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The Portal Games

A Short Vacation 1

Both Teams

"...Idols...right..." Sergino grunted. "Well, we won, so -"

"I've got one."

All eyes turned to Glyn as the timber wolf stepped forward, pulling an idol out from behind his back. Black Chaos slumped; everyone knew that an idol on the Whoopsie's side meant that they were getting a minimum of one person removed from their team, and considering they lost, that meant a double elimination if they couldn't save themselves.

At least, that was what everyone was thinking. Glyn stepped forward and held the idol out to the black dragon.

"I want to give this up for the sake of the truce."

"..."

"Just...don't make me regret it, eh?" Glyn said, looking over his shoulder. "Just a show of good faith."

He pushed the idol into Draconicon's hands, stepping back into the ranks of his team. Sergino looked like he was about to blow a blood vessel in his face, his white scales going a remarkable shade somewhere between purple and red, while Isabella hugged the timber wolf proudly. The rest of the team had slightly more mixed reactions, somewhere between happy for the peace but still remembering what the whole thing was about.

Draconicon looked at the idol, shaking his head. He lifted his other hand -

"Wait!"

Sergino stepped forward, axe in hand. The white dragon grumbled, muttering under his breath.

"Just...one second."

"...What do you want, Sergino?" Draconicon asked.

"Just...one fucking second."

Everyone expected the ice dragon to rage, but instead, he just held out the axe towards the idol. The blade twitched a few times, then went still once more. He nodded to himself, moving back among the ranks of his team. Draconicon waited, then, without further objections, snapped his fingers and made the idol disappear.

"Any other idols?" he asked.

Ailsa nodded, reaching down between her legs. She pulled a much wetter idol out from between her pussy lips, holding it out to the dragon.

"Giving up or using?" he asked.

"Using, for fuck's sake," the stingray said, shaking her head. "No elimination this round."

"...Clearly."

The stingray bit her lips, but didn't change her mind as she handed the idol over. Both teams looked at one another, and there were questioning expressions on many faces. What was going through the dragon's mind? They'd effectively dodged the penalties of the game this time around, and neither looked like they were going to suffer from it. But the dragon had been the one to call them all together, the one that had all the power to manipulate the game as he saw fit. Would he stay fair? Or would he punish them for this?

Eventually, the master of the game made the idol disappear just like the first one. He shook his head as he looked between the teams.

"Well...this does make things more complicated," he said. "Much, much more complicated."

"How, Mr. Draconicons?" Isabella asked.

"You're one arena away from the final area. I was hoping to have you at least down to eight by this point, but so far, only two of you have been kicked out...and nobody's leaving this time, either." He looked between the teams. "Three arenas, and you're both still almost at full strength."

Nobody said anything. Nobody dared, just in case they brought the dragon's full attention down on themselves. Eventually, the white-eyed dragon shook his head.

"I'm going to need to think about this. For now...I'm giving you a vacation. Some downtime to recover from what you've gone through, and some time for me to figure out how to keep this interesting."

"Um, Mr. Draconicons, we did, um, make a deal," Isabella pointed out. "Less competition, and -"

"I know what you did. It wasn't...expected, and I have to find a way to keep it fair without doing something cruel."

"..."

"For now, however, please go through the portal."

He waved his hand, and a new portal opened up. Rather than to another obvious arena, this one led out of the stone chamber into a city park. Green grass, well-groomed trees, and a fountain all greeted them, and there were various men and women passing back and forth across the grasses of various species.

"You'll come to my city for a little while. I think that will be for the best."

"Is Mchumba there? Jason?" Glyn asked.

"They're there, but you might not see them. They're a bit busy."

"Well, if we do, that'll be nice. How long do we have?"

"Twenty-four hours."

"That will be more than sufficient," Sanmer said, the fox rubbing his plant a bit as it started to stir once more. "And it should give me time to examine what's happened to me and my plant."

"It should. I'll see you in twenty-four hours, everyone."

The dragon disappeared, but the portal did not. Everyone looked at each other, then stepped through. As they did, the portal shifted again and again, dropping them off in groups and alone, each of them arriving somewhere slightly different...

