Rita's life was confusing to her. Everything had changed and yet...

"Lady Ry'ha! A proper orcess does not smile like that at her superiors. You are considered one of us thanks to the Prince, but your title is a kindness, not a necessity. We have gone over this a hundred times. Smiling with your fangs showing, as small as yours might be, is considered a sign of comfort and equality. You cannot do that at all during the tournament. You must keep your face neutral or angry at all times. Happiness is not an emotion they want to see in the Prince's new pet mage." Lirah, her only friend here, had taken it upon herself to try and train Rita to thrive. It was going worse than either had expected.

Back home in the human-controlled lands, a smile was considered polite. Here it could mean anything from derision to an outright insult. It had other connotations, but Rita was trying to forget how vividly Lirah had described those...

"I'm his pet mage? Wow. Way to boost my confidence before I go stand at his side for the next three days as every orc in the region pokes and prods me." Rita was tired of being told how she could and could not act. Her entire childhood had been one large performance on making her parents look good and now she was doing the same for some random stranger.

"Don't be a baby," Lirah accented her statement with a sharp punch to Rita's gut. It forced her to double over onto the stone floor of the small room they were hiding out in. Apparently, a moderate strength punch was a friendly gesture to orcs. With Rita's frail body, it felt more like an attempt at her life. Lirah continued her thought despite the pain she had just invoked, "Being his pet mage is a good thing. No one will 'poke and prod' you while you are considered his. That would be an insult to his power and if someone does it without him present to challenge them then you will have to."

"To hell, I will!" Rita placed a hand to her mouth in shame. She had let the outburst out without even a moment's thought and years of punishments, repressed emotions, and torment had her screaming at chastising herself in lieu of someone else here to do it. "I am so sorry Lirah, that was out of character for me. I only meant that I would stand no chance in a challenge against the type of orcs that will be arriving. They are all going to be far above my own measly level." She kept her eyes on the floor and avoided looking at the scarred but proud female in front of her.

"Why are you apologizing? That was the right response to being against something. If you do not stand up for yourself and your interests here then you will get walked over by every person you come across. polite nothings mean nothing. Ry'ha, you have to stop hiding your true emotions. Channel them. If some orc tries to mess with you burn his hand off or give him some of that snark. He can't fight back because of your level or he will be shamed. Use that to your advantage and make it count."

Lirah's big hand rested snuggly on her shoulder and the pressure was reassuring. Rita looked at her friend and felt so much for the orcess who had taken her in after her injury. She gave a big toothy smile and together they rose to return back to the mess hall. Lirah's chuckle was all she needed to hear to know she had used her teeth correctly this time.

It was hard to believe they had only been here about a week. She wasn't even sure it had been that long. Everything had been so stressful and without the cues from the sun, well, everything became a blur. "I am free at least and safe. What else matters?"

Small things did, but it was all manageable, and eventually, they would be able to escape and return back as adults with the freedom to chose their own paths. If nothing else the kingdom's adventuring team would come to rescue them once their time was up, so she just had to walk the line and survive until then. However, Horace was making all her plans a little more complicated. As she entered the public space from Prince La'Curk's private tunnel, she saw a bloody and marred Horace lying on the ground before their new master's feet.

She may be the 'pet mage' but at least she still had pride. Horace had become this new person overnight it seemed. His confidence had swelled along with his power, yet something seemed off about the boy she had traveled with. She lacked Aiden's people skills or any way to read the strange man before her, so she couldn't put a finger on what it was exactly that made her skin shiver when he was near. However, she trusted the gut instinct that told her to tread carefully.

It was this that was causing her so much torment. She wanted to keep everyone in the group alive if possible and was in a position to influence the Prince some, yet she wasn't sure if she should. Pushing too far could destabilize her own position or it could give rise to Horace as a rival should this feeling prove correct. Helping him too little or not enough could seriously impact her future and she was not positive on the best course of action. She had done what she could yesterday by talking Prince La'Curk into giving Horace a practice run before the tournament. Hopefully, that was enough. The way his dark eyes crinkled on his aged face when he turned to her made her feel better about her involvement.

Neither human could say anything to the other, but words did not need to express the feeling of comfort that arose from being near another of the same species. Rita was not sure if Horace was human any longer, still, he was the closest thing besides Aiden. She tried to let herself enjoy being around him and attempted to relax as she sat in her chair beside the Prince's throne.

Prince La'Curk wasted no time in started after she sat down. He gestured to his left at her with a wave of his sword. Rita kept herself from flinching as the breeze from its movement fluttered her hair. "Lady Ry'ha has requested an early performance by our newest fighter and I would hate to disappoint the gem in my growing crown. Horace the human, you will fight for her favor in the arena to the conditions of the upcoming tournament. You will fight both beast and brute without pause except by my own will. Winning will bring strength and loss with bring pain. I cannot have you dying pointlessly, so endeavor to remain alive for the upcoming festivities." With that, his sword was sheathed and he reclined languidly in his gilded throne without a care in the world.

Rita envied the mind of this Prince who could throw a man to the wolves without a thought. She was amazed to see only hunger in Horace's eyes and not the fear she expected. This certainly was not the boy she had known. Maybe that was a good thing. Her eyes found Lirah who looked approving of the change. It made her wonder if she should be resiting the monster inside of her or emulate Horace and let it out to play. Her new rage stat was an unknown and that scared her. "Maybe it should be me scaring everyone else for a change."

As she watched Horace face down a scrawny male orc without a bit of caution, she let her own anger at their situation surface. The heat and ferocity deep inside her colored her vision and made everything a bit more bareable. Cold detachment had always been more her mother's style. She did not want to lose control of who she was, but perhaps a little adjustment would be a good thing. After all, when she survived this she would no longer be someone's child, pet, or slave. She had to become her own person and that involved growing up.