Xaxac spent the rest of the day in a whirlwind following along behind Agalon as he moved briskly from one activity to the next. Everyone seemed to be interested in his opinion, and Xac clung to him when he could, and when he couldn’t he learned to stand silently with perfect posture, mimicking Lee’s movements, which normally meant just standing up straight behind Agalon and the action somewhere with one hand folded in the small of his back and the other fisted over his heart.

He didn’t understand what he saw, and he didn’t really understand why Agalon was needed for most of the things he did. He didn’t really say much about any of the things he was supposed to be judging, he just walked around with a stack of papers attached to a piece of wood and made noises of approval or disapproval, while a rotating arrangement of other earth elves who seemed much more interested in each subject said things that he could make those noises in response to. As a result Xac found most of it as boring as Agalon seemed to. Animals were cute, but they were all posing in small cages and couldn’t do much that would be of interest to anyone. None of the baked goods were offered to Xac, and would likely have made him sick. Nobody even ate any of the canned foods, they just picked them up, looked at them, shook them sometimes, and then talked amongst themselves.

But then they entered a tent and Xac felt his heart soar.

Rows upon rows of quilts and blankets were draped over display racks, and when Lee moved away to stand, as they had been doing, at a respectable distance, Xaxac stayed where he was, clinging to Agalon’s side, and no one tried to move him. He was careful not to bother Agalon’s free movement, so he could still glance at the papers in his hand, but Agalon still looked bored, and didn’t seem as if he cared whether or not Xaxac stayed with him.

Everything they looked at was beautiful, but Xaxac’s eyes were drawn to one quilt in particular, in the middle of the exhibit.

It was perfect, in a technical sense. None of the seams were visible, it was pleasingly and perfectly shaped with edges so straight Xaxac didn’t understand how it had been done.

But it was… ugly.

Someone had used their skill, their unquestionable skill, to form a creature that would haunt the dreams of those who were prone to nightmares. A creature stood in the middle of the quilt, while a war ranged on behind her full of intricately created soldiers that should not exist. There were Urillian soldiers, earth elves in the armor Xaxac was used to in a bright, matt green- but they were fighting creatures of every imaginable type. In particular, Xac’s eyes were drawn to a tower, on top of which stood a man who was unmistakably human with his short ears and beard-

Holding a mage staff.

There were more humans on the battlefield, alongside elves with blue skin and hair the color of sea foam, and more monsters, like the one who took up most of the quilt.

She was hideous; her form was nearly human, or perhaps nearly elven, except that she did not have two legs, but one long tail embroidered with shimmering scales. Her blue-grey skin was covered in growths that resembled tumors or, Xac believed because he perhaps did not have the maturity level he had thought he did, nutsacks. Her long green hair seemed to be made of seaweed, and under it more growths were visible on her deformed visage. Her eyes stared out in horror, like a fish out of water, and she stood with her hands outstretched; Xac could see the webbing between them stretching to the second digit.

The juxtaposition of the artist’s skill with the image they had decided to create made Xac feel emotions that he didn’t understand. If someone had the ability to create something like that, why not bring beauty into the world? Why make it worse?

“Sakala again,” the elven woman Agalon was walking with said after she read a tag attached to the quilt, “I don’t know why anybody enters against her.”

“Pretty accurate for somebody who wouldn’t there,” Agalon said, and with a chuckle added, “finally an artist that didn’t put Xandra in it. Wonder which one I am.”

“We gotta finish the rounds,” the woman said, “at least put in an effort.”

“Well,” Agalon shrugged, “there’s still a run for second place.”

Xaxac stood with his hands behind his back as Agalon read over the papers in front of him and glanced around the stable. Things were much more quiet now, and Xac rolled his eyes as Lee took his right hand by the wrist and guided it over his heart.

“I know how to do it!” Xac hissed.

“Watch your attitude,” Lee said, “I swear, bein around Alex makes you worse.”

“I like Alex,” Xac whispered.

“Billy, you got me nervous,” Agalon said, “You’re slow, been slow all day.”

“Master, this ain’t even worth worryin about,” Billy huffed, “I can fly through-”

“I know you ain’t worried about it!” Agalon snapped, “I can tell. You can’t half-ass the preliminaries on account of you got a big head. Give um a show. Don’t let your guard down. Just cause you can take a hit don’t mean you need to. Don’t get sloppy. You been sloppy all day.”

Lee walked away from this conversation, and Xaxac wondered if he should follow him, because most of the humans were walking towards the door, but as he glanced around he saw there were a few, like himself, holding their positions, and their dress told him that they all had the same job, whereas the butlers were walking. So he stayed where he was and watched the sky turn orange over Lee’s head.

He was starting to get hungry again and wondered when they would have dinner.

The butlers began to jostle and move, but Xac couldn’t see past them to see what they were doing, but whatever it was apparently Lee was the quickest at it, because he came hurrying back carrying two more wooden tokens, which Agalon took greedily.

