The cubs crashed against each other with all their force, clawing and biting. Neither had the proper training for a fight, but Annie nodded with approval, seeing how the smaller girl dodged the bite of the larger one. This cub had the instincts to become a fine warrior one day. And yet, her opponent was simply built better. The fur of the smaller cub was of a paler black color and had stripes, while her opponent was pitch black. The two cubs had merely a week of difference in their age, yet the pitch-black furred cub had larger shoulders, was taller and moved around with extreme ease. Her mistakes in this combat, annoying as they were, meant naught, for when the smaller wolfkin tried to go on the counterattack, she found herself to be too slow. Two grappled against each other, and the larger wolfkin closed her jaws on the ear of the smaller wolfkin, overpowering her opponent with disgusting ease.
Annie looked around. None of the three shamans assigned to this arena of the pits cared to stop this battle. They only watched to ensure the safety of a single cub due to him not being a member of the Wolf Tribe. Aside from that, they only stepped in when a mortal danger was involved or when cubs were at risk of being maimed too much, like, for example, when they were at risk of losing their eyes. Aside from that, the forty-one wolfkin cubs were left to their own, occasionally being provoked verbally by the shamans to compete with each other and to dominate the weaker cubs.
"Enough." Annie said, jumping into a sand pit surrounded by an iron cage. The shamans frowned but allowed her to carry on.
This arena was just wide enough to give the cubs some breathing room while remaining tight enough to ensure that they will become too anxious or angry due to the lack of the space. By competing for food and milk, cubs learned how to fight, received their first rewards from their power, and found their place within the Tribe. The wolf hag could almost smell the broken dreams, fear, and pain in the arena. Although she was ashamed to admit it, Annie hated the pits with all her being, failing to understand why the Spirits forced such cruelty on the Tribe. Annie had to step carefully to avoid other cubs on her way to the fighters. She kicked with her foot, not to harm, but just to give a nudge, and the larger wolfkin let go of the smaller girl.
"She started it!" Lidya complained, backing down from Annie on all four limbs and baring her fangs at the smaller girl, "She wanted to dominate Weirdo!"
"I don’t care," Annie responded calmly, lowering on one knee to see the bite on the girl’s head. The smaller wolfkin charged out of her arms and darted away the moment a sound signal came, indicating the end of the pit’s time, "Learn from your sister and show some damn moderation when you respond with violence. You almost bit her bloody ear off."
The wolf hag stood up, feeling a slight pain in her fingers. At least her pee wasn't red anymore, or else Svetka would never let her out of the hospital. Her body was healing day by day, but it would be some time before she could return to training with her pack. Virginia tried to join the daily training and Svetka complained directly to Alpha. The warlord, who was under investigation due to the losses that Bel’s pack and normies had suffered at the hands of Hecktricktsen, was in no mood to play around. Alpha threatened to entomb Virginia in her room, if that idiot dared to cause any more trouble. Annie decided to act as an adult and wait for the full recovery. With some free time on her paws, she agreed to help Dragena in escorting the warlord’s cubs back to their home instead of allowing them to come back on their own like the rest of the children did. Normally, Dragena was in charge of this task, but with the time of Gathering approaching, when all warlords and most shamans gather to decide on the tribe's future, Dragena found her paws full.
"The wolf hag Annie is right," Jenny said. The serious looking girl came closer, leading a much bigger male wolfkin by his paw, "We should be an example to our lesser. That includes being more forgiving to them. And don’t call Hubert like that. It is denigrating him as a human being."
"But he is weird… Aw!" Lidya frowned, after receiving a smack on the head from her sister. Annie noticed that Jenny struck in the same moment that Lidya blinked, "What about the "being an example" part!"
"When it is you, I am still working on myself." Jenny humbly lowered her gaze.
"Hello, Annie." Hubert said in a shy voice. Unlike the other wolfkins, his speech sounded too childlike despite his impressive age and size.
"Greetings, little one." Annie gave him a pat on the head. Hubert was the son of Alsyn.
After he received treatment in Iterna, Kassandra decided to adopt him. Although workers from child services still regularly showed up to see if his living conditions were up to standard, the agent herself did a pretty good job of raising him so far. He learned how to speak, was well fed and clean, and his body was strong and healthy as far as Annie could tell. Even the nightmares that bothered him for many months are now no longer an issue. And yet Hubert’s mind was that of a normie, he matured at a far slower rate mentally, while in a year or earlier he will be as tall as an adult normal human. Hubert never should have been in the pits. But most other cubs avoided him outside of the pits, thinking that he was making fun of them by acting as a cub. None of them believed that a wolfkin could not know how to fight or speak properly at his age.
