Chapter 8: To the Victor Goes the Spoils

“You could have had anything, yet you decided to have the one you defeated in battle?” Gilnaious asked him in his gruff voice. “Your words, however, were an interesting one, though.”

They stood in a mess hall for the gladiators as Spiculus and Gilnaious spoke to one another. The stone walls perforated the area with the surrounding darkness only partially illuminated by the few rush-light candles and open doors of the outside that led to the outside arena. It was a few hours after the battle, and it reached the late afternoon.

“What do you mean?” Spiculus asked him.

“They granted your request after the great Caesar accepted your proposal. They put Renias in your room now. You may do with her as you wish. Do you plan on taking her to teach her?”

Spiculus looked away as his eyes faltered.

“I have seen that look before,” Gilnaious said, observing him. “I can understand your desires. She is Egyptian, just like you and a woman. You want her for your own ... desires.”

“No, that is not true,” he almost snapped at him.

“Hmmm ... well, then many good changes are going to be made through on your behalf. For one, you don’t need to have me teach you if you are going to take her up as a student for the arena. You really haven’t had to have me help that much in the last year alone. As for ... partners ... well, it’s not like some of the instructors are when it comes to the boys to be made future gladiators anyway.”

Spiculus was disgusted with the comment as he heard him say that. He didn’t want to think about it. He was thankful that Gilnaious did not follow that out on him and take advantage of him sexually when he first arrived to be trained. It was not uncommon for such things to be done to children in a world like this.

“My point is Spiculus; you may do with her as you please. The room will still be yours, or in this case, ... both of yours, I suppose you will want to sleep with her.”

“Umm...” He thought out loud. He was not nervous about the idea, but the more he thought about it, the more his lustful thoughts began to conjure the feelings within him to do so. “I suppose so...”

Gilnaious chuckled under his breath. “I can’t blame you. She is pretty and a fighter too. She is Egyptian, just like you, all the best qualities of a person of the opposite sex. Keep in mind though this is not the best place to have children. You are still a part of the arena and the entertainment to the crowd until you keep winning more and more. I suppose if you two have each other to help one another out, then it might make things go faster now, assuming both of you survive, of course.”

“We will survive ... and we will have our freedom assuming she was a slave prior to joining.”

“You will not be completely locked up all the time now if you are going to train her. Of course, I wouldn’t decide to go running out of the arena to escape. I imagine bad things will happen to her if you try to get away from here.”

“Is that a threat?” Spiculus asked him.

“It is a fact, and I am not the one warning you on that one or trying to yank your arm. If you leave, she will likely be made forfeit, and they will chase you all over the planet to find you. Of course, you have been loyal, of course, so I don’t have to really say that sort of thing.”

Spiculus knew that he was only warning him on those things. He knew he was a good person, of course. He had no intention of running and leaving his ... partner behind.

“There is nothing wrong, being a trainer. She gave you a good fight in the end. It had me worried for a while.”

“Yeah ... she was good. For a first-timer like that, she could easily beat anyone. Who trained her?”

“That would be ... hmm,” he thought for a moment. “Ah, yes, that would be Livius.”

“Wait, didn’t you tell Livius was a horrible instructor?”

Gilnaious nodded his head “Vast majority of his trainees don’t even make it through the first round. In some ways, that still follows his reputation even now after this battle.”

“Barely ... whatever happened, she was damn close,” Spiculus said as he looked and pressed his hand to his sowed up wound by his armpit. He stopped bleeding now, and the injury was not that deep, but it served as a reminder to how good she was despite her first battle. “She fought very well.”

“Then you are guaranteed to win every battle then,” Gilnaious held his hand to him. “Dual fighting arenas with the both of you in 2 x 2 matches ... you will win, it is simple as that.”

“What about you, though? With me becoming her instructor, what happens to me ... to us?”

“I will be training other gladiators, and don’t worry; I will still be around to give you pointers. At this rate, you really don’t need to have me around to provide much advice unless it’s marital advice.” He started laughing at him, mocking him as Spiculus sighed.

