Annie opened her eyes, feeling the cold stone behind her back. She felt pain in… her everything really. She was looking at the brightly lit ceiling of the sparring room, unsure how she ended up here.
Ok, what is the last thing you remember? Annie tried to remember. She challenged Carty, and both of them clashed. She refused to back down after a flurry of blows threw her to the ground. She grabbed Carty’s leg in a hold, trying to break her. The fellow scout grabbed Annie by her neck, and then all the world went dark.
"There is some sort of a demon in you, lost soul," The voice said to Annie’s left. Scout turned her head and saw Carty sitting nearby, massaging her right leg. Several bruises were on Carty’s face and her right leg was a bit swollen in the knee area, but aside from that, the scout looked as perfect as ever. Eight scouts from both the packs of Kayleen's and Timira's were relaxing on the seat, with varying degrees of beatings upon them. "Ever since you came back from the Core Lands, you have been acting a bit weirder than usual."
"Ultis is still barely conscious after you used her head to leave marks on the floor." A scout from the wolf hag Timira’s pack complained, pointing at the Ultis to her left.
"No, auntie Ygrite, I don’t wanna eat another cusack. I am full now, honest," Ultis blurted out words half consciously. Her high-pitched voice sliced across the ears of Annie like a whip.
"You tore through others today like an angry Carty would on her bad day." A familiar voice chuckled, and wolf hag Kayleen walked into the arena, stopping next to Annie and looking at her from above.
"I did it only once and apologized for this. Drop it already." The blue-furred wolfkin demanded, visibly annoyed at the memories.
"Not... not nearly as well," Annie struggled to say. Her muscles hurt, both from the beating she received in the series of one-on-one fights and from the reward that blood was giving to her. Today was the first day when Annie managed to overcome Ultis, and the scouts from the Timira pack were all new to her. Yet all of them, on average, were equal to Annie, and the scout felt how her muscles enlarged within her arms, how her bones were becoming a bit sturdier by the moment, "I got stomped by Carty in the end."
"Everyone always do." Kayleen smiled, helping Annie and Carty to stand up, "Warlord calls for you. Don’t keep her waiting.”
****
Annie stopped and knocked on the door leading to the personal room of Dragena. Originally, the door leading to the warlord’s room was made out of simple wood and was rarely closed. However, now it was made of metal and had to be opened by either the handprint of the warlord or when Dragena used a remote device.
"Come in." Dragena’s voice said, and the door slid aside, allowing Annie to step in. The warlord's room changed quite a bit. Instead of an empty floor, soft and warm carpets now cover the floor. The warlord's simple and small bed was replaced by an enormously huge square-shaped bed covered in soft black pillows and sheets. Instead of the cold machine light that left many corners of the room in shadow, warm and yellow light now shone upon the room, leaving no place in the dark. The workplace of the warlord was filled with books about how to raise or how to feed children properly. A brand new refrigerator was placed in the room. In the corner of the room lay two piles of things. One pile contained packages of chocolate and other snacks, all bearing cards wishing the warlord and her offspring a long and happy life. A large sticker "Reminder. Eat all of this before food can become rotten." was placed over them. Another pile contained various pieces of art, clothes for children, gift cards and similar things.
A sticker with a handwritten note: "Emotional value perhaps? Need to find potential use during spare time." was placed on top of them. Dragena herself lay on the side of the bed, holding her head with a paw and looking warningly at the entrance. Five pitch-black nubbins crawled near her, sucking milk from the body of their mother. One of the small cubs squealed when other nubbins pushed the cub aside from the milk, and Dragena lifted the cub in her paw, putting the small nubbin of life on the upper side of her body, allowing the small cub to use the other direction to drink milk from. Even as small as they were, cubs already instinctively tried to fight each other for access to the milk. However, unlike most females of the Wolf Tribe, Dragena used her finger to push struggling cubs away from each other, not allowing them to bite or scratch opponents. The amber eyes of Dragena flashed when Annie stepped into the room:
"Stay there. Yes, right there. Pardon for this oddity, but my instincts are raging within me, causing me to do a variety of things. I might bite you if you get too close to the cubs," Dragena said calmly, her eyes emotionless as she looked at Annie. "Don’t take it personally, I had to stop Carty from coming close as well. If a person whom I do not fully trust comes too close to my cubs, instincts drive me into a state of mindless aggression that is hard to reign in. And I had to kick Virginia out of my room. Come to think about it, I had to kick several people out my room recently. Never before had I lifted a paw against the fellow wolfkin, aside from punishing traitors or in domination matches. Later, I will have to apologize to all the people I have hurt."
