In another booth not too far away, Orochi was having a very different experience from the voyeuristic Patron. He happily rustled his feathers as he watched a fight down in the arena.
One thing was rather annoying about all this, however -- because of his punishment of being strictly confined to the birdcage, he had to instruct his babysitter (what he called the employee assigned to him) to change the settings for him. He could not do it himself.
This meant that, although he had been planning to become the Sponsor of Alesha for this Story and gift her with insight into the Games, he couldn't do so without asking his babysitter to do it on his behalf. Such had been the case since this Story began.
Naturally, he didn't want to order anyone to do anything so embarrassing on his behalf.
No, it would be much better to leave things up to fate than to have to expose his secret hopes to this random person.
So despite wanting to warn her about how the Patrons of the Games could alter Participants, and about how they could watch her no matter where she went, Orochi's pride kept him from doing so.
Without warning, the door to his booth slammed open and a powerful-looking humanoid dragon with garishly colored striped fur entered.
"What is this?" He bellowed upon spying the goshawk-shaped Orochi in his golden cage. "WHY IS MY SON IN A CAGE???"
The room shuddered violently, glass display cases and furniture shattering due to the volume of the furious dragon's bellow.
"Ah! Krogor, your eminence!" Orochi's babysitter hurriedly interjected. "Please, mind the room! Your son is just being punished, don't worry, he's agreed to the punishment of his own free will!"
"MY SON?? PUNISHED?? RIDICULOUS!! MY SON IS A GOOD BAD BOY!!"
Teleporting into the room, Zorhellian looked around at the glass shards with an expression of distaste. "My employee is correct, High General Krogor," he said in a pacifying tone. "Please, calm down. Come with me and I shall explain. I'll even release him for now, how about that?"
Krogor glared, his whiskers trembling as he snorted. He snarled around his tusks, "Fine then, sly one, see if you can calm my anger."
With a snap from Zorhellian, the door to Orochi's cage snapped open, and Orochi happily flew out, transforming into his dragon shape. "Dad, you came! I didn't think you'd come!" He barked happily, running around his dad on six legs. His ears flopped around, causing his small golden hoop earrings to jangle slightly, and his tail whacked solidly into Zorhellian's legs. Zorhellian made a small sneer but otherwise did not react to the intrusion of his personal space.
Krogor calmed noticeably at the sight of his son's exuberance. "Well, you seemed to be enjoying the Games, so I thought I'd give them a look."
His expression darkened as he continued, "But then I saw you were in a cage and it ticked me off a little."
Zorhellian's eyes seemed to say, "A little? You ruined an entire private viewing booth with just a bellow!"
Seeing that look on the Chaos Demon's face made Krogor laugh. "Haha! Well if my son really did something worthy of punishment, I'll pay you for the damages, how about that?"
This time, Zorhellian's expression was one of shock, as if he didn't expect the Chaos Dragon to do anything so responsible as pay for damages. His words conveyed much less surprise, however: "Is that so? Well, let's discuss this elsewhere. Little Orochi, I take it you'd like to continue watching the Games? Do so from here, if you don't mind."
"I don't mind!" Orochi said with a goofy, doggy smile, giving them a wave as he sat back on his haunches. "See ya Dad, Uncle Zoro!"
"I told the whelp not to call me that," Zorhellian complained under his breath as he shut the door behind him.
Orochi happily ignored the shattered glass all over everything and immediately pulled up the Sponsorship list on his PAD.
He'd obtained a bit of freedom -- so he was determined to do what he couldn't before.
--
Hatil tossed and turned on her bed, trying in vain to fall asleep. Her arms, legs, face and rear end were all in so much pain she could hardly think, let alone sleep.
"AHHHH!" She screamed as sharp stabs of pain erupted all at once.
She didn't know what was going on, and for the first time in a while, she really wanted to know.
Usually, she'd have just gone with the flow and waited for things to die down on their own. Not much point in questioning things which didn't have answers, or things whose answers would eventually be made known anyways.
This time, though?
Not only did she want to know why she was in pain, but she wanted it to stop.
A few hours later, she lay down on her bed, back to the sweat-soaked sheets, panting heavily. She sighed in relief.
Whatever curiosity she'd had earlier was completely overshadowed by her newfound exhaustion, and she quickly fell asleep.
It wouldn't be until the next morning that she'd realize exactly what had been causing her so much pain.
She'd been transforming, agonizingly slowly, into a harpy.