Chapter 23: Bonus chapter part 3: Annie’s backstory.

Lucendra took four steps down into the basement. Through cameras on her armor, Annie could see equipment meant for processing raw milk into products meant for everyday life. Once pristine, now the metal coating of equipment bore marks of the acid, several massive machines were torn apart. Darkness ruled in the basement, energy cords were bitten some time ago.

A pale form charged at a warrior from the ruined carcass of a square-shaped refrigerator. The shardgun in the warrior's paws fired a single shot, riddling the insectoid worker's chitin plates with torn holes and sending the body back into the ruins.

With a screeching sound, a living wave came from the ruined processing hall. Countless legs ran across the floor, bringing weapons of murder closer and closer toward Lucendra, unnatural eyes locked on wolfkin, as insectoid workers charged into incoming gunfire, oblivious of their own demise, intending to take down the intruder no matter what.

When cameras showed several workers climbing the ceiling, preparing to drop on the warriors from above, Annie wanted to scream in warning. Lucendra was stationary, a deadly mistake when dealing with insectoids alone. New breeds were supposed to be constantly on the move, charging around, firing, slashing, and stomping all at once, not giving the instinct-driven hive mind even a chance to come up with a plan.

Kayleen's paw landed on Annie's shoulder, calling for silence. This was a mission for the warrior and her alone, only if she called for aid herself, or met an unknown situation, or the wolf hag felt that they needed to step in, could Annie say anything.

"Learn to trust your fellow soldiers, Annie," quietly said the wolf hag, turning off communication with Lucendra for a brief moment, "They might just surprise you."

Scout was sitting before the screen in a small pod-like room in the control center. She received another injection today and her wounds felt like searing fire, yet at the same time, thin skin now covered her wounds, preventing bleeding. Doctors still insisted upon maintaining bandages around the former wounds, warning that skin could easily crack because of pressure and banning Annie from active duty for a while. The scout spent her sudden free time reading history books about three great nations and watching documentaries. The sight of the sea shocked her very soul, making the wolfkin want to learn more about the world. All her life, she was used to seeing endless rocky deserts in all directions. The world ended up so much bigger than this. But even she could stomach free time only so much. She asked for a job, and Kayleen gave her a part-time job in the control center. Carty and Ultis, meanwhile, both enjoyed free time without a care in the world.

The warlord reviewed the status of her pack and noticed that several members of the pack were feeling down. Among them were two Branded soldiers from the Annie pack, two males from the pack of Ultis, and one warrior from the pack of Carty. Normally, loss of confidence could be solved with increased feasting and personal training with the warlord herself. Yet once again, Dragena was mysteriously absent, and the feast alone could not help. The warlord handed down a new plan to her wolf hags, a plan that was supposed to help with morale.

Under orders of the warlord Dragena, the wolf hag Kayleen sent Lucendra and a few other warriors on a cooperation mission with the soldiers of the state. Their job was simple, patrol the area, help locals, nothing that honestly required the attention of wolfkins. Nowadays, it is almost unthinkable to send members of the Wolf Tribe on such missions. Annie understood why the warlord decided to break the tradition. Lucendra’s confidence was shaken because the warrior viewed her performance as lacking. The male soldier felt inadequate because he was the first injured person on the mission. Annie tried to cheer them up verbally, but they were still unsure about themselves. Dragena left Lucendra and others with no time for brooding, making them regain confidence in action and trusting soldiers with making decisions on their own by pushing them into the position of team leaders for a while. The wolf hags of Dragena’s pack fully supported this idea, Kayleen even went so far as to approve the unorthodox upgrade of Lucendra’s armor, after the warrior asked for permission to try out her theory. Planning, mission approach, coordination with the police force... This time, everything was on the soldiers, with the wolf hag and state agents merely acting as operators. And sometimes there is clear confusion about local laws for soldiers.

Annie was worried about her soldier, and Kayleen allowed her to be operator for Lucendra on today’s mission, with strict orders to not interfere unless asked. Today’s job of Annie was simple, just be a parrot bird for Lucendra, sending orders for normies and passing information to Kayleen. Lieutenant Angoro worked side by side with Annie, but his job was more active today. Several refugees, intending to get into the Core Lands and skipping the Wastes entirely, caused trouble for locals. Angoro was present here to give legal advice to the wolfkins involved about how to solve such problems. Warlord Ygrite stood by the entrance to the room, looking at monitors with a bored expression on her face. If not for breathing, the warlord would resemble a statue rather than a human being, her eyelid refused to blink even once. Ygrite refused to explain her presence, and no one here outranked her to tell the warlord to leave. She moved only once, accepting coffee from Kayleen, when the wolf hag went for food for operators.

An electric discharge came from two round parts on the back of Lucendra’s armor. An arc of energy hit the pale forms of insectoids that leaped on her back from the ceiling, sending them away. The warrior wasted no time looking to see if her recent addition to power armor worked, thinning the incoming wave with precise shots. She could worry less, insectoids advanced in a straight line, hellbent on buying time for ambush units. It was impossible to miss them at such range.

Shards pierced chitin plates and soft insides, going straight through bodies and into insectoids behind. The swarm that took hold in this basement was not a particularly big one, insectoids came here in search for supplies for the main host of the hive. While deaths of five or six were acceptable losses, deaths of a dozen or more were not. The hive was losing more than it had gained. And instincts drove the hive to make one last charge, hoping to save whatever was still salvageable.

A pile of metal in the back of the room exploded, unleashing a charging mass of an enormous snail. Tentacles with eyes at the end of them were deeply buried within a ghostly pale mass, the shell of the creature pushed aside metal when the mass dragged its body toward the exit. These snails were known as gatherers—creatures capable of enlarging their size to incredible limits thanks to the food that they devour. Upon finding a hamlet or remote house, insectoids invade it in mass, slaughtering occupants if they were unable to run or retreat. Then gatherers come, feasting upon dead bodies and nutrients in the newly conquered place. Upon returning to the hive, the gatherer ended up being butchered by insectoid warriors, who then distributed the flesh among countless members of the hive.

And gatherers were dangerous. Their sheer mass was such that even wolfkins had trouble lifting them. When the "foot" of such a snail strolled across the victim, it could peel all flesh from the bones within moments, leaving not even bone marrow behind. The gastric juice of the creature was potent enough to melt even through power armor. The shell was tough enough to block even shards from a shardgun. Directed through the eyes of lesser workers, this creature was too much for Lucendra to take on herself.

And the warrior knew it. She did a backflip, jumping out of the basement the moment the snail reached a distance of two steps away from her. Insectoids charge after Lucendra, their instincts screaming to run down and devour the retreating foe, or at least tie her up while the gatherer retreats. Through a single exit from the basement, all of them charged outside, several workers were devoured to chitinous plates when the "foot" of a snail ran across them. The living mass charged to a nearby farm's backyard, sensing the dread smell of insectoids cusacks and screamed loudly in the nearby protected farmhouse. The critters ignored them, on this night they already tried to break into this farmhouse but found no way through the iron fence and electricity that ran across it.

Instead, they rushed after the warrior, while the gatherer tried to run west, toward the Wastes. Lucendra made her retreat to save distance and send a signal for backup.

"Begin the mission, everyone." Annie calmly said, patching the signal through to the police officers in hiding. Lucendra herself chose the place for the ambush, and now the trap was fully ready.

In Iterna, in the lands of the Oath and even in the Core Lands, police forces were mostly lightly armed groups. There was little reason for them to bear heavy arms or use power armor. Things were quite different in the Wastes and Ravaged Lands. The police officers of the Reclaimers in these regions were clad in outdated power armors, granted weapons on the same level as military and military training to boot. Some of them could even put soldiers to shame thanks to their rigorous training. Once, they were even expected to join the military to help fight back raids by Oathtakers. Each police district in Wastes had a proud history, their special forces could subdue even new breeds due to excellent teamwork.

In short, they had no need for the help of Lucendra. This was proven when forms in blueish power armor rose from hidden places in the sand, unleashing a hail of bullets at the workers. Insectoids jerked on the stone ground, their eyes smashed apart, and bullets smashed into their chitin plates one after the other, cracking them due to pressure. The acid grenades were thrown at the snail, melting away its organic "foot" and ending the existence of the gatherer. Lucendra never even got the chance to add to the fire, her allies cleaned the foes in under a minute, leaving only dead forms laying under the hot sun, fluids from the torn wounds quickly evaporating on the stone.

"Sweep the area and check for life signs on the corpses," Lucendra commanded in a high-pitched voice. The warrior tried her best to sound assured and intimidating, yet every time when it came to giving orders, she ended up sounding like a squeaking cub. Or like Ultis, "Eliminate any straggles that we missed. Proceed slow, we already won, no need to risk it."

"You heard the boss, move out, people." Said one of the police officers wearing power armor with green command officer markings. Passing officers nodded to the warrior in thanks while they were securing the area and going down to the basement for the sweep.

Lucendra turned her head toward the farms, hearing shouts. An angry-looking old man in the clothes of a farmer broke from the hold of a younger man and woman. Despite his frail appearance and the fact that he used a steel walking stick to help himself move around, there were still muscles, like wires of iron, running down his naked wrists. A six-shot armor-piercing revolver was in a holster on the man’s belt, a large hat protected his tanned face from the hot sun. His two assistants were strikingly similar to him in facial features.

"Have you finished the job, yet? "The cusacks are getting hungry." The farm owner asked, spitting out chewing tobacco on the ground.

"We are finishing the sweep, mister, once we are sure that all inse…"

"Bah! You saw the gatherer running, this means all insectoids are dead by now. I expected better knowledge from a member of the Wolf Tribe," His eyes narrowed when he noticed the round things on Lucendra’s back, "Huh. Energy traps. On a suit of power armor. Didn’t think I would see someone using them again in my lifetime. You better drop them, girlie, they ain’t strong enough to kill the critter, much less the man."

"My family lives away from the village. Ma and pa often use them to scare away insectoids since energy discharge is not strong enough to harm us. I just decided to test them out myself," Lucendra took off her helmet, smiling to the man respectfully, "And they proved to be just enough to push critters away from me."

"Uh-huh, it’s your life and funeral, lassie," The man threw a glance around his lands. He hissed, seeing the cut electric fence, "All for the sake of bits of food. Blasted refugees. Had they just asked, I would have given them scraps. Should’ve just shot them when they tried to break in the first time. The next ones daring to steal from me will…"

"Criminals are already apprehended and are awaiting a fair trial, mister. Justice will be served and hopefully they will change their ways." Quickly said Lucendra, noticing how the hand of the man moved toward the handle of his revolver.

"What good is it to me? What am I supposed to do now? Sure, I can live for some time by selling raw milk, but you can’t live on just on this alone."

"This idiot just admitted to selling illegal product." Noted Annie, inputting the date into records.

"Kill him." Ygrite said.

"Illegal. Beat him up and arrest him." Kayleen proposed.

"We need to arrest him. Raw milk is dangerous, there is a reason why the state forbids trade only of processed milk." Angoro took off his headphones and looked at Lucendra’s screen.

"Sir, selling raw milk is illegal. Several decades ago, it caused the deaths of several people, and a whole group of people were arrested." The warrior told the elderly farmer, but the man only waved his hand.

"I know about that event. It was due to mismanagement of cusacks, they were sickly and ill, while I am fully certain in mine. The only ones who buy raw milk from me are the new breeds of your tribe. You may not like it, but how am I going to earn tokens if I don't do something now? It will take time to fix the processing facility to pasteurize the milk, and it will take even more time to get confirmation that my facility is up to standards."

"Ah, so it is him. On a second thought, we can’t be too hasty." Kayleen quickly said.

"Indeed, perhaps I was too hasty in my judgement, we need to look at this situation from all angles." Ygrite agreed, inhaling air loudly.

"Please tell me that you do not drink raw milk," The agent looked at the silent warlord and the wolf hag and turned back to the screen with a sigh, "We still need to arrest him. Hundreds of people are getting sick from raw milk every year."

"Life is risky. And you can die from it. Banning every treat is…" The wolf hag tried to reason with him, making the agent turn toward her.

"Raw milk is not a delicacy! It is a hazardous substance that can lead to illness or even death. The state passed a law that only allows pasteurized milk for consumption, due to the fact that unpasteurized milk can contain bacteria like…"

"You heard the man. He sells this stuff only to the new breeds. We can take it," The warlord stepped forward, making the agent lock his gaze with her. The man refused to back down, looking up in the large amber eyes, "Everybody should be able to choose their own risks when it comes to food. When the state gets between my mouth and my stomach, I call this an invasion of my privacy."

"This is ridiculous! Laws cannot be bend or…"

"All of you, be silent! This is not your mission!" Annie snapped at them, feeling their burning eyes at her back. She ignored the bickering of her allies, focusing on the screen before her. Lucendra might need her advice.

The warrior looked around, half helplessly. People in the Wastes were not that well versed in the laws, and it was quite possible that this man did not realize that he had just incriminated himself. Yet he had proper facilities before and tried his best to live up to the laws before. It was not his fault that his main source of income was taken from him, many stores in cities bought milk from farmers as part of supporting local business programs in the state. Annie could feel how the warrior desperately tried to find some way for the man to get out of this mess unharmed and untouched. If Lucendra asks for help, she will no doubt receive orders to arrest the man for violation of the law.

"Sir… I heard that farm owner Driago recently lost his herd in sandstorm." The warrior finally said.

"Ah, that idiot. I always told him to throw out his drunk failure of a son and hire some help. You know, there was that incident fifteen years ago when I…"

"Sir, a bit of your moment, please!" Lucendra pleaded, before the elderly farmer could trail off in the memories, "Driago still has a processing facility for pasteurization, but no herd. You have a herd, but no facility. You both depart only a few miles apart. What if you two work together for the time being and split profits while you both wait for insurance and loss restoration?"

"Why would I work with this asshole? He is an old and intolerant fool. And he always acts as if he knows bes…"

"Sir! Half of an expected profit is still better than none. Besides, you too are old and intolerant."

"You drive a hard bargain, lassie…" The man scratched the back of his head, looking around one more time. A police officer came back, confirming that all insectoids were exterminated. At the farmer's gesture, workers hurried from the main building, cutting bodies of the insectoid workers. The remains will be later fed to cusacks. Finally, the farm owner slapped his sides, "Fine! I will give him a call."

"And stop selling raw milk, sir. Even to my kin. Sales of this product are illegal for good reasons nowadays." Lucendra quickly added.

"Now you just want to render me poor!" The old man whined, fishing for something to sweeten the deal.

"If you promise me to drop this business, I will help you fix the fence. Otherwise, I will have to arrest you, sir." The warrior offered, and the farmer begrudgingly agreed to this offer.

"And where am I supposed to get the raw milk now!" Kayleen and Ygrite screamed in unison, while Angoro laid back in his chair smiling at them.

"Well, while we can still arrest him… The state’s duty is also to care about its people and ruining lives is not our duty. I will make the police keep an eye on him, if he stops selling illegal junk, then all is forgiven." Angoro put on headphones again, while the warlord blinked angrily and left the room.

"Annie, you are also out for today. Doctors told me that you need time to recuperate and can’t work for long." Kayleen put her paws under the shoulders of Annie, lifting her from the chair and putting her toward the exit.

"But my bones are healed! I can even clench my paw now without feeling pa…" Annie tried to argue, but the wolf hag utterly ignored her, sitting on the chair and putting headphones on.

From what Annie could see on the screens, Dragena's idea of joint cooperation between the troops was a success. Every single mission, from finding a missing person in the Wastes to helping farmers with pest extermination, went off without a single misstep. Wolfkins were anxious, but with coordination and help from police, they were more worried about how to complete their task to the letter rather than feeling down. And yet, there was something that bothered Annie.

She left the command center for the training area. She was lost in thought on her way there. Some time ago, she would have been angry and bitter at Dragena for not showing up and training her. Now she no longer cared, the warlord was always around, even if through video feed. Annie herself was surrounded by allies and felt content. Annie briefly wondered if this was what normies called "growing up" a time when mundane problems no longer bother a person. What bothered her now was something else. She looked at her right arm, covered with scars. Her fingers run across scars on her face, touching her nearly useless nostrils. She couldn’t deny that the beating had made her stronger and tougher, her self-training and training under helpers was all but useless… And yet, in her time of reading books and watching videos, she learned something.

The normies had laws against domination in their ranks. "Bullying" as they called it, was unacceptable in the military, military specialists claimed that it was detrimental to discipline. Males and females in the ranks of normies served side by side, promoted on merit rather than on physical strength. Annie put her right paw behind her neck, almost scratching herself. The Spirits taught to value strength, for only the most physically able soldiers could lead the Wolf Tribe to survival. Yet… The Spirits also teach not to lie to oneself and to adapt to new circumstances. Based on what Annie knew, Alpha allowed Omegas, even males, to lead groups of Alphas. This was insanity, a male standing above a female? But the evidence was clear. According to several military reports Annie had access to, Omega team members led the combined forces of normies and wolfkins. And in several very rare cases, these were the male Omegas.

Thoughts of Annie traced back to this strange person, Ron. He was fast, true. But… was he also strong? And if he was strong and was able to lead, could this mean that shamans were wrong about natural order in the Wolf Tribe? This was not a heretical thought, shamans were wrong before, and they changed the rules to adapt to current times. Even traditions were changed, something that Alpha proved herself by making others accept technology and power armors. Spirits, Annie herself was saved by a male, even if he was a normie! And if traditions were wrong… How many soldiers like Lucendra and Ron were held back over the years just because they were not lucky enough to fall into the right paws or were never given a chance to shine to begin with? Even the Ice Fang order, accused, arrogant, insufferable ice boys, accepted both genders as equals into their ranks.

The Wolf Tribe, like all other new breeds in the Reclamation Army, was allowed to operate within their own laws, when matters involved only members of their own Tribe. This compromise was made by the Dynast to hold the multispecies nation of the Reclamation Army together. Culling sickly cubs, pits for cubs, culling the elderly, such things were unthinkable among other new breeds and normies. Many other new breeds had even more vile traditions, yet over the years they abandoned them, slowly becoming more like normies. Was it truly right for the Wolf Tribe to persist in their traditions? The Blessed Mother claimed that Wolf Tribe people were meant to be the shield and the sword for the people of the Reclamation Army. Peace was not for the Wolf Tribe, those who were given more at their birth, must give more back to the world, such was the main idea behind the philosophy of the Ravager. True, the Wolf Tribe allowed those who wanted to become outcasts to leave at will, and shamans even helped such families with tokens and job placement in new places, kin were kin no matter the distance, after all. The Blessed Mother and the Spirits taught that sacrifice had to be voluntary because there was no inherent value in forced self-sacrifice. Very few wolfkins would use such method, last one who left the Tribe was warlord Kalaisa, and everyone knew what the Ice Fang order did to a noble warrior. The white-furred scums even dared to come to the tribe, seeking to make amends and were asking about Aranea's whereabouts. Shamans and warlords had to physically restrain wolfkins from harming their opponents because sword saints who came to the Wolf Tribe refused to defend themselves even against lower-ranking wolfkins. Peace… peace was just not for wolfkins, the Spirits made it clear when they took reason away from noble Kalaisa for the crime of leaving the Tribe.

But at the same time… Annie remembered the fear of Lucendra, horror of the warrior because of the thought of losing her rank and being sent back… As someone who was in charge of her, does she really have any right to see a possible mistake and do nothing? If not peace, then at least less harm.

What if the Wolf Tribe could be strong without harsh laws? Sword saints of the Ice Fang order were roughly equal to warlords, and swords saints never had to face the cruelty of domination in their lives. Devourer and Outsider were equals to Ravager, and while the past of the Outsider was unknown, Devourer’s past was something that he documented well enough. He had a normal life and a happy family who supported him. Even after his limbs joined with his body and his body became bigger than entire buildings, even then, his family stuck by him. Unless he was lying, he never had to push through pain and suffering toward power. Kayleen stopped beating her soldiers, but her pack was still equal to other packs.

I gotta try to do something really stupid today. Decided the scout, entering the training chamber. She felt blood throbbing behind her ears, the heartbeat increased against her will, spearing her body with a fresh surge of adrenaline. Thinking was not her forte. Yet, sitting around and doing nothing will just produce nothing. She has to try for the sake of her duty. But right now, Annie needs to work out her frustrations, she needs a cool head for the task ahead.

Carty was already here. The blue-furred wolfkin stood relaxed, her long hair untied and reaching the middle of her back. She was standing with her back to Annie, her arms spread wide. To her displeasure, doctors refused to allow her to keep the scars that she received in battle with the mercenary leader. Once again, her body looked perfect, not a single trace of damage was visible on her body. The training arena itself was a wide area, meant for two dozen wolfkins to train and fight at the same time. The floor was made of stone, unlike rivals from the Ice Fang, the Wolf Tribe did not care about cushioning the fall with mats. Countless holes covered the walls.

Annie heard a scratching sound, and Carty’s form became fluid for a moment. Gracefully, she moved her right paw behind her back, catching a ball made of steel. Her left paw moved in a line of blur from left to right before her chest, when the paw came to the right side, three metal balls were in her paw. She threw projectiles on the floor and turned around, almost dancing on the floor, as a hail of steel balls was unleashed from the walls at rapidly increasing speed. The eyes of Carty were closed, only her ears twitched, breaking the impression of calmness, while she was catching up steel balls with her paws.

Wolf hags were meant to catch forty such balls without getting hit. Scouts were meant to catch twenty. Warriors and males were set at five. Annie checked the terminal near the entrance and saw that Carty set the program to unleash one hundred and fifty metal balls, the program was set to unleash them four at a time, giving the wolfkin barely any time to react. Annie felt the touch of these projectiles in training before, her skin bore bruises for days after missing one.

And Carty was undeniably dancing in the face of impending pain. Unafraid of danger, her paws moved like ropes, catching metal objects before they could even touch her fur or her green swimsuit. Using just her ears to sense the trembling of the tubes in the walls, to hear the friction that metal balls were producing as they were moving across the special pathways in the walls, before being unleashed at their target, the scout was able to deduce the direction from which an attack would come. The rest was simple, knowing how many projectiles there would be in a wave, it was more or less easy to react in time. In theory. Carty put the theory into practice flawlessly, calculating every move and exerting only the bare minimum of effort to protect herself.

Annie dropped her jacket and t-shirt on a table near the entrance. She put on protective goggles and took a deep breath before stepping forward, closing her own eyes. She heard scratching in the ceiling, announcing that a ball of steel had moved from the device above. Now rudimentary virtual intelligence was busy looking at her through cameras in the room, making predictions of her blind spots based on her posture. After one of the wolfkins lost her eye during training fifty years ago, Dragena allowed only a chosen few to train in this chamber with closed eyes. The warlord also adjusted the system herself, removing the possibility of steel balls hitting the eye and requiring wolfkins to wear protective goggles. Annie, technically, was not allowed to train here at all.

Left…. Around the room… Now! Her right paw moved, swatting the steel piece from the air before it could hit her belly. A smile of gratification appeared on her snout, before a burning sensation across her ear made her duck. The scout was too preoccupied with the first ball to notice the second. She released another breath, sensing her surroundings. Round and round inside the walls, the ball is go, where will it come out? Behind me. Annie used her right paw as a support to kick a ball of steel into the ceiling with her left heel, propelling herself in the air with a thrust of her right paw and kicking another incoming ball right into one of the holes in the wall. Her ears twitched, trying to hear the movements in the air or inside the wall, but the room gave in to the loud buzzing sound of a failure. Gracefully landing on the floor, Annie took off her goggles, understanding that she kicked the last ball away with her ankle, instead of the lower part of her foot or paws. This counted as a loss.

