The Saga of Ross

The two combatants locked horns, surging against one another. After much straining, one was able to throw off his opponent, his great black nostrils snorting and blowing the air, as the thrown warrior, a great minotaur with a pelt of bronze, locked again with the big bull bison he was fighting against. Above them in a great granite coliseum, the crowd cheered raucously, bets of many Diamond Dog chips, Equestrian bits, Griffin aurei and Minotaur drachmas were exchanged, insults, advice and encouragement was roared, and vast quantities of ale, mead, and other such drinks were quaffed in great qualities alongside food ranging from seasoned hay to roasted boar was for sale.

All in all, just another night's games at the Public Arena in Diamaric Alps, Capitol City-State of the Diamond Dog race.

Finally, the bison had managed to pin the minotaur on the dirt floor of the arena, and while the referee, a small Diamond Dog who was black with white facial markings charged in to count down from ten to make the pin legal, the crowd was ecstatic as he reached the full count. As the minotaur got up, he smiled and laughed heartily. He bowed to the crowd, then the bison, and as a show of no hard feelings, they went back into the back rooms as one, discussing battle tactics and horn care amiably.

"Who fights next, Nyles?" A bat pony stallion asked his Diamond Dog companion as he stuffed his muzzle back into his honey oatcake-laden feedbag he had purchased at the confection stands. Nyles stuck his tongue out slightly as he read the names off the program card, "It say that next fight between Tuatha the dragon and Diamond Dog named Ross." Nyles frowned, showing the paper to his friend and biting a chunk out of his own purchased trout on a stick. "Usually when fight dragon, for fairness make more than one fight. Otherwise too easy for dragon, as dragon big, strong. Must be brave Dominant to attempt such feat." The bat pony looked up at this and gaped his mouth. "Poor mutt, and pardon my Equestrian Nyles on that word, but he must be crazier than a manure-house rat! Even though these are exhibition fights, it doesn't always mean you leave with everything you go in with! By Luna's withers, there have even been a few deaths here before!" Nyles nodded, taking another bite from his fish, suddenly standing up. "I go ask around, see if Ross have any victory before. Perhaps make more bets!" He jangled his leather purse of chips, the gem-based currency his people used, in his belt, then padded off into the upper crowds, away from the more ring-side seats he and Euderma, his bat pony friend and fellow employee in the Wandering Yonder Trading Company (Or WYTC, for short) had gotten.

Euderma watched as the dragon went into the ring. She was colored orange, with yellow belly scales. Her neck was supple and looked strong, and she had, he noticed with wing-fluttering and mane-raising realization, retractile spines in her serpentine tail that she was currently practicing sheathing in and out, much to the crowd's approval. She spread her wings and gave a roar, and that got even more attention. She briefly flew about the ring, buffeting the audience with her wing-beats, which gave an impressive view of her claws, teeth in her half-open maw and the ivory spines on her back, as well as the tail spikes. She, even without the threat of her flames to be unleashed on an opponent, looked formidable and scary as Tartarus.

Just then a grey-blue blur was suddenly beside him, it was Nyles. From the way his face was lighted up, he seemed most excited, like a child with a new toy. "EUDERMA! Place your bets on Ross! Do it! It guaranteed win!" The Diamond Dog bounced on his paws, enthusiastically punching at the air before finally setting down, his tail beating a salvo against their bench. Euderma looked down at Tuatha, who seemed like the clearer victor. He turned his slit-pupil eyes to his friend. "Nyles, I trust you ol' buddy ol' pal, but that big lizard ain't messing around, she means business!" Nyles waved a paw, "Pssh, have nothing on Ross. Just asked about him. Ross had twenty victories since he's fought here. He can Dance Stone." Euderma looked confusedly. Nyles went on after a finishing bite to his fish. "He can use old Pack Magic, rare today, to interact with rock, make it move. Also, rumor has it that he Ice Wolf of old." Just then the applause started again, as the dragoness had finally resettled herself in her designated corner of the arena. Euderma, as the crowds began to chant, "Snow-PELT! Snow-PELT! Snow-PELT!" whispered into his friend's ear, "Ice Wolf? What's that? I thought he was a Diamond Dog!" Nyles whispered hoarsely back, "Yes, Ice Wolves long thought gone, original Diamond Dogs, from long time back. Without them, no modern Packs exist." And then they saw him.

