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((Urrgh, I'm totally not happy with this, but hey...least it's done, I guess.))



At first, Toby was certain he'd fallen asleep, and this was just another really nifty dream. But as he flexed his paws, feeling the dirt between his pads, and heard the rumble of beasts behind the walls, felt the warmth that radiated out from them and from the crowd with their deafening roar, he realized that this was something far beyond a dream.

Beside him in the twilight arena stood Iden, rudely interrupted in the process of finishing lacing up her corset. Red eyes widened in disbelief and chagrin, and she muttered as she hurried up the job, "Whatever this is, this.."

"...is so not cool." Iden wanted to back up, but there was nowhere to really back up to, except for the arena wall some distance away. She glanced around uncertainly, putting one booted foot back behind the other.

Toby saw his caretaker's uncertainty and barked at her, springing forward to n** close to her feet. Yes, yes go! Get back! She should go to the wall, out of the way of any harm, and stay there. Stay where she'd be less likely to be noticed by anything that meant her hurt. He could get in front of her there to protect her, if he had to, and nothing would be able to come up behind her.

But still she hesitated, and he growled, advancing on her, until she took the hint and started to back away, until her back was against the wall.

No sooner than this was done did one voice rise above the crowd, bringing it to silence without needing to request it; the tone simply demanded it. "The first battle begins now -- Tobler, face your opponent!"

A gate on the wall opposite Iden opened, and out stepped another dog. Half again Toby's size, the mastiff-like canine wore a spiked collar to protect its throat. As soon as it had stepped out, the gate closed behind it. Setting eyes on Toby in the center of the arena, it drew back its lips and snarled, then leapt forward in a charge.

Toby waited for it to come, waited until the very last moment to dash to the side, for he was smaller but more agile. As the mastiff steamed on by, the little dog sprang, launching himself onto his adversary's back. The spikes on the collar were large and menacing, but few and far between, so he was able to take hold of the leather between two with his jaws.

The mastiff slid to an ungraceful halt, bucking to try and throw off the smaller dog, but Toby held fast, scrabbling for purchase on the mastiff's back with his claws. He twisted his head around, but his fangs couldn't reach the velvet on his back. He bucked again and shook himself, but no amount of jostling succeeded.

Until, that is, until the collar finally snapped under the abuse, and both Toby and the collar were flung to the side. Now free from the hanger-on, the mastiff turned slowly to face Toby as he scrambled to his feet. It watched for a moment as he disentangled himself from the spiked leather strip, but before he was quite finished, began a second charge.

Now mostly free, but with the broken collar still hanging on his back, Toby poised himself to dart out of the way again before he could be plowed into, as though he would repeat his earlier maneuver. But though his attacker bore down on him and he tensed to move, instead of dodging, he threw himself sideways, directly into the charging mastiff.

The spikes of the collar that had been designed to protect his enemy were now turned against it, the mastiff's momentum carrying it into a deadly collision with the collar-draped velvet. Sharpened iron pierced wrinkled skin and the flesh underneath with a sickening ease.

Its forelegs fell out from under it and it stumbled and fell, flipping over and hitting the ground hard and skidding in the sand, leaving a furrow in its wake. In that furrow lay a panting Toby, relatively unharmed but bound to be sore in the morning.

After several moments of collecting himself, he got himself to his feet, shaking sand from his fur and turning his head to see that Iden was a-okay. Seeing that she indeed where he'd 'left' her, he gave her a panting grin and a hearty tailwag.

But no sooner had he seen a look of profound relief cross Iden's face did he hear the gate, opening once again, and into the arena padded a creature that was most definitely...not velvet-sized.

Had Iden been standing close, the black-furred, feline taur would have been looking down at her from it's nearly six feet of height. As the gate closed behind it, it surveyed its surroundings with a sentient but cold gaze, bright eyes falling on velvet and caretaker in turn.Toby couldn't help but stare in wonder for a moment, while his ears picked up an intake of breath and an amazed "Holy s**t" from Iden's direction, because here was a cheetaur. A real, honest-to-god cheetaur, straight out of a computer game.