"Nice moves, brave girl," The world of calmness was gone when intense clicking came from the walls. The scout opened her eyes to see closing holes in the walls and Carty standing near the terminal, "I see you have made some progress in your training," she said.

"Progress… if you can call it that. I bet if she… Never mind," Annie allowed bitterness to disappear from her voice, smiling to Carty and taking the compliment, "Listen, I need to ask you about a favor. Spar with me for a moment, I need to cool off my jets a little and no one else will be willing to hold back on me. Sorry, I am not taking no as an answer."

"Reckless girl, so reckless," Carty shook her head, coming to the center of the room to look at Annie. The scout clenched and unclenched her right paw, feeling the movements of the muscles underneath her skin. The skin on her ankle bore no bruise from the hit of the steel ball, she may as well have been hit with a feather. Annie quickly squatted a couple of times, eager to see if her head would spin from rapid movements, and everything was fine. Neither the jump, nor the exercises caused her to feel any prolonged pain, "Look at yourself. One paw is disabled and locked in a medical paster. Skin is covered in bandages, your body is a mess…" Carty rolled her paws across the back of her head, tying up her hair into a tight knot with black rope. She blinked once.

At this moment, Annie charged, aiming for the left foot of her opponent. She ducked low and made grappling movements with her right paw, only for Carty’s leg to move up. A smile appeared on Annie’s lips, when she felt the foot of Carty on her right shoulder blade. So far, everything has gone according to plan.

The scout never intended to pull a fast one on her fellow. Against Carty, it was impossible. The reach of Annie's right paw was only aimed at the ground rather than the leg. Using the palm of the paw to gain a foothold on the ground, Annie sent her entire body spinning around in a barrel roll toward Carty, making the leg of the scout slip from her back and landing a crushing high kick into the arm of the scout, making her retreat two steps back. Despite the clean hit, Annie felt slight pain in her foot, no matter how soft she looked, Carty’s body felt more like a solid wall of iron than flesh and bone. Pushing herself up with a single right paw, Annie launched herself into the air, aiming her foot into her opponent’s feet.

She may as well try to hit the water. Like a moving silk leaf, Carty moved to the right, allowing the legs of Annie to slide past on the fur, unable to reach the skin beneath.

Don’t ever become frustrated in combat if your foe dances around your hits. What good will it do? You will merely lose focus and become wide open. Flow your attacks into one another instead. You can turn kicks into knee strikes and punches into… Words of Kayleen came to Annie’s mind as she landed on her feet, punching with her right paw. Once more, Carty evaded the hit to the right, making the knuckle of Annie touch the softest fur of the scout. Circling around scout, Carty’s right paw moved up in an uppercut, aiming for the jaw of Annie. Instead of retreating or backing down, Annie hit with her right elbow, timing the moment for the blow to connect with the opponent’s neck, when Carty was busy circling around Annie. Had Kayleen seen this strike, she would have been proud.

And then shocked, when the wolf hag would have seen how Carty’s right paw was wrapped around the right wrist of Annie. Instead of continuing with her uppercut, Carty threw Annie over herself with a flick of the wrist. For a moment, Annie wanted to squeal from fear. She discovered, oh how she discovered, how painful such throws were: when your body first collided with stone ground, fluids in your body went wild, blood rushed to your temples, and pain began to rocket in your very bones. And Carty always finished each of these throws with a precise kick into the solar plexus, robbing her opponents of all ability to breathe and continue to fight.

Yet, through pain comes experience and knowledge. What does not kill you, only pushes you to become stronger to avoid pain. And Annie trained hard and long, asking Kayleen to throw her over and over until the scout mastered the control of her mass in full. This time her body reacted on its own, landing the scout on her feet instead of her back, while the mind of the scout was still in shock from the sheer ease of such a throw. The ease with which Carty flung Annie into the air reminded the scout of how her mother and father used to pick her up when she was a cub. Shock turned to panic, and panic turned to despair, as the lean form of Carty began to turn toward Annie.

I refuse. Stubbornly thought Annie, stepping on the left feet of her opponent, pinning Carty’s to a spot, just when Carty was about to make her iconic kick. Annie broke Carty’s hold on her right wrist, punching directly into the serene face of her sparring partner. The scout jerked her head to the left, leaving traces of perfume in the air and avoiding an incoming hit by the hair. Turning her missing hit into an elbow strike across Carty’s collarbone, Annie tried to grab her foe by the neck, wanting to channel her missed attack further. She may as well try to hit the wall. The blue-furred wolfkin barely twitched when the elbow smashed across her skin. Pain made the field of view dim for a moment, and the body of Annie became like a feather in the face of the hurricane, a hurricane that sent her backwards. Two blows, a kick with the right knee of Carty, and a hook into the right side of Annie’s body, right under the ribs. Two blows, timed to arrive at the exact same moment, with enough force behind them to throw the scout a good two steps away from Carty. Two hits were all it took for Annie to bend in pain and collapse on her left knee, gasping for air.

Carty charged forward, raising her right paw for one final punch. Annie could only see this precise hit, one that would smash across her jaw, spinning her brain and causing her to lose consciousness and end up in the dark. Raising her own right paw for blocking, Annie understood that she was simply too late. Carty read her like a book, and punishment was incoming. Adrenaline took a step back, allowing fear to resurge in anticipation of pain.

The sparring partner stopped her advance, leaning toward Annie and putting her right paw on the shoulder of the scout:

"Sorry, but this is it for today, wounded girl. A draw or your victory, you choose it." Carty nodded at the chest of the fellow scout. With surprise, Annie noticed a wet sensation under her left breast. Not once did Carty land a hit there, yet tiny red dot slowly appeared on the pristine white bandage below her breast.

"Draw." Annie forced herself to announce the result with a wheezed voice, allowing Carty to help her stand up. Carty was a weird one. Her record was filled with defeats and draws. Self-inflicting defeats, as the blue-furred scout refused to go to the length needed to fully knock out her opponent. If her sparring partner refused to give up, Carty always throw out the match, announcing herself to be the loser, rather than harm opponent too badly. Yet everyone knew just how strong she was. In rare occasions when someone manages to truly anger her… Suffice to say, Carty knew how to break bones well enough. To be fair, she also always apologized afterwards.

"Mind telling me, what this all about?" Carty asked, helping the fellow scout to sit on the bench. Annie touched the area where Carty’s blow landed. A bruise had already appeared on the skin, and it was difficult to breathe for a moment. Other people in the pack joked that Carty’s blows felt like bullets. Annie found herself in disagreement with this. The blows of her opponent were like shards. What they hit, they crushed.

"I needed to calm down and fe…" Annie gasped, feeling how Carty slashed bandages across her back, quickly replacing the soaked with blood bandages with the fresh ones from the room's med kit. The blue-furred wolfkin briefly checked the wound below Annie’s breast and confirmed that the bleeding had already stopped. Unlike the bandages of medics, the one that Carty put on Annie was far from gentle and way tighter, "…Fear dulls adrenaline, allowing me to think straight. I am about to ask the warlord to forbid dominations all together and afraid that she will beat me to death for…" She noticed that the right sleeve of Carty’s suit was exploded, the material of her swimsuit torn in place where Annie landed her kick, revealing a small dent with blue fur that was pushed deeply into the arm, "Carty, I am so sorry! I thought that…"

"Ignore this," Carty said as she pushed the muscles on her right paw, forcing the flesh back into its original shape and removing a dent. Flashing a perfect white smile, the wolfkin clenched and unclenched her fist, showing that everything was fine, "I actually felt that that. Someone cute is growing up at quite a rate! Feeling it in person was well worth a ruined suit. I even went against you all out as well at the end, so we are even."

"If you say so." Annie grumbled. All out, as if. Carty never used her left paw during sparring, handicapping herself to match the disadvantage of her opponent. Who knows what else she held back?

"As for Dragena, don’t worry your nice, weary head," Carty put the jacket onto the back of her opponent, helping the scout to dress herself, "I once was frustrated about being last in the pack. Silly me went to Dragena and asked her to throw me out. I was always the strongest in the pits, yet once I got into the actual pack, I ended up being smacked again and again and again. You gotta understand, I was young and stupid…"

"Young. You are speaking as if you are that much older than me."

"Irrelevant," Carty said elegantly, waving her paw, "Any other warlord would have broken me for daring to waste their time and then thrown me out. Dragena instead led me by the paw to a training hall. For the next few months, we trained together. The result stands before you. The Warlord helped me regain confidence, thus I try to return the favor by helping others as well. Trust me, silly girl, Dragena and Zero are the two warlords with whom you can always speak your mind at ease. Neither of them will ever lay a claw on you. Buuut if you are still scared, I can walk with you. As Dragena taught me, good spread around often comes ba…"

"No, it will be fine!" Annie almost screamed, jumping up in frustration. It was bad enough that she looked like a fool already. It was insanity that she dared to even presume to know more than the warlord. But showing up with Carty, now this would be the ultimate humiliation to die from.

Accompanied by the soft laughter of Carty, Annie stormed out of the training hall, zipping her jacket as she moved toward the second floor of the barracks. She almost crashed into a worried-looking scout from the pack of the another wolf hag. The woman wanted to share some gossip with her, but Annie excused herself, moving up the stairs and the scout hurried toward the training hall. The hallway leading to the command room of the warlord was pretty rich by the standards of wolfkin. The floor was covered by a replica of a carpet that once belonged to a prince of a long-gone country. The warlord and her soldiers were the ones who discovered the bunker with diseased family members of the royal family. All items inside were donated to the museum of Reclamation. As a token of thanks, the curator of the museum made a full replica of the gorgeous looking carpet and gifted it to Dragena.

The armor of knights, two full sets of them, stood by the wall, holding dulled great swords pointed at the ground, the metal was carefully cleaned from dust and gleamed in the morning light that was coming from windows. The warlord bought a whole ten sets of them from scrap traders. The museum accepted only eight sets due to the abundance of such relics. Ever since then, the warlord kept them in her pack as a reminder of a bygone era. Lastly, several pots with plants stood in the corridor. The large green leaves were almost half the size of a normie. During a mission to take down a local tyrant, Dragena and her troops recovered seeds of these and other plans from a half-ruined laboratory in the Ravaged Lands, right on the border with Oathtakers. The warlord ended up teaming up with the Oathtakers for the task of defeating the enemy. Amidst battle, allies found a buried lab and split seeds between themselves. Despite the fact that no one expected seeds from the Old World to survive, Dragena donated them to the botanist's lab. As a reward, the researchers presented the pack with several restored plants that could withstand the climate of the Wastes. One would expect that wolfkins would lose, break, or allow plants to die, but under the orders of the warlord, plants were watched over and always kept in top shape by scouts.

Annie's eyes narrowed in worry when she came toward the door leading to the working chamber of the warlord. A sturdy door made from simple wood was torn asunder, its remains lay on the floor. The walls to the left and right of the door bear claw marks the size of Annie. Despite this, the cameras in the corridor were operational, and the alarm was not rigged. Whatever this was, it was not an enemy attack.

"Warlord," Annie knocked on the doorpost, not daring to come or peek inside the room, "Scout Annie here. Can I speak with you?"

"You may come in, scout. As it happened, I also have a reason to speak with you." An icy response came from inside.

Swallowing nervous drool, Annie stepped inside. The working chamber of the warlord looked simply. Rewards were visible in glass case to the left. Rows of cookbooks, books about physics and biology, and several self-helping pamphlets titled "Twenty Reasons to Live", "Proper Parenting", "Social Communications during Depression", several large encyclopedias about the world, "Brief History of the Iterna", "Birth of the Oath", "Foundation of the State", "Famous Paintings of the Old World", books about medicine, all stood on bookshelves, looking worn out, but clean from any dust. Across the room was a massive wooden table, behind which sat the warlord. An advanced terminal was installed on her work desk, a holoprojector stood to the left of the table. Another pod with plants, this time with sweet-smelling orange flowers, stood to the right of the entrance. The iron hatch, which led to the warlord’s private room on the first floor, was on the floor to the right of the table. Sheaths with knives inside them were visible on the hook behind Dragena, a small camera was installed in her terminal.

Annie walked nearby, noticing countless papers on the table of the warlord. Dragena waited for Annie to sit in one of two chairs before her working table, reading through papers and signing some of them. On the left paw of the warlord was paper with calculations of personal spending. Annie noticed that the warlord scratched out lines with books and furniture for her tent, writing "Can’t afford it for now" to the left of them. Annie was confused by this. The warlord had no need to pay for the treatment of Alsyn’s cub. On what exactly was she spending her tokens? Even Annie could afford some cheap furniture and electronic books.

"We will speak plainly, scout," Dragena put aside a list of paper with a request for aid in dealing with raiders made from new breeds from the Ravaged Lands, co-signed by the head of the northern farmer union and the police chief of the northern capital, "I dislike being lied to."

"Warlord? I am not sure that I understand. I never lied to you." The scout said honestly.

"You sent me a request to update records with a victory of wolf hag Virginia over you," Shining amber eyes looked into the eyes of Annie, burrowing to her very soul, "I approved it, fully trusting in your words. Today I received a visit from wolf hag Virginia and warlord Alpha," The warlord looked at the ruined door behind Annie, "They… Alpha refused to respect the sanctity of my privacy and forcibly came into my working office. Aside from the destruction, they brought up some interesting points during the heated debate and exchange of insults. Wolf hag Virginia, very passionately keep in mind, tried to explain to me that she was joking about winning against you by default. She explained to me, in a badly formed manner, how such situation came to be. To be honest with you, such situation is a first in my career. Thus, I want to know, why did you lie to me about suffering defeat at the paws of the wolf hag when no actual fight took place?"

"This was not a lie, warlord," Annie dared not to break eye contact with her leader, "Wolf hag Virginia saved me and my pack from my incompetence. She is stronger than me and a better leader than me. Straight up confrontation is merely a formality, we all know who will win."

"I see the reason for your lie now," Dragena folded her hands in the form of a triangle before herself, resting her jaw on her knuckles, "I believe this is a result of the so-called "rivalry". You think that you have lost the challenge, started to believe that you would never catch up with your rival, and now your spirit is crushed. Records will stay untouched, no matter what Alpha wants, yet I will see what can be done to make you personally stronger."

"Warlord, there is no need to waste any time on me. My defeat is strictly my fault and…"

"And this is where you are wrong. Annie, let us speak without ranks for a while. You are part of a pack," The unblinking eyes of Dragena kept looking at the scout, "For the pack to function at peak efficiency, all members of the pack must work as one. Your problems are my problems, just as the Branded's problems are yours. Yes, I know about who really won between the wolf hag and you, Annie. You protected your soldiers out of a sense of duty, how can you ask me to do any less?" The warlord leaned back on her chair, putting her paws on her chest, "My only regret is that this situation happened so soon. Now everybody will know."

"Warlo… I mean, Dragena?" Annie quickly corrected herself under the gaze of her leader, "I don’t understand."

The warlord stood up from her chair, allowing Annie to see her in full size. She was dressed in a blue military coat with black trim. No medals or military insignias were on her, belt was missing. The form of the warlord was imposing as always, her arms looked like trunks of hundred-year-old trees, muscles, like steel ropes, ran under the skin of her neck. And yet there was something new, something strikingly new. Her coat of warlord was unzipped below her chest, her shirt was unbuttoned in the same area as well. The belly of the warlord was oversized, pushing forward and making the fur thinner than usual, allowing Annie to see tanned skin beneath. Dragena was…

"You are bearing life?!" This was not something incredible, some warlords produced offspring on a regular basis. But among all the warlords, Zero, Alpha, and Dragena had never had cubs before. For three hundred years, they chose to live solitary lives.

"I prefer the word pregnant. Shamans are right about the need to diversify the gene pool of our Tribe. Now that we are living in a relative period of peace, there is no longer any reason to ignore any of my duties. I found a male who was willing to spend the night with me and did exactly what my duty required of me. Confusion was made by me and my partner that night, as it was my first time knowing the male so intimately, but we all have to make sacrifices for the future. Annie, we are a small group of people. To keep the Tribe healthy, each and every one of us has to do her du…"

"It is true!" A shout came from the doors, and Annie turned around, seeing Carty and several scouts. Even a couple of wolf hags were present. The blue-furred wolfkin pressed her paws together to her chest, "I thought that Virginia was bullshitting everyone! Warlord, can I be a godmoth…"

A knife appeared in the doorpost, buried all the way to the handle. Annie's ears caught the tearing sound of metal going through the air way after the weapon was already in the wood. The movements of the warlord produced no sound that Annie could hear.

A forcefield spread in a radius of about two meters on all sides of the large knife, completely covering the entrance, muzzling all sounds and blurring Carty's and other wolfkins' forms.

"Now we can continue to speak in relative peace," Dragena said, lowering herself back in the chair, "I am sure you have questions, why I kept this in secret. The first half of the answer is that, according to materials available to Ieshua and me, I should have experienced swings in temperament over the course of pregnancy. This is why I passed some of my duties down to the wolf hags. But this theory was incorrect, and my mind is as clear as it has ever been .You saw the second half of the answer. Our people treat lifegiving overly emotional, to preserve discipline, and for purpose of having a calm time for myself to some extent, I kept my temporary weakness secret."

"I… see, warlord." Annie was not sure what to say.

"My name is Dragena. Now tell me, why have…"

The eyes of Dragena shot toward the terminal when a loud call came from within the machine. Dragena's paw froze over the button with a decline symbol before motioning Annie to sit and accepting the call. The Holoprojector came to life, creating a pale figure made of countless strands of light frozen in the air. Because of the holoprojector's coloration, warlord Ygrite's burning amber eyes turned into two shining stars, and her paws were folded across her chest. The warlord's countless fangs were bared in front of Dragena.

"I demand full disclosure of the feeding program and training program for the Branded in your pack." Ygrite growled.

"Having trouble with your own soldiers, am I correct?" Dragena asked plainly.

"Yes," Ygrite admitted without hesitation, "Their bodies are still underdeveloped, while the Branded in your pack are just fine. As their CO, I am failing my troops. Name your price."

"Support Zero," Dragena turned her chair to look at Ygrite, hiding her belly below the table, "When the test is done and finished, throw your voice together with Zero."

"You are mad!" Ygrite laughed. Her laughter soon turned into a hissing sound when the warlord tried to suck in enough air to support her massive body, "Alpha is against the idea! The shamans are against the idea! Valerye stands by Alpha! It makes no difference how many warlords join your cause," The mutated wolfkin snapped her fingers, producing a clinging sound, "It will all be for naught, because you have none who can stand up to either Valerye or Alpha herself. They will just use physical might to veto your inane idea!"

"Not mine. Zero’s idea," Dragena looked at her kin dispassionately, never raising her voice, and said, "This is half of my price. The second half is that you will submit yourself to medics, after the Gathering."

"I am fine. I have no need for the help of others" The fur of Ygrite bristled from rage, the shining stars of her eyes turning into a pair of blinding suns. Blood dripped from her jaws when several fangs pierced her skin.

"You are dying, sister. How long will it take until your lungs are pierced?" Without an ounce of warmth, said Dragena, locking her gaze with her fellow warlord, "If this will make you feel any better, I allow doctors to check my condition regularly. There is nothing shameful or…"

"Fine. I agree. I expect a full report and your personal cooperation in bringing my troops up to standards," A smug smirk appeared on the face of Ygrite, movement of the skin on her cheeks caused fangs to tear through a bit more skin, "I wish you a proper and safe lifegiving, dear Dragena. Will you make me a godmoth…"

The image of the warlord disappeared when Dragena quickly cancelled the incoming call. She turned toward Annie, saying nothing and looking through something on the monitor of her terminal. Her paws reached the mouse of the terminal, making several clicks.

"What was this about, Dragena?" Annie dared to ask, "There is some conspiracy about the Branded? They are good soldiers, whatever this test is, please do not…"

"Even Dynast sends his congratulations," The warlord once again leaned back in her chair, looking at Annie, "I know that I ought to be angry at this blatant disclosure of my personal medical condition, yet at the same time I must admire the unintended efficiency of wolf hag Virginia in spreading the information around the center. Maybe we should also give her the job of announcer?"

"If this is a bad time, I can…"

"Sit, Annie," Dragena reached for something in her table, putting two wooden cups before herself and Annie. Then she put a large electric tea kettle in the shape of a sphere on the table. A flick of the finger turned the machine on, heating the water with tea leaves, "About your question. Branded are safe and sound, nothing will happen to them no matter what. "Test" is something that must remain secret. All I can say is that it involved you once, but you are free from playing any role in it for some time now. Speak your mind. Problems of my pack take priority over anything."

"Fine," Annie was confused. Role? Test? This was the first time she ever heard anything about it. What role could she even play, if she was not one of the Branded? No matter, I have other things to speak about, "Warlo… Dragena. I'd like to ask you to ban domination in our pack and allow merit promotion for males as well," Annie shuddered, expecting punishment, but the warlord simply looked at her for a moment. The warlord raised a massive paw, casting a shadow on a tiny scout who was suddenly feeling vulnerable. Instead of hitting, Dragena poured tea into Annie's cup, then poured tea on herself. Dragena elegantly picked up her cup with two paws, looked at the swirling black tea in the cup, sniffed, and then took a small sip. Annie tried to imitate the movements of the warlord, accidently drinking the entire cup. While hot and sweet liquid flowed to her belly, Dragena looked at Annie and poured more tea to scout silently. Annie put the cup on the table and forced herself to be calm, stopping trembling in her paws, "I understand that this is an unusual request…"

"It is not. I reviewed your ban of beating very carefully," Annie blinked in surprise, while the warlord took another sip of tea, "Do not look so surprised. It is my duty to know everything that happens in my pack. Your desire is… Admirable, I think. The grades of your pack have not decreased and are, in general, adequate. Therefore, feel no worry, your rule stays in place. Yet I must decline your request."

"But why! Dragena, you said yourself that we are on the same level as others! And compared to other scouts, I have two more males in my pack, yet on average we are equal to other packs!" Annie almost jumped from her seat.

"What you speak is true, Annie. On average, your pack is equal to others," Dragena nodded, setting the cup aside and clasping her paws together, "However here is the thing. Wolfkins, all of us, shine brightest because of spite. When a slight is inflicted upon us, we aim to get better, to get payback. We strive to the greatest heights. This is simply who we are. Taking spite away will only weaken us, Annie. However cruel it may look to you, to preserve the lives of our soldiers, to preserve our way of life, we must stay on course. "

"How can you know such things for sure, Dragena!? You saw what the cruelty of the Tribe drove Alsyn to! How many talents… Screw it, how many lives do we lose each year!" Annie shouted into the face of her warlord, "Forgive this outburst, but please rethink your decision. Dragena, you are ideal for us. Each and every one of us aims to become half the soldier that you are now. You never use a claw on a fellow soldier. With this in mind, how can you say that domination is needed for us?"

"Fear drove Alsyn toward betrayal, not cruelty," Dragena responded with a stone face, unbothered by the outburst of rage from Annie, "We are not slaves, Annie. Each wolfkin could leave at will. The tribe will watch over stragglers none the less. Were it the shamans who made Alsyn kill her kin? Were it the shamans who made Alsyn disregard the lives of civilians? Your heart bleeds for the villain rather than for the victims. Once, Alsyn was someone with a duty, a reason to live. Had she found the strength in herself to resist fear and to trust others, she would have lived side by side with her cub in the Core Lands, safe and sound. She made a choice, a wrong one, and suffered the price. Yet you raise a valid point," Dragena lifted one finger up, like a teacher, "How can I know it? The answer is, I felt the effect of the spite. You see, when Zero and I were cubs, we were "rivals". It was a one-sided struggle, for I never considered Zero an opponent, I only ever viewed her as a valuable ally. Yet Zero tried, and oh how she tried to beat me. I am an anomaly, I feel no anger, no love, no sorrow, nothing," Dragena admitted her flaw plainly, "I feel natural urges of the body, pain, hunger… Emotions on the other hand... They are the mystery for me."