Sanmer

The white-furred fox stepped out of the portal to find himself on the sidewalk of a wide street, but despite the modern concrete, the buildings around him were sheathed in chrome, reflective and modernized. He turned slowly in place, looking at the various cameras that shimmered as they swiveled around, at the windows and monitors on the sides of the buildings, the drones that went in and out of the windows and doors, and he slowly smiled. This? This was what he had been craving.

He walked slowly, his legs cracking slightly as the sand-mud-pants that he had been sheathed in - skin-tight, too - moved and cracked along with him. Along the knees, the dried mud was already half-cracked with his movement, but they were holding up well enough to actually qualify as clothing. For now.

As he stepped through the door of the first shop he found down the street, a mouse looked up at him. Sanmer gently pressed his hand to the plant coiled around him, keeping the tentacle tip from lunging at the clerk, and smiled as charmingly as he could. It didn't seem to work; the mouse just shook his head.

"Another victim, huh?"

"What do you mean?" the fox asked.

"Just saying, you look like you just escaped someone's peril trap."

"Does that happen often...here?" he asked, realizing that he didn't know the name of the city, or anything in it.

"Sometimes. Depends on the neighborhood," the mouse said, turning back to the computer on the right side of his desk. He tapped the screen a couple of times, obviously scrolling through something. "You get used to it out here. Considering we're more or less gadget central here, it's usually some sort of mind-zonking thing, or random device bondage, but we get lots of random shit, too."

"I see..."

"Are you looking to buy, or just get out of the sand pants there?"

"Well, there is the slight problem of not having money..."

"...Okay...so how did you expect to pay for anything?"

"Ever had a mad scientist play with your stuff?"

"All the time."

"Any of them trade upgrades for gear?"

"...Sometimes."

"Can we?"

"...How good are you?"

"I'm Sanmer. I'm the best."

"Never heard of you."

"You will."

Two hours later, the fox had not only gotten his scanner recharged - finally - but he had also gained a couple new toys. He had a hover-pot for his plant, which was something of a relief so that it could follow him as it wanted, and had managed to get a ten-shot mind-zapper. It wasn't good enough to actually zonk someone into a mind-controlled state, but it was good enough to make someone have a moment of total forgetfulness. They could be easily reminded of what they'd been doing, but it would mean that they'd have that moment of being completely off-guard, off their game, and he knew that would be useful in the final round.

If he got that far. He hoped he would.

As the white-furred fox walked out of the shop, he made his way around the corner into an alley. Turning his fully-charged scanner towards his sand-pants, he set it to running a proper scan of it, all while his plant was stroking him with its various fronds and tendrils.

"Don't worry. We'll have some fun again soon," he told it, rubbing its long stem. "Just give me a minute."

It swayed in its silent fashion, and the scanner beeped. He flicked the read-out up so that he could get a better look, nodding to himself.

"Lots of silicone mixed with the sand, semi-conductive - oh. And half-merged with my nerves. Huh. That's...concerning."

But interesting. It meant that there was a way of conducting electricity and signals through that, and that in turn meant that there might be a way to turn himself into something of a computer with the right sort of interface and the right sort of signal strength. He tapped his chin -

The plant grabbed him by the balls, pulling on them gently. He turned to it, and a tendril opened up slightly, running up along his thighs.

"Alright, alright. I guess I've made you wait long enough. Go ahead. You can milk it."

The plant eagerly did just that.

Tarin and Isabella

Oddly enough, the demon-possessed deer and the spirit-talking pangolin were dumped out on the beach, well away from the rest of their respective parties. The black-furred deer landed on his hooves, while Isabella face-planted right into the sand. He looked down at her, one eyebrow raised.

"I continue to wonder how you became team leader...and then you keep proving that you deserve it."

"Ptooey."

"And then you make sounds like that, and you sound like a child."

He helped her to her feet, the pair of them walking down the beach. Not hand in hand, not like some of the others there on a date, but merely as a pair of acquaintances.

They could not have been more different. The dignified deer and the half-skipping, half-jumping pangolin; the austere agent and the giggling spirit-speaker; the possessed and the free.

And yet, there was one thing that did link the pair of them. They were both very, very curious.

