He did not really remember that much, from the moment that Maude rammed her skull against his own and knocked him out long enough to drag him away from the waters, the ocean, his home. It wouldn't have been the first time his life was in danger, a tragic fact as it was, but this was beyond the earlier attempt on his life. Caesar had the decency to let him die, or so the demonic serval had planned, on the sands of the beaches that were familiar. This place was not familiar, and it was not scenic enough to make for a pleasant place to die. Not that Danny even wanted to meet his end, not when he worked so hard to both stay alive and earn his keep while alive, and he still had so much proving to do so that he wouldn't be remembered as a coward.

As the yelp escaped him, the thud against the ground waking him up from his dazed state completely, Danny shook his head and pushed himself up to his paws almost immediately, perhaps out of shock and fear, looking upwards at the armored dire wolf that had control of the pit, the creator of their misery and instrumentalist of someone's demise. The words didn't piece together in a way his brain could process, it took a few moments for it to sink in and sink in it did. Far enough to feel in the pit of his stomach, a sense of despair. He was not a killer, he did not want to stain his paws with the blood of the innocent. Mazepaw didn't even seem to appear to be a fair opponent, and while it was possible in a world where god-like powers could render an opponent immobile or worse, and Mazepaw could still potentially be a bigger threat than planned, Danny also truly, truly did not want to die now, not here. Certainly would not die a coward, and the choice to avoid either decision was long gone, if Maude's display was anything to go off of. He felt tense, tense in a way any other time could not make him.

The wolf lowered his head, but cast his brown gaze upward to meet his opponent, miserable and eyes widened with a primal sense of fear. "Sometimes people come back. You are not a coward." That was it. People could come back. But that didn't change the fact he was being held at metaphorical gunpoint to kill someone's son. Mazepaw did not move, and internally Danny willed him to, begged him to, looking back at Maude only once. It was almost worse, making the first move. But if someone didn't attempt to shed some blood, they would both meet an end that would make any fatalities look like a mercy killing. Slowly he took one step forward, then two, baring his teeth with a low growl of a frightened dog. Then he shot forward, making an attempt to crash into Mazepaw with his entire body, far too nervous to grab hold of anything with his teeth yet, it still felt too wrong.

The hell was going on? For a while there, Arvid had actually been treated to nothing but blissful peace. His home was silent, and he was curled up with plenty of good books to occupy his time, and his mind. It had been getting fairly late, and the dire wolf figured that few wanderers would be out, let alone putting on events. It seemed as though he had been mistaken, however. Maude's booming call was enough to echo even into his home, and he sighed heavily, closing one of his thick books and getting up to his paws. He figured he might as well go and see what was going on, if only to keep up with the general goings on of the Coalition. That seemed part of his job as a thane, after all. Although, as the boy grew closer, and heard what Maude had planned, he had to actively resist the urge to roll his eyes. A pit fight, really? He knew that was what Maude had been digging the pit for in the first place, but it was just so... meaningless. At least with his captures, he was doing something in order to benefit the Coalition. He was advancing his scientific mind, and giving them even more advantages through his experiments. What was the point of this? Entertainment?

When he arrived and saw who was fighting, he couldn't help but let out a snort of amusement, shaking his head. Alright, it definitely wasn't for entertainment, then. If it was, then Maude would've bothered putting a couple of evenly matched opponents in the ring. After all, a fight was all the more exciting to watch when it came down to the wire. This one, though? Mazekit seemed pathetic, and Arvid had little doubt that the tiny feline would end slaughtered within only a few minutes. That seemed a out as entertaining as watching a snuff film, which in the canine's mind certainly wasn't very. Still, he tried to keep his mouth shut as he settled nearby, among the crowd. Scylla's reaction was a bit of a surprise, considering the little Latin-speaking girl hadn't seemed especially violent when she had joined. Lethe's cheer, however, wasn't all that big of a surprise. The young dragon was being raised by Aphra, after all. It made sense that she would grow up to be fairly ruthless in general. Although, he did have to wonder if Lethe entirely knew what was going on. Did she merely see the crowd and hear the cheering, and assume there was some kind of party going on?

Arvid's mind wasn't given much more time to wander, however, as the fight soon began. It wasn't, however, initiated by Mazepaw. The dire wolf couldn't help the way that his gaze narrowed at that, a pitying look in his glare down at Danny. He raised his voice above the cheers of the crowd, jeering down at the wolf, "Oh, you coward! You couldn't even let the kit get the first hit? Pathetic." The thane wasn't even much of a fighter, and even he would've let the poor feline shaking in his boots get a hit in first, if only out of some sense of honor. Danny could try to justify it with Maude's threats all he wanted, but it only caused Arvid to sneer down at the battle-locked canine with a look of disgust.

YOU NEVER TRUSTED ME ★
BUT I’M OVER IT NOW
[sub][W]isker[/sub]