"But… Dragena, you always help the village cubs..." Annie desperately tried to think of some arguments to win the discussion. To be honest, discussion was the last thing she expected. She was afraid that the warlord would beat her or throw her out of the pack. But speaking? She was not ready for it.

"Because this is what a good person will do, in my opinion. Ravager gave me the order to be a good person. Just because I was born defective does not define my future. No matter how hard it may be, orders are sacred, and thus I try. And..." Dragena stopped, trying to find the right words, "I believe that I want to be a good person. Yet without emotions, there is no fury, no spite, no anger. There is no drive to be better. And because Zero can feel emotions, they forced her to be better and overcome obstacles in her way. Her rage saw me bite the dust. Where I was stale, she innovated. She defeated me fair and square and proved her superiority once and for all. So you see, Annie. Domination is in our nature. Denying our own nature, will only make us weaker."

"Zero told me a similar story," Annie remembered the voice of her previous warlord as she told her ancient story, "She still feels bad about how she treated you."

"Why?" Dragena asked, cocking her head to the side, "My wounds are long since healed. Defeat gave me valuable input on how to be a better leader. Why would she feel bad? It makes no sense. My sister did nothing wrong. Back to your question. If you want to bring change, you will have to… " The warlord wanted to continue speaking, when a new call came upon her terminal. Her eyes quickly glanced at the screen. One paw raised in the air, running down her lower jaw, "I must apologize, Annie. We will have to stop our discussion for now, because something unexpected has happened in your life."

"My life?" Annie asked, trying to remember if she had ever done something bad recently. No, everything seemed fine.

"Captain Scorpio informed me that we received a call from your lost sibling. Annie, Svetlana is still alive. She found you and now she wants to meet with you."

****

With a flash, an image came to the screen of the pocket terminal, showing the camp of the slave traders, one of many others in the Ravaged Lands, standing proud at the edge of the canyon. Unknown to defenders, attackers had already hacked into their video feed system and were now able to survey the entire camp. Mines were placed at all approaches to the camp, saving the canyon's edge; sentries were stationed in strategic locations; and captured slaves were constantly monitored. Tall trucks arranged in a circle formed a makeshift wall to protect people inside the camp from the howling sandstorm. The caravan master of this raid party was a skilled one and rarely made mistakes. His people captured slaves in the Ravaged Lands, then moved on to sell them to the cartel in Pearl. He had made countless trips. His troops were well equipped, urges for sexual pleasures and drug additions were whipped out of them by the will of the caravan master. So calm he was that he fell asleep immediately, ignoring the sandstorm outside of his tent, fully assured that none of his crew would dare to harm precious living cargo locked in iron crates for the time being. The caravan master had made enough examples out of those who dared to break his rules and paid the rest well enough to assure that no accidents will happen anymore. Everything will be fine.

It took two minutes to break this delusion. A black form climbed up the canyon, evading mines in her path while flying drones filmed her. This wolfkin was dressed in simple skintight clothes of brown color, her eyes opened wide, unbothered by the cruel sand and wind around her. The tips of her paws were touching stones ever so slightly, evading rocks that could fall down under her immense weight and create noise. For a normie, it would take a whole day to climb up in such weather. Warlord made her way up in thirty seconds. She sniffed the air, marking the location of the sentries with her own nose rather than with the help of any devices.

The first two dozen sentries never even understood what happened to them. One moment, they reported back to their fellows over the com network, checking the surroundings through the lenses of their helmets. In the next moment, something charged past them, and they started falling down, their hands and legs broken like those of a clay doll. Instead of warnings, only mumbled cries came from their mouths, it took seconds for the sentries to understand that their jaws were shattered as well. Yet none of them was dead. Fitting punishment will be decided by the law enforcers after they question the slavers. If things will go as planned, maybe the entire organization of slavers could be taken down.

Worker hands, sleeping soundly in their tents, were knocked out as the shadow slid inside the tents, leaving just as fast as she came. The optical zoom of cameras around camp was overloaded, such was the unbelievable speed of the attacker. It took sentries in the main vehicle a moment too long to believe their eyes when they saw countless downed sentries around various parts of the camp. It took them one moment too long to understand that the strange blur that moved between tents to their vehicle was more than just a malfunction of their cameras. By the time one of them moved her finger toward the alarm button, the invader was already at the vehicle, tearing through the steel door. People on the inside met the darkness and were broken, just like the others.

The sound of tearing metal warned the bodyguard of the caravan master, a tall new breed in thick power armor. She was standing guard in the tent of her master, watching over his sleepy form. Strong she was, her axe bit through the heads of countless foes and idiots who dared to close on her master. Her round tower shield was durable enough to withstand even the shell from the tank. The bodyguard made one step to warn her master when she sensed danger and turned toward the entrance to the tent, raising her axe over her head and putting the shield before herself. A drone lowered itself before the tent in order to film what was about to happen.

The bodyguard never got the chance to strike at the foe. When someone charged past her and stopped over her sleeping master, the systems of her armor screamed in warning, while the wolfkin was already behind the bodyguard, spreading her hands wide in the shape of a figure nailed to a cross. The bodyguard wanted to turn around to face the black-furred beast that had charged past her. Crippling pain knocked the bodyguard to her knees, and long lines ran across the armor of her legs and arms, slicing the tendons of her limbs cleanly and efficiently. The metal of her armor was cut as well, aside from the blood that was pushing from slices on the bodyguard’s armor, slashed lines on her armor were perfectly made, not a single movement of the invader was wasted. Not even a trace of blood was on the pure white claws of the invader. The bodyguard croaked the warning to her master, and the man finally woke up, looking up in the glowing amber eyes of the wolfkin form before him. Silently, he stood up and bowed, giving up codes to the crates with slaves, while wolfkins troopers were coming into camp from the whirring hellscape of a sandstorm. The warlord smiled, leaving the caravan master and his bodyguard to be apprehended by her troops. Two minutes. That’s how long it took to rob the trader of his illusion of safety and to make him surrender. This man knew he would most likely be hanged for his crimes, but he was willing to risk fate rather than resist and die in vain in front of this indomitable person.

This person was Kalaisa, Kalaisa the Darling, as others often called her. Someone who could inflict the most heinous wounds on another being and her opponent would only realize it when it was far too late to respond. Elegant death of the Wastes, one of the peerless warriors who reached the rank of warlord. Her nickname "Darling" was given to her because she always tended to the wounds of wolfkins who lost to her in domination matches, nurturing annoyed and humiliated patients back to perfect health with a smile on her snout. And Kalaisa was quite strong, ranking thirteen among eighteen warlords.

"And in the end, she suffered a fate worse than death in the Core Lands," said the image of Dragena to Annie, "All because she ended up tangling with the Ice Fang. It will be hard to avoid members of their order all together in the Core Lands yet try not to antagonize them if you can. Knowing their inherent desire to one-up us, there is little doubt that they will try to provoke you into doing something stupid. Before you do anything, take a deep breath and think…"

Dragena put one paw to her mouth and loudly belched, pressing some button on a terminal near her.

"Dragena asked for help, and the world is still whole. Will miracles never cease?" The image on the pocket terminal shifted, revealing a gigantic purple eye, with a pupil looking like a snake eye. Even through the screen of the terminal, Annie felt how someone, far far away, was reaching for her very thoughts with a gentle touch. Captain Scorpio, titled black wyrm, was the superior officer of the warlord. Rumored to be the greatest wielder of mind power in the entire Reclamation Army, this wyrm was also rumored to be a casual person in everyday life. The eye moved away from the screen, revealing the gigantic form of the wyrm covered by mighty scales, each scale was no less than thirty centimeters thick at a brief glance. The wyrm fiddled with the terminal in front of him for a while, adjusting the image until it showed him standing in full size with room behind him. His personal chambers were made for a truly gigantic creature, yet at the same time, they were a marvel to look at. Paintings made by famous artists covered the walls, the walls themselves were partially made out of exquisite looking amber, giving the room a very cozy light when joined with light from a fireplace the size of a trailer. The tip of the Scorpio’s tail was put into the cracking flames of the fireplace, to the great pleasure of the wyrm. The actual bed, which was only the size of a few buildings and made of a mix of metal and gentle-looking black wood, was covered with countless silk sheets and pillows, each of which could crush Annie whole with sheer weight, and was located at the head of the bed. Despite its enormous size, the bed appeared to be too small for such a beast to lie freely.

Annie herself was sitting on a train heading from the Wastes all the way to Houstad City, one of the twenty-seven jewels of the Core Lands and the second largest city in the entire Reclamation Army, standing proudly behind Stormfiend city. Houstad was truly an ancient city, built over two hundred and sixty-eight years ago on the barren plains that served as the Core Lands back then. How things have changed since then. Looking from the windows of the train, Annie saw lush green fields running all the way toward the horizon, countless farms filled with numerous people who were working in the fields in this nice calm weather. People here had no need for anti-heat suits like in the Ravaged Lands, nor did they particularly care to bring with them a lot of water like in the Wastes. Most had simple hats, some even had hats made of straw, and that was all the defense that they needed against the sun. A cool breeze here was bringing gentle calmness of coolness to people, instead of roaring sandstorms that could skin people alive like in the homelands of the Wolf Tribe. Not a single armed patrol was in sight. The Core Lands were safe, so there was little reason for people to be concerned about raiders or monsters. The train passed a hill with an inscription made of countless flowers, "Welcome to Houstad city". Each word in the inscription was made from flowers of different colors, yet they were all visible. Cars lazily moved along the stone roads, and small houses slowly filled the view more as the train closed toward its destination.

The train was old but well maintained beast of iron, made a stop at the station, allowing some people to exit and some more to come aboard. According to the information booklet, Annie lucked out by traveling during midday, according to what she read about the city, trains were always overcrowded in morning and evening because of all the people leaving for work. To combat this situation, authorities are building more and more roads leading to the city, along with affordable public transportation. But old habits die hard, people were used to getting on the job via train and stubbornly refused to use buses.

Annie briefly looked at the people who were coming inside, while the captain was still busy fighting with the terminal, trying to focus the image on his snout only. A family man in a business suit, looking absolutely normal aside from the fact that his entire right arm was a writhing cluster of long tentacles that were reaching all the way to his knee. He came along with his middle-aged wife came inside, holding a young girl by her hands. The cub looked at Annie and inquired as to why the scout had black fur. Her mother gasped and dragged the cub to a distant seat, while the man smiled apologetically and saluted wolfkin with two fingers. Annie bowed back to him, trying to look as casual as possible. Sure, the train wasn't overcrowded, but each set of wooden seats had at least a few people sitting in them. Only Annie had the entire seat meant for at least three people and the seat across from it all to herself. For some reason, people looked at her with confusion and avoided making eye contact with her. She shrugged it off, looking at the posters on the walls. Posters asked all passengers to let old or pregnant people use seats if the train was overcrowded, not to buy anything from people inside the train, do not speak; be polite and tolerant to each other and to all kinds of new breeds and normies, respect the tradition and faith of people of Reclamation and tourists from other countries. The captain finally gave up after a minute and loudly called someone by the name of Ofelia, begging her to help him. A female voice loudly gave a playful sigh of fake despair, and after a brief moment, someone finally fixed the camera of the terminal as Scorpio wanted it.

"For the record, I would have figured out how to do it myself!" Scorpio smirked at someone off camera.

"Yeah, yeah, whatever you say, honey." The female voice chuckled lovingly at his words.

 "Now with that out of the way… Greetings. My name is Scorpio, we probably never met before." The wyrm looked back at the screen, becoming serious for a moment.

"I saw you on TV once, captain. Your reputation precedes you, sir." Annie quietly replied, sitting upright and saluting the wyrm with her paw.

"All good, I hope?" The wyrm lifted one scaled brow questioningly and flashed a smile at the worried expression on Annie’s face, "At ease, soldier. You are on leave, let’s just speak like fellow citizens. Now, before the brief instruction, do you have any questions?"

"Will warlo… I mean, will Dragena be alright?" Annie quickly corrected herself, seeing the eyes of her superior.

"In terms of health? Sure. Aside from that…" Scorpio rolled his eyes for a moment, reaching his jaw with his left paw and hitting himself across the scales with one of his claws, "To be short, you know that it is a tradition to have a week-long celebration after any warlord gives birth, right? Ivar currently spits bile everywhere, angry that we can’t capitalize on this event for a show of unity across the Wastes. All his agents really feel his ire right now for missing out on this information. Thankfully, Dragena is under my command, but this only leads to him thinking that I wanted to set him up."

"I am sorry about your troubles."

"Why?" The black wyrm asked in surprise, "I always want to set him up. The fact that this happened unintentionally is simply icing on the cake. Without lifting a single claw, I indirectly set Ivar into a rage mode. Ah, the joys of life. I am curious as to why Ivar, of all people, approved your leave and why his approval came nearly instantly. He is always the one against sending our troops in other…"

"Are you a wolfkin?" Asked a cub’s voice to Annie’s left. Scout looked at the small girl from before, who was looking at Annie curiously. The cub's parents sat in their seats, while a man read a newspaper and a woman spoke with someone on a terminal.

"Yes, I am." Annie smiled at the girl.

"I knew it!" The girl nearly jumped on the place, making her mother notice this and hurry to them, "Why is your fur black then? Why are your eyes the color of amber and not of crimson color? Maybe you are the daughter of Ravager? To which house do you belong? Where is your sword? Can you show it to me? Or are you not in the mili…"

The girl clearly mistook Annie for a member of the Ice Fang order. Unlike wolfkins of the Wolf Tribe, ice boys had weaker claws and fangs, making them overly reliant on melee weapons. After watching historical videos, Annie begrudgingly accepted the fact that ice boys were fully capable of fighting in ranged combat, but seeing wolfkins dragging around oversized claymores, katanas, broadswords, or even spears was ridiculous. Only warlord Janine could carry around her oversized axe and not look stupid at this, other wolfkins preferred ranged weapons or simple knives. Even Virginia looked stupid, carrying her oversized energy axe everywhere. But then again, Annie reminded herself that Virginia was in fact an idiot. The flow of the girl’s questions stopped when the mother of the kid grabbed her in her arms, chastising her for bothering the traveler.

"Everything is fine, missus," Annie said, keeping a smile on her snout and avoiding showing fangs. "I am not of the Ice Fang order, friend. But I am indeed a very distant relative of Ravager. Wolfkins, who look like me, are known as the Wolf Tribe."

"Wolves Tribe? Who are they?" The mother excused herself, carrying the cub away, "Mom, I want to know who the Wolves Tribe are! Wait…" The woman returned the cub to her seat, and the cub’s father chuckled, lowering his newspaper. He reached for the terminal and started showing something to the cub.

"As you see yourself, people in the Core Lands are used to Ice Fangs. There are countless TV shows, cartoons, and even 3D animations with the wolfkins of the order starring in them. Some people have even started to believe that Ravager and the Ice Fang order have something in common," Annie chuckled at these words of Scorpio, the sheer idea that the blessed mother had anything, anything at all to do with Ice Fangs was laughable. Ravager desperately rivaled the Twins, founders of the Ice Fang order. The Twins sadly perished in battle before they could rightfully claim their title as commanders, working together they were equal to Ravager. The blessed mother deeply mourned the loss of the Twins for a long time. The wyrm raised a claw, calling for attention, "Anyway, you will arrive at the station in about fifteen minutes. While I fully trust in your ability to make decisions, all new breeds of the Wolf Tribe must listen to a lecture before visiting the Core Lands, since…Eh, you know how Kalaisa scared people around here back then. First things first. You do not get anything for free in the Core Lands, you can’t expect that shop keepers will have jobs for you like extermination of insectoids and so on in exchange for food. You must pay with tokens. I trust that you have enough money with you?"

"Of course, sir!" Annie checked the wallet in her pocket. The tokens inside were all her life savings. Carty tried to explain to Annie that there was no reason for taking so many tokens for such a short trip, but the scout was too afraid of looking stupid in the eyes of Svetlana or worse, making her sister pay for her. Annie checked the prices in the city and read all she could about Houstad city. She now knew the prices of the cabs, the prices of private terminal booths, and the prices of food in shops, and was fully confident in her ability to even rent a room in the city for a week or more if needed. Although her sister assured her that this will not be necessary, "I have more than enough to pay for cabs and food."

"My name is Scorpio, Annie. You will not need to pay for a taxi. Consider this as a bonus from the state for your hard work," Seeing the face of the scout, the wyrm snapped his claws, producing the sound of an exploding grenade and stopping Annie from arguing," As much as I would like to claim credit for this, alas not my doing. But do stop at Dexter and Philip's if you ever get the chance. Say that you are from Scorpio, they will understand. Next, always keep your ID on you, but don’t sweat it too much if you lose it. Just find a police station and they'll help you get a new one. Do not start a fight with anyone. No domination, no friendly scratch, nothing. If someone insults you for some reason, find a cop, erm, I mean, find a police officer and report it to them about the harassment. If someone attacks you, sure you can hit back, but I would rather you evade the hit and run away from the attacker, seeking help from a police officer. You are only allowed to use physical force if another new breed challenges you to a sparring match for some reason. Aside from that, forget that you have claws all together. Houstad is a peaceful place, just like the rest of the Core Lands, if you end up being lost and no police officer is in sight, go to a nearby shop and ask the owner to call one. Do not pester civilians with questions and do not scare them. No defecation on the streets, there are countless free toilets around the city…"

The captain continued talking about the things that the scout was allowed and not allowed to do for the entire remaining time of the trip, only stopping and asking her to look in the window when the train was crossing the bridge leading into the city. Annie obeyed the command and felt shocked to the core. The water, an actual crystal-clear river, ran under the bridge, people on the stone piers were busy fishing in the calming sun. The surface of the water was so clear that the wolfkin saw the shoals of black fish moving lazily to the north in a wide river. Laughing cubs of the normies, cubs of mutants, and even some of orais cubs were swimming in the water, under the supervision of the instructors. A police car was standing near the road, officers in yellow uniforms were lazily checking the speed limits of the passing cars. The weapons of the officers were in their holsters, no sudden threat was expected here. And the buildings of the city! Tall skyscrapers reaching all the way to the sky were visible in the city; civilian or government office buildings were surrounded by five-story tall civilian buildings. According to what the scout read, Houstad was home to over 600,000 people, not including those who came here for work from the suburbs or nearby cities.

The Dynast hated the idea of huge cities that were concentrated hubs of work. The ruler of the state forced companies to open workplaces in smaller cities, using various tax benefits as incentives. Despite his best efforts, the most luxurious vacancies were still in big cities. Some people in the IT sector could work from home and did work from home, after the government passed a series of laws imitating Iterna's laws. But the technology of the Reclaimers was still not on par with their rivals, many IT workers still had to be present in cities to fix and maintain infrastructure. Massive factories in Houstad were busy producing civilian vehicles and war engines, only stopping at night.

According to brochures about the city’s history, some one hundred and seventy years ago, clouds were clotted with thick smog and rivers were dirty with toxic waste, despite the best efforts of terraforming facilities, all because of the sheer number of factories in the city. Cancer, lung diseases, skin diseases were extremely common in this city, population of mutants went up. And then, finally, Devourer forced the hand of Dynast to stop expansion and focus upon implementing "clean tech", a once long-lost technology of the Old World. The Commander of the Second Army simply arrived at Dynast’s capital and forced the ruler to watch all video materials about life in big cities, forced the leader of the state to read through data about increasing numbers of the dead and increasing numbers of the sick, while nervous-looking commander Ravager, pleading-looking grand captain Wyrm Lord, and calm-looking commander Outsider stood by the side of Devourer, silently supporting their fellow commander. The Dynast read through the data and announced a temporary stop in war expansion, forcing the state to focus on the matters of the everyday life instead. Under orders of the Ravager, Wyrm Lord eagerly led a diplomatic mission to Iterna, and soon, with the help of Iterna’s people and thanks to technologies from Iterna, factories were modernized, rivers were cleaned of toxic waste, and clouds of smog disappeared as black clouds no longer left the mighty factories. Abandoned were the gas masks and breathers, number of ill people went down, people no longer protested against horrible working conditions, as working hours were slashed and working shifts were optimized by the orders of Devourer. Nowadays, all reclaimer factories meet modern standards, emitting the bare minimum of waste into the atmosphere. Government agencies were keeping a tight grip around the necks of the civilian companies, spying with a hawkish eye for any attempts to cut corners. "No more poison in the air or in the ground!" such was the motto of his excellency Devourer and the Dynast agreed to it, accepting it as his own creed. The Dynast insisted that history books record that the current clean state of the country is the result of insight from Devourer and the support of other commanders rather than the shrewdness of the Dynast himself. Wyrm Lord and Outsider gave interviews to journalists along with Devourer, while Ravager refused to speak with civilians, angrily snapping that she was underserving of any credit. Ironically, her refusal and mysterious denial of any and all laurels made civilians view the blessed mother in a more positive light, much to Devourer’s annoyance, who doubled down in his efforts to become the greatest ruler possible.

People thirsted for positive symbols for the state, while the blessed mother wanted to be forgotten. Her desire ended up being ignored, as was evident by the gigantic statue of Ravager that adorned the entrance to Houstad, honoring the warlord and her valiant defense of the village of Houstad in the days after the fall. One arm of marble statue of Ravager was thrown up in the air, a smile on her lips. The Devourer's Statue, which was the same size as the Ravager's Statue, stood on the opposite side of the Ravager's Statue, and the two champions were forever locked eyes with each other. Smaller statues of Outsider and the Wyrm Lord were placed at the entrance of the railway station, their marble shapes were visible even from here. Thanks to information from the brochure, Annie knew that similar statues were in other places in Houstad, the blessed mother was viewed as the guardian spirit by the people of the city, while Devourer was honored as the brilliant liege. Several streets in the city were named after warlords Zero, Alpha, and Janine. One of the city’s squares was named "Refugee of the Blessed Mother". The city also had a large statue of the warlord Janine. This statue was posted in the public park in the south of the city, standing guard over the grave dedicated to the nameless heroes, unidentified volunteers who perished during the defense of the city against an invasion of raiders.