"I am...curious what you came from, considering the way that you've handled your team thus far," Tarin said.

"Hmm? Oh, I came from a place where spirits were all around us. Lots of different spirits, lots of nice ones. Couple not-nice ones, too, but most of them are good. Just a lot of people that try and pretend that they don't exist, which doesn't work. They don't like that," she said. "But it's mostly just...nature."

"Nature, hmm? With the things you've done -"

"Oh, I don't do anything. I just ask the spirits to help out, and they do the things."

"Right...it's still magic, though, isn't it? And magic is just one more tool to control people."

"I guess, but that's if you count magic as anything that we don't do with science or ourselves, right?"

"..."

"I mean, isn't magic just anything that isn't our own physical labor?" she asked, her eyes everywhere but him, dancing from the people to the shiny shells on the beach to the occasional ship going by on the water. "If I made a sword with science, but asked it to dance, and it did, would that be magic, or would that be science?"

"..."

"You're very quiet."

"And you're very strange," he said.

Silence returned, and they walked on, Tarin slightly more self-consciously than Isabella. They were, after all, quite nude, and there were a number of eyes on them as they walked down the beach. Some of them were appreciative, some curious, but there was no denying that quite a few people stared at the curvy pangolin and the muscular, if slender, deer. Neither of them covered themselves, but there was the occasional blush on the deer's face.

There was, also, a little twitch in his fingers, something that pulled at him. He slowed, one hand reaching for Isabella's neck for a moment, but before contact could be made, he stopped himself. The deer gripped his wrist, clenched his teeth, and shook his head before continuing.

"I wanted to ask. Why did you make the truce? It's not like you were losing; why would you want to make a truce that leaves you at a disadvantage?"

"I just don't like fighting."

"It was less fighting, and more competition."

"I don't think so. Ailsa and the rest of you guys were getting kinda mean," Isabella said, shaking her head. "I don't like playing mean. I can, but I don't like it."

"Is that what you called it when you started stealing water and manipulating things last round?"

"No. I call that taking one glove off. I still kept the other glove on. And I don't want to have to takes it off."

The deer's red eye arched slightly as Isabella turned to face him. She looked surprisingly earnest as she looked at him.

"I know that Mr. Draconicons isn't super happy about it, but I don't like playing means. I thought we could have fun. You know? Be happy, do adventures, see cool things. But things were getting worse and worse. You guys tried to space us in the last adventure, and Ailsa's got a gun. She could shoot us. Sure, maybe Mr. Draconicons can keep us safe, keep us from dying, but if one team's willing to go as far as killing -"

"I don't think she would ever take it that far."

"No? Maybe not, but there's still what Mchumba might have done if she got angry enough, or what the demon in you might do."

"..."

"Or anything else that could be a temptation. So, I wanted a truce. Something to make it safe and nice for all of us, so there's no bad stuff that can hurt us."

Tarin shook his head, but didn't argue. Perhaps the deer didn't know what to say, or perhaps there was nothing to say to that. Either way, the pair of them looked away and got back to walking. There was much to see on the beach, and more to explore elsewhere in the city when they got bored with each other.

Glyn and Lykus

It was, perhaps, completely unsurprising that the two biggest perverts of the group were dropped off together, and less surprising that they were put off in the park. They landed in the fountain, their fur soon soaked to their skin, and they laughed as they got to their feet and shook it out.

"Heh...so, I get you, huh?" Glyn asked, smiling as he looked the striped wolf up and down. "Been looking forward to this."

"You and me both - oh, oh. Hang on. Haaaaang on," Lykus said, patting his chest and hips down. "Just one second. If we're here instead of in the competition right now - where did I put that thing?"

"What thing? Your deck?"

"Oh, it's probably with it, isn't it?"

"What are you -"

"Hang on. You'll love this."

The striped wolf grinned as he pulled a golden coin from the pouch at his hip, holding it aloft. He tossed it in the air, and as it came down, a red-furred arm lunged out from his normal, dark-furred one, seizing it as it came back down.

Glyn yelped, almost falling head over heels in shock, and the timber wolf's eyes only went wider as he watched a red-furred demonic wolf step out of Lykus's body. The card sorcerer giggled, only to stumble forward into the timber wolf's arms. Glyn caught him, of course, while the demon wolf chuckled and shook his head.