“Alright boys,” Agalon said, “Let’s move out. Billy, Wyatt, come on, the rest of y’all can watch if you can find anywhere.” He started to walk, quickly, toward the door, followed by Lee, Wyatt, and Billy, so Xac took off after them. As he jogged to catch up to Agalon so he could hang off his arm, he caught something- Billy was, uncharacteristically, smiling at him.

He liked winning fights.

He liked being famous.

Xaxac thought he was finally in his element, finally happy, and smiled back at him before snuggling into Agalon’s side. They walked around the tents and behind them, heading for the place where the horses had raced earlier in the day, but the field had changed. The outter gate was the same, and humans were sitting around on the grass, as they had before, but the inner gate… the track had been replaced by more benches, and they were all full of earth elves. And in the middle of the track, where the loud man had been standing for the race, a tall metal fence had been erected with two gates on either side.

Xaxac clung to Agalon as the group made their way not, as most of the earth elves were going, to sit down, but past the crowd and in through a gate guarded by another of the grizzly looking elves, past the benches, until they came to a small area behind one entrance of the cage. So many benches had been added that they pushed almost up to the cage, and the space between had a few people standing, milling around. Xaxac recognized two of them, the loud man from before and vet.

Alex was sitting with his master on the bench closest to the place where Agalon stopped, near the cage, and he waved at Xac. Xac smiled and waved back as Agalon broke free from his grip and moved off to talk to the loud man and the vet, leaving Xac alone with the fighters.

“Slow,” Billy grumbled to Wyatt, “he wants to run his mouth? This ain’t nothin.”

His attention was on the crowd, and Xac thought it might be the perfect time to try to mend their broken relationship.

“I think you’re real fast,” Xac told him, “put the fear a’ god in me.” He put a hand over his heart and continued, “Thought my heart was gonna beat outta my chest. Beatin real fast right now. I… I’m scared to death a’ you.”

Billy stared at him and he felt his heart speed up even more. He could not read the expression on his face.

“I bet you are,” Billy said, eventually.

“You’re so strong,” Xac said, “Did uh… did they tell ya’ you broke my arm? And ripped the muscles up?”

“Looks fine,” Billy said.

“I heal real fast,” Xac tried to smile, tried to will his body to stop shaking. “I can… I reckon I can heal from… just about anything? On account a’ I’m a bunny. I mean, a shifter. I mean… I can just… just heal real quick. That’s what I mean.”

Billy nodded and Xac’s heart soared.

No witty retort, no moving to hit him, just a nod.

Maybe everything was going to be alright. They would probably never be friends, but maybe everything would be alright.

“Ladies and gentlemen!” the loud man proclaimed, and Xac did not expect it, though he had remembered the echo, remembered just how loud it was, “Welcome to the Regional Qualifiers for the Agricultural District, here at the Basilglen Arena, for the Human Cage Fighting League of the Urillian Empire! It’s time for the first match of the season! Are you ready?”

Agalon and Mr Loraxia stood to either side of him, and Xaxac didn’t know how they stood it. The holy texts said elves heard better than humans with their long ears, and the man was making his tiny human ears ring.

He thought nothing could be louder, but he was wrong.

The crowd erupted in a cheer that shook the arena.

“I said, ‘Are you ready?’!” the man repeated, and the second cheer was somehow even louder.

“On this side, we’ve got our esteemed leader, Duke Kailu Agalon!”

Agalon stepped forward and held up his hand, which seemed to greatly please the crowd.

“And on this side, we’ve got the leader of the district’s merchant’s guild, Mister Shyrrik Loraxia!”

Shyrrik stepped forward and gave his own little wave while Agalon smirked at him. Once the cheering died down they turned to face each other and shook hands in a strange way, grabbing each other by the wrists. They said something that Xaxac could not hear, because his ears were still ringing from all the noise, then turned and began walking back towards their slaves.

“You’re up, Billy,” Agalon said as he walked to the gate and opened it.

“In this corner,” the man announced, “William ‘Billy the Bull’ OfAgalon!”

Billy raced into the cage and threw his arms into the air, and the crowd did not just cheer this time. They were just as loud, but it was a more coordinated response. They stomped their feet and screamed, and Xaxac understood what they were trying to do instantly; they were mimicking a stampede.

And their screaming was not, as it had been before, incoherent. Instead, they chanted: “Olè Bil-ley, Olè Bil-ley!”

The sound of their voices, along with the stomping and clapping, all in one rhythm, all in one voice froze Xaxac to the spot. He did not hear what the loud man said next, did not hear the introduction of the next fighter, because he was mesmerized. He was hypnotized, with his eyes trained on the crowd. Some of the earth elves had stood; some had signs that he could not read, but others had signs that depicted drawings of bulls.

They loved him.

The crowd loved Billy.

And it was infectious.

Xaxac did not realize he had been clapping his hands in time with the crowd, but he made a conscious decision to open his mouth and chant.

“Olè Bil-ley, Olè Bil-ley!”