green and she was sterling silver, but aside from that, we looked very similar.

"Well, are you awake, or not!" she asked again, sounding slightly exasperated this time.

I felt silly for even answering such a weird question, but I decided to play along, "Umm. Yes? I'm Heller, by the way. Nice to meet you."

She looked up at me with a fierce glare; my first impression was of an incredibly detailed statue come to life. She looked to be about my age, maybe a few years older at most, and her features were quite stunning with her shining silver complexion.

"Finally!" she declared, standing up in a graceful wave as her body unfolded from its position on the floor like a ballet dancer... but the effect was immediately destroyed right after as she began to shake her limbs and stretch her back while grimacing in my direction. "Toad made me stay here as punishment, and forbade me from even looking up until I was certain you were awake." (She didn't actually say "Toad" as in the animal from Earth, but the type of creature whose name she used looked similar enough to a squat brown frog, or a toad, that I always thought of them as a cross between the two. It wasn't necessarily an insult, since many of my people had clear 'animalistic' traits that were just accepted as a normal part of life, but certainly wasn't respectful enough a form of address to use when referring to nobility.)

My eyebrows raised in surprise, "Punishment? Why would he punish you," I asked, my thoughts going to the crippled soldier I had left in the arena. "Oh, was it because you called him "Toad"? Did you get caught?" I speculated, pursing my lips as I inspected her fine features, having a hard time imagining anyone getting mad enough to punish her.

"What! Why would Uncle Toad care if I called him Uncle Toad, you beast-brained oaf!" she said energetically while frowning at me.

Ah, ok, there it was: I could see someone getting upset with her, now. I merely smiled, her comment instantly reminding me of Mother, which then made me start to wonder how my parents were doing. Judging from my lavish accommodations and the lack of bars on the door, I could only assume the 'test' had gone well, despite-

She clapped her hands to get my attention, startling me from my thoughts. "Hellooo! Are you still awake?" she asked. I must have spaced out, reminiscing about home.

"Ah, right. Well... since you never introduced yourself, which is quite rude, I decided to ignore you until you rectify your mistake," I said, just to see what kind of reaction I would get. I had sometimes seen Jaws bait my mother in a similar fashion (though not very often, as that wouldn't have been safe), and it was the first response that came to mind. I did my best not to smile.

The girl paused, her eyes wide as she gaped at me for a moment before stuttering, "Wha... oh, umm, I'm Tetra..." She seemed thrown off her game, and I suspect she might have even been blushing underneath her scales (being blush-proof was one of the nicer quirks that came with being 'differently-skinned').

I grinned at her reaction and gave a respectful gesture of greeting (which was something between a wave and a salute), "Then it is a pleasure to meet you, Tetra. Now tell me, why would this beast-brained 'Toad' of yours have wanted to punish you, here, at the foot of my bed?"

She gave a little gasp when I said "beast-brained Toad", her eyes widening once again as she glanced black at the closed wooden door to the room before hesitantly returning my greeting, "Oh! Umm, you probably shouldn't... I mean," she paused to cough, clearing her throat as she squared her shoulders, "I mean, it is nice to meet you too... Heller, right?"

I nodded, gesturing for her to continue.

Her frown returned, but this time I could tell it wasn't aimed at me. She stared into empty space as if recalling something unpleasant. "I... interrupted your duel," she said, meeting my eyes briefly before glancing away, "twice. And I'm supposed to apologize to you, and... and..." The fire had returned to her expression, "and that... filthy, beast-like, spirit-cursed..." she said, plainly struggling to keep herself under control. She cleared her throat again, shifting her weight from foot to foot as she looked back at me. "Anyway, I refused to apologize... though, maybe... maybe I could say sorry to just you, I guess..."

I found myself struggling as well, but for me the difficulty was in concealing my amusement. I wondered how old she was, because although she was a little shorter than me it felt more like speaking with a pre-teen than a six or seven-year-old child (like myself). My good humor faded at the mention of Alder, however, and I didn't know how to feel upon hearing that he was still alive.

Had he actually lost a hand in our fight!? I know what I saw, but part of me hoped that I had imagined it due to a head injury, seeing what I wanted instead of what was really there. My anger had long since abated, and I felt pretty conflicted about the whole thing... but the last thing I needed now was an enemy who could cultivate.