Jack woke to find himself propped up in the staging area outside of the fighting ring, with Scrae bent over him, dabbing at the blood on his face.  He blinked up at his brother.  “What happened?”

“It seems that when a non-contestant enters the ring, the fight is ended.  They used a sleep spell to ensure that it ended immediately,” Scrae explained as he continued to carefully clean Jack’s face.

Jack grabbed Scrae’s wrist and pulled his hand away roughly.  “You shouldn’t have interrupted my fight.”

“That creature was about to kill you!”

“I’ve survived worse battles than that without your interference.”

Scrae crossed his arms.  “Fine.  Next time, I’ll just stand there and watch while you get slaughtered by some creature driven by ancient, dark gods.”

“Good.”  Jack looked at his right arm, which had been bitten by the troll.  Scrae had already bandaged it.  He sniffed, unsuccessfully trying to get blood out of his nostrils.  He didn’t seem to care that Scrae was glaring angrily at a wall.

Eventually, Scrae broke the silence.  “Your nose is broken.”

Jack touched his sore nose carefully.  “Yeah.”

Scrae sighed and uncrossed his arms.  “Hold still.”  He put his hands on either side of Jack’s nose, and without warning, wrenched it back into place.

Jack grunted and winced in pain.  Then he took the cloth that Scrae had been wiping his face with and blew his nose.  “Ah, fuck, that hurts.”

“I have to go find that boy with the cat ears.  I now owe a week’s service to some restaurant or something.”  He glared at Jack.  “Thanks to you losing.”

“I didn’t lose.  You screwed up the fight.”  Jack stood, sniffing and wiping at his nose, as if he had a cold.  “And I didn’t tell you to bet on me.”

“You were confident enough that you would win.”

Jack shrugged.  “Why are you paying your debt anyway?  We could just leave.”

“There are too many unknowns in this world for me to feel comfortable with too much cheating and lying right now.  Too many people are immune to my magic, they fight a demon more powerful than you for entertainment.  And we have already seen a dozen instances of magic or races we’ve never heard of before.  If I have to work at a job for a few days to ensure our safety, then I will.  Perhaps they’ll hire you too.”

“You’re the one who lost your bet.  I’m not waiting tables,” Jack answered disdainfully.

Scrae narrowed his eyes at Jack.  Then turned away to go looking for Monty and said, “I’m not going to have sex with you tonight.”

“Ha!  Bullshit.” Jack answered cheerfully, wiping his nose again and following his ‘brother.’