Gladiator (Part IV)

GLADIATOR (PART IV)

As the night approaches
My Lanista brings me my prize for another champion showing
This beauty my friend, tonight is yours

A women of long blonde hair stands ahead of me smiling
Unlike the slave girl of before this one is of breeding
A lover of the gladiators
A slut to our savagery
With a coy smile she proclaims
Let your pleasure be my service

I bow my head
Dear lady I do not desire your passion, nor your service
Now please leave me

Insulted and clearly angered she leaves
Slapping my Latista as she goes
A result no doubt of a forbidden broken promise

Surprised he questions me
What are you doing, are you mad?
She was beautiful
You spurn this opportunity to have your bravery rewarded?

Her only desire was not to please me but to please herself
No feeling
No honour
Just lust
If indeed you wish to reward me
Bring me the girl from before
I would very much like to see her again

You would spurn that beautiful prize for Serena?
A worthless raped whore?
She is your desire?
You are a strange creature indeed my friend
Still if that is what you want
Tonight she’ll be yours
As soon as we drag her from her current encounter that is
The quality of her condition though is something I cannot promise
I expect she’ll be well used

With that he turned and left laughing
Angered by his words
I felt a burning rage of fire consume me
It had never been my way to disrespect in such a way
Still I knew to keep my views curtained
As to anger my Latista would surely not be wise
And would surely endanger the girl of who I speak

For two hours I waited before her form appeared before me
Her clothes torn
Freshly grazed cuts adorned her arms, legs and face
Her eyes bruised to blackness
Graced only by the moisture of tears

Escorted by two lustfully sneering guards and barely able to walk
She is thrown in to my spartan cell
I rush to cradle her broken body on the floor
To the heartless laughs of the departing guards

With blood spilling from her open mouth she tries to speak
Unintelligible mumbles
I whisper to her to save her strength
As I lift her fragile form to my bed
Rest with me

Trying to comfort her in her pain
I cradle her close in my arm
With a rag of torn clothing dipped in my stale nights water
I do my best to clean her wounds

How anyone can do such a thing to a girl terrifies me
I vow if I should ever come to face the culprit of this crime
That I will extract my revenge upon him
He will suffer
But for tonight my place is with her
To make her safe

As she drifts off in exhaustion
I watch her sleep in my arms
A vision of scarred beauty
Violently interrupted by memories of earlier in the day
That last shared look from the general
A stark reminder of what I am
Of what I have become
And a tear I shed