“What about getting out? For both Renias and myself?”

Gilnaious thought about it as he tapped his chin. “Well, I would say keep winning the battles together. Knowing them, another year of fighting, and maybe you can get another request to get out. The Caesar himself looks like he is coming almost purposely just to see your fights. Now he will get to see two fight together. He will really like it now. Impressing him is the key to both of you getting out. What will happen is you can ask to have your freedom and keep fighting to keep your fame and popularity up. You will live like a king, with your ... well you can have anyone you want to be honest. You don’t have to have her, you know. Women will always come flocking to be with the grand champion.”

“Hmmm... , “ he replied as he thought about it.

“Well then ... it is time to speak to the others and find out who I will be training next now. May the gods watch over you.”

“Thank you, Gilnaious,” he told him. He watched as Gilnaious dropped the keys that would lead to his room.

He watched as Gilnaious stood up from the table. He walked past the other tables around another pair of gladiators that were talking from a remote table. The room fell quiet with him to his thoughts. He knew that Renias was in his room. He had not seen her since the battle.

“I don’t know if she is going to like me or try to kill me,” he murmured to himself, thinking of everything that is going to come. “I fucking gave up my freedom for her. She should be grateful. Of course, my luck, she will just try to kill me. It will be my luck. Well... , “ he looked at the hallway that led down to the chambers from the mess hall to his room. He had the keys to get in now.

He stood up and picked up the keys that were for his room. He didn’t hesitate any longer. He was going to talk to her. He proceeded down the long hallway as it got darker and darker to the room that belonged to his. The few doors that led to various gladiators were always changed out for the new ones as the ones would either get out or get killed. In all cases, rooms changed regularly. He could never keep up with who slept in what.

Finally, he reached the fourth room down the hallway, not far from a burning rush candle that lit the area and the keyhole. He took the key and placed it in the lock as he turned it. The door opened as he stepped inside and closed it behind him.

There she was. It was dark inside, and he could barely see her. He went to an unlit rush-light candle as he went and opened the door and lit it up from the outside burning light before he closed the door up again. The room was illuminated as he sat the glowing light on the sidewall mounting and looked at the bed.

Now he could see her. She was asleep on the bed. Her armor was gone, but she was wearing a basic set of light cloth that covered her chest and legs. Her long black flowing hair rested on the hard hay bed with cloth wrapped over it.

She was so beautiful as he watched her asleep as he kept his thoughts to himself. A part of him still had these thoughts in his head of what he wanted to do to her, but he shook it off as much as he could. Besides, this was the one that tried to kill a few hours ago. There was a stool not far from him as he picked it up and placed it next to the bed. He thought about it but decided it was best to go ahead and wake her up.

He sat his butt down on the stool and rested his hand on her arm. The warm feeling of her skin felt intoxicating to him as he admired her form. Her breasts were not big but not small. Her hand was soft to the touch.

She shifted as she started to wake up. Her eyes opened up as she turned and looked at him from lying down.

“I suppose this is the time period where you have your way with me...” she almost whispered to him, keeping it quiet so no one outside could hear him.

“No... , “ he replied quietly to her calm and composed.

“Thank you, by the way. For sparing my life,” she told him.

“I could not kill you, no matter how much I wanted to. I was trained to kill every defeated gladiator I fight in the arena with no remorse when I was told to. I just ... couldn’t do it.”

His hand was still on her arm as she looked at his hand and then back to his. He noticed it as well as he pulled back and sat up straight.

“It is alright if you want to have your arm on me,” she told him. “I see it in your eyes when you look at me. I fight for many reasons; fame, glory, respect, and of course, for a ... husband.”

“There are much easier ways to get a husband. You don’t have to go into an arena and kill people for it.”

“Didn’t I already tell you that I was doing it besides just that? Besides, I like having strong men, not necessarily physically strong but combat-capable. They have to fight and win. It is why I am here.”

“So you volunteered to fight?” he asked her.

“Yes.”

“Strange, I figured you were a slave that got forced to fight.”

“Sounds like you are a slave then,” she said with some remorse. “I am sorry.”

