The Arena novel Chapter 4

I don't know why Cedric is so damned hardheaded. I've been marked for death. Nothing that he does will keep me alive. If I were capable of shifting, I would have months ago and gotten everyone out of here.

"Did you hear any more about that dragon shifter?" I ask him, wondering why, if they found another dragon, they weren't in the pits today.

"No, maybe it was a misunderstanding, and they were talking about the pride of lions, or maybe they knocked the dragon out and haven't woken yet."

"Yes, but then, wouldn't that be the fourth in our fight next weekend?" I ask.

"I haven't smelled a dragon," Shere Khan says, looking at me meaningfully. Shit, does that mean he knows what I am?

"You know what a dragon smells like?" Cedric asks him.

"Yes, but unlike other shifters, they don't share a similar scent based on their breed. It depends on their element," he replies.

"What do you mean, their element?" Cedric asks.

"Do you not know anything about dragons?" he asks, looking at me again.

Cedric shakes his head no.

"Dragons fall into one of four elements: fire, water, air, or earth. Depending on what element they were born into, their scent will be different, smelling similar to their element," he replies.

"How do you know so much about the Elemental Dragons?" I ask him.

"I met the Earth dragon before I was captured. An interesting fellow."

"You’re friends with a dragon?" Cedric asks.

The tiger shrugs. "As friendly as two loners can be."

"What was he like, the dragon?" Cedric asks him. I know Avani. His earthy nature makes him stubborn and unbending. I can see why he and the tiger hit it off.

"Dragons are different than us, than other shifters. They don't have a dragon spirit; they are the dragon. They've evolved to shift into a human form because they've been hunted nearly to extinction. Last time I checked, there were less than 10 in the world." He’s looking at me again. Most of those were my family. We were able to hide more easily because we could live in volcanos, a place where humans can’t go. But now, I am all that is left of the fire dragons.

I shake my head at him. I see his lips thin into a tight line. He understands that my family is gone.

We hear the last of the chiefs leave, the lights turning off. Not that it matters; as shifters, all of us have excellent night vision. The lights are for the humans.

We wait another 15 minutes to make sure everyone is gone before I turn to the tiger. “So, what’s your idea?”

“We stage a coup,” he says as if that explains everything.

“Excellent idea. Why didn’t I think of that?” Cedric scoffs, and I have to admit, it’s not like we’ve never given it any thought. But we’re all stuck in these cages. How can we overthrow the leaders and get everyone out?

“I’m not following your logic, tiger. And do we get a real name now?” I ask.

“My name is Ishir. I never shared it because it makes it harder to kill and be killed. And think about it. We will be the main event. They will have us in our cages for hours, but we’ll be outside of this space where they pump the air full of whatever keeps us from being able to shift. We’ll be stronger.” He says, watching our reaction.

“Not only that,” he continues, “but there will be four of us. If we can get the lion to agree, rather than killing each other, we’ll have four nearly fully functioning shifters able to fight back. We can begin to take out the leaders and the keepers. Someone will have to get back down here to open the gates, but once the doors are open…”