This statue was meant to honor the warlord for her aid in battle against the new breed known as Brood Liege, a mutated warlord of the raiders, one who attacked the city as part of the Gilded Host, a force of various raider groups unified by the strong new breed. So numerous was the army of the Gilded Host that this raider group managed to rival the entire military of the state. Like a blazing sun, they left a scorching trail on the lands of the young state, leaving only ruined cities behind, before they were finally crushed in the battle at Houstad. The massive miles-long mountain range to the south of the city was a result of the clash and the following battle between the Ravager and the Mad Hatter, leader of the Gilded Host. Stone rose to the skies when Ravager punched Mad Hatter far away from the city into the desolate region and then cast her into the ground, continuing to fight against the wicked warlord for hours underground, while new mountains were lifted up, shrouded in the smoke made from the ground as a result of a fierce battle between two beings. Meanwhile, in the city itself, for three hours, warlord Janine led a group of volunteers formed from the ranks of locals, and they held a line all alone in the smog-filled streets, allowing citizens to retreat to safety and pushing raiders back. For two hours straight, she and volunteers fought against Brood Liege and his personal guard, before a joined force of the Ice Fang order and Wolf Tribe finally arrived, wolfkins of both sides were united under the leadership of Ravager in a rare sign of true teamwork. Like a stream of water pushing mud away, they pierced through the ranks of the Gilded Host, turning the tide of battle once and for all. At the end of the day, it was Brood Liege who fell to the massive axe of Janine, massive sword of Brood Liege was broken and now remained in the museum, along with the ruined gilded armor of the raider and broken curved swords of the Mad Hatter. Ravager arrived some time later, covered in horrible slashes all the way from her muzzle to her feet, wiping out the remains of the raiders and carrying the head of the deceased Mad Hatter in her paw. This was the second and last time that Houstad was ever under attack. According to the brochure, the architect made a mistake and presented the stone fur of the warlord Janine as white instead of her natural black color. Annie thought nothing of this, everyone could make a mistake. For over a century, this city was under the protection of the Ice Fang order, no wonder that the Wolf Tribe was all but forgotten.

This is truly a paradise. Decided Annie, as the train was reaching its final railway station. At all times, eight trains could arrive at this place, three civilian trains were heading in, three out, and two more railways were left for the trains that were carrying industrial goods or resources in or out of the city. And this was just one of the eight major railway stations in the city. The entire Core Lands were covered with thick railway lines, almost as numerous as roads for cars. Despite bus companies' best efforts, trains were the cheapest, most reliable, and most affordable mode of transportation for civilians. This is why I fight. For the day when all lands would look like this, when no one would be afraid of monsters.

A long armored convoy train passed the train with Annie in it, carrying countless weapons into the Wastes. Among the massive parts for the crawlers, there were also three Seeker class walkers, machines taller than any warlord, standing menacingly on their four sturdy legs. Annie knew a bit about them, the First Army recently tested them in combat. In battle, Seekers made long bounds across the battlefield, looking for a weak spot in the front line of the enemy. Upon finding a badly defended spot, tall shadows fall upon the horrified defenders, while walkers bring to bear their thundering assault cannons installed in their arms, spraying deadly bullets the size of fists upon the enemies. Then, Seekers charge deeper into enemy lines, unleashing missiles from their shoulders at the key structures, spreading panic and confusion behind enemy ranks. Should enemy forces possess a new breed or a monstrous mutant that could take on a Seeker in melee, these walkers used their own reactive armor as a weapon, sending countless deadly shards into all directions and shredding whoever tried to attack them. The latest remote malware programs were installed into the depths of the proud metal torsos, ready to be unleashed into the networks of the foe, causing enemy forces to experience a series of miscommunications and false commands over their communication network and targeting systems. The Seekers were still newer machines, and Annie was honestly surprised that they were being sent into the Wastes. Against whom were they supposed to be used there? There were no more disloyal elements in the Wastes, the entire region was united by the Reclaimers and the Ravaged Lands were slowly being converted by the diplomats. Yeah, some voices say that the mysterious King and his coalition won’t bend the knee willingly, but surely reason will prevail in the end. Only Oathtakers and Iterna could take on Reclaimers nowadays, and most people in Ravaged Lands would honestly be better off under the leadership of the Dynast, since Iterna expands at a snail's pace. Water, medicine, food, restoration of the cities… King would have to be mad to deny his people all of this. Annie quickly checked the newspaper in the train and discovered that Seekers had been sent as part of the new Fort Uglo defenders. This was reasonable, Wyrm Lord deserved a better royal guard instead of the usual forces of the normies. Seeker class walkers were too expensive to be used in anything but the decisive battle anyway, if the newspaper was to be believed. Only one factory in the entire Reclamation Army could produce them.

"Are you a knight captain by any chance?" The girl’s voice asked once again near Annie. The wolfkin saw the apologizing face of the older woman, holding her cub by the hand. In her free hand the cub held a sizeable journal.

"No, I am a scout. It’s…" Annie felt herself lost for a second. In the Wolf Tribe, military ranks went as follows: male, warrior, scout, wolf hag, shaman, and finally warlord. In the Ice Fang order, the ranks went as follows: initiate, foot soldier, defender, hunter, squire, knight, knight captain, sage, and finally, sword saint above them all. Apparently, foot soldier, defender, and hunter ranks all were more or less the same rank. Where would Annie’s meager rank of scout fit into all of this… Annie decided against inflating her own ego, "I think that my rank is equal to a hunter's rank in the hierarchy of the Ice Fang order."

"So you hunt various beasts?" The girl pushed her hand away from her mother’s arm and started flipping furiously through the pages of the journal.

"That and I also train others and sometimes lead small groups of my kin." Nodded Annie.

"Then you are not a hunter!" The girl almost jumped from indignation, flipping to another page of her journal and showing a picture of a wolfkin of the Ice Fang order, standing tall in ceremonial iron armor. The shoulders of the wolfkin in the picture were equal in width to Annie’s shoulders, the helmet was on his belt, allowing proud crimson eyes to look encouragingly on the reader, two mighty paws rested at the handle of a deadly looking broadsword. The girl pointed at description below the picture, "You are a knight then! They train lesser ranks, lead groups of six or fewer wolfkins in battle, sometimes act as champions for the knight captains…"

"Trust me, little one, I am not the champion of any wolf hag… I mean, knight captain. Last time I ended up fighting against a villain, she crushed me easily." Annie felt a red color appear on her cheek. Knight, as if. She read about them, knights would easily whoop her ass. Now Carty or Ultis would probably win against a knight… But then again, Annie wasn’t sure about this either. Better to underestimate skills than to lie to the cub.

"But the rest checks out!" The girl stubbornly replied, pointing at the description in the journal with her finger, "Also it is stated right here that true knights are always humble about their skills. You are a knight then! Can I have a photo with you and your autograph?"

"I am deeply sorry if we are bothering you, miss," The woman bowed, and Annie noticed that the left eye of the woman had a rectangular-shaped pupil. Mutations were not uncommon in the lands of the Reclamation Army, after horrible war that ended the Old World, many people were changed for good. Even now, some cubs could be easily changed inside the wombs if their parents came into contact with a glow. The reclaimers tried their best to remove this dangerous substance from their lands, but accidents sometimes happen. The main difference between new breeds and mutants lay in the fact that offspring of new breeds kept the appearance, or simply physical prowess if the appearance of a person was unchanged by the meeting with a glow, of their parents. While this little cub here looked like her mother and father, at the same time she bore no visible signs of mutations, unlike her parents. Very rarely are mutations among humans passed on to their children, "Entia is a bit of a fan of the soldiers of the state…"

"Heroes! They are heroes, mom!" shouted the cub, while the captain laughed, taking the beautiful looking woman into his hand and showing her this situation. Annie felt thankful to the Spirits that fur covered her face, her skin was all red from embarrassment. Hero, she? Even the mere thought of this was stupid. Entia turned to Annie and showed her the empty lines on another page of the journal, along with a place for a photo, "Teacher gave us a task of interacting with new breeds and, if they are not against it, get an autograph from them or even a photo. I have a page for workers, a page for shop owners, a page for cleaners… All sorts of pages! Now I have no idea why Wolves Tribe…"

"Wolf Tribe." The woman corrected her daughter.

"Yeah, you in short!" The cub pointed at the still surprised Annie, "I have no idea why people like you are not in the journal, but can you imagine how envious everyone in the class will be when I show them the photo with unknown…"

"Well known." Once again, the mother tried to mitigate the situation.

"… New breed?! Please? Just one picture?" The cub utterly ignored her mother, while Scorpio and the strange woman laughed out loud at this situation.

"I… This is allowed, right?" Annie threw a glance at the captain.

"Sure, sure, go on ahead, oh brave hero!" waved free paw Scorpio, relishing every moment of this situation and Annie's embarrassed expression.

"Dragon! Mommy, there is a living dragon on the terminal!" The cub shouted, seeing an image of the Scorpio, as Annie placed the terminal on a nearby table for hands, displaying it to passengers.

"Now, now little one! New breeds like me are known as wyr…" Still keeping a smug smile, the captain tried to explain. Other passengers slowly start looking at the situation, some of them start to smile at the scene.

"Look mommy! He even has a stolen princess! Just like in stories!"

Seeing the face of the captain, this time it was Annie who laughed her ass off at his expense, uncaring how she might look to outsiders. Her frustration, her fears, all faded as she allowed the mother to photograph her alongside the cub. She left a mark with a pen in the journal, while the captain’s face was frozen in a mix of embarrassment and shock, one of his clawed fingers was lifted, while he desperately tried to think of a good comeback. The woman in Scorpio’s palm joined Annie with a honeyed laugh, making the captain even more confused about the situation.

What a great day. I will see my sister. Everything is going to be great. Thank you, of thank you so much for this day, Spirits. Annie smiled as she lifted the cub from her lap.

****

The smile was still on Annie’s lips as the scout left the train. She pressed the ticket against a small device that opened doors to the city for her. Walking out of the station, she breathed in the air of the city. An enormous square was in front of the station, with a road running around the square and a small park in the middle of the square. On the opposite side of the station were gigantic facilities.

Massive square-shaped facilities made from stone and metal were casting shadows on their surroundings. These were the terraforming facilities, built here by the Reclaimers a long, long time ago. Once, they were humming and brimming with energy, changing the surrounding area into something that would suit most people better. Nowadays, they are just a great testament to the industrial and technological might of the Reclaimers, their engines have long since shut down. Now these great marvels of the age were left here in case of an emergency, one that would most likely never happen, for this area in the Core Lands was changed for good. For over one hundred and ninety-six years, these facilities served as an attraction for tourists and monuments of pride for the locals, there was zero chance that they would somehow be activated and ruin the surroundings, all energy cells and chemicals that were needed for terraforming facilities to work were removed and guards were posted inside. One day, similar facilities will be built in the Wastes as well.

To the left and right of the station were numerous shopping malls, some with small shops and others with clothing shops. Tourist guides were standing near the station, calling people to take a tour around the city on one of the nearby buses. Traders were selling cotton candies and other sweets, along with bottles of water. Stone roads were clear of trash and garbage, public workers in orange uniforms were visible here and there, keeping the place clean. Several statues of sword saints stood tall in the park, raising their weapons in greeting to the arrival of newcomers to the city.

A massive display, installed into the wall of the terraforming facility, was projecting some advertisements for medicine for weight loss. In a flash, the advertisement disappeared, giving way to an urgent announcement. A calm and steady voice declared that war in the lands of Oathtakers was finally over, Stonehelm endured the siege. The walls of the city were broken, forces of the Chosen Prince invaded the very heart of the city, they reached all the way to the former royal palace in the city, and Chosen Prince himself almost touched his much-coveted throne. At this moment, Lord Steward, Hive, and the entire relief force of the Oathtakers finally arrived at the battlefield in force, forcing back the enemy and saving civilians and remaining military forces in the city. The news anchor showed images of the ever-shifting mass of flesh, muscles, and bones, a mass that was slowly reforming back to the human shape, revealing itself to be the Lord Steward, uncrowned ruler of the Oathtakers, standing triumphantly over the broken remains of the Chosen Prince. The news briefly showed the field of battle, littered with countless dead bodies and ruined military vehicles.

All well that ends well. Enough of the war. You are on leave, Annie, relax, drop thoughts about the war, and try to enjoy life for a while. The scout shook her head, looking herself over. Her ID tag hung from her neck on the steel chain. Carty nearly burst out laughing when she saw Annie's plan to carry her ID tag. Ultis desperately gestured something about "not being a dog", but Annie decided that this was the safest way to carry her documents. The scout herself was dressed in clothes provided to her by the Carty, a blue leather jacket, a black sweater, blue trousers, a white shirt, a long skirt on suspenders, and a pair of sturdy boots that reached all the way to her knees. The scout refused to accept any tokens from Annie, laughing and saying that Annie was free to do as she wanted with these clothes. Annie assumed that this amount of clothing would cause her to sweat like mad in the Core Lands, but Kayleen and Carty persuaded her otherwise. The scout had to agree that they were right, wolfkins of the Wolf Tribe were all too comfortable in the hot climate of the Wastes and Ravaged Lands. Here on the other paw? Annie felt herself getting a bit cold and reached for the green cap in her backpack. ID, checked. Tokens, checked. Maps, checked. Take a deep breath and go, go, go!

Annie dialed the number of the taxi company on her pocket terminal. An operator was supposed to take the call, but instead the call was abruptly dropped, and the terminal sent a map to Annie, indicating that she was supposed to wait near the edge of the road. It was just a few steps, and Annie saw how a black car moved toward her, separating itself from the busy line of countless cars moving along the circle road around the square. Annie lifted brow, unsure who this might be, when message came on the screen of her terminal.

"Ivar always pays his debts. Enjoy your visit."

Blue wyrm? But he is a rival of the black wyr… Annie’s thought stopped mid-sentence when her amber eyes noticed someone unusual among the large crowd of people. The parents of Entia were buying some sweets for their daughter when the cub noticed a group of new breeds. Annie admitted begrudgingly that they looked magnificent in their shining power armor that looked like a second skin. The Ice Fang patrol was led by the knight captain, who was flanked by two knights, all of whom were bareheaded, their helmets locked in maglocks at their waists. The knight captain had a pair of curved swords at his waist, while one knight walked with a broadsword and a shield behind his back, the other was armed with a deadly looking claymore in a green sheath. The wolfkins were walking away from Annie, but the scout saw how Entia dragged her mother to them, showing her journal to the ice boys. The knight captain turned toward the cub and lowered himself on one knee, throwing back his gorgeous purple cape. The wolfkin nodded at the girl's request, and she quickly flipped through the pages of her journal. Annie felt a tingle of fear down her spine, praying for the car to arrive just a tiny bit faster. One of the knights, a youth with a claymore behind his back, twitched when the girl showed him the journal page with the knight on it. Annie knew who exactly he saw on this page. The young knight dropped on his knees before the cub, hastily asking Entia about something.

Please, please, faster! Annie thought in panic, seeing how the car was approaching her. Entia pointed toward Annie, and the youth stood up, looking at Annie with wide crimson eyes. The knight captain stood as well, leaving the third knight to entertain the girl while the duo tried to make their way toward Annie. The young knight wildly waved to her, and the scout almost tore out the door of the back car that stopped before her.

They want to challenge me to a fight! Or worse, trick me into misbehaving and lock me up! Not today, run, evade, dodge, I won’t let those scum ruin my day! Sveta waits for me!

Opening the door, Annie saw lieutenant Angoro sitting casually in the car, dressed in a grey suit without a tie, instead of his usual black coat. After countless days in the Wastes, the face of the man was slowly becoming more tanned, but his forearms were still pale, his hair was cut short as usual. The agent gestured at a seat near him:

"Good day, fair lady. You seem like you are in need for a ride, and we are only too happy to oblige. Please, grace us with your presence, I beseech thee." The man grinned, bowing courteously.

"I am in need of rescue, so drive me away, good sir," Annie joked back, taking a seat near the agent and putting her backpack on her knees. She closed the door and looked from the back window, noticing that the young knight was almost charging toward the car, "Floor it! Before something happens!" Pleadingly squawked the wolfkin.

The agent frowned for a moment before snapping his fingers to the driver, who pressed the pedal and made the car move.

"Wait, please! I want to ask you about Ara…" The knight shouted, but the rest of the sentence was drowned in the sounds of moving cars, when the "taxi" of Angoro moved onto the main road. Annie threw a glance in back window one last time, seeing how the knight captain put his paw on the shoulder of the knight, while the wild-eyed knight reached for a pocket terminal on his belt.

Will their wickedness never end? They plan to ambush me now or something? Why? I have never met any of their kind before! Annie thought worryingly, seeing how the ice boy was calling someone over the terminal.

"Friends of yours, by any chance?" Angoro asked, cracking his neck.

"Potential problems, that’s who they are," Annie leaned back on the seat, cracking her neck to calm herself. Everything was fine, she hasn’t done a single bad thing yet. No one will throw her out of the city. She looked at the agent and said, "What are you doing here of all places? Are you spying on me?"

"I am truly hurt," Angoro pressed his left hand to his chest, "I’ll let you know that I was born in this city. I just went here to see Ma and Da, to see how my nieces are doing, to slap my little brother back into reality…" Angoro innocently looked at Annie, "And to look after you and the other one as well, of course. Captain Ivar was very angry that the investigation bureau failed in our task. He very passionately asked the point of our existence if our target found us herself. My direct superiors are livid as well at this situation and appointed me as your nanny, under the guise of giving me leave as well for a few days, threatening me with moving me back into sergeant rank once more, if you cause a scene." The agent snapped his fingers, placing both hands behind his back, "Sorry for pushing myself onto you, but there is no way that I will go back to sergeant ever again. I earned my promotions, Abyss take it all!"

"You joking? You just saved me eighty tokens, of course I am not against you being here," Annie smirked back, wondering who was the other one. As far as she knew, she was the only member of the Wolf Tribe who had left for the city recently. Maybe the agent meant Sveta? Oh well, keep your secrets, you earned this much. Annie looked at the driver and quickly made a half bow, "Thank you for your help as well, lady," The woman behind the driver's seat simply waved her hand dismissively, indicating that no thanks were needed, "I need to get to the university no later than fifteen o'clock. How fast we can…"

"Relax, everything is fine!" The agent pointed to the road before the car, where a large demonstration blocked the main road. Annie saw the countless new breeds and normies walking together, raising banners high above their heads, stopping the busy road all together. Demonstrators demand the shrinking of the military complex and stop the imperial expansion of the Reclamation Army. The rally appears to have spread across the entire road, effectively halting forward movement. Annie saw several police cars guarding the demonstrators. Several groups of the Ice Order wolfkins were also seen on the sidewalks, standing like magnificent statues among the living sea, "The direct route to USU is blocked by a… let’s say a more pacifistic part of our population, who are currently protesting against the small reunification operation that is being led by the First Army."

"Enough wars!", "Make life, not death!", "Instead of making others bow, convince them instead!", "Wars to the past! Peaceful life to the future!" and similar slogans were visible on the countless banners that floated above the people in the rally, some demonstrators were seen handing out flyers and booklets that were calling for peace to the people on the sidewalks.

"Never expect that people here will be against the ideals of the Dynast. He is the one who restored this land to life, and they are daring to doubt his vision?!" Annie looked up and saw that cars on the road had to take a detour because of how many people were in this rally, "There are thousands of them here! They seriously think that we fight for fun?! Idiots, the Reclamation Army has to unite all lands, so catastrophe from old times can never happen again," The wolfkin felt the fur on her neck rise in anger at these signs, some of the people carried photos of dead cubs and torn-apart people. Yes, war is cruel, and unnecessary deaths are terrible, but why can't they see... The scout took deep breaths, calming herself, before exploding in anger once more at the new thought, "Don’t they understand that they harm public traffic because of their rally! What if someone needs medical help or… Spirits, what if I end up late!"

"According to the news, tens of thousands," Angoro said to the crowd. Annie reached for the door, planning to walk to the university on her own if needed, but the agent put a calming hand on her shoulder, "Annie, it’s a nothingburger. You won’t be late, everything will be fine. This is an approved rally, blocking roads is part of the way…" Angoro raised the index finger and the middle finger of both of his hands in the shape of a V letter, before bending the fingers briefly, "… Of some people to make all people listen to the grievances of others. The government has taken precautions, medical teams are spread around the city. Let people vent out in a civil manner, unlike rallies against taxes, it is unlikely that the Dynast will ever change his mind about this subject. Relax, put your mind at ease, and enjoy the view."

Annie bit her lower lip nervously but forced herself to lean on the pillows of the seat and look out the window. The rally seemingly spanned the entire city, to her shame, Annie forcibly admitted to herself that gatherings in the Wastes looked like a drop in the ocean compared to this insane number of people of all various colors, shapes, and origins. And all of them were against the methods of the Dynast! New breeds, orais, and even some Ice Fangs wolfkins, stood shoulder to shoulder with normies and mutants, tall looking humans, clearly new breeds among normies, stood among demonstrators in a sign of solidarity.

Why? Don't they realize that unless the world is united, unless all lands are healed, danger will continue to exist until the world is united? Not today, not tomorrow, but as Gilded Host demonstrated, Abyss, as Chosen Prince recently demonstrated, danger is still lurking out there, waiting for the right moment to bite!  The scout wondered, looking at the gathering. In the Wastes, protestors would already have started looting and burning had rulers not come to speak with them, yet the rally here merely wanted to let their… feelings known? How does this work? How does it help anyone?

Dragena once explained the main idea of the Dynast to soldiers in her pack. The Old World was a rich, multicultural place. Billions of people lived there, in a near golden age. Sickness was almost defeated, poverty was gone from the majority of regions, and space exploration finally kicked off in full. And then, because of some madmen, everything ended, simply because one person wormed their way into the highest echelon of power, because one finger pressed a button that should never be pressed. The Old World died and, from the smoking ruins filled with misery and despair, a new world came to be. The goal of the Reclamation Army was to reunite the world, to allow rich cultures to thrive but under the rule of one government. To eliminate all bias, to eliminate all borders. One world, a countless multitude of people, all united with the same desire. Never again. Never again allow the world to be destroyed, never again use apocalyptic weapons, and never again allow the dark age of barbarism to resurface. A healed world, a united world, and a safe world for all. The day will come when the sun will shine upon the territory of the state, a territory that will encompass the entire globe, forever eliminating even a chance that some mad politician might destroy the world. For this end, all must be integrated into the state. Some will be persuaded with words, some will be bought with riches, some will join voluntarily, and some will be made to see the reason by force of arms. For as long as even a single independent country exists, there is also the chance that two countries will fight each other and, in their madness, unleash something that was never meant to be unleashed.

This makes sense, right? Why then do these people oppose a noble goal of the Dynast? What… what am I missing? Although it was not encouraged by the shamans, it was also not forbidden for members of the Wolf Tribe to learn about the ideologies of other countries. While most in Dragena’s pack thought it was useless to learn ideas of other countries, with the permission of Dragena, Annie spent quite a time reading what she could about the history of major powers in the world and the end goals of these civilizations. You have to understand your opponent to one day overcome it. The Living Lands lived under the misguided idea of tranquility eternal, they believed that they had achieved the best form of government possible and that there was no longer any need to improve or change their surroundings. By being content with their lives and not striving for better technology, the people of the Living Lands believe that they will not be able to ruin the world like the people of the old. Oathtakers believe that humanity will never inherently be able to understand one another, unless they are bound with an oath that dulls the most savage instincts of humanity, allowing humans to create and to build a better life in the interests of the majority of the population, their main idea was "together for a happy future life". By giving up parts of their own will, the people of the Oathtakers believed that they could prevent another disaster. Meanwhile, people in Iterna believe in utopia, that one day, all humans can be united not through the will of a single government, which will ensure that no injustice is done, but through the common interests of people. Citizens of the Iterna believe in the impossible ideal that everyone can be redeemed; that there are no inherently evil people, and that true happiness can be attained through good education, the government's support for every single citizen, proper healthcare, proper housing, and proper food, as well as the right therapy for the mentally ill; and that by implementing all of these things and checks on their government, they believe that no more disasters like the one that ended the Old World will occur. In short, the core belief of Iterna could be summarized as "Never give up. Even if you've lost everything, you can still create happiness. Others will help you get back on your feet.". Neither of these ideas looked feasible for Annie. Surrendering your will to the current flow? Giving up part of your will forever? Believing in the impossible?