"Don't worry about that. He'll be fine in a minute; he's just used to me being in him and giving him energy," the demon said.

"What...how..."

"Just consider me a mental roommate of his." The demon wolf smiled, pocketing the coin. "I'm Azorious...and I have someone else to find. If there's still time at the end of the vacation, I'll come back for you, but for now, there's a certain ice dragon I want to talk to."

"Uh..."

"Ta."

The demon wolf shimmered into a cloud of red dust, floating away in fumes and particles. It was quite the dramatic display, and would have been rather awe-inspiring if it wasn't also just a little concerning. Glyn sputtered, shaking his head as he held the slightly shaky Lykus in his arms.

"Surrounded by a bunch of weirdos, like usual," he muttered. "Magic here, magic there, magic everywhere. What the hell is a normal guy supposed to do?"

"Mmmm, suck dick?" Lykus said with a giggle.

"Nah, I think that's your job."

"We can do that together."

"Hmmm, been a while since I 69'd someone."

"Come on. Let's have some fun, and then get some ice cream."

"...I can go with that," Glyn said, laughing.

Without a care in the world for the audience watching them from all around the park, they waded through the fountain to the stone rim that surrounded it. A coin-flip later, Lykus laid on his back and Glyn straddled the other guy's face. He looked down at the dark dick rising to meet him, resting his fingers against the shaft, feeling it pulsing and throbbing already. It was quite a hefty cock, though it seemed slightly smaller than he remembered. Maybe Azorious had been contributing an inch or two to the throbbing thing in the past.

"You good down there?" Glyn asked as he rested his balls on the other wolf's muzzle.

"Mmm, yep. Nice and musky down here."

"I've been running around in the desert. Are you surprised?"

"Mmm, nope. But I love it."

The first long lap had his dick rising, and he smiled as Lykus pulled his sac right past his lips. He lifted his head, looking around at their audience, a couple dozen men watching them. Some of them were even hard from the show, already.

Well, might as well enjoy it.

He smiled as he lowered his head to the shaft in front of him, pulling the already-soaked tip past his lips. It was musky, salty, and all the lovely flavors that a cock was supposed to have. He sighed to himself, slowly pulling it further and further past his lips, gradually grinding back and forth so that his cock could get some attention from the other wolf's chin fur. Lykus was moaning happily under him, and he couldn't help but think 'oral-slut.'

He imagined that this was going to be round one of at least three. He couldn't imagine Lykus being satisfied with just one, after all, but ice cream would be a nice break between them.

Sergino

The ice dragon wasn't keen on the new heated area, but at least it wasn't as hot as the desert. Still vaguely tropical, but in the southern direction from it, not too hot, and not quite requiring the collar that he'd been given. He had been dropped out on a red-lit street surrounded by scantily-dressed men and women, surrounded by the smell of houses of 'ill-repute' as some of the matriarchs would have called it, and he shook his head.

It was time to go to work.

"Anything?" he asked the axe.

Hellaxe shifted in his grip, the once-icy blade lifting up and twitching as it 'smelled' the air. It had done the same thing when he had held it over the idol when Glyn had handed it over - he couldn't believe the timber wolf had done that - and had hoped for the best. After all, the idols had looked quite similar to each other, and if he was lucky, they would have a similar 'scent' that the axe and the demon inside could track.

It twisted back and forth before eventually 'pulling' him further down the street. Either it had a hunger for something else down there, or it had picked up on an idol. He hoped the latter; it felt wrong to have a round where nothing happened.

And if the other side really cared about the truce, rather than just taking advantage, he felt like they would have at least allowed the loss of the round to count. Fucking - he shook his head, putting the anger out as much as he could. Not much, not nearly enough, in his opinion, but it was better than nothing.

Sergino wandered down the crimson streets, occasionally looking from side to side at the different performers under the red lights. They were seldom completely naked, though there were some that were. He saw that there were men, women, and those that straddled the line between the two, as well as those that exaggerated their features to such extents that he could scarcely understand them. There was one woman that stand with her ass so billowed out that she had become her own chair, her legs spread to show off a pair of holes that would require an elephant's size to reach past her curves, and a man whose cock was more of a liquid tap than it was a rutting tool. He saw those that had altered their equipment to be more bestial, more exotic, more filled with options for stimulation.

He saw everything, and it was overwhelming.

Keeping his head down, he walked along until one such figure reached out and touched his shoulder. He turned, looking at a fat-cheeked iguana woman that seemed a little older, perhaps in her forties. She was dressed in a set of red lingerie that looked cheap against her faded green scales, and she smiled with a needle in one hand and a cigarette in the other.

"Care for a bit of fun, hon?" she asked.

"I'm not looking for that."

"Oh, really? Someone down in the Red-Lights not looking for a lay? Just looking to get seen, eh?"

"..."

"No shame in that, hon," she said, taking a puff before blowing it out over her shoulder. "But if you're gonna show off, people are gonna ask. And whether you want to use your cunt or give yourself a cock for a few hours, there's things to enjoy here."

"...Are you offering magic, grandmother?" he asked.

"No, just drugs, heh. And grandmother, huh? That your type?"

"Not really."

"Nah, didn't figure. Ah, well. Can't blame an old gal for trying." She patted his shoulder. "Take care, hon."

She walked off, swaying her exaggerated curves in an exaggerated way, and he honestly didn't know if he had been propositioned for cash or for some more personal reason. The ice dragon shook his head, trying not to be as self-conscious about showing off his pussy as he was, and continued down the street.

Hellaxe kept pulling him along, only to stop three intersections down as it suddenly went limp. He paused, looking down at it as the blade turned and twisted, looking backward. Sergino looked over his shoulder, as well.

A red-furred wolf with a dick that went all the way up to his chin was on the approach, and he stank of demon smoke and musk. Sergino narrowed his eyes, slowly turning around as the stranger walked right up to him.

"Mmm, you look better in person," the wolf said. "Much better than looking through Lykus's eyes."

"What are you?"

"I'm Azorious, and I'm looking for a good time. Want to be one?"

"Not particularly."

"Then perhaps you want to have one."

"After I find what I'm looking for."

"Then I guess we have a common goal. We'll look together...and then we can see if you can fit this big guy inside you."

Sergino looked down at the demon's cock. This Azorious was beyond well-hung, but it was something...interesting, at least. And a little help would not go amiss. Though he said he came from Lykus, that didn't mean the demon was on the same team...and they might be able to make a deal.

"Come along, then."

Jaden and Sarah

The orca and the T-Rex popped out at a bus stop, of all places, but the orca seemed rather relaxed about it. He paused, looking around, and sighed in relief as he sagged into himself. He held out his hands, and he seemed to clasp invisible hands, holding them tight as Sarah gathered herself behind him.

"Something in the air?" she asked.

"The spirits here are...friendly. They want to be with people. This place of transit attracts all kinds of guests, and they want to talk. A lot."

"Heh. I guess that makes sense. As much as any of the spirit stuff makes sense."

She looked at him as he seemed to release a great deal of tension. The orca stood taller, less bowed under by the weight of the knife, and she shook her head.

"That thing was taking it out of you, wasn't it?"

"...I need to get it back. I don't know what they'll do with it, but it won't be good."

"Deals upon deals, huh?"

"It wants to make deals...it wants to...spread," Jaden said, shaking his head. "But if we can separate the two of them - but they don't want that. It's just one more tool, one more thing that they can use to win."

Sarah shook her head, taking a seat on one of the metal benches. She shifted from side to side, rubbing some sweat from her forehead. Eventually, Jaden looked back at her.

"And you..."

"Yeah, I made a bit of a deal, too. Got a djinn riding in me, still."

"Is he..."

"A little annoying, but mostly he just wants to see things. We made a good deal. Pretty much. He's just curious about...all this," she said, chuckling as she gestured at her chest and her ass. "All the difference in being in a weird body."

"He isn't..."

"Nah. He's curious, he's asking, but it's not that bad. Just kinda like having a fire inside all the time. It's good for cold environments, but it's murder right now."

"...I can..."

Jaden held out his hand, and Sarah chuckled. The T-Rex patted the bench beside her, and the orca sat down with her. They weren't quite of a height, but they were close, even though she loomed a little taller than he did. She put an arm around his shoulder, her cock bouncing slightly as she talked.

"Look. I understand you want to help. I'll take it if it gets bad, but for now, it's fine. We made a contract, and it'd be a pretty rotten thing for me to try and duck out of that. What would happen to my reputation if I did? I'd be in breach of contract in the worst way, and anything that the djinn wanted to say about me would be pretty justified at that point.

"I don't necessarily like it, but considering the terms we got - a skiff, a way for me to stay warm even in the cold times, and all that - dealing with someone else wanting me to get a little fuck-stupid from time to time isn't that bad a deal. I just need to find a way to deal with that. So, if you're offering to help take care of that, I'll take you up on the deal, but if you want to just evict him? That's a little more than I can agree with right now."

"...I understand. You have a good sense of honor."

"I just have an overdeveloped sense of integrity. You make a deal, you keep it. If you're not smart enough to make a good deal, then that's on you."

The orca nodded, leaning against her. She gave him another one-armed hug, looking around.

"So, how many spirits are around right now?"

"About twelve," he said.

"How many of them like the show they're getting from you and me?"

"Um...most of them."

"Heh. Good. We'll make an exhibitionist out of you -" Sarah paused, slapping the back of her head. "Wow, that was a horny moment. Sorry about that."

"...It's okay. It's nice to be around someone proud of themselves like this."

Ailsa

The stingray popped out in a buffet line, and after the initial shock of landing feet-first in the mashed potatoes, she managed to get used to the idea of being naked around so many other hungry people.

Admittedly, it helped that none of them really reacted to her nudity. She didn't know what this dragon's city was like, but there seemed to be no shame in going naked to different parts of the city. She hesitated before getting a plate, wondering if someone would stop her, make her get dressed, or anything like that, but whatever was going on, it seemed to be just part of the daily thing for the average citizen of the city. The most she received was some eyeing up of her ass, her breasts, or the tips of her dicks that were just starting to poke out from all the staring, and even that was mostly just a casual looking-over rather than a disdainful stare.

Back in the marines, she'd enjoyed getting to show off in the shower from time to time, but this was something else. Walking naked up and down the food aisles, seeing different dishes that she had only vaguely imagined back at boot, being completely on display the whole time, felt as surreal as some of her dream fantasies. For a few seconds, it was easy to forget that she had been in the middle of a competition before being sent here.

That lasted just as long as it took for her to find a table. Even as she sat down, putting a plate of calamari, lobster, noodles, and various forms of fried rice in front of her - it was all meant to give the booze later something to soak into - she was joined by someone else. Another stingray, as improbable as it was.

She looked up and saw, well, herself. She blinked, her mouth falling open as she was joined by another stingray with white hair, purple-lavender patterns on their body, dark eyes, and a grin that could go almost all the way around her head. They held each other's gaze for a moment or three, then the other stingray chuckled.

"Well, it's nice to meet myself."

"What do you mean?" Ailsa asked.

"Well, a version of me. I'm Ailsa, and you're Ailsa, yeah?"

"...Yeah?"

"Yeah. There's a number of us. Multi-verse sort of shenanigans. I'm not prime, but I'm close enough to it."

"You're kidding me. Were you -"

"Nah, the marines thing was kind of a weird one. Not all of us went into that."

"Did you stay in the kitchens?"

"Thought about it, but no. I had something else happen. Kind of a magi-tech thing."

"Cool."

"It was pretty interesting. Pretty fun. Would have liked a few more things there, really, but then my master came and got me."

"Master?"

"Drac. The guy running your games."

"Ah. Him."

Ailsa - the marine Ailsa - nibbled on some of the lobster. Considering it was from a buffet line, she'd had some low expectations for it, but it was actually pretty good. Not as good as the wok-fried stuff that she'd tried before, but pretty close. She had a few bites before continuing.

"So, what brings you down here? Just to say hi?"

"Heh, not quite. I'm thinking of maybe giving you a little help."

"Help, huh?" She arched an eyebrow. "If you're me, then you have a reason to offer that."