To "socialize" him, Kassandra asked the shamans to allow him into the pits and to keep him from all harm. The shamans obeyed this request, clearly unhappy at the fact that they had to watch over a "civilian", as they called him. Unlike others, Hubert did not have to fight for food or milk, the shamans kept him well fed and did not allow other cubs to bully him. Dragena thought Hubert should be raised with the normies' cubs, but Kassandra disagreed, claiming that it would be better for him to be raised among his people. The warlord disagreed but asked her own cubs to watch over Hubert, nonetheless. So far, only two people have willingly taken care of him. One person was Jenny, who took a liking to the boy, speaking with him and teaching him things. The other person was Scarred One, the shaman often tricked younger cubs into speaking with Hubert. Lidya mostly relied on Hubert to find brawls for herself, but she was friendly with him.
"Gather around, little ones, we are going home." Annie said, taking Hubert into her paws. It was safer that way, he tried to run off several times before, upon seeing something interesting along the way. Nothing could really threaten him in the village, the boy was well known to everyone by now, but Annie still felt tingles of pain upon running.
"Annie, I want to fight some more! I promise to be gentle!" Lidya whined, while her brothers came closer. This girl was always excited about coming to the pits. Dragena fed her cubs properly, yet each time Lidya charged toward the meat and milk like a starving cusack, pushing and beating all who tried to stop her. She never bothered to eat the food. Instead, the thrill of a fight was all she wanted from the race toward food. Once she was satisfied, Lidya allowed less fortunate wolfkins to feast, while she herself lay on the ground, breathing heavily and happily after a good brawl. There was no point in these battles, both girls of Dragena were larger and tougher than all the cubs in the pits, no amount of victories here would add to their strength.
"The wolf hag gave us the command. It is our duty to obey it." Jenny responded, putting both arms behind her back. While Lidya’s clothes were all torn up and dirty with sand and blood from others, Jenny’s clothes were almost fully clean, save for the sand on her boots. Unlike her sister, she rarely fought against the others, only responding to the challenges. She spent most of the time sitting in the corner of the pit and speaking with Hubert, without caring for food. Any cub who tried to subdue her often found herself laying on the ground, with Jenny sitting on her opponent, holding an opponent’s arm in a hold. Jenny prided herself on never using claws or fangs in the arena.
Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.
Lidya whined but obeyed. The sisters competed with each other, and right now Jenny was ahead. This would not last, in a few days, their roles will be reversed once more, but for now, Lidya had to obey the winner of the last scramble between them. Annie checked the boys to ensure that they were not injured. Slick's breathing was a bit heavy, and his eyes were closing from being tired, but aside from that, they were fine. They acted as most males in the tribe do, keeping away from the troubles. Besides, anyone who would dare to lay a claw on them had to go through Lidya or Jenny first.
The group came from the pits, a large den made of stone and wood in the middle of the village. Usually, after spending time in the pits, cubs run off to their homes, either to help their parents, or to clean up and change clothes, before running toward the yellow buses that carry them to schools. The Wolf Tribe never officially joined the state’s educational programs, and thus their cubs were not obligated to study in the public schools. The law that protected the traditions of the population within the state did not allowed Wyrm Lord to simply give an order for the wolfkins to send their young into the schools. Thus, their liege cheated. He gave orders to build brightly colored buildings that flashed lights near the villages, fully knowing how curious the young cubs are. Not all of the young wanted to return to the schools after a first lessons, yet all of those who entered the schools were forced to come and study by their parents, due to a strong belief in duty among the Tribe. If a wolfkin had once, knowingly or otherwise, taken a duty, then the wolfkin had to finish said duty. Some shamans were unhappy about the presence of the schools, while the majority of the shamans were not against them, being glad in secret that the cubs were somewhere safe, instead of trying to sneak into Iterna to steal some trash and boast to others.
Right now, however, it was summer and young cubs were left to their own devices. Some were busy helping herd cusacks, some were busy cleaning up the village, and some were busy doing chores in their tents. Jenny looked unhappily at the empty bus stop, clearly wishing to be at the school. The wolfkins matured at a much faster rate than normies, and according to Dragena, young Jenny liked losing herself in reading the books.
The village itself has changed, albeit only slightly, since Annie was a cub. The shamans approved the use of the lamp posts, and now, aside from the general store, a few more buildings have appeared in the village. The state paid engineers to maintain the lighting within the village. Originally, these people were also supposed to build paved roads within the village, but quickly gave up after the shamans stubbornly claimed this duty for themselves. Engineers had to be content with showing the locals how to build and maintain new roads. At an impressive distance from the village were built patrol posts, almost next to schools, where soldiers from the ranks of the normies ensured that no more accidents, like the tragedy that happened in Annie’s life, would ever happen to the families of the shock troopers of the Third Army. However, the cubs complained that the soldiers often turned them back, not allowing them to brave the wilderness as their parents used to do in their childhood. No one cared for their complaints, however.