He was BIG, that was for sure. Euderma had seen bigger, but still this Diamond Dog was both muscular and tall. He had a coat that was white-silver, and eyes that were coppery-gold. His nose, lips and claws were stark black, and his tail was bushy and straight. The paws were big on both his hind and forelegs, and as he entered the arena, the crowd still howling for him, Nyles and Euderma both noted him bouncing in a strange little way from paw to paw, rolling his shoulders and throwing his neck from side to side. He wore no clothing save what appeared to be a pair of rather shiny shorts. Euderma snorted. "What is this Stondancer going to do, pop and lock that wyrm into submission?" Nyles patted his friend on the back, yelling "YES! Show her how we do in Diamond Dog country, Ice Wolf!"

For her part, Tuatha began laughing, pointing her left pointer claw at the figure of Ross. "This is my challenger? One Diamond Dog? Sure he is big for his kind, but ONE?" She gestured to stadium, her grin mocking. "Surely, there is but some more who would face me? Or are you Diamond Dogs and guests simply too cowardly to join in a match against me, Tuatha the Magma-Fired?" Whatever cheers had now turned into angry barks, shrieks, yells and roars. Suddenly it was Ross who regained the crowd. He stamped his left hind paw twice, then raised his hands and clapped. He waited, then did it again. This time, the crowd picked it up.

BOOM-BOOM CLAP!

BOOM-BOOM CLAP!

BOOM-BOOM CLAP!

Ross then furthered his counter-argument with a long, drawn-out howl, which many Diamond Dogs in the stadium and even beyond in the city began to take up, until it rose like a great winter gale blowing through a piney canyon. Euderma shivered, his ancestral pony memory recalling great dire wolves, dholes and gray wolves who once pursued his cave pony ancestors for food across ancient steppes, tundra and grasslands. Nyles even pitched in his deep hound bass to the call, and he had to poke him with his right wing in annoyance to make him stop, as it appeared the fight was starting now in earnest. Tuatha had now borne her teeth, had gritted her talons into the ground and was whipping her tail back and forth like a cow swatting persistent flies. Then she charged, hissing like a great teakettle, her tail whipping towards Ross fast. Ross quickly ran, using all four paws to move. And by Celestia pearly ears, was he pretty fast! He made greater ground speed than a pony! Euderma watched as he bent down, touching his paws to stadium's pea gravel and dirt floor. Suddenly a tidal wave of pebbles and dirt was in front of him, moving by the movements of his paws as he manipulated them from afar. The tidal wave rose and hit the shocked dragoness on the side, folding over her like an ocean wave over her barrel and forelegs. At the gesture of Ross, the wave went stiff, then molded into a solid piece of rock before everyone's eyes. Tuatha laughed, "I eat rocks for BREAKFAST!" and with a snap of her jaws and a terrible crunching and crashing cacophony that left the more sensitive hearing gifted members of the audience reeling, she pounced at Ross, who seemed unconcerned.

Ross moved at the last moment, and now Tuatha was bugling in alarm, as her claws sunk into what appeared to be quicksand. Then as it reached up to her elbows, at another cutting motion from Ross it hardened. Tuatha this time roared, rearing up and smashing the rock form cast upon her to smithereens, "You have humiliated me ENOUGH!" and with that, she breathed fire. "Illegal! Illegal!" the referee said, bouncing out onto the dirt. Yelping as he dodged a short jet of flame by tunneling down rapidly, he peeked over the edge of his newfound safety, watching with ire-laced eyes. Ross was doing another spell, and his fists were now clothed in rock, that moved as he flexed his paws like great giant gloves. Racing towards Tuatha's head, he deflected a tail swipe, then a claw strike, and brought up another 'wave' to block the fire Tuatha's internal furnace produced. Then he PUNCHED her, right in the lower jaw, which sent her head reeling. As she tried to recover and hit him with flames, she received another rock-enhanced punch, which sent her back. A wing-slap was slapped back with a counter-slap from his paws, a tail-smack pounded into the ground painfully and any attempt to use fire was met with another vicious hook to her face by the Stonedancer. Finally, her dragon's fire burning low and her body becoming broken and bruised, she wailed, "I s-SUBMIT! I SUBMIT! Just, just no more!" she begged. Ross stopped, his paws shedding their stony casings, the fans were cheering, and already the City Watchdogs were dragging out their dragon chains to lead Tuatha to lock-up for violating the Arena's rules.

Euderma was stunned. Never in his life had he seen such a thing. "Nyles?" he queried in a tone of voice that bespoke of wonder.

"Yes?" Nyles replied, already on his way to earn his winnings at the betting counter.

"We need to hire that Diamond Dog, Ice Wolf, Dances with Stones, whatever, for our body-guard."