"Nah, I just like to help myself. And you're part of myself."

"Uh-huh..."

"And besides, it's not like you won't look a little better with a few parasites in you."

Ailsa coughed, sputtering as some of the lobster came back up. She managed to swallow it again, but had to put her fork and knife down. She dabbed her lips with her napkin.

"Come again?"

Kotone

The ninja mare ended up at the base of a massive tower, one that seemed to loom over the rest of the city. She took a moment to look at it, glanced around her surroundings, and made the guess that this was the place that the game master lived in. Shaking her head, she stepped through the front door, ignored the various eyes following her and her bare rump, and walked up to the desks at the far end of the room.

"Does a dragon named Draconicon live here?" she asked the panda that stood behind the desk.

"Ah. You would be...Kotone, correct?"

"Yes."

"He's expecting you. You may take the regular elevator on the right. 22nd floor."

She nodded, walking to the metal door that he'd pointed out. It opened into a cube, and - taking a guess as to how it worked - she found the button labeled '22' and pressed it.

One small vibration of a trip later, the doors opened onto a series of glass-walled, silent offices. Each one was large enough for more than twenty people, and each one was at least half-occupied. No sound escaped the glass walls, and they only tentatively glanced at her before looking away, despite the smiles on their faces.

At the far end of the floor was the office with the dragon, and Kotone crossed the room quickly. The aphrodisiac that had been affecting her in the desert was gone, and she moved with purpose and no hesitation.

As soon as she opened the door, the dragon nodded at her.

"I've seen not everyone is entirely happy with the way that things are going," he said.

"Who else?"

"That's up to them whether to say. Sit down?"

Doing so, she looked at him. The dragon was quiet, less smirking than he had been. At a guess, she'd imagine that he was conflicted, somewhere between a childish sadness and adult confusion. At any rate, he was not the strong figure that had been holding forth and running the games at the beginning. He looked at her for a moment, then looked away.

"Why do you dislike what's going on?" he asked.

"I have fighting skills, and little more. There are things I can do, I suppose, but the truce has rendered me...redundant. It is unlikely that I will survive many more rounds, now that there is no more need for a fighter."

"Is that all?"

"It is...a little painful to be told that you are no longer needed. I have served as best I know how; my mistress has since decided that she does not wish me to serve in this capacity any longer. When that is all I can do, it is difficult not to feel...devalued."

The dragon nodded. He waved his hand, a glass of water appearing on the table. She took it, swallowing hard. It helped her throat feel less clenched.

"Do you want the danger back?" he asked. "The competition?"

"I know how to handle that. I do not know how to handle this. The truce feels as if there is no way to prove yourself in the competition any longer. At least in the past, there would have been a chance to earn your way forward, to prove that you belonged, to avoid a vote. Now, everyone will be making their decisions before the halfway point."

"And the free for all after..."

"That is the only saving grace. We only have to have the truce for one round. If we can survive that, then it is everyone for themselves."

"And anyone that loses is on the jury to decide the winner," the dragon said. "Eliminate most of one team, and they'll be voting for their own members rather than yours. Eliminate some of your team, and the votes can be shifted. It will depend on who is out by the time the final vote happens."

It was a consideration that she wasn't sure anyone had actually thought of yet. It meant that there was a come-back possibility for a team that wasn't doing well during the early stages. If they lost a lot of people early, then they started stacking the deck for the voting at the end. A member of the other team could still win, but it would no longer be so easy. She tapped her fingers against the table.

"Do you...plan to interfere with the truce?" she asked.

"...I'm considering what I want to do," the dragon admitted. "It's not an easy thing."

"I wish you luck with your decision."

"Thank you. I'll need it." He shook his head. "Was that all?"

"I wanted to know where we were going...and I needed to say something to someone."

"I understand. You can go."

Kotone nodded, getting back to her feet. She walked to the door, paused, then looked over her shoulder.

"You may look, if you wish."

"I already have."

"Then look more. You summoned us for a show; you may as well enjoy it."

And with that, she walked out, taking her time to make her steps more exaggerated, to linger on her toes for a longer time, and just...show off. After all, it was meant to be enjoyable, and best to keep the master of the game on her side.