Annie spied Hans, dressed in an anti-heat suit, with the corner of her eye. Several wolfkins called police officers the first time they saw him coming to the village due to the fact that he resembled way too much the ones who attacked Annie’s village. However, after the initial confusion and after apologies were made, Hans was allowed to work in the village. During the winter, he was driving one of the armored buses to the schools, during the summer, he was busy instructing the shamans about how to maintain an energy grid that supplied the lamps with electricity. His family, his wife and her parents, moved into a small town nearby, and once he even brought his cubs with him, asking the shamans to babysit them while he was working. Hans was one of the group of people hired by Wyrm Lord to help with the integration of the Wolf Tribe into the state. Once the curious shamans approached Wyrm Lord with a question as to why he sends so many people into the Wolf Tribe villages, the commander of the Third Army explained to them that he believes that by forcing the Wolf Tribe to interact with outsiders more, the wolfkins will stop being so distant from the population at large. The shamans took this as a challenge, stoically enduring the outsiders, while Annie simply was glad that more familiar faces were showing up around here. Maybe Wyrm Lord was right, and the villages will disappear one day, and the Wolf Tribe will move to the cities. Speaking the truth, Annie saw nothing bad about this.
"Stop walking on all four. Walk like a normal human being," Annie commanded to Lidya and the girl unhappily obeyed. She glanced at Slick, who was stumbling during his walk, "If you want to, I can carry you as well, Slick."
"I am fine." The young boy mumbled in response.
"Slick, walk normally, please. If you fall, your clothes will be all dirty again." Jenny said, holding her head high and her arms behind her back, imitating the walk of her mother. While her sister moved with the grace of a cusack, Jenny walked around like a trained dancer.
"I can carry you, if you want!" Lydia went down on all fours once more, "Hop in! I’ll ride you home like a cusack!"
"Or I can help you walk." Jenny quickly said, moving closer to her brother.
"I am fine! Leave me alone," Slick angrily responded, forcing his eyes to stay open, "I am not a weakling."
Slick was the smallest of Dragena’s cubs. His fur was of a regal black color but had stripes of grey. His mother's divinity felt the least in him, causing the boy to become anxious when anyone tried to help him.
"Lidya, your mother will be unhappy with how you treated Nikka today." Anni said, trying to change the sensitive subject.
"She is the one who started it," Lidya stubbornly replied, "If she doesn’t want to get hurt, she should behave better."
"Hurting others is bad." Hubert said, and Annie gave him an approving pat on the head.
"Lydia, I don't blame you for protecting Hubert. But there must be a proportional response, otherwise resentment toward others in Nikka will only grow bigger."
"Rese… What?" Lidya asked, standing back on two legs and putting a claw in her mouth.
"Resentment. It means being bitter or angry at someone for a perceived slight," Jenny said. Seeing the face of her sister, she sighted and rolled her eyes, "It means Nikka is salty because of something."
"Why in the Abyss would she be salty because of Weirdo? He never hurt anyone! No one even speaks to him aside from us!" Lidya asked and Jenny shrugged her shoulders. Lidya kicked the rock off the road, "She is weird. And stupid."
"Imagine being in her place," Annie asked her, Nikka and Jenny fought a lot, and Annie asked the shamans about the smaller girl. Nikka was the only survivor of her mother's litter, and her parents distanced themselves from her for some reason. Annie wanted to give them a piece of her mind, but had no idea where to find them, "Your mother and father are always away. You live in a lonely tent, with no brothers or sisters. You have to cook food, clean your own clothes, learn how to fix them, no one is reading to you at night, and you don’t have time to play. She thinks that her trials are making her strong, yet here you come, someone who lives in a beautiful big house, someone who has never had to work as hard as she and is already stronger than her. She is angry and seeks someone at whom she can direct her frustrations."
Lidya spread her arms, "Jen calls me a simple person…"
"The word that I used was "dumbass", but "simple" works too, I guess." Jenny mumbled.
"She touches my friend, she gets bitten. It’s not my fault that Nikka’s life is shit" Lidya finished, without looking at her sister.
"Oh, so now Hubert is your friend and not the Weirdo. Convenient." Jenny whispered again.
"It is no one’s fault," Annie agreed, "But put yourself in her hide. She can’t change her circumstances right now and is envious of others. Her anger boils inside her and she fears being weak and unneeded. Thus, her resentment grows bigger each time you injure her. One day, it might swallow her whole. In time, she will grow up and hopefully become a better person. But imagine if you maimed her for good. Imagine if you were her and you woke up each morning, already having a shitty life and seeing your ear missing to boot. How will you feel then?" With a surprise, Annie understood that she was projecting and fell silent, stroking Hubert’s neck. Life is not that simple, and she should not assume that she knows how others feel. Lidya put a claw back into her mouth, looking unusually thoughtful.