Annie looked at the rally, desperately wanting to understand them. If one can understand the opponent, one can persuade him or her, at least Dragena said so. But these people were simply mad in the scout’s eyes. The Dynast was right, sacrifices had to be made, so all humans could live in peace and tranquility. And soldiers are the ones who make these sacrifices! She fought and will fight so these people can always be safe. So what are you unhappy with? What exactly I can’t understand?

The car finally left the rally behind, moving toward the south of the city. As Angoro briefly explained to Annie, they would move through the south of the city, before turning north once more. The scout felt confident enough to navigate the sprawling maze that was Houstad after seeing the city map. But at the same time, she understood that she never really believed that this city was so big. Buildings standing next to each other, public parks, thousands upon thousands of cars, countless shops, theaters, cinemas, skyscrapers made of glass and stone, shining like torches even during day… And life. So much life. Countless people go about their business, unafraid of sudden attack. Annie blinked, feeling someone’s gaze upon her. She looked at the sprawling streets of the city, trying to locate the owner of the questioning gaze, but all she could see were just buildings and people moving on with their lives. Here were workers, fixing the cooling system in the building, here was a garbage truck taking junk from one of the cinemas, here were police officers keeping watch over the traffic. There was nothing that caught her eye. The scout wondered if perhaps she was on edge because of the countless security cameras spread across the city. Yes, this must be it.

"And here is a temple district," Angoro said, pointing to a large stone wall ahead. The road was taking a turn to the right and soon the car moved among tall buildings, "Devourer is an atheist. He claims that no higher being could have put humanity through such misery, no kind god would allow kids to starve and die. For the longest time, the commander wanted to ban religion from "his" lands," The agent's finger moved at his temple, indicating what the man thought about such an idea, "But these are the Dynast's lands, not the Devourer's, And our liege made himself clear: religion is allowed among the Reclaimers. In his spite, Devourer restricted places for religious worship to a single district in each of his cities. Safe for religious processions, well, here is where all the priests of the various faiths are usually. Unless they go shopping or …"

The car passed the enormously huge cathedral, built at the center of a field of green grass. While water ran down the various stone statues of angels made of white marble and glistering in the midday sun, the water fountain played nice ringing music. Priests in white robes welcomed the faithful and led wedding ceremonies on the green fields to the left of the main cathedral building that spanned an area the size of a small village.

"Is this…  A freaking Planet's church and the cult of the Legend coexisting? How? Why aren’t they killing each other?" Annie saw the building next to the cathedral, a one-story tall building of brass and iron, painted in crimson. Space in the middle of the building was open to the air no matter the time of the day, countless braziers inside were spewing black smoke into the air. The Cult of the Legend was a church dedicated to the martial god of orais, a fierce and cruel deity that demanded sacrifices from its followers. Adolescents of the orais were supposed to bathe themselves in the flames of braziers, burning away their fur and hair all the way to the skin, gifting this pain to the Legend. Orais who died with wounds on their backs were forever banned from entering the bloody halls of the Legend, where blood flowed like rivers all day and war never stopped. Legend, the first orais to take life was venerated by acts of war and bravery during the war, by killing and striking down foes. Those who wanted to live a peaceful life were viewed as cowards and undesirable by the instigators and clergy of the church. The leader of the cult was known as the Mortal incarnation of the Legend, a title that was passed to other orais in trial of combat that always ended up with the death of one of the fighters. The cult of Legend was a relatively new faith, one that came along with the discovery of orais, technically older than belief in the Spirits, but exposed to the world at large long after belief in the Spirits became known to the world. Meanwhile, the Church of the Planet was one of the world's oldest religions, dating back to before the Day of Extinction, before humanity's golden age. In the days before the Extinction, the church had a single authority in the city state of Parragia, the center of this religion, along with "Crimson Hats", people who claimed ancestry to the founder of the church of the Planet and were spiritual leaders of the church. All of them perished, unfortunately, during the Extinction, but faith endured. New leaders called themselves "Crimson Seekers" while most of the priesthood wore white robes. This religion preached the idea of non-aggression and peaceful coexistence of all people in the world. The faithful were encouraged to better themselves with knowledge and donate funds to the resurrection of dead species of animals. The church of Planet believed that after death, a person undergoes a trial by the Spirit of Planet. Ones deemed worthy are allowed to move on to a higher plane of existence, ones who have learned too little are returned back to the planet and given another life in a mortal shell. The main religious center of this faith lay in Iterna, yet countless splinters of this religion could be found all around the world. Naturally, these two faiths were at odds with what Annie read, and the Dynast even thought about banning the cult all together as it had several other, more dangerous religions, like, for example, the flesh-eating church of Dust Walkers. And yet the parking lot between the two religious centers was clean and serene, not a single member of the cult tried to strangle the faithful of the Planet church either.

"Get with the times, Annie," The agent chuckled and gestured for the driver to stop near the sideways and pointed at several arenas before the crimson building. Orais and normies were hard locked in struggle with each other, competing in feats of strength and speed, while several instigators, priests covered in scars and with physiques that would put even wolf hags to shame, looked with hawkish eyes at the scene before them, "Devourer kept sending petition after petition to Dynast, demanding to ban the cult after some deaths happened in braziers. Tired of this, Outsider challenged the physical incarnation of the Legend to a fight. The Commander obviously won, but he spared his opponent, instead claiming the title of Legend for himself. As a result, there were some changes in the way orais worshipped the Legend. The faithful now worship Legend by working out instead of killing each other, and self-immolation trials are merely harmless, leaving no burns on the faithful and allowing even non-believers to participate. Self-mutilation rituals are also gone, much to the displeasure of orais, who seems to get off from the pain. Abyss, normies now make up the bulk of the faithful, and Outsider gave up his religious title some fifty years ago to one of the new breeds."

Annie looked at one of the orais instigators, a being the size of a warlord, walking on all fours around the edge of one of the arenas, missing fur the right size of his head, revealing the ugly scar around his vat-grown green eye. The fingers of this priest were easily the size of normie’s waist. The Instigator gave a loud noise of disapproval through his nostrils, charging toward the faithful from the normies, showing them how to adjust lifting weights better, showing the cubs how to do push-ups. Instead of the usual sneer or disgust that orais often showed to people whom they deemed weak, this instigator was helping both overweight and frail people with care and almost with gentle touch, giving them pointers. He casually encouraged the faithful who bore augmetics, telling them to keep on trying and to improve their remaining physical parts even further. Each of the movements of this instigator sends a tremor equal to that of the civilian walker through the ground, making windows in the car shake a bit. The instigator looked at the young orais, then at the ceremonial combat in front of him, and snorted loudly.

"Wasteful movements! You are shaming us in front of the other faithful! How often must I show you…" The instigator stood up on two legs, hitting himself in the barrel-looking chest with trunks like arms, "Maidens! Lubricate my body! I will show these youngsters the proper way to knock and kick, to throw and to bend. All of you, against me!" The head of orais twitched, two of his eyes burrowed into the eyes of Annie, unnaturally keen eyes easily pierced through the tinted windows of the car. A smile appeared on the muzzle of the mighty being, revealing a few white strands in the fur on his jaw, "Black wolfkin! A rare treat indeed. Come in, play with us, and give the Lord of Might your sweat! All are welcome in the training arenas."

"Yeah, I want none of what he offers. I am brave, not suicidal," Whispered Annie to the agent, before lowering the window and waving her paw, "Sorry, mister! I am here on a tour… I think." She smiled to the priest, trying to look calm, keeping her fangs behind her lips. This specimen put even Tegrin to shame with the size of his muscles and looked like he could crush her just with the snap of his fingers. Orais were not mad beasts, clearly, but they could be… expressive. She knew from Tegrin how deceptively slow they were in regular situations and how fast they could be in actual combat. If the instigator thinks that she is playing with him or somehow challenging his authority, he will be on her before she can even blink…

"Don’t be afraid, missy! No pain, no gai…" Orais stopped, turning to look at his temple. Annie felt the same presence as before, as if some inquisitive eyes were looking at her. Orais walked away from the arena, sniffing the air, while several women dressed in crimson came to him, covering his fur with ritual oil, "Who is this? Why hide in this place? Come out and play or train, curiosity, no one will dare to hurt you... Not irrecoverably at least…" The instigator gestured with his arm, making maidens step away from him, then leaped on the roof of the arena, sniffing the air and looking around the place.

"Move it, move it, while he's distracted," Annie said quietly to the driver. She could have sworn that the woman smiled, moving the car forward. Well, she had all rights to, this whole trip was beyond stupid. This city was supposed to be civilized, yet the scout "walked" here almost as if she was surrounded by mines! Rally, Ice Fang, now this strange orais! Angrily, Annie turned to the innocent-looking agent, "Ok, this is getting ridiculous. I can sense someone! Who exactly is trailing us?"

"Someone who was scheduled to get an appointment with doctors here in the city and now has way too much free time," Angoro raised his hands in a gesture of apology, "Listen, I am sorry, but I can’t reveal any more. You know how wary the Wolf Tribe are after what happened with Kalaisa. Dragena pulled quite a feat, ensuring that this person, of all people, will watch over you. I know that it sounds ridiculous, but your warlords are being paranoid and…"

"Don't you dare insult my leader by calling warlords paranoid," Annie said calmly, locking her gaze on the agent. She forced herself to be calm and tried to explain her view, "They have every right to be wary, you have no idea what the Wolf Tribe had to sacrifice to save A…"

"Sure, sure… I apologize for the insult." Angoro pressed both palms together and moved his head to the left, showing his neck as a sign of apology. Annie refused the invitation to bite the man, and he leaned back on his seat, smiling once more and gesturing for the scout to look in the window. The scout leaned forward and groaned at what she saw.

A building of black stone was built into the ground. Steel gates, with images of the Spirits floating over the mighty form of the Ravages, were standing tall, covering the entrance to the underground floor behind them. Braziers of green flame were lit over the doors, burning brightly despite the daytime. Shamans, male and female shamans in simple brown robes, were welcoming people into the darkness that led deep into the temple. This place resembled nothing of the strict discipline of the praying dens in the Wastes, for Spirits' sake ,the locals had traders who sold cotton candies outside of this prayer den! The ceremonies were led by normies, instead of wolfkins, no one was biting each other, instead a crowd of people were laughing, moving through the main entrance. The only thing that reminded Annie of home, were shamans who cleaned the sidewalks themselves and were performing some maintenance on the outer walls of the praying den.

"Why is this a thing?" The scout chuckled against her will. People here had so many wonderful faiths, why in the Spirits name, this faith spread here?! Annie fell back on her seat, smiling against her will. She looked at Angoro, "Listen, sorry for my words earlier. You and others are watching over me, and I am acting like a spoiled brat. I am… just a bit on edge today."

"Eh, no harm’s done. Forgiven and forgotten." The agent lifted his hand and exchanged a friendly fist bump with Annie. The scout made sure to exercise the bare minimum of her power in order not to hurt the comrade.

The car passed the massive airport area. Among the standard planes of the Reclaimers, Annie also saw the gorgeous looking sleek passenger planes of the Iterna, carrying either people on business trips or tourists. Unlike other parts of the world, Iterna never fell to the Extinction, hidden safe behind their shield. Their tech had no need for energy cells at large, even here, all the way in the Reclaimers' lands, their slender planes were powered up by the wireless energy from the several satellites that moved high in orbit. The planes of the Iterna had no need for wings, they looked like an arrow with the tip of the arrow shaped in the form of a cone. Several circular openings were visible along the body of this "arrow", each opening marked the place of the proton engine inside, engines that allowed the plane to rapidly change direction if needed. Even now, planes of Iterna silently hovered in the air, rather than staying on the ground, several hovering platforms detached themselves from the belly of the plane, taking off passengers from the entrance of the plane and moving them onto the ground. Not a single window was visible on the plane, all maintenance was done with the help of flying drones, countless tiny mechanical arms were clutched tightly to the spherical bodies, while drones were busy hovering around the great machine, scanning the plane in search for any signs of damage. Just like planes themselves, drones barely give away any sound. According to the information that Annie read, even civilian planes from Iterna were equipped with energy shields.

Annie checked the time on her pocket terminal and saw that they still had over an hour left to arrive at the university. Feeling an urge in her bowels, Annie asked Angoro to stop the car at the parking lot of the large shopping mall. Pretending to want to buy some food for herself, Annie excused herself and left agent in the car, speaking with his family over the terminal, while Annie herself hurried to the building, trying to look steady and competent. She walked through one of the main entrances, checked the map of the place, and found the closest restroom. Scout was a bit confused by the signs in the restroom, she could understand "male" and "female" images just fine, but it took her a while to understand that some of the restrooms were made for people with augmetics.

Upon finishing her business and washing her paws, Annie took the elevator down to the supermarket at the ground level. Her eyes went wide at the various foods presented for purchase, her damaged nostrils managed to catch the beautiful scent of freshly cooked meat. The fish swam in large aquariums, which, however, were too small for such a large number of living creatures stuck inside them. As cruel as it was, there was a silver lining: poor things had to suffer, but not for long, judging by the number of people buying fresh fish.Annie walked around the rows of food, thinking about what she should buy. Prices were surprisingly affordable, even for her, but potato chips were not really her thing, lemons smelled way too strongly for her, and fish and meat were not an option, for she had to look clean upon arriving for the meeting. Finally, her eyes caught sight of something called and ice cream in refrigerators, one of which had a wrapper with the words Dexter and Philip on it.

Do I like the cold? No. But there's chocolate in this thing, and I like that. Would the captain recommend that I try something that might harm me? Probably not. Am I willing to take a risk and try something new? By Spirits, yes, we only live once!

She took one ice-cream from the refrigerator and walked toward the lines where people paid for the goods. She took a seat behind the family couple, waiting for her turn in queue. Whistling to herself casually, Annie checked the time once more, making sure that they still had plenty of time. If memory served her right, from here it was a direct road to the…

"Apologies, are you from the Wolf Tribe?" Asked a honeyed voice behind Annie, making the scout turn around.

She came face to-face with a wolfkin of the Ice Fang. The female before her was dressed in a white business suit, the crimson eyes of this stranger looked at the scout with curiosity in them. A golden necklace circled around the neck of a white-furred wolfkin, one paw covered by a black leather glove held a bag with various food, the other paw of the stranger held a closed book. Unlike Annie, this wolfkin had long, gorgeous looking hair that, braided with a green ribbon and thrown over her right shoulder. On her legs, the wolfkin wore green shoes made of crocodile skin, a black belt accentuated her delicate waist. Not a single scar or bruise marked her beautiful muzzle, the tips of her long ears were dyed in green. A golden earring with emeralds in it pierced the gentle skin of the stranger. The wolfkin gave an elegant smile and bowed courteously to the surprised Annie:

"My apologies for startling you, lady. My name is Ulrica Voidrunner, from the house of Voidrunner. Pray tell, is this OK if I ask for your name?"

"I am Annie. Don’t have an honorably name. Just a simple scout in the Wolf Tribe. Please, I don’t want any troubles." Annie’s raised her paws in the air helplessly, throwing glances around in search for a safe way out.

"There will be no trouble, I assure you," The wolfkin spoke sweetly and reassuringly, putting the book in her bag and taking off her glove for a handshake. Seeing that the scout became startled, the wolfkin raised her pitch-black brow, "Is it by any chance considered to be an insult for a warrior like you to speak with…"

"Of course not!" Barked Annie, causing surprise to flash in the eyes of the ice girl. Calming herself, Annie shook the paw of the Ice Fang, "I am honored to meet a fellow defender of the state. I wish the best to you and for your house."

"You honor me too much, lady," The fingers of the wolfkin felt gentle, her lean build looked weak, and Annie tried her best not to hurt her, treating this wolfkin as if she was a Branded. "I am merely a future social worker for the Ice Fang order. Currently, I am still learning. " Annie cursed herself silently at this mistake. She should have guessed as much, seeing as there was no weapon on this woman.

"Sorry, ladies, this line is temporary out order." Said a young-looking cashier, finishing selling meat to the man before Annie. The young man nodded at the third line in row, which was currently empty, "It will be open in a few moments, I am deeply sorry for the delay. New software is a bit buggy."

"It’s okay." Annie gave out a fake smile, worrying more about the Ice Fang, than about being late or having to use another line."

"Oh look, this line is free!" Ulrica pointed at another line with her finger, one that was located on the other side of the hall.

Annie decided to trust her judgement and walked to the line at which Ulrica was pointing. She waited for a whole minute, but no cashier came. Giving out a sigh of annoyance, Annie walked back to the line at which the cashier had shown her originally and saw that Ulrica was already finishing her shopping and quite a line of people already stood between Annie and a cashier.

"Hey, this lady was here before me! Please let her through." Ulrica asked the crowd and waved to Annie.

"No need. I will wait in the end of the line." Annie raised two index fingers up, forcing a fake smile to take hold on her lips. People, normies, and even a couple of orais looked at her, elderly looking man in the front even waved for Annie to walk forward,

"C’om, it was because of me that you lost your place. People, please let her…" The ice girl called to Annie once more.

"I said there that I will wait!" Seeing the surprised and even scared faces of the people before her, the scout blinked, realized that she had raised her voice. Calm down, you idiot! What if they call the police?! Annie bowed to the people before herself, remembering the lessons of Zero. When you have done something bad, just apologize, this was how civilized society was supposed to work, according to the claims of Zero, "I am sorry for making a scene, everyone. Please ignore me and be on your way"

The crowd before her calmed down, resuming the waiting in the line. Thankfully, no one was offering to let Annie forward and the scout relaxed, taking her time and trying to relax.

"Listen, I'm sorry for what happened," The Ice Fang wolfkin walked to Annie, her voice filled with genuine regret, "I thought you saw the cashier walking here," Ulrica frowned, pressing her index finger to her forehead, "I should have known that this is your first time in the city, lady, if you wish, I can at least pay for you…"

"It’s OK." Annie stopped her, wanting nothing more than to smash her own face with a fist. She could not hate Ulrica for her mischief. It would be as foolish as hating insectoid for attacking you. Dragena warned her that the Ice Fang order despises the Wolf Tribe, but did Annie take her advice? Of course not, "I just take this minor delay as a punishment for forgetting the important lesson. Never trust anyone from the Ice Fang."

"Oh? And why should you not trust us?" Annie was silent and Ulrica looked her in the eyes, "You said A. Tell B as well. Why can’t you trust us?"

"Ice Fangs had abandoned us in the battle of Blood-Soaked Edifice and claimed all the credit for themselves." Annie calmly looked back into the eyes of Ulrica.

The battle of the Blood-Soaked Edifice was a thing of the past, back when the Wastes were not fully united under the Reclaimers. A cruel lord of the local land captured several people from a trade caravan that was heading to Iterna. Iterna sent their Problemsolvers to liberate the hostages. Problemsolvers were elite soldiers of the rival state, manmade new breeds, and their speed and power rivaled that of wolf hags and their power armor and weaponry allowed them to reign supreme on the battlefield. Their brains were changed, the law of not harming citizens of Iterna was burned into their minds as a price for the magnificent strength that these women and men received.

Upon arriving at the citadel of the lord, the Problemsolvers were stopped by the joined forces of sword saints Camelia Wintersong and First Sunblade, as well as warlords Dragena and Kalaisa. The local lord was left alone for a long time on the orders of the Reclaimers, while Scorpio worked on a plan to either persuade the lord to surrender or overthrow him from within without causing massive losses for everyone. This plan backfired, and the lord attacked the nearby settlement of the Reclaimers. The wolfkins were sent by Ivar Murzaliev to recover hostages from the state as well as liberate other prisoners. While deciding who would rescue people, two groups nearly came to blows, but finally Dragena made a deal with the Problemsolvers. One hour. If wolfkins could not rescue people in one hour, they would allow the Problemsolvers to take charge of the mission.

And one hour was more than enough for the wolfkins to take down the fort in front of them. The sword saints and warlords leapt at the wall, crossing twenty meters in a single jump. Forty guards were dead before the first body could even touch the floor. Wolfkins from both the Ice Fang and Wolf Tribes followed the leaders, climbing the walls and overcoming the meager resistance. Inside the fort, the group split, wolfkins of the Ice Fang order went to capture the lord, while wolfkins of the Wolf Tribe headed to the catacombs beneath the fort, where prisoners were held. The opponents of the wolfkins in this battle were mere normies, none of the enemy soldiers could as much as offer meaningful resistance to the black tide that swarmed them, heading for the prisoners' cells. Upon securing a safe route to the surface and rescuing the hostages, Dragena and Kalaisa learned that the owner of the citadel gave the order to launch the nuclear device beneath the catacombs, preferring to end himself along with the attackers in a single blast rather than give up his keep. The soldiers send prisoners to the safety of the surface, storming the depths themselves. They prevented the explosion and, upon returning to the surface, saw how the reporters of Iterna were busy all but singing praises to the forces of Ice Fang order for taking down the lord and saving the hostages. Dragena and Kalaisa gave orders for their troops to leave the area in silence.

A few days later, First Sunblade, the greatest of all sword saints, visited the lands of the Wolf Tribe, arrogantly demanding to meet with Kalaisa and Dragena. No doubt he wanted to mock the warlords, thus Kalaisa and Dragena ignored his demands, training their soldiers instead. The sword saint refused to even spare a glance to the guards who demanded he leave the village. Alpha herself arrived from a nearby military base and commanded First to leave the lands of the Wolf Tribe. Upon his arrogant silence, Alpha brutally attacked him. The First refused to protect himself and ended up in a coma due to blood loss, causing Wyrm Lord to scream at Ravager for being so insensitive to their allies. The blessed mother was forced to personally apologize to First Sunblade and pay the blood debt personally. The blessed mother skinned herself alive in front of the leadership of the Ice Fang order, causing several people to lose conscience at this sight. Ravager left her own hide to ice the boys. By refusing to defend himself, the clever sword saint found a way to humiliate the Wolf Tribe even more. He returned to the tribe's villages, this time acting a little humbler and asking to meet with Dragena and Kalaisa, claiming a need to clear up misunderstandings and make amends, but both wolfkins were aware of his vileness and ignored him. The blessed mother grew a new hide overnight and, according to rumors, the Ice Fang order tried to return Ravager's hide to the Wolf Tribe numerous times, but no one was foolish enough to accept it and ruin Ravager's apology.

"What?" Ulrica blinked in surprise, her ears twitched at this accusation. The woman collected herself and spoke passionately, "Sword saints tried to reach out to warlords for years after this fact! It was because your soldiers left the field of battle that Iterna’s reporters claimed that the Ice Fang knights were the ones who saved people. Camelia and First personally went to Iterna to fix this mistake and ensure that…"

"During the invasion of the Gilded Host, the blessed mother led her soldiers to help one of the forward bases of the Ice Fang order. While we fought, your people evacuated and left the blessed mother and my kinsmen all alone. Later, you laid the blame on us." With a stone expression on her muzzle, Annie continued, unwilling to listen to the lies of the Ice Fang member.

During the early days of the Gilded Host invasion, Wyrm Lord sent an urgent message to Ravager, informing the blessed mother that one of the Ice Fang order's front camps was in the path of a massive invasion force. At this point, Ravager genuinely tried to keep the Wolf Tribe's and Ice Fang's wolfkins apart from each other, annoyed at the constant clashes between youths of both sides. Ravager used Wyrm Lord to command the Ice Fang order, while she herself commanded the Wolf Tribe. In the initial invasion, many units of the Reclaimers fell into confusion when spies of the Gilded Host assassinated some officers of the state, while the bases of the Ice Fang served as safe havens for the wounded and weak. Seeing that her allies were under threat, Ravager took warlords Zero, Alpha, Janine, and Martyshkina with her, facing the advancing force of the Gilded Host head on, painting red the plains before the base of Ice Fang. And then, after the victory, Ravager went to the base only to find it empty, the Ice Fang order evacuated the place and placed mines across the facility. Oh, they turned the situation around, claiming that they had sent a message to the Ravager about this and that Ice Fang order's plan was to lure Gilded Host into the base and then wipe them out with artillery. But everyone in the Wolf Tribe knew that it was common knowledge that Ravager was losing her terminal all the time. After the end of the war with the Gilded Host, sword saints and sages tried to contact the Wolf Tribe afterwards, no doubt to mock fellow wolfkins, but this time warlords and shamans knew better and refused to even speak with them.

"You were never even supposed to be there! Because of Ravager’s charge, several brave souls of the Wolf Trine have died! We…" Ulrica desperately looked at Annie, who calmly went to the cashier.

"Warlord Kalaisa left to live with Ice Fang. All she wanted was to live in peace, raise her daughter and never fight to avoid the wicked fate that the Spirit of Rage prepared for her. Need I remind you what you did to one of our best?" Annie threw in a calm tone, paying tokens for her sweet food and trying not to look at the wolfkin.

The Ice Fang stopped and looked down. A shadow passed on her face as she licked her lips and hit her own temple with an elegant finger. She took a deep breath and spoke:

"This was undeniably the fault of the Ice Fang order, and we will beg forgiveness for as long as it takes," Annieignored Ulrica, thanked the cashier and walked toward the exit. The ears of the scout twitched in annoyance underneath her cap, when the stupid woman followed after her, speaking quickly, "I was a child back then! You can’t pin this on me! And besides, the sword saints have all come clean about the event! The Ice Fang order was punished. We are still trying to make up for this and trying to find Aranea!"

"Aranea is dead," Annie lied, remembering the words of the shamans. Never give up the fact that Kalaisa's daughter was alive, otherwise these wicked beings would no doubt try to harm her too. the scout was enraged and enraged that this irritated person followed her all the way outside, clearly trying to provoke her... Calm down, Annie. Remember the teaching of the Spirits. The wolfkin walked outside, taking a deep breath of the city air, allowing the mixture of cars, humans, and food smells to sink deeply inside her, calming her nerves. Forcing a fake smile back on her muzzle, Annie turned toward her fellow wolfkin, "You have no reason to beg forgiveness from me because I have no hatred or malice toward the Ice Fang Order," She almost choked on the next words, but forced herself to speak the truth, "I am afraid of you and your people. Look at this from my point of view, it just seems that each time anything bad happens, it is the Wolf Tribe's members who are on the receiving end of the deal. I wish you well, if war ever happens, then I will always try to help and protect you, even at the cost of my life, but I just don’t trust any of your people, so please leave me alone"

"You are looking at this wron…" Ulrica moved her right paw to her head to correct the hair on her shoulder, and Annie saw a bracelet on the wrist of the fellow wolfkin. Annie's paw shot forward like a bullet, wrapping around the surprised woman's wrist. With disbelief on her snout, the scout looked at the silvery bracelet. Each small figure on the bracelet had an inscription on them: Spirit of Loss, Spirit of Pride and…

"You… you believe in Spirits? But why? Don’t the Ice Fang order have their own gods?" asked Annie with genuine fear and horror in her voice, when she saw all the figures on the bracelet. No, no, no…

"We don’t. We have principles based upon which we are striving to live. My dad followed the creed of the Spirits, and I took after him," Ulrica smiled and turned her neck, looking at her own bracelet, "You like it? My friend, if you want to, I can buy you one as a gift."

"Are you an idiot?!" The scout shouted in the face of the surprised woman. With the trembling paw, Annie pointed at the demonic image of the Spirit of Rage, "You wear the image of this being! You have a death wish or something? Do you have any idea how horrible will your friends and family will feel if this being grants you its attention? It took Kalaisa, it took countless others, and you casually wear it around your wrist as if…"

Annie was at a loss for words. Seeing the confused look on the wolfkin’s face, she let go of her, afraid that she could have hurt her. Surely no one in the Core Lands would be as stupid as to worship the demon, the Taker of Kin. The wolfkin could feel veins pushing blood on her temples, and her fur felt as if she had been struck by lightning. Shamans gave full information about faith in the Spirits, no idiot, no one would be foolish enough to worship this monster. She licked her lips once more, trying to find the right words. Yes, it is true that there were never any rumors about skinwalkers from the non-members of the Wolf Tribe, but everything could happen the first time! True, the Ice Fang order were enemies, but surely Ulrica had her own family and friends who would miss her if the Spirit of Rage took her...

"No, mom, I won’t be home today. No, please don’t make the cakes! Listen mom, I’ve got to go…" Angoro’s voice cut through the awkward silence between the wolfkins. The agent put up his pocket terminal on the belt and smiled to Ulrica, "Sorry, lady, is everything fine? Does my friend here bother you?"

"Oh, it is nothing," The woman gently smiled, making an elegant bow to the man, "We just had a minor theological dispute, that is all."

"Well, sorry for bothering you anyway, my friend here is just seventeen years old. She is still a bit too rash…"

"Seventeen…" Ulrica's smile faded, and the wolfkin frowned in confusion, looking at Annie, as if for the first time noticing her scars and bruises. Nervously, Annie removed the wrapper from the ice cream, gulping down the entire chocolate cone. Once the sweet cold touched her tongue, she wanted to close her eyes from the pleasure that spread from her mouth down to her neck and stomach, a tingle of energy hit across her body when the advanced metabolism of her stomach began to absorb the sugar in the ice cream. The agent quickly took Annie by the left arm, leading her away from the wolfkin of the Ice Order. Woman gasped and pressed paw to her mouth, speaking with shock, "I heard rumors, but thought them as myths… You allow children to join the army?! Look at her, how could you allow someone so young to the front lines? She should be in college or university, not in…"

"I am not a cub." Annie replied stubbornly, allowing herself to be led away. Cub, as if! At least she knew better than to worship the freaking Spirit of Rage!

"It's okay, lady, the wolfkins of the Wolf Tribe grow at a much faster rate than other new breeds," Angoro quickly led Annie back to the car, "according to the laws of the Dynast, the Wolf Tribe members have the right to join the army earlier than most other people."

"Not all traditions are right. Did Miss Annie go to school at all? Is there even such a thing as a school in the Wolf Tri..." The agent closed the doors of the car, cutting off the rest of the angry words of the woman. Gesturing to the driver to move, the agent leaned back in his seat, checking news on the terminal.

For a while, they drove in silence, while Angoro was furiously texting messages to someone, before he finally put aside his pocket terminal:

"Sorry if this will sound assholish, but she is kind of right, don’t you think?" The agent raised his hands in a calming gesture at the iced look from Annie, "I admit, you saved my bacon recently. But look at you, so young and already so scarred. There are some programs for the poor… less well-off members of our society in order for them to get an education and stable jobs. Why spend all life fighting? At least spare a glance to the civilian jobs, I am sure we can find you something…"

"Appreciate your concern, truly," Annie smiled warmly, showing that she was not mad, "But I am who I am. This is the hand that fate dealt to me, and this is how I will live and die. One who is given more should give more back. But thank you for saving me from the situation with miss Ulrica. Although I am worried about her wellbeing, since she worships the Spirit of Rage. Could you perhaps talk with her…"

"Annie," The agent took his terminal in his hands, finding something and showing images of the sets of amulets to the scout. Among them were necklaces and bracelets with images of all Spirits, "Belief in the Spirits has settled in the Core Lands for a long time now. Yet not a single person from outside of the Wolf Tribe ever turned into a skinwalker."

What?! But… The scout was unsure what to say and fell silent, looking in the window. Surely there was some explanation to this… But what exactly?

The car passed by one of the public parks and by one of the subway stations, finally moving on to the road leading to the UNU, United National University, the very first university that was created in the lands of the Reclamation Army after the Extinction. The home of UNU was in the Stormfiend, UNU that was built in Houstad was but one of countless branches of the main university that was spread all across the country. Professors and lecturers from as far away as Iterna were lecturing at the UNU. countless faculties were hard at work preparing various specialists for the Reclaimers. Economists, IT specialists, medics, lawyers, even military faculties for officers and pilot training were available at this prestigious university. Spanning across the large swath of land to the north of the Houstad, UNU had its own private buses to pick up financially struggling students from the suburbs; several dormitories for students built to the latest standards; two observatories; a large cinema; a fully established medical clinic for studying and teaching purposes; several chemical laboratories; and even an assembly factory capable of producing civilian walkers and even plane parts.

Massive white walls surrounded the campus, iron gates fashioned after the image of the garden were flung wide open, few guards were lazily checking the arriving people. Today was the third day in a week of open doors in all universities of the Reclaimers, and countless adolescents, some with their parents, were flocking to the university for the free lectures and to get the general idea if they could "tough up" student life. Normally, Annie would need a permit to enter university grounds if she wasn't a member of the staff or a student, but today the agent's car simply drove through one of the main entrances, while heavy augmented orais looked at them through blue lenses that replaced his eyes.

UNU was a pet project of the Outsider and the Ravager. The blessed mother once discovered a video tape containing an advertisement for one of the Old World's universities. Confused and curious, she asked Outsider if it was possible to create a similar place in the lands of the Reclaimers and Outsider became interested in this idea. If Reclaimers could impress small tribes and societies all around the globe with a high standard of living, high-tech industries, and high-quality medicine, then people would flock to the Reclamation Army. But for these three things to exist, the Reclaimers needed people who could have made such things into reality. Outsider thanked Ravager for the idea and pulled off an immense feat of finding funds and materials to build the very first UNU in the depths of Stormfiend. Ravager provided working hands, while Outsider was busy finding people who were capable of teaching others in the now destroyed world. Ironically, UNU was born as a hobby project of two commanders working together. With the blessed mother gone, it was the commander of the First Army who, despite no longer being the main sponsor of the UNU, still provided security for each and every UNU across the country. The guards here had their arms and legs removed and replaced with augmetics limbs of steel and wires, special drugs circulated in the blood of the guards supported an upgraded nervous system and allowed even normies to perform feats of strength similar to those of new breeds. Meanwhile the orais were capable of excelling even further. Only the most calm and socially adjusted orais were allowed to pass through the augmentation procedure needed to serve as guards for the countless students here. The lenses of each guard here were capable of seeing through dust or the darkness of the night, were resistant to EMP impulses, and even allowed them to see through optical camouflage and scan vehicles. Each guard in the UNU had the very best augmetics available, straight from the stocks of the First Army and far surpassing those of the Third Army.

Nowadays, according to information that Annie gathered over the Net, UNU was being founded only partially by the state, the majority of the funding was going straight from the coffins of various corporations, who greedily wanted to hoard the best students possible for themselves. Even though Iterna was partially funding UNU, people from the universities of Iterna were involved in joint projects and studies.

"Look over there," Angoro said, pointing to a large square ahead, where students who were training to become future officers stood in front of a large podium. A short, bald, slightly overweight man was giving a passionate speech to the future students, behind him stood an incredibly beautiful bald woman. She used a walking stick to help herself stand, despite her nearly ideal features, the corner of her mouth twitched on her left side and the skin near her shining green eye showed signs of a tick. The man gave word to his partner, and the woman spoke in a rasping voice, sounding so unnatural for someone of her build. The man was dressed in a casual civilian suit, long iron chains were wrapped around his wrists, sharp hooks were leady to slide into his hands at a simple gesture. The woman, meanwhile, was dressed in strict military uniform, her green coat had several golden medals for bravery, "Torturer and Banshee, two of Outsider’s dreaded palm."

"Is this Banshee?" Annie looked at a woman who sounded nothing like a person capable of turning the walls of a fortress to dust with a scream and shattering the bones of her foes with but a whisper, "But she looks so… so frail! I read that she once went against a wolf hag in a melee and held her own magnificently. The wolf Tribe even added this draw to our records! Why does she look so ill now? Scratch that, if she looks so bad, she should be resting in bed!"

When the woman turned to face Annie, Angoro turned pale. The windows were closed, the humming engine should have drowned out any noises from inside, and there were still a few dozens of meters before the square itself. People were walking all around on the sideways, gesturing, speaking with students, sharing gossip, and so on. And yet Banshee heard Annie’s words. Annie saw calm green eyes looking at the dark window of the car and had not a single doubt in her mind that Banshee was looking directly into her own eyes. The scout felt a tingle of fear at the sight of the serene features of Banshee. The eyes of the officer of Outsider looked like two pieces of green ice. The woman smiled, the warmth melted the ice in her eyes, giving the woman a mischievous facial expression. The pale lips of the woman moved and yet not a single person before her heard any sound coming from her lips, Annie saw how several students even glanced at each other in confusion. But someone else heard her voice:

"I ended up being speared through the chest by one of the Chosen Prince minions and endured clinical death for as long as three minutes. What you see before you right now are unfortunately side effects of this morbid event and a temporary lack of a lung," The female whisper came inside the car, sounding more like someone mixed a cat’s purring with the coughing of an elderly person, one word sounded perfectly fine, resembling a gentle autumn wind, while another word sounded barely audible because of distortion from coughing, "And I would rather die for good than spend another day in the hospital bed. Tell Siri that I said hello if you meet her, little one, and tell her that she still owes me that one tooth and I will never let it go. One day, if Legend’s willing, she and I will have another fist-to-the-face talk heart to heart. Now please enjoy your vacation."

The woman turned toward the students and flashed a gentle smile, before continuing her encouraging speech. The agent let out a sigh of relief, pressing a finger to his lips and gesturing for the driver to move forward. Annie looked at the talking woman some more, before turning to Angoro.

"Why was someone like Banshee in the lands of the Oathtakers? Was she there for negotiations or…." Seeing the desperate pleading gestures of the agent to be silent, Annie dropped the subject.

The car moved to the three main buildings of the campus. All three buildings were built to face the statues of the four commanders in the square before them, with an armored form of the Dynast hidden behind the backs of the commanders. Several fountains were placed across the square, roads made of stone ran across the beautiful gardens made of green grass and various flowers. Two gigantic, century-old oaks were placed before the main building, despite countless signs telling people not to write on the trees, tree trunks were covered by the markings of some lovebirds. The car stopped at the parking lot of the administrative building, and Annie reached for a terminal with a suddenly trembling paw. She looked at the buttons of her pocket terminal, which looked so alien now.

What… what if she doesn’t remember me? What if I say something and then... Spirits, what can I say to her, how can I even begin to beg forgiveness for having lost her for so long?! Wolfkin felt sudden cold spreading underneath her fur, cold mixed with a strange sensation of a hard grip around her heart, as if some unseen hand was squeezing the flesh inside her chest, making her unable to move. What will I say about our dad? Or about mom? I was given a task to safeguard her and… I never was around, I… all the nights that she spent all alone without her kin, without me around to protect her, all the birthdays, all the losses, all the pain… Not once was I there to support her. How can I even begin to make up for any of that?!

"No, mom, I don’t need the damn cakes!" Someone roared next to Annie, making the scout jump in place. Angoro was speaking with his family over his terminal, his face red from anger, "No, don’t send me money, I am a grown up man, who… Abyss, what in the world is…." The agent scratched the bridge of the nose, "Listen, give the terminal to Pietro. No, I promise not to scream at him, but the boy needs to learn some discipline, before… I am not going to be violent, mom! I just worry that he might end up like me!"

Seeing the red-faced agent furiously berating someone on the terminal over the broken window, Annie smiled and pressed the call button on her terminal, sending notification to her sister. It’s done. Sprits, please if possible…. Annie shook her head, leaving her backpack, wallet, and terminal back in the car. She came out, breathing in the gentle breeze of the day and allowing her chest to fill in with the air of the Core Lands. Her first steps were unsteady, but scout soon pushed fear back, while she walked to a wooden bench near the running water that ran along one of the sidewalks. Annie felt strange, almost as if she wanted that this moment stretched itself into infinity, so the dreaded and desired meeting with her sister never came to be. Serenity was gone from her face when the scout looked into the water and saw fear in her eyes. She rocked her shoulders, hearing sweet wet pops in her body, closed her eyes for a moment, and sat on the bench, oblivious to the people moving around her. The fingers of her paws became pressed against each other, forming a tringle shape before the belly of the scout, while Annie allowed herself to slip into meditation. There was no one here, aside from her. There were no worries in her soul, for she had done all she possibly could. Her scars were the marks of her valor, itching of her healed wounds was a reminder of her imperfection. Through accepting herself, she will achieve calmness. Through calmness, she will find a way to understand, and through understanding she will…

"An? Is that really you?"

Half-closed eyes flashed wide at the sound of the voice. The voice that she never even dared to hope to hear again. This voice was so familiar, so desperately desired, and yet it was slightly different. The scout jumped on her feet, turning toward the owner of the voice, instinctively sniffing the air. She didn't care how stupid she appeared, she had to know for sure. Air moved through her damaged nostrils, bringing in the smell, the smell that burned itself into Annie’s memory, one of the few smells that she forced herself to remember of all time. She could forget the smells of Kayleen, the smells of the warlord Zero, or even the smell of Dragena. But the scent of her family, one who shared the womb with her, one who survived alongside with her… No, she would never forget that smell. Even through the mixed smells of perfume, shampoo, leather from her clothes and dye in her hair, Annie managed to discern a singular smell, the most important of all to the scout.

She was dressed in the stylish looking green and white jacket of the UNU colors, with a single purple trimming line running down her shoulders and all the way across her sleeves. The long black skirt reached her knees, the cloth of her shirt almost touched the leather of the gleaming high boots. A silver chain was visible on the black cloth of the blouse, visible through the slit of the jacket around the neck. Not a single scar was visible on her skin. Her spotted fur was stunning, pitch black with grey highlights, and her long hair reached all the way to the back. The inner side of her black hair was dyed with crimson, creating a flaming image behind her head.

Her body looked thin, despite towering over the most regular sized normies, she was shorter than even the Branded in Annie’s pack, her arms and legs looked sleek, every movement of her body reeked of elegance, instead of raw dangerous power. Amber eyes were dim, barely a flash of energy was hidden in them, much less any hint or desire to get stronger.

She is not a mirage. She is real. Real! Scout crossed the distance of the ten steps separating two wolfkins with a single bound, stopping herself just before crashing into her. Annie wrapped her paws around the thin waist of the surprised Svetlana, putting her head on the shoulder of her sister:

"I am sorry! I am so sorry for letting you fall. Svet, you are alive! It’s really you!" The word salat was spit out of the mouth of Annie, unfocused and messy, while Annie felt how her vision becoming blurry and murky because of tears.

"An, it is you!" Svetlana screamed happily, wrapping her own paws around the huge waist of Annie and pressing her head against the chest of her sister. Heart, Annie could feel the heart of her sister beating faster despite the clothes. "There is nothing to forgive, sis. Now, now, stop crying, or people might think us weird." Annie felt something wet in her own chest where the head of Sveta touched her.

"I don’t care. Let everyone laugh at me all they want. My sister is alive," Annie whispered, feeling a surge of something long forgotten in her chest. The sky suddenly looked more blue, and the cold of the local lands stepped back when sudden warmth flowed from her chest into every single limb of the scout. Her heart started beating faster than ever, threatening to jump out of Annie’s chest. She didn't care, all she cared about was the living being in her arms, a miracle sent to her by the Spirit, one of the most important parts of her life that the world deemed fit to return. Uncaring how she might look to others, the scout followed a sudden impulse and shouted at the skies, "My sister is alive!"

Several people looked at them, surprised at the sudden scream amidst such a calm day. Svetlana took one step away from Annie, smiling and wiping off something from the corners of her eyes. Finally, the student laughed out loud, grabbing her sister by the paws and spinning them both around.

****

"Don't tell me you're going to eat all of that," Svetlana said, raising her brow at the full roasted lamb that kitchen staff had placed in front of Annie. Along with the six-legged lamb, Annie also bought three tall glasses filled with orange juice, two loafs of bread, and six liver patties. Sveta only ordered a small apple pie and tea for herself, "Cause, to be honest with you, sis, I'm on a diet. Have to look good before games begin."

"Less talking, more eating," Annie said, ignoring the knife and fork in front of her, slicing one of the lamb's legs and gulping it mid-flight, crushing bones with a loud sound and swallowing the leg whole. One of the patties followed the fate of the leg, thrown up with a careless move of the claw. Sveta giggled and used her fork to eat a small part of the pie before herself, "Svet, are you sure that you are feeling ok?" worriedly asked Annie, crushing ribs and one more lamb’s leg in between the jaws, enjoying the sweet taste of sauce on her tongue. The scout dared not close her eyes, not even for pleasure, childishly afraid of losing her sister again, "You look… Sorry, but you look weird! Where are your muscles!? You look like someone starved you and… I don’t know what else. Are you sure you are healthy? If you need some medical health, I can…" The scout stopped once Sveta leaned back on her chair, wrapping her paws around her waist, and laughed with a ringing and gentle sound.

Two were in the student café of the UNU, one of many such cafes spread around the territory of the educational establishment. Windows replaced walls, allowing everyone to see the bright day outside, a podium with music instruments on it was currently empty of staff. The white tables were placed close to massive windows, allowing students to feast their eyes on the lush garden filled with countless exotic flowers just outside the dinner area. Several white birds were nestling in the trees in the garden, filling the area outside with melodic singing.

Annie was concerned that her eating habits would make her appear strange or out of place, but after seeing the couple a few tables ahead, she realized that her concerns were unfounded. The orais couple in the clothes of the students were busy finishing the second full-grown cusack and looking hungrily at the kitchen area in anticipation of the third. From gossip that Annie overheard, this rich lunch was a reward for them by the professor for scoring the best among their group. Their loud chomping could be heard all around the café, but even aside from them, there were several new breeds, busying themselves with eating lamb meat and fried potatoes. Despite her concerns, Annie realized that she felt perfectly fine here, even in such a civilized place as the Core Lands, after all, people were not that different from those of the Wastes.

While the sisters were waiting for the food, Svetlana told Annie how exactly she ended up living in the Core Lands. She woke up under the rubble, weakly calling for someone for help. After spending what looked like hours, she was saved by a passing trader, who managed to sneak her out safely from the ravaging monsters back in the village. The trader took the bleeding and scared cub with him, dropping Svetlana off at one of the orphanages in the Core Lands. After medics cleaned her wounds and found her a place to sleep, the psychologist asked the young girl about events that happened before. Upon hearing about the attack and reading about life in the Wolf Tribe, doctors in the orphanage committed a crime. Instead of contacting the Wolf Tribe, they added wolfkin to the list of orphans of the war. Nowadays, after finding Svetlana, it has caused quite an uproar in the legal system. This crime has well passed the limits of the statute of limitations, technically meaning that doctors involved in this will get out of this situation without a prison sentence and would probably even keep their medical licenses unless either Wolf Tribe, Annie, or Svetlana press charges. Captain Ivar had already contacted Svetlana, trying to convince her to press the charges. With a guilty expression, Svetlana explained to Annie that she had refused this idea and will not press the charges. The Wolf Tribe as a whole will most likely ignore this situation, and after listening to the plea of her sister, Annie agreed to let bygones be bygones as well. Although this situation stings something deeply in her heart. She knew this orphanage. Dad nearly reached it once, only turning back because of the sandstorm. Spirits denied the reunification of the two sisters. Hiding pain behind a fake smile, Annie forced herself to admit that it was for the better. Sveta did not deserve to see the kind of man that their father ended up being.

After spending a whole month in the orphanage, scared and confused Svetlana was picked by a pair of people from the Core Lands, who were looking for a child to call their own. Svetlana herself was unsure why she was chosen out of all the other cubs in the orphanage, but she ended up as their daughter. Some confusion did happen, as Svetlana was growing up far faster than other cubs, but her new family helped the wolfkin with getting into school early and adapting to the strange new environment. Svetlana finished school five years ahead of the regular age, and no university was willing to accept such a young student, wolfkin or not. In the past, some parents pushed their genius cubs to excel, forcing them into universities at a very young age. Many such people ended up suffering mental scars from the stress, and the government banned admission of anyone younger than sixteen to the university. Svetlana ended up helping her parents around the farm, travelling across the Core Lands and having enough time to choose her future profession. After some consideration, the young wolfkin decided to follow in the footsteps of one of her parents and become an architect.

"Now you sound just like dads, Annie! They always read one too many books about the Wolf Tribe and try to fatten me up, worrying that I may be starving in secret. Trust me, I am not, I quite like my current self, although it took me a couple of years to get used to the local climate," Svetlana elegantly pointed at her whole body with one paw, before reaching for Annie’s wrist and gripping it gently, "I am sorry."

"For what?" Annie blinked in surprise, nearly choking on the lamb’s head.

"I… was afraid." Svetlana admitted, looking at Annie’s arm, "I should have filed a search warrant to locate you with the police earlier, I should have searched for you myself… But I was so afraid of what I could have found. I was afraid that you…" The wolfkin stopped, biting her lips and unsure how to continue..

"I know," Annie softly responded, grinning like a madman. She found me on her first try, huh? Svet, you are awesome! "There is nothing to forgive. All that matters to me right now is that you are alive and part of me is alive again."

The scout meant exactly what she said. She had no idea why, but for the longest time in her life she was unbothered by looking stupid, unbothered about saying the wrong word. Even admitting something as selfish about feeling herself alive was just fine for Annie, looking at Svetlana before herself the scout no longer cared if anyone overheard her weakness or if her sister will judge her. Annie half expected Svetlana and her to be stuck in awkward silence, unsure what to say to one another. They were cubs from different worlds, after all. To her surprise, the Core Lands were not that different; sure, they had more of those stupid laws, and their people appeared fatter and... frail. But at the same time, the Core Lands produced countless important things for the Wastes, while people in regions like the Wastes, Ravaged Lands, and so on were responsible for the protection of the Core Lands. However, the two regions were not exactly completing each other, because the Core Lands were roughly made up of more than two hundred regions the size of the Wastes, and the Core Lands' contribution dwarfed everything the Wastes could ever hope to add. And yet no animosity could be seen between the two sides, for two will eventually become one. Wastes will also have proper cities, proper safety, and "weak" people on the streets one day. Annie found that to be good. She and her sister were two sides of the same token, Svetlana was the symbol of the future, while Annie was the relic of the past. That too felt fine, for one can’t exist without the other, and therefore they now spoke with each other so easily. That and of course, blood ties.

A shadow ran across the face of the student, and she looked in the eyes of her sister, "I can feel them even through the clothes. I read about pits and… Other things. Just how many scars do you have, An? Did… people hit you?"

"Eh, lost count after the first dozen," Annie said, slamming the lamb's spine between her fangs and squeezing bone marrow out into the open. "As for beatings, nah, it's not that bad. In the first week, my wolf hag cracked my ribs, cracked my head, and gave me nose bleeding, but I got better and can even punch back now. My ears are still right here, bones regrown, still here in short."

"Scars… Beatings… It was all true then," Svetlana reached out with her paw and ran her fingers around the scars on Annie’s face, looking sad and worried. Finally, all worries were gone from Svetlana’s face, giving place to determination, "Annie, if you only agree, we can find a way to get you ou…"

"Here you are!" Svetlana turned around, hearing a loud voice coming from the doors.

Annie looked suspiciously at the two newcomers, quickly gulping down the remains of her food. These two were normie students, with worried looks on their faces. Scout could sense no threat or danger from them and relaxed her strained muscles. Humorous thoughts ran in the head of Annie, she understood that she was about to leap in front of Sveta, ready to protect her.

Now this would be an incredibly embarrassing event for everyone involved. Annie smirked to herself, drinking her first glass of juice.

"Your mom?" One of the students nodded at the scout and Annie laughed, ignoring the fiery gaze of her sister. The scout only now fully comprehended the sheer difference in size between her and Sveta, no wonder that these boys got it wrong.

Still, I am not that old. Asshole. Annie started giggling against her will, the implication was inane beyond all reason. At least they see kinship. That's something, I guess.

"No, she is my sister. What happened?" Svetlana demanded to know, lightly hitting Annie under the ribs with her elbow. The scout barely felt the touch of the hit, but pretended that it affected her, turning her laughter into coughing and greedily reaching for the remains of the lamp.

"You promised to help with unloading stuff for professor Ingo! We waited for you to show up…" Quickly said the first youth.

"We tried to find you," Corrected the second youth, "And now we are late for our own studies and that box is still in the same place."

"Shit, I completely forgot!" Svetlana slapped herself across the muzzle in annoyance, checking the watch on her wrist and panicking even more, "Training sessions is about to start! Damn it, damn it, damn it… Boys, could you please find Zeke? He still owes me…"

"Not a chance. Zeke is already in the sport hall. He ain’t leaving." The first teen shook his head negatively.

With the corner of her eye, Annie looked at the increasingly concerned Svetlana. She wondered what the problem was. Surely even UNU had staff and workers, why should the students, of all people, work? Then she remembered the board in her own base, where you earned tokens for doing some tasks around the base. Warlords ignored such things, as soldiers were free to use their free time as they saw fit. Could it be the same here?

"I can help." Annie quickly offered, finishing her drinks and food. She started to lick the fat and sauce from her paws, but upon seeing the strict look of her sister, used a napkin instead of her tongue. Sveta’s den, her rules.

Is it true that I look so much older than Sveta? Annie wondered, surprised and amused by the fact that the words of the youths about her possible age annoyed her.

"Annie, this thing weighs nearly one hundred and fifty kilos."

"Baby numbers. Leave it to me." The scout looked for her wallet to pay for the lunch, but her sister had already moved to the cashier.

"I am paying, An."

"But this food was quite costly. That’s a lot of money, and you don’t even have a job. You are a student." Annie tried to argue.

"That’s where you are wrong, sis," Sveta flashed a white grin, showing a perfect set of chompers, "I do work from time to time to earn my keep. But this time, dads are paying for us. Wait for me in this café once you're done, you can’t get into the sports hall without a proper ID and it will take hours to get one." Svetlana finished paying for her food and turned to her sister, frowning and worried, "You... you won't just vanish on me, right?"

"Never," Annie swore and jokingly placed one paw on her chest, "We haven’t even got to the part where you scream at me! I am going to annoy you for a while longer, sis."

****

It seems like the right door. Annie decided, looking at the brown door with the markings C-9N on it. This room is located on a wide balcony, positioned right before a square of empty space within the building. Glass windows from above allowed light to shine on the small garden on the first floor, guard rails protected students from falling.

The scout carried a human-sized rectangular wooden box on her back, holding it carefully with both paws. Students showed her where to pick this up and explained to her where exactly to put it on the third floor. Despite their protests, Annie commanded them to leave for their studies, the stupid normies were worried that she might throw out her back. That was bullshit, of course, Annie regularly lifted far more during her training and, in fact, carrying the box along with two other people was a drag, because she had to adjust to their limits. The moment the students left, Annie picked up the box and used the stairs to walk on the third floor, instead of using the elevator. Several people looked at her in surprise, one, someone who introduced himself as a Rector, whatever this title meant, even offered to help Annie, but she just smiled to them, thanking them for their offers to help and easily carrying things onward by herself. Really, the people of the Core Lands had a nasty habit of worrying over nothing. Locals should have known how strong the new breeds were by now, as some ice boys studied at UNU and orais were clearly present.

Furtively looking around to ensure that no one was present in the corridor, the scout opened the door before herself with her left leg, using her nimble foot to press the door handle and open the door itself. Even in the Wastes, some people freaked out when wolfkins walked on all fours, thus it was better not to create any confusion here or someone would probably call a police officer.

The room inside was a spacious studio, filled with various mechanical devices. There was a huge harness keeping the half-assembled droid upright, the upper part of the machine was already assembled, only the legs were missing. Chairs were almost absent from the room, only tables with assembly lines were present inside. Glass cases across the wall contained several mechanical devices, spacious windows allowed the bright light of the day to come inside. At the center of the room was stood a civilian walker, its engine was taken out and disassembled underneath the great machine. Standing upright, this vehicle would no doubt break through the ceiling of the room, try as she might, Annie had no idea how this machine appeared here. Two giant metal doors were at the north end of the room, a cluster of mechanical appendages and arms hung from the ceiling, capable of moving around the room via a network of iron rails that ran across the top of the room.

At the south end of the room was a podium with a wooden table on it. Behind the table sat an elderly-looking man on a single chair, resting his head and arms on a table. On a desk behind him were written countless short instructions about safety and several numbers indicating the percentage of achieving goals in the current semester. According to what Annie could understand, students had to learn how to maintain, repair, assemble, and control civilian droids and walkers within the current semester.

Ultis would probably feel herself at home here. Annie thought and coughed once to attract the attention of the man. She had to step aside to dodge the bottle of cough medicine that the elderly man threw in her direction almost automatically. The teacher kept his head pressed against the desk, even when the bottle connected with the wall behind Annie, "Sir? Are you fine, or should I call for medical help?"

"I am merely experiencing a hangover," The man raised his head, looking at Annie through a pair of green lenses that served as his eyes. His forehead was scarred, some machinery glowed visibly underneath his surprisingly healthy-looking skin on his forehead. The entire right arm of the man was replaced with skillfully crafted silver augmetics, looking so elegant that it could easily pass for a natural arm from afar. The eyelids of the man were removed, wrinkles covered his elderly skin. He was dressed in a simple brown jumpsuit of an engineer. He reached for a metal flask at the edge of his table and took a sip from it, "Put the duplicator by the table to your right."

“Duplicator?” Annie asked in surprise, putting box where man said her. She knew something about these devices. Extremely expensive, they could recreate an exact copy of the object, biological or otherwise, if correct materials are provided. However duplicator could not create a proper copy of a living being, even if provided with enough energy and materials, clone will expire in a few moments after creation at best, at worst it would forever be a brain dead creature, “Is it for studies here?”

The arm of the man shot forward like a whip, extending like a rope. Gleaming silver reached toward the upper end of the box, five fingers spread wide, shredding wooden parts away from the box, tearing out the safety wrapper around the metal structure inside. The elderly man rose to his feet, his silver arm extended itself nearly three times at his side, the elongated metal fingers nimbly connecting the device to the energy source with the cables. Countless buttons and screens on the device came to life, once energy flowed into the device, a square-shaped opening appeared on the right side of the device. The man walked toward the machine, his arm flowed back to normal size. With a careless gesture, he threw a silver flask into the opening and closed it, pressing a couple of buttons with quick precision. The opening closed itself, machine made a sound similar to that which the stomach of the scout once gave in when she tried to digest the rotten meat of the insectoid, before spitting out a few identical silver flasks from the new opening in the bottom. The man picked up one flask, opened it and drank the liquor inside.

"I am allowed to bring just one flask of alcohol per day with me. Technically, I only had one upon arriving," The man hiccupped, spreading the drunken smell from his mouth and pointing at the several flasks in the machine. Finally, he touched his forehead with his silver arm and all signs of pain disappeared from his face, when he spoke again, not even a trace of alcohol was in his breath, his words were clear as day, "Apologies for childlike behavior. Just tested if it works. My name is Till Ingo, or teacher if you refuse to use my name. I suppose you are a new student here. It's good to see that more and more of the Wolf Tribe come to learn. Come, I’ll show you around. Don’t worry if you break something, happens to everyone during the first few days. First thing first, you need to change your clothes for the working uniform and learn safety instru…"

"No, no!" Annie put her paws forward in panic, "Sir, my name is Annie, I am simply a scout of the Wolf Tribe. Not a student, I am too dumb to ever hope to enlist here."

Till Ingo, now that was a living legend. Annie saw several times how Ultis eagerly read journals and biographies about the man. The silent scout was not the one to share information or have small talk with others, but out of boredom, Annie too read a little about this man from the journals left behind by Ultis. Originally born into a poor family some two hundred years ago, Till joined the First Army as a researcher and unearthed many wonders of the Old World, inventing quite a number of new ones himself. Seeker class walkers, for example, were made by him. The weaponized hand of the warlord Janine was also his doing, although ever since then he deemed this weapon crude and ineffectual, sending countless requests to the warlord, begging her to allow him to change it. Janine has refused all requests so far. According to journals, this man left military development at least a year ago and now works for UNU. This man was also partially responsible for including augmentation in the free medical healthcare provided by the Reclamation Army. By finding a way to produce stable, easy-to-maintain, and cheap mechanical limbs and organs, he kick-started a new era in the production of artificial limbs.

"What is your basis for this claim?" Till demanded to know, "We have another wolfkin of the Wolf Tribe here, she is not half bad as a student. Given enough time, you too…"

"I know her! She is my sister! Sir, listen, I never even went to school. Trust me, university is way beyond my abilities." Annie tried to back up to the door, when the silver arm of the man moved past her, shutting it tightly. The man slid across the floor like a snake, hovering just an inch above the ground. The quicksilver-looking limb produced no sound upon extending itself, making the whole situation look unnerving to Annie’s eyes.

"Svetlana is currently still busy with her training," The forehead of the man shone even brighter, while his green lenses nearly became dark, as if all energy had been sucked out of them somewhere. Slowly, light returned to his lenses, while the glow on his forehead returned to normal, "According to the schedule of classes, she will be there for another forty minutes. We have plenty of time to talk," Annie looked at him with wary eyes while the man searched for something in the pocket of his jumpsuit, before finally giving a metal card to Annie, a card with several numbers on it, "If you ever feel brave enough to try and get into university, call me anytime. I’ll help you through online school and, if you are good enough, eventually a place in UNU. If not, don’t worry, there are tons of colleges and other universities around the country, we will find something for you. This proposition is free of charge, of course."

"But… Why would you do it for a stranger?" Annie asked in surprise, putting the card in her pocket.

"Because I can and because I can put two and two together. According to information on her file, Svetlana became an orphan at a very young age. I suppose this is what explains her forgetfu… Nevermind. I can figure out the rest easily enough. That and I am a bit tired of crafting tools for war." The man shrugged his shoulders, sizing up Annie from head to shoulders, "I also have another proposition for you, one that ironically enough partially involves war. Do you want power? True power, enough to beat down anyone and to… Dominate anyone." The man’s face frowned in disgust as he said the last words.

"Who doesn’t?!" Annie laughed at his proposition, "Having enough power to protect everyone is the best!" The man's face softened slightly as he heard her words. The scout raised her paws, opening and closing them, looking at her palms, "Alas, I am not strong enough. If not for others, enemies would have killed me with ease by now."

"And that might be true for the entire rest of your life," The man nodded, pointing at the limbs of the scout. To the surprise of Annie, mister Till was the only one in the Core Lands so far who wasn’t shocked by her admission that she was in actual combat, "Biological bodies have their limits. In their pursuit of power, countless members of the Wolf Tribe suffer injuries and often suffer loss of limbs in battle. Members of the Wolf Tribe are known to refuse gifts of modern-day technology, each year dozens of your kind end up dying or end up as cripples simply out of fear of metal. I am a person who has dedicated my skills to the development of affordable and suitable mechanical parts for people, my work as a teacher and as a researcher for the First Army is just a minor hobby of mine in comparison to my greater duty. People around the entire Reclamation Army no longer view people like me as freaks and are no longer afraid of augmentation on a whole. People who lack funds to buy vat-grown limbs or organs can survive through augmentation. But can you imagine…" The calm features of the man broke, his lips showed yellowed teeth, his hands closed into fists, veins of anger appeared on his lean neck, "Can you even begin to imagine my humiliation, my annoyance, when we have a whole group of people who refuse to accept artificial organs, even if it means saving their blasted lives! Kidneys, lungs, hearts, or even simple arms and legs, all paid for by the state, all for free, and these stubborn bastards refuse because of the fea…" The build-up of his scream stopped as suddenly as it had began, the features of the man becoming calm once more, "Apologies for my behavior, this is a heated topic for me. Yet some of you, warlord Janine, for example, or the shaman known as Scarred One, accepted artificial body parts as replacements for the lost parts of their own bodies. But such minor wins are not enough to persuade others, for both of them were already strong to begin with," Till rubbed his hands together and smiled to Annie, "How about it. If you agree to give up a significant part of your body, I promise to make you the strongest warlord in the entire Wolf Tribe."

"No." Annie answered in shock, backing down from him.

"Please, don’t be afraid and think about it. Imagine the benefits, if you, a simple scout, will jump in the ranks to become a warlord and still be fine, still be yourself, a fear before technology will disappear in your tribe," Till raised one finger, "Imagine the number of lives this fact alone will save. Next, imagine how many people you will save with your newfound might." He started to raise another finger.

"I already said no." All that Annie could see was his unnatural eyes, his silver arm… Just imagining losing the warmth of her body to the cold prison of steel was enough to make her start to suffocate. Bodies were sacred to the Wolf Tribe. It was, and will always be, insane to sacrifice them for the sake of machinery! Some might agree to it out of despair or need, but is losing part of yourself voluntary? To sever one's connection with the Spirits willingly?

"If you say so," Till turned around, walking toward the duplicator and putting something inside and tinkering with the device, "Although, if you know someone from the Wolf Tribe who might be interested in this…" He noticed the horrifying expression in Annie’s eyes and sighed, "No means no then. Here, catch this."

Annie caught a metal card in front of her nose. She realized it was an ID card after closer inspection, the only things missing were the owner's inscription and a photo of the card's owner.

"This gives you the same access around the facility as it gives to me, but it works only for today. Go on, training halls are on the first floor in the left wing. Cheerleaders are training in the hall next to the swimming pool" He waved his hand teacher before raising a single metal finger. "I know that I might have seen something strange to you, and that is only fair. Keep something in mind, though, miss Annie. Training halls were closed from the public eye at large during the days of the "open doors", because some of our guests "stumbled accidentally", so to say, into dress rooms meant for the students…"

"I got the general idea," Annie said, playing with a card in her paw and calming down a little. "Trust me, sir, I have no desire or thirst for any males so far," she added. She saw how the man raised his brow and sighed, "And for females as well, sir. I will never break into any private places."

"Fine, let me show you how to get on the first floor faster, then…" Started to say Till, walking toward the door. He opened it and stopped in surprise when Annie leaped out of the room and jumped over the safety rails, making a somersault in the air to arrest her fall and gracefully landing on the stone of the first floor, "Well, there are some merits to your claims, then…" grumbled the old man from the third floor, while Annie smirked at the surprised looks of the people on the first floor.

"Sorry for the scare, first day in civilized society." The scout scratched the back of her head, walking past the people and pulling on the hood of her jacket.

Surely, Sveta won’t be angry… Annie followed the directions on the map in the central hall of the UNU, coming before the metal doors leading to the training halls. UNU boasted a huge number of teams that were involved in national games and scored not an insignificant number of victories in both professional and teen sports. Baseball, football, martial arts, swimming, basketball, chess, singing, painting, even cooking, any important sport or hobby that was spread around the state was also officially present in this university, students were encouraged to join sports sections. All students were provided with uniforms and training for free, costs of the training programs was covered either by the government or by the sponsors of the UNU.

I mean, what’s the worst that can happen? I was in the barracks of the Alpha pack, and everything ended up being fine. Annie nodded to herself before pressing her card against the slide near the doors and entering the training halls. She ended up in the narrow corridor that was split into several directions. Annie checked the map on the wall, finding the shortest way to the swimming pool. As mister Till said, this place was connected to another two massive halls, one for martial arts training and another that led to the training area for the basketball team.

That’s where Sveta ought to be. Annie walked through a wooden door into the swimming hall. This place was massive, center of the room was taken by a pool, filled with crystal clear water. The nose of Annie caught the thinly veiled smell of some chemicals in the water. A group of students, dressed in strict swimsuits and protective goggles, were busy racing each other in one part of an enormous swimming pool, under the supervision of the trainer. In the other part of the pool, the orais trainer was busy showing young athletes how to jump from great heights, making numerous critical comments about the students' form during their jump and occasionally giving dry praise. Annie walked alongside the pool, heading to the doors on the other side of the hall. Mercifully, barely any of the students spared even a glance at her, all were too busy training or chatting with each other. When Annie passed by the doors leading to the hall of martial arts, splashes of water nearly fell on her when one of the orais students leaped into water. Out of curiosity, Annie looked at the sheer size of the rising tide that followed this jump, to her it looked like someone exploded a bomb underwater and now torrents and splashes of water were covering even the people who stood behind the safety rails. Catching one drop of water on her finger, the scout discovered with surprise that the water was actually warm. She half expected it to be bitterly cold or of a similar temperature. The boomed-echoed sound of the young orais's jump was gradually dying out, and a youth appeared on the surface, swimming to the edge of the pool.

Huh, so this is… The thought was left unfinished when something pushed Annie forward, hard enough to send her cartwheeling over the safety rails. The world spin around, she could see water, ceiling, surprised faces behind, her, water…

Water! A panic thought came when the wolfkin landed in the swimming pool. Never before had she encountered large enough quantities of water to learn how to swim. Her clothes became heavy, dragging her beneath the surface of the water, liquid filled her mouth and nostrils, something in the water caused the wolfkin to feel light burning in her eyes. She pressed her eyelids together, more annoyed than hurt, feeling that her heart was about to jump from her chest. Air, she needed air and…

Wait, what am I panicking about? Annie questioned herself and forced her eyes to open. During one of their fights, Ultis choked her for several minutes. And even then, Annie had given up, rather than lose her conscience. Given the depth of this pool and the fact that she was only here for about fifteen seconds... A smile came upon the lips of Annie, she ignored the annoying wet sensation all around her body, allowing herself to descend upon the bottom of the pool, feeling how the edges of her skirt and jacket flowed up, grabbing her cap before it could swim away. The hood left her head, but she did not care, exited, rather than afraid of what might happen next. In theory, she could mimic the movements of students and swim to the surface… But there was also a far funnier way to get out. Her left leg touched the bottom stone, muscles pressed in her leg as she ducked down on one leg, looking around for a general sense of her position. And finally, her leg released like a bow string, propelling Annie upward like a projectile at an angle of 70 degrees.

Her body broke the barrier of water and the wolfkin allowed herself a breath of air, making a full turn in the air to land on her two feet. She saw how someone raised paws, covered by fur, to catch her. Instincts took over, before the scout could even think about what she was about to do, she used the open palms before her as a platform to jump away from the person, landing first on the safety rails and then stepping on the stone floor.

"Sheesh, lady, you are one tough cookie." Smiled a wolfkin of the Ice Fang order, rubbing away the pain in his palm.

"You are a freaking idiot, Zeke!" Shouted one of the students, coming close to Annie, "How many times has the teacher told you not to charge into these blasted doors? Fool, moron, shit for brains! Are you ok?" The scout took the towel from the hands of the student, wiping the water off her head.

One of the trainers was already in the water, along with several students. They were moderately surprised at Annie’s feat, while the orais trainer standing on the wooden tower meant for jumping down loudly exclaimed that the scout passed as average and that she must work on her grace. One of the students shouted to him that Annie was not part of the group, and the new breed spewed insults, looking fiercely at the wolfkin named Zeke. Several students surrounded Annie, apologizing for the situation, asking if she needed any help or medical attention. Scout thanked them all.