The spell of wonderment that had fallen over them was broken, however, when the announcer's voice boomed out again. "You have done well, Tobler, but you are not yet finished. So you want to be a hero? Then try yourself; face the odds!"

The crowd erupted again, and the cheetaur reared up on its hind legs with a roar, and then charged...but not for Toby. As far as it was concerned, the little dog was inconsequential, and so it was the woman on the other side of the arena who became its target.

In the face of the hulking, clawed fury, Iden did the only sensible thing -- she ran. But in the arena, there was nowhere to run to, and the walls were smooth and would be impossible to scale.

Toby leapt into immediate action, springing into a dead run after the cheetaur, who'd given chase when Iden ran. For Toby, the world narrowed and focused in his anger; how dare anyone so much as think of harming his momma?! It didn't matter how big the threat was, or how dangerous, only that he had to help her. He had to save her.

Putting on a burst of speed, he just barely managed to catch up with the cheetaur, and took the first chance he had at doing something to stop it -- he latched onto its long, trailing tail with his teeth, biting down hard.

The cheetaur came to a yowling, sliding stop in the sand, whipping around to lash out at the painful canine nuisance with its wickedly-clawed forepaws. One struck Toby in the shoulder with enough force to send him rolling, forcing him to let go his hold on its tail.

Iden had turned when the cheetaur did, saw it strike Toby and send him rolling; and she saw the blood that stained a trail in the sand. She'd run before, but after that there could be no running -- except straight towards the cheetaur. She launched herself at it with a yell, landing on its animal back and clinging to its torso as the creature bucked and writhed, reaching back with its arms to try and claw her, pry her off, anything it could as the young vampire tried to sink her fangs into the side of its furred neck.

But all its twisting and clawing was nearly succeeding in shaking her off, and she had to spend all her efforts just on staying on its back.

Then all of a sudden, Toby was there, darting underneath the cheetaur to harry it from below. He jumped up, trying to bite at its soft underbelly, scraping the fur and flesh beneath with his fangs, but it was more distracting than effective.

The cheetaur whirled 'round, swinging its back half out of the way of danger. But Toby simply wouldn't be thwarted, and he dashed back underfoot, this time biting what was in reach -- its legs. He grabbed onto the back of one dark foreleg, and hung on even when it raised the leg to try and shake him off. But Toby wouldn't let go, until flesh tore and came away in his mouth.

The beast reared up again, and Iden threw her weight back, throwing its balance, and together they fell over backwards into the sand. Beneath the writhing weight of the cheetaur, Iden clung harder, tangling herself with it and trying to keep it down on the ground, flailing but ineffective.

With the creature downed, Toby rushed in again with a terrible snarl, intent on finishing this, and saving the 'damsel' -- who also happened to be his mother, in this case, but sort of in distress nonetheless. And this thing had tried to hurt her, and he couldn't have that. Oh, no, none of that.

Skirting around its dangerously flailing limbs, Toby sprang for the cheetaur's exposed throat with open jaws, closing them on flesh with all the force he could muster, before pulling backwards; he tore the beast's throat out, stilling its fight at last.

As he backed away from his vanquished foe with a limping step, Iden extricated herself from beneath the warm corpse. Once free, she simply sat beside it, while Toby gave her another of his panting grins, although this time his saliva was tinted with his enemy's blood. They shared a look, then both glanced to the fallen cheetaur before looking back at each other. As Iden's mouth curved into a fanged grin, and she set to pulling out the cheetaur's claws while the shouter's voice rang out one more time,

"A page must be well taught. He should know about horses, weapons, and armour. It's also important to learn to be a gentleman for the days of knighthood. A page must know how to read, write, and react with manners and social grace. Hunting and practicing your skills are also very imporatant. You'll be tested upon each of these skills next time we meet."