"Of course, warlord," Annie said, unsure of what she was doing here. She cleared her throat, "Congratulations on successful lifegiving. Would it be out of line for me to say that they are cute?" Dragena calmly kept looking at the scout and Annie shrugged her shoulders, "They are cute. Kayleen said you wanted to see me."
"Indeed. Just a moment please, she was supposed to be here already." Dragena answered, looking through terminal near her. Seeing something, she pressed a button on the remote control device, opening the door once more for the newcomer to enter.
Zero stepped inside, dressed in her usual pitch-black helmet, simple leather jacket of the sky color, and brown pants. The warlord glanced at Annie, lifting two fingers to the helmet in greeting salute, before asking in a worried voice:
"Annie? Did someone hurt you?" Zero asked upon seeing bruises on the scout. The black helmet turned to Dragena in a silent question, while the paw of one arm clenched into a fist.
"Just fell down the stairs." Annie tried to make a joke, feeling embarrassed. She left Zero as the wolf hag, and now she stood before her former leader as a mere scout.
"She beat eight other scouts in a challenge that she herself initiated. Zero, you are worried over nothing." The warlord calmly said.
Zero gave one more glance to Annie, before turning to Dragena.
"They are beautiful," Zero walked to the edge of the bed, moving her paw to gently stroke one of the small cubs, "I can see some of you in them, Dragni. What’s their names?"
"Hopefully they won't inherit anything else from me besides my physique," Dragena said as she looked at her children, "They will be able to choose names for themselves when they are older."
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"Now, this is not the proper way to treat your kids," Zero purred, lowering on one knee and reaching out with her paw to the cubs. Tiny heads stopped sucking milk, looking at the moving finger of Zero with increased attention. The warlord chuckled, playing with the cubs, who tried to bite her finger, "To grow into fine people, kids need to see that their parents care for them and love them. Names are but a minor part of this grand work." Dragena dispassionately looked at her fellow warlord, clearly intending to refuse.
"Warlord Zero is correct," Annie said, feeling Dragena's amber eyes on her. "Forgive me ma'am, but if you love your cubs, you should at the very least name them," Zero laughed at this show of support.
"I can’t give them what I don’t have," Dragena responded calmly. Collecting cubs from around herself, the warlord put struggling furballs before herself. Holding them in place with one paw, Dragena put a finger of her free paw on the foreheads of the cubs, one after another, while saying their names, "Owoger. Jenny. Tim. Lidya. Slick. There, all done."
"Slick? What, the name Thinner was not available?" Zero asked jokingly.
"You have no right to criticize my naming skills, Zero," Dragena jumped off the bed, leaving the mewling cubs thrashing around in panic in search of their mother. Gracefully landing behind Zero, Dragena picked up a shirt from the dresser, putting it on, "Annie and I are off for a walk. Sister, play a little with the kids in my place."
"What?! But I… I have no idea how…" Zero stumbled back in fear, only stopping when Dragena put a paw on her back, not allowing Zero to back down.
"They can’t escape from the bed, so relax. And don’t listen to their mewling and yapping, all of them are well fed and can endure up to four days without their next intake of milk. But if the little whiners bother you too much, there are bottles of milk in the refrigerator. Better to use a custom heater to warm milk before feeding them, though. Have fun."
Not allowing Zero to say even a single thing, Dragena almost grabbed Annie under her arm, pushing them both out of the room and closing the door behind them. The warlord gestured for Annie to walk after herself, and the warlord walked outside of the barracks, leading the scout toward the hangars.
"You invited Zero to keep an eye on your cubs?" Annie asked curiously. Even after giving life, Dragena continued to be in self-imposed confinement, not coming out even to have regular dinners with her pack. Warlords rarely brought new lives into the world, and it was a custom among the Wolf Tribe that warlords would spend the next week after giving birth attending a celebration that spanned across the entire Wastes along with their cubs. It was also a tradition that shamans were the ones who assisted in lifegiving. So far, Dragena was the only warlord who broke both traditions, not allowing shamans to even examine her cubs. The warlord only allowed Ieshua to come close to her cubs for examination, and Kayleen told Annie in secret that the doctor bore a deep bite on the back of his neck upon exiting the room of the warlord. Granted, for trolls, such injuries are nothing.
Annie wondered why Dragena called her. Maybe even the warlord missed the taste of fresh air by now and used Annie as an excuse to sneak out.
"Warlord Zero, scout," Dragena corrected the scout, tensing up a bit. The warlord ran a paw over her face, allowing herself to relax, "At ease, Annie. Call me by my name. Partially yes. She and I also need to talk about how to progress with that pet project of hers. I simply decided to make this talk in person."
"The one that involves cubs of the Crippled? And me?" Annie looked at the warlord, but woman was silent, "Can you tell me what role I was supposed to play?"
"I will not lie to you, so no. Be content that your role in this is over, unless you choose to sacrifice something for the sake of the duty." Dragena responded, looking around the Refugee Center, memorizing all the changes.
"Sacrifice?" The smaller wolfkin blinked, trying to understand what her superior meant. It was unlike Dragena to speak in riddles.
"You will know when the time comes. The decision will be yours and yours alone. I will not think less of you no matter what you decide to do," The warlord loudly cracked her neck, "Ygrite reported about your misstep." Dragena continued, cutting off all questions.
"I can only beg forgiveness for breaking the law." Annie looked at her feet in shame. All around her, the Refugee Center Gamma was brimming with life, despite the late hours. With Chosen Prince and his hordes defeated, refugees were slowly evacuated back to the lands of Oathtakers. Some people decided to stay and work in the lands of the Reclaimers, including Ieshua. The majority, on the other hand, was eager to return to their familiar lands. Annie wanted to say goodbyes to Lia, but the young cub had already left a day before Annie came back. Dominator, the undisputedly strongest of all new breeds, himself came for the young girl, taking her and a few other youths back on his personal ship. Annie was half envious, half relieved that she missed the opportunity to see the famous person who once broke the back of the blessed mother. With the death of the Chosen Prince, an unnatural disease loosens its hold on the people in the infirmary, allowing for a swift recovery. It seemed that peace once more was slowly returning to the world.
Dragena became visibly tense upon seeing a troll cub who broke from the crowd and approached them. Trolls were always tall beings, and this one was not exceptional. If not for the badge saying "Minor" on the right side of the jacket, this person would easily pass for a teen due to his height. The warlord tried to walk around the youth, but the stubborn cub moved toward the pair of wolfkins as a guided missile. Dragena's upper lip moved up, showing sharp fangs.
"Warlord, your cubs are safe and away." Annie whispered quickly. Females of the Wolf Tribe often become agitated upon giving life, true. But the behavior of the warlord was outright irrational, she looked like her instincts were too much for her to handle.
"For you, miss." The troll cub offered a hand-crafted wooden statue to the warlord. The statue was fashioned after the image of a wolfkin in what was supposed to be a triumphant pose, with both paws thrown up in a gesture of victory. The cub clearly made it from a piece of wood and using just a knife and some paint, yet Annie found such a gift to look honestly sweet, even if the figure looked only barely similar to Dragena.
"Thank you very much, young one. Now run off and have fun with everyone else." Dragena put the tiny statue in the crook of her arm. She smiled, and the scout shuddered. She had seen several fake smiles in her life, but this one easily took the cake and ate it too. The warlord’s smile looked outright hideous, the edges of her lips trembling from effort to keep the lips spread. Annie half understood now why Dragena was hiding from the celebration in her honor.
"Making mistakes is part of being human. Think nothing of it, you have fully paid for your crime," Dragena said when the cub calmly moved back to the wards meant for minors. The warlord visibly relaxed, removing the unnatural smile from her face. With each passing day, fewer and fewer cubs remained in the refugee center, whole convoys, guarded by the elites of the Oathtakers, were taking off, bringing refugees back to their homeland in safety. Soon this place will be abandoned once more.
But for now, life thrives here still. Annie glanced toward the cheering group of people, a mix of normies, new breeds, wolfkins, and trolls, all cheering in the open under the bright neon sign. The writing on this sign was dedicated to celebrating the warlord's successfully giving birth. Dragena's paw moved to the back of Annie, testing the muscles in the young woman's spine. Annie nearly jumped when one of the fingers of the warlord pressed on some nerve near the neck. Dragena only nodded to this, "Strained but fine. Good enough. Medics of the Ice Fang order really do know their craft. You should have agreed to the operation on your nose as well."
"I had my own reasons to refuse the offer, ma’am." Annie responded quietly. Until the day comes when she beats the lights out of Virginia and restores her pride, Annie will live with her ruined nostrils as a reminder of her weakness and failure, allowing spite to drive her forward.
Dragena did not respond, leading the scout to a hangar meant to store the civilian gear. With the Refugee Center Gamma losing its main purpose, the majority of this gear is now shipped to other places around the Wastes, building up the infrastructure in cities and villages to implement the universal healthcare plan. Several doctors from the Oathtakers were promoted in rank, giving them greater authority in the regional hospitals due to their expertise in the field. Meanwhile, in order to attract more doctors to work in the Wastes, Dynast gave orders to increase monetary payment for the medical personnel in the Wastes, as well as limit the time to earn a pension from thirty to twenty-two years for medical personnel who choose to work in the Wastes. Whether it would work or not, Annie had no idea.