“ ... It’s...” he didn’t want to finish his sentence.

Her eyes looked away from him for a second. She no longer had that devious smile that she had in the arena. “Look, it was brave of you to come and take me in as your student. I can see it in your eyes at how you look at me. A part of you wants me so badly. It must hurt.”

“I was only with a woman once long ago, like four years ago. Mind me looking at you. It’s just been a while.”

“Awww,” she said, almost mocking him. “Brave, a fighter, capable swordsman, does not hold back. Not many can defeat me in battle, you know?”

Spiculus almost chuckled. “You are a woman. How many battles must have you been in?”

“Too many to count,” she answered. “Most don’t survive my sword in the first few swings. You almost didn’t make it yourself.”

“Yeah... , “ he said as he touched his armpit. She saw him feel the stitches.

There was remorse in her face as she nodded. “I must reward you for your gallant fight, but first, I must learn more about you. Where do you come from, Spiculus?”

“A town near Alexandria, how about you?”

“ ... Alexandria...” she said in an almost hesitating tone.

“You don’t sound so sure,” he noted.

“I am not.”

“I see then, well, don’t feel bad. As much as I say that I am Egyptian, I might not be truly Egyptian but ... I simply don’t know.”

“It’s alright,” she said, almost relaxed. There was a long pause in her conversation. “Spiculus ... I have been debating ... I have...”

“What is it?”

She closed her eyes for a moment before she opened it again. She took a deep breath before she turned her head to look at him.

“Spiculus, what are your religious beliefs?”

“I am not those ... Jews or those Christians that they keep calling themselves if that is what you are asking.”

“What about the Egyptian beliefs?”

“You mean Anubis, Hathor, Horus? Yeah ... I believe in them. They are part of me even in these changing times.”

Renias smiled as she heard him say that.

“Sometimes... , “ he continued. “I have doubts, though.”

She tilted her head on the bed as she shifted her whole body looking at him.

“What do you mean?” she asked.

“I just ... never see them. How do you believe in something that you never see? They didn’t come to help me when bandits killed my parents, and they ... took me to be sold to slavers.”

“Sometimes ... they just don’t know. Maybe there are too few to really be able to make the world a better place than it is supposed to be...”

He looked at her. The answer almost seemed to be as if she actually was talking out of experience.

Renias put her hand to his hand. He felt the warmth of her touch as he looked at her delicate hand.

“What if...” she said, “What if we live in a world that the deities exist?”

“To be honest ... I don’t know what to believe anymore...”

She turned her head to look at the door.

“Can you lock the door from the inside?” she asked him.

“Yes, I can.”

“Lock the door, please.”

He looked at the door latch and pulled a small bar to hold the door closed in case someone tried to open it. He could only imagine what was about to happen next.

She looked satisfied. “To be honest, I wanted to ravage you since you defeated me in battle. I like the thrill of the fight, and I could tell that you were fighting the urge not to kill me as you looked at my body. It was hunger and lust in its purest form.”

“Umm ... yeah, it was,” he answered truthfully. He was not going to hold back with his confession to her.

“Let me ask you this. If there were no audience, no rulers, nothing but us in that arena, and we were destined to fight each other as before, would it have been a fight to the death?”

He shook his head. “No, it wouldn’t.”

“What if it was a fight for dominance? To see who was trying to assert who was the strongest or best of the two?”

He thought about it for a few seconds and answered confidently, “Yes, I would have done it.”

She had her devious smile again. It was that smile that he recognized from the arena. “Good ... you beat me in that battle with the sword. That alone makes you worthy for me as a husband.”

“Wha...” he thought for a moment before he focused back on her.

“I would have had you any other way, though. There was no way you could have won that fight in the end. If it was just there and no audience,” she gave a deep breath of relief. “I would have overpowered you and ravaged you. You would enjoy everything even if you tried to deny it.”

There was a moment that he tried to wrap his head around what she was saying.

“I don’t understand what it is that you are trying to tell me,” he told her.

“Oh yes, you do,” as she gripped her hand tightly around his hard. “Remember that fight well. Let it run in your head. You said it all to me during the fight.”

“The sword...” He remembered. “I stabbed you, and it did nothing. At first, I thought that I had you, but the blade bounced off of you. It hit the armor, and it stopped and slid off. I remember it clearly now.”

“You are correct, I felt it touch me, but in the end, your weapon could never hurt me.”

“What? How is that possible? No person can survive or be in good shape after getting stabbed like that. You should have been injured.”

“You are absolutely right, Spiculus; no person could survive that or be in good shape. How does that help?”

“It only confuses me, unfortunately.”

“You kicked me, and nothing happened. You only pushed yourself away, correct?”

His thoughts raced. “Of course ... I remember that. It was like I was kicking stone blocks. You should have bounced back instead of me.”

“One thing nice with what the audience sees is that it is not always clear. You saw it with your own eyes. Let’s see if that goes into your head as you try to figure out who I am.”

“You are Renias, an Egyptian woman, a woman that lost the arena and is just trying to play mind games with me. I remember everything, of course, but you are just playing around now. You are being cryptic to me.”

“Then kiss me.”

Her hand never let go of his. He was confused, but she was sincere with how she told him.

“Come, Spiculus, I see it in you. You want me so bad that it hurts and claws you. Kiss me.”

There was a brief hesitation in him. He clearly wanted her, but he knew there was something odd about her. He let his lustful thoughts take over in the end as she lowered her grip. He got on his knees and maneuvered his head to hers. He pressed his lips to hers. The warmth of her lips felt intoxicating to him. The wetness, combined with his, brought all the sensations of happiness and thrill that he hadn’t experienced in a long time. Finally, for what seemed like seconds, he broke the kiss and looked at her again as she smiled to him.

“Do you accept me for who I am?” she asked him.

“Yes... , “ he replied with slight hesitation.

“You are happy with what I can do? What you see me as I am?”

“Yes.”

“You want to be with me. You have feelings for me?”

“ ... Yes, I do.”

Renias had a look of doubt but satisfaction in her face. She seemed to enjoy him trying to figure out his answers. He, on the other hand, displayed emotions of confusion with himself. On the one hand, he did have feelings for her, but on the other hand, he had just met her, and that was in a battle where they tried to kill one another.

“I see the conflict inside you,” she commented to him as she looked at his face. “You wonder if you can trust me. You wonder if I am just going to try to kill you in your sleep. You wonder if I am the one that is meant for you. Yet that kiss you made for me was genuine. It was pure love from you. It was a kiss of longing, lust, and attraction. So much just from that, Spiculus...”

“What do you expect from me?” he asked her. “You have all the qualities of a perfect woman. I just met you, and I threw everything I could to kill you. Now here we are talking to each other and wanting to ... wanting to.”

“Finish it, please,” she practically begged to him.

He focused his attention on her eyes. “I want to do it. It isn’t honorable to throw myself onto you like that. Fine, you want me to admit then. Yeah, I want to do it. I had thoughts to run to this room and throw myself onto you. I look at you. You are more than some Egyptian woman; you are an exceptionally beautiful woman period. I just feel something telling me that there is something ... wrong about you. You are holding something back that is so important that it will be critical for me to know it. You are devious, powerful, dangerous, yet...”

“You couldn’t hurt me even if you wanted to. Go ahead and try to ravage me.”

He was taken aback at what she just said.

“Do it, Spicilus,” she told him sternly. “Imagine just us in that arena with no one but us. Our whole goal is one thing. We fight hand to hand with no clothes. We are filled with lustful thoughts. Our goal is to fight at who gets to be on top. It is a fight to measure to not only overpower me but impale me with your powerful spear from your waist into my great cave of light as I try to overpower you and try to swallow your great spear into my great depths. It is the greatest fight ever between two lovers. You want to do it ... do it!”

She practically almost yelled to him in the last sentence.

“What is it great champion?” she asked him. “You can’t hurt me. I am yours as we fight here and now. Stab your great spear into me and fill your seed into my great depths. I have chosen...”

“I want to know who you are,” he sternly interrupted her. “You have fought me; you survived and threw me around in that arena. No one should have made it through that first round with such ease. I have sparred your life, now tell me who you are.”

Her eyes displayed some anger towards him. She frowned, almost pitying him. “So be it then. You wish to know who I am then. I won’t delay it any further. There is enough room in your room; I suppose it will work then. Close your eyes, stand up, and back away.”

Spiculus complied with her request. He got off his stool as he stood up and backed up while keeping his attention on her.

“You have to close your eyes, or you might not enjoy the brightness involved,” she explained to him.

He was curious as to why she was adamant about her directions. “Fine... , “ he said as he closed his eyes.

Within a couple of seconds, his closed eyelids were hit with an enormous surge of light. It startled him so much that he had to open his eyes to look at what had just happened. The illumination was just at its end when he reopened his eyes. The sheer bright light at the end was nearly blinding him before the light fell to darkness again.

His eyes quickly tried to readjust as he struggled to see the nearly dark room. It didn’t take long for his eyes to readjust. He saw something large and scaly near him. He backed up as he heard the sounds of something large breathing. There was a slight hiss from his viewpoint.

His heart jumped a beat. “What? ... What the fuck?” He cried out as he looked more and more.

What was in front him was no longer Renias, the woman he knew but a large snake-like creature. She looked partially human-like with scaly arms similar to the woman that was lying on that bed. She looked like a cross between a normal human woman and an Egyptian Cobra merged together. She had brown and light-colored scales that covered her body. She had the hood of a cobra that covered her face and neck. Her body had a white cloth that covered most of her chest, torso, and what you would call an abdomen. She was much larger than what her human form was. Stretched out, she was about 12 feet long with her snake-like body stretching out and spilling over the bed and coiling around the stone wall to near him. She almost had the appearance of a lamia but way more snake-like. She had no legs but a long body that stretched from her head and torso that ended on a tail. She had five fingers for each hand. Her snake-like eyes peered into him with a fierce intensity.

He backed up in horror at what he had seen practically bumping into the back of the wall. She put her hand to her chest and held it there as her snake tongue left the confines on her mouth and tasted the air before going back in. There was still a slight hissing sound coming from her.

Her size made her intimidating. Standing up would have been hard for her in the confines of the room, which would make “stand” at about 8 to 9 feet in height. She had no legs to speak of, which made Spiculus wonder if she stood by her body and back end of her tail.

“Relaxxxx, SSSspicilus,” the snake woman said to him. Her voice was deeper and had the raspy sound of hissing when combined with her s sounds. She still had the Egyptian accent that Renias had.

“You’re ... you’re,” he said nervously as he heard her speak to him.

“Usssse your mind, my champion. What do you ssssee me assss?”

Well, he wasn’t dead, yet that was a good thing. If she truly wanted to kill him, she would have done it by now. For Spiculus, he began to calm down as each second went by, but something was telling him the more and more he looked at her. It was a sense of familiarity.

“You are a giant snake creature,” he struggled to explain to her. “Your clothing is similar to Egyptian ... Egyptian women. You wear a necklace on you that beams ... it has hieroglyphics on it. You look like some pharaoh dressed in ... no that is not possible.”

She chuckled with a series of hisses. She put one of her hands to her breasts that were still covered by the cloth. She was not the most stacked of women, but her body being bigger proportionally than him made her breasts more prominent. His eyes went to her chest for a moment before he looked back at her. Her heart continued to race as he struggled to keep his mind thinking.

“You are getting closssse, my young champion.”

He looked at the door. He had the opportunity to lift the bar and escape, but the sense of familiarity and reason was winning out. If Renias was indeed this giant snake-like creature of a woman, then she had more than enough time to do it. Hell, she would have just taken her form and killed him in the arena. If she had this form, then why go through the trouble of taking up human form? He began to calm down quickly.

“The Hieroglyphics ... I have seen them before countless times. Your necklace ... it displays the picture of the snake woman. One our many goddesses and gods...”

Renias, if that was her true name, continued to play with her breast calmly in front of him. She seemed in a relaxed state as her tongue did the same thing coming out and flicking the air before receding back into her mouth. She waved her hand from her resting position from the bed.

“Keep going ... I won’t hurt you ... badly,” she said in a jokingly gesture or at least from what he saw.

“The snake goddess...” He realized as his eyes lit up. Wadjet, Renenutet, Unut...”

“Unut issss not a ssssnake goddesssss. Sssshe is a rabbit goddesssss. Sssshe getssss that all the time. Drivesssss her crazzzy. What isssss my name?”

“Renias?”

“And... , “ she cocked her head a little bit as she shifted her body a little bit to get a better view of him.

“Renias ... Ren... , “ he realized who she was. There was only one snake goddess that had a name that was close to it. “It can’t be...”

He breathed heavily as he looked at the stone floor. He took a knee and got in a praying position bowing himself to her. Her tone changed to serious as she shifted her body upwards and rested her back to the bed. She almost stood up and away from the bed as he bowed his head to her.

“You are Renenutet...” Spiculus told her. “Snake Goddess Renenutet, the goddess of the harvest, the protector goddess, why are you here?”

“Get up, Sssspiculus. You don’t need to bow to me. Raise your head and look at me.”

He almost didn’t seem to be inclined to look at her. “You don’t understand, goddess. My family worshiped you along with the other Egyptian gods and goddesses. I ... I don’t know what to believe. You have to be her. You have to be her. I am not worthy of being in your presence.”

“You are correct, my champion. I am Renenutet, the goddesssss of the harvesssst and the protector of Egypt or at leasssst one of many.”

“You were playing as a human. You were in human form all this time?”

“Yessss.”

“Forgive me for treating you so harshly. For I did not know who you were truly were.”

“Ssssspiculussss,” she seemed flustered as her snake tongue flicked out again and began to make a series of low hisses. “Look at my eyesssss.”

It finally seemed to take several tries before he looked upon her. His face looked up to take on her complete form as he sat on his knees. He would at first look at her and then away and then back at her again before he would look away.

“Come on ... I sssaw you assss you looked at me in that arena. You wanted me. How would you have taken me in that arena if there were no one to watch ussss?”

“I ... I...” he finally looked upon her. He began to mark her massive size, seeing her tail as it almost circulated around the room to him.

“Come on... , “ she almost begged to him.

“I would have ... grabbed you ... and tackled you...”

“Yessss,” she felt relieved. “Your goddessssss demandssss it.”

He swallowed hard. “Tripping you up, watching you fall to the dirt. I would have lifted your legs as I began to strip you.”

She began to breathe hard as he could hear a series of light hisses. “In the role of ssssex, one musssst dominate the other. Regardlesssss of male or female, one musssst assssert themselvesssss assss the lead partner. You asss the victor. I would have laid back and let you have your way. Let you ssssshove your sssshort ssssword where it’sssss sssssuposssed to be.”

Spiculus seemed to calm down a little bit as he heard her talk and adjusted to her snake-like body. He was still trying to put his thoughts together when it came to her. She was a goddess and widely respected by the Egyptian people. The catch, of course, was that the pharaohs in Egypt were treated basically as gods, to be in the presence of a deity had a harsh impact on his religious values.

“Great goddess,” he spoke to her. “My goal is to please my goddess with her commands. You kept the crops well fed to prevent us from starving. What of your husband, Sobek?”

“Sssobek?” she almost reacted in surprise. “He issss my friend, not my hussssband. True we have had our momentssss together. I do care for him greatly ... and we have hundred-year flingssss together but ... I alsssso prefer the company of human companionssss. Ssssobek I get tired of sssseeing in hundredssss of yearssss. You humanssss live for lessss than a hundred yearssss. You make a perfect ... time together.”

He understood her words and what she was trying to tell him. “So, in the end, you choose to live a life with us mortals to ensure that you are entertained.”

“And to enssssure we never live a lonely life. Sssssometimessss we even get pregnant from our human matessss when we choosssse to. Can you blame usssss?”