"It’s fine, this was my mistake, truly. Nothing bad happened," The scout said, feeling how her skin turned crimson from embarrassment. She was soaked to the bone, half of her clothes were probably ruined, but at the very least she preserved her ID cards. But the mere thought of the involvement of the officials of the UNU sent her into a panic. She was not meant to be here, what if she just made the situation worse for her sister? "Think nothing of it, I will leave…"

"Sorry about what happened, miss," The white-furred wolfkin said, scratching the back of his head nervously, "I will of course compensate for any ruined clothes and repairs. My name is Zeke, of the Sunblade household, mind if I ask…"

"Name’s Annie. There will be no need to pay for anything." Annie responded icily, sizing him up. Ice boy, of course. This can’t be a coincidence at this point, Dragena was right all along. That, or I am a magnet for disaster. They just can’t leave her alone, they just have to try and ruin the best day of her life. Why do they hate us so much?

"I will not accept no as an answer, lady," The teen bowed courteously, pressing one arm to his chest, putting one leg behind the other and extending the free arm aside. All his nervousness was gone, and before the wolfkin stood a young man with the grace of a noble. His movements were elegant, orange skintight suit that covered his body from neck all the way to knees and elbows had done little to hide the truly impressive musculature and sturdy build of the young man. He was easily as tall as Annie, his crimson eyes burned like sparks of the night flame. The short hair of the young man was colored in yellow, with a few strands of his hair colored in green. Still looking down, the youth continued, "My family would never forgive me if I decided not to repair the damage caused by my actions."

You are reading story Duty, empty dreams and trying not to become a monster. at novel35.com

"You will accept no as an answer, mister," Annie muttered, forcing herself to be calm. She prided herself on never judging people based on their gender, but right now, The Wolf Tribe instincts roared in her, demanding that she jump at this idiot, feel the meat of his neck beneath her fangs, dominate him, and prove her superiority. She shrugged the howling beast deep inside her back into the darkness of the cave that was her soul. Wolfkins were better than that, they had raised above basic instincts years ago and let Spirits curse her if she ever let bloodthirst take over her, "Your family will have to accept this fact as well. I… I can afford to buy new clothes." This was half true. The scout saw prices in the Core Lands. Yeah, she could probably find something affordable, but what will Sveta think upon seeing this? Sveta already paid once for her sister, Annie would rather burn than allow such a thing again. She was not poor! She just can’t afford sudden monetary spending.

Annie looked herself over. Maybe everything wasn’t so bad. Sure, her clothes were wet, but nothing unfixable had happened, from the looks of it. With proper care, clothes can be salvaged... She noticed a minor tear in the jacket, just below the armpit on her left arm. That too can be fixed with sewing, all was well.

Shit, what will I say to Sveta? Oh, hi sis! Me? Just decided to try diving. Yes, while in clothes, why do you ask? What normal person would not dive deep into water while dressed in everyday clothes? A burning sense of humiliation flowed over Annie’s body like a wave. This was supposed to be a great day, Abyss take it! But, being the stupid idiot that she is, she had to sneak a peek at how her sister trained, and now everyone will mock her, and rightly so! Useless, stupid trash. Don’t you dare do anything to make the situation worse for Sveta, you misbegotten spawn.

"How about a deal then?" Zeke smiled, throwing his hair back. Annie looked at him suspiciously, unsure what to say. The Ice Fang looked strong and regal, but he did not look like someone outright malicious, "I know a bit about the Wolf Tribe. How about you and I have a sparring session…"

"You nearly drowned her and now you want to beat her up too?! The fuck, man?! Do I need to call the police on you?" One of the students asked in disbelief.

"… And the loser of the sparring session will have to pay for the damage to your attire that I caused." Zeke looked desperately at the talking student, silently begging her to be quiet.

"How do I know that you will not throw out a fight?" Annie narrowed her eyes, weighing the pros and cons of this situation. Winning here would please the shamans. Hurting the student will displease Sveta, claws and fangs are out of the question. Winning would annoy Dragena and probably captain Scorpio as well. But Scorpio mentioned that she was allowed to take challenges… Maybe if she tries to be gentle? But no, look at him, the males of the Ice Fang were not beaten down beings like the ones in the Wolf Tribe, the scout can’t afford to half ass this challenge.

"You can’t grow without climbing over the obstacles before you." Zeke simply responded, and Annie nodded to him. She could understand this much.

****

The training hall for martial arts was made out of a series of podiums. One was large, where all students trained together, repeating move after move under the eyes of the trainer. Other podiums had gears for training muscles and running courses. And lastly, there were way smaller podiums, on which students trained in personal hand-to-hand combat with each other, competing and fleshing out the knowledge that they had learned in this place.

Zeke led Anni to a podium that was equipped with a shield generator. Wolfkin dropped most of her wet clothes, leaving herself just in her trousers and her shirt. Zeke called one of the trainers, and the woman nodded, preparing the podium for the sparring session. Out of curiosity, Annie briefly glanced at the information boards near the podium, while students, both from the swimming hall and from this hall, were gathering to look at the unusual match up.

According to the information, there were several major leagues in the Reclamation Army. Aside from regular male-female leagues, there were also leagues for normies, new breeds, and augmented people. New breeds always had to spar and compete while under the protection of the shield, both for their own sake and for the sake of the audience. According to a brief history, there were incidents in the past when an exceedingly physically strong new breed accidently killed several spectaculars with the wind pressure during a boxing match. There was also a mixed league, where normies, new breeds, and augmented people could compete with each other as equals, although apparently many new breeds and augmented people outright refused to participate in this league out of fear of becoming murderers by accident. If a new breed could break the sound barrier by running, he could easily kill other not-new breed people, even during a football game.

Noticing the flash of the shield, Annie stepped onto the podium, stretching her body. Murmur ran across the spectators, once they saw the sheer number of scars on the wolfkin’s body, even Zeke narrowed his eyes. In disgust, no doubt. When compared to her, the Ice Fang looked gorgeous. His skin was unmarked by the scars. The natural fur coat of the student was the same length across his entire body, indicating that no one was tearing chunks of flesh out of him during training or combat. Who cares, asshole, you can be proud of your perfect body all you want. I know that I am ugly.

Zeke spread his legs wide, ducking low and putting his paws forward. A thin, warm-looking smile appeared on his lips, the student made an extra effort not to show his fangs.

"Any rules?" Annie asked carefully, rocking her shoulders and raising her fists before herself. She jerked slightly as a humming shield came to life, surrounding her in round space. Unlike military models, this shield did not distort the faces and bodies of the people standing outside. The trainer nodded to Zeke, allowing him to announce the rules. At first, Annie was unsure what exactly the normie woman could do to stop a fight gone wrong between two new breeds. Then she saw the stun baton in the hands of the trainer and saw how the woman put a small exo-suit on herself.

"Just come at me as you want, with your full force. It’s been a long time since I wanted to test myself against a real warrior." Zek spoke with respect, yet there was a hint of anticipation and excitement in his voice. Annie bowed in response, charmed against her will by such honest happiness.

Zeke was confused by her gesture for a moment, and it cost him dearly. Annie made a feint with her right paw, aiming for his jaw. Two paws of her opponent moved, ready to wrap around her wrist when she made a thrust with her left paw, hitting space underneath his adam's apple with her own fingers, causing Ice Fang to cough violently. A tingle of pain shot like burning embers across the arm of Annie, when still in-healing muscles felt pain. The scout ignored this pain, pushing after Zeke, who backed down, trying to gain distance and calm his breathing. The right paw of the scout closed around his neck, while the right leg of Annie was put behind Zeke’s legs. It was a basic move, one that he would have countered with ease, if not for the pain in his throat. With all her might, Annie crushed Zeke into the soft floor, sending tremors across the room and causing students to jump up in fear and surprise. Hearing the activation sound of the stun baton, Annie jumped back, giving the trainer enough room to check up on the downed wolfkin.

Is this supposed to this easy? He doesn’t look weak at all… Annie looked at the heavy breathing opponent at her feet in worry.

"Annie! What in the abyss came upon you, are you planning to kill my classmate!?" Svetlana shouted angrily, as the shield disappeared before her. AThe young woman and a few other students rushed inside, helping Zeke to stand up. Svetlana was dressed in a light shirt and a long skirt in the UNU colors, with the name of the basketball team painted all over her chest.

"I am sorry… He said go with full force… I… I am sorry." Annie mumbled, feeling the burning shame in her. Dragena taught her again and again that others often do not know their limits. Annie, on the other hand, was a trained soldier, she had to know better. Scout half closed her eyes, standing back, not daring to try and look guilty. This is what happens when you allow your basic instincts to take over.

"How do you even manage to get in this place?" Demanded to know Svetlana.

"Friends, everything is fine," Zeke said to the worried faces around him, standing up and cracking his shoulders. He smiled at the people around him and continued in a hoarse voice, "Svet, I asked for sparring. Don’t be so hard on…"

"My sister." Svetlana still spoke angrily, crossing her arms on her chest, and Zeke’s ears moved in surprise.

"Ah, I can see the resembles clearer now. The folly of me. Miss, Annie, are you ready for round two?" Zeke asked, coughing once and massaging his neck with both paws. His hoarseness was becoming more normal by the second, far faster than....

"Liar," Annie said coldly, seeing his posture. Not a hint of pain, aside from lightly strained breathing. The wolfkins of the Wolf Tribe were famous for their physical prowess. But the reactions of wolfkins from the Ice Fang order were superior to those of wolfkins from the Wolf Tribe. Wolf hags strained their senses to block bullets, relying more on instincts and experience, while even knights of the Ice Fang order were known to block bullets with their weapons. There was no way Zeke should have fallen for her initial feint that easily, "You intentionally threw the first round."

"Well, my intention was to properly block your attack and give you a proper fight, before losing. But you surprised me, fair maiden," The ice boy shrugged his shoulders innocently, "Forgive my innocent decep…"

"Screw you. Liar. The deal is off. I won’t take anything from you." Scout replied angrily, shrinking under the fiery look of her sister.

"Explain." Svetlana demanded.

"There is nothing to explain. I was a fool, messed up and…" One of the students showed the video on the terminal to Sveta and Annie grew increasingly more worried, seeing the glance that Svetlana threw at the guilty-looking Zeke. I didn’t come here to push a wedge between people in your life, dammit! Trying to sound calm, Annie continued, "Listen, it was only my fault, and no one else's."

"Dearest Zeke," Svetlana sang sweetly, utterly ignoring her sister, "Remind me, what did the teacher say to you about the doors and running? This was what, the third person whom you sent into the pool this way in this month alone?"

"In my defense, my family is the ones paying for remodeling the entryway between two halls." The wolfkin raised his paw, keeping a guilty smile on his muzzle, "And for ruined clothes of lady Annie as well, of course!"

"Please disappear from my life." Annie begged him, "I don’t need anything from you, I refuse to accept…"

"This I must decline!" Zeke jumped in the air, making a backflip before nimbly landing, his hand spread wide. He smirked once more, "If I understand correctly, it is common for the loser in the Wolf Tribe to obey the winner. Thus, let us settle our grievances fairly and squarely this time! This time, I will go against you with my full power and with my full dedication to win!" A crimson streak shot in the eyes of the student.

"You just lost. Obey my will and disappear…"

"If you wish so," Zeke eagerly nodded and lifted one finger, "In this case, you will have to accept the compensation. Otherwise, beat me up and cancel the deal fair and square."

Annie was unsure of what to do. She had agreed to the deal, true, but he lied! He wanted to lose, instead of fighting properly. Accepting a reward from a liar would probably trap her in some other trap of the Ice Fang order.

"You can’t grow unless you climb the mountain before you. And I have seen but the foundation before me so far. Show me the peak, please." The wolfkin tried to reason with the soldier, bowing to her and theatrically placing one paw on his chest.

"If you are coming after me, then the answer is no. I don’t want to end up as..." Zeke’s eyeballs nearly jumped from their sockets at the words of Annie, his calm and proud expression turned to a mix of confusion and embarrassment. The youth straightened himself up, opening and closing his mouth, unsure what to say.

Did I say something stupid? He acted like a male who was trying to court a female for the first time… Shit, think of a way out! Spirits help me, I don’t wanna to end up like Kalaisa! Annie frantically tried to think of a reason to escape. It was not uncommon in the Wolf Tribe for a female winner to court the male loser. While such traditions were gradually fading in modern times, they still existed, and if this Ice Fang...

"He is asking you for a rematch, stupid!" Sveta chuckled, and a few other girls outright laughed, "Although and to be fair, he could be less of a creep about it."

"Oh, thank the Spirits." Annie gasped in relief.

"Wait, are you implying that I'm not good enough for…" Zeke lifted his brow.

"Drop it, liar! Just one more round. Nothing more." Sighed Annie, walking away from Zeke along with Svetlana. The student gestured with her paw and Annie bent her head low, allowing her sister to whisper in her ear.

"Annie. Zeke trains in the ancient martial art called "olympiada". It involves fighting with only wide swings of fists, legs, and grappling moves as a primary method of combat. Please try to play by his rules, if possible, I don’t want any of you to be hurt!" Zeke frowned at Sveta while the wolfkin and the other students exited the ring, leaving the trainer and two fighters on the podium.

"You don’t own me anything. Fight any way you want. I want to learn the proper combat from someone who has been in action." The Ice Fang said, unzipping the upper part of his costume and throwing it aside. Zeke himself was standing relaxed, his arms were hanging by the sides of his body like a pair of ropes.

"And I like challenges. I will face you in your own style and I will win." Annie fiercely smiled, taking off her shirt and throwing it outside the ring, just before the shield could cut them off from the world outside. In the Wolf Tribe, fighters regularly choked themselves out during sparring. How different could the grappling here be anyway? She can mimic it just fine.

"Wait, does it mean…" One of the students said in an embraced tone, her cheeks suddenly going red.

"Yes, she is technically half naked now. We meet after all these years, yet I am already pissed at…" Sveta rolled her eyes in annoyance, then she jumped in the air, waving her arms in anger once she noticed how several students reached for their pocket terminals, taking out video of the incoming battle, "This is my sister, you perverts! Show some dignity!"

"Hey, she started it!" laughed one of the students, continuing to film the fight as if nothing was bothering him.

Annie wondered if she had done something bad. From her point of view, it was the locals and Sveta who acted all weird. Wolfkins were covered with thick fur, so they couldn’t be "naked" in a normal sense of the word. Instead of pondering any further, she charged forward at her opponent and made a long swing with her right hand.

Zeke was only breathing, relaxing and calm, seemingly oblivious to the fist that was closing on his jaw. But, just as the fist was about to connect, he moved, sliding snake-like across Annie's right side, ending up behind her. His strong arms were wrapped around her waist, using the impulse of her movement to crash scout face down on the floor.

Annie’s fangs gave a clacking sound when her jaw connected to the floor. Zeke moved away from her, grabbing her by the left leg and lifting her in the air.

Is this even grappling?! Annie thought, reaching for his wrist as Zeke threw her in the air. In the Wolf Tribe, Ultis would already be busy choking the life out of Annie for a stupid mistake, instead of giving her a second chance like that. The scout flew backward, realizing the plan of her opponent in an instant. He wanted to crash her against the surface of a shield and finish her up with a charging blow, splatting her against the shield once more. For him, the arena was just as much a weapon as it was a limitation. No dice, friend.

Annie spun herself in the air, landing on the shield with her legs and jumping away from the shield, using the solid energy surface as a foothold. Upon landing on the ring, Zeke was once again on her, grappling her paws with his own, not allowing the opponent to get even a moment of respite. Annie felt surprised, for the briefest moment. The student was overpowering her in this confrontation.

Hey, the Ice Fang are not that soft after all! She happily thought as Zeke pushed her back, closing in on her. Both opponents strained themselves, yet Annie’s legs were slowly moving back, inch by inch, while Zeke’s snout was closing on her, as if he wanted to bite her. The sweat ran beneath his pristine white fur, a blood vessel popped in the left eye of the youth from the efforts, his breathing was hard. Annie, however, barely broke a sweat herself, allowing him to strain himself by pushing her back and hiding a bit of her own physical power.

Now. Zeke’s eyes widened as she let go of his paws, pushing him back one step this time. Wolfkin led her opponent into a sense of false security, forcing him to play by her rules in game where he felt he could win. Now Annie was the one charging at Zeke, aiming to grab him by the neck and throw him over herself.

Her opponent slipped from her embrace, moving like water. One of his arms was wrapped around her side, while the other was over her shoulder. With his snout tightly pressed to her left shoulder, he used his left leg to beat the ground out of Annie’s left leg with a rapid undercut. Zeke threw the surprised wolfkin to the floor with the sound of an exploding bomb that made even the windows in the room tremble. Annie gasped from the burning pain in her chest and left arm. Her wounds dealt by the line breaker still bothered her even now, her muscles were not fully healed underneath her skin and now threatened to get injured anew. She jumped back on her feet and locked in with his paws once again. I am not letting you catch your breath!

"Come on Annie, I believe in you!" Sveta shouted from the sides.

"Hey, but Zeke is our group!" Loudly protested one of the students, and Sveta smiled with a guilty smile.

"Yep, but Annie is my sister. Besides… she kinda cool right now. They both are, to be honest."

Encouragement from her sister was everything that Annie needed to continue to ignore the pain in her chest. That and her stubborn desire not to be outdone by the Ice Fang. The scout strained the muscles in her arms, nearly closing her left eye at the surge of pain in her left arm. It was just a minor pain, she could take it. Her opponent leaned back, inch by inch, losing in the contest of endurance and strength. Seeing this, the scout smiled, imagining how she would splatter him across the floor. Without physical strength, you can’t win in…

Zeke threw Annie over himself. To her shame, she was unsure how this happened. The body of her opponent twitched, catching her just in time when Annie was making another push forward and using her own impulse to lift her off the ground. The world spun before Annie’s eyes, when her body moved in an arc around the student.

She refused to let her hold slip from his paws, landing on her feet with the sound of cracking thunder. Pain rocketed in her knees, making the scout grunt approvingly, while her face and torso were directed toward the ceiling. Zeke was also forced to remain in a similar position, and Annie's smile widened, revealing her fangs to the world. My turn. The scout threw her opponent over herself this time, using her throw as a way to stand up. Her body hurt. Chest, knees, left arm. No, this pain was not from her old wounds. The initial throw that she missed and the second throw of the Zeke…. Annie never expected that simple throws to take such a toll on her. No, these are not simple throws! Their angle and their speed, plus the power behind them! Superb, simply superb! There are so many awesome things in the world!

Zeke was strong, there was no denying this. He should have landed on his feet just fine. But perhaps the effects of the concussion and a hit in the throat from the first round were still bothering him, no matter how much the proud male tried to hide it. As the student landed on his lower legs, his paws released their hold on the paws of the scout. At this moment, Annie followed up her attack with a direct wide swing of her right leg, aiming right at his jaw.

This counts as a wide swing, right?  She thought in worry. Annie nearly squeaked in excitement as the arms of Zeke moved, disappearing from the line of attack. He landed on his lower legs to absorb the impact of his fall and minimize the damage, and he had already positioned himself for the counterattack, betting that the scout would strike him with her leg. He had just met her and already could read her. The senses of the Ice Fang order truly were something else entirely.

The left paw of the youth closed upon Annie’s ankle from above, while the right paw slid right underneath her knee. Arresting the impulse of the kick and catching the leg of Annie in a manmade mantrap, Zeke followed up his attack, using the captured leg of the scout as a lever to send the scout flying in the air. With a beautifully executed move, Zeke threw Annie in the air once again, this time directing the arc of Annie’s fall by holding her right leg and making students outside jump up once again from tremors produced by the crash of her.

Cool! Olympiada is useful! This is something I should learn! Annie bit her own tongue, feeling blood on her fangs. Every bone in her body hurt, soft mats did surprisingly little to help to disperse the impact of the violent fall. Her blood sped up in her veins, rocking her insides even further. Annie wanted to vomit. Despite all of that, she had to stop herself from giggling as Zeke released his hold on her. This match reminded her of fights she had with Sveta before separating. She sensed no malice or rage from the opponent, just a stubborn insistence on winning, the same that she was feeling right now. This was what they had been doing in the Core Lands? Fighting for fun under the rules was not so bad after all, it made for some interesting combat. In the Wolf Tribe, Kayleen would never let go of her leg, the wolf hag would have twisted her leg all the way to the point of snapping until Annie would surrender or faint from pain. Here, however, it looked like people wanted to prolong the fun and to avoid injuring each other too severely. This is what passes for a sparring session around here? People here are awesomely nice!

Scout tried to stand up when the arms of Zeke wrapped around the upper part, right underneath her arms.

Ok, this is just uncalled for! Annie thought angrily to herself, feeling how his arms were touching her breasts. The scout tried to break the hold but found that she couldn’t. She was still on her knees, one leg of Zeke was standing on the back of her right knee, meanwhile his arms were closing around her body ever so strongly, making it hard for her to breath with each push. He is not actually that stronger than me! So why can’t I break free?! She felt pain shooting into her chest, giving her a nasty remainder of her previous injuries. She noticed that her own paws were trembling, and sweat was running across her back, mixing with sweat from Zeke’s body. Her vision went blurry for a brief moment. Is this the result of his throws? He built up damage in my body, so he could choke me out with his last move? Inconceivable! I refuse to believe it!

"Annie! Show him the power of the Wolf Tribe!" Sveta laughed, despite the worried look on her face. Students all around the circle cheered both fighters as they struggled, some chanting Zeke’s name, and yet few, quite a few actually, were supporting Annie, cheering her to fight on.

I just don’t get people here. No one in the Wolf Tribe would cheer for Ice Fang in a battle between a member of the tribe and a member of the order. No one.

If I use my head to kick him, will this count as a break of the rules in this "olympiada" thingy? Annie wondered as darkness crept into her eyes after minutes of fighting between two fighters. She had to gesture to the trainer that everything was fine in order to continue the fight. Wildfire was burning in her chest and left arm, her strained skin felt as if it could burst at any moment. Dammit! Stupid wounds, stupid… Will you let your wounds drop you here? What if your wounds cause you to falter if Sveta is in trouble ever again? No. Annie decided, remembering the mantra of the Wolf Tribe. Push through the pain. Push through the pain and win!

Her chance came when Zeke coughed. It was a simple mistake, yet one that he could not stop. He was hurt from the previous round and that damage only worsened during the second round as he was continuously straining himself. Damage was built up during the struggle in the second round, leading to an inevitable moment of weakness. It was weakness that made adrenaline run across Annie’s body in a surge of extasy. Weakness! A moment to strike, a moment to finish off the prey! A moment that the scout seized. His grip on her weakened just for a moment, and that was enough for Annie to hit him with the back of her head and break free, turning to him and spearing him with an elbow aimed at his solar plexus. Inhaling air, the scout delivered her next blow into Zeke's muzzle, causing him to throw his head up and open his neck. Vulnerable, easy target, one hit and…

Shit. I lost. Understood Annie. In her panic, she allowed instincts, the need to dominate over an opponent, especially over a male at any cost, to take over her body. Something that was drilled into her by the blood of the tribe had finally resurfaced, driving her to excel and win at any cost. And this something was not comparable with the rules of Dragena. A soldier had no need for honor, but a soldier obeys laws and obeys rules of engagement. During peacetime, a soldier learns where she or he can, even at the cost of losing. And Annie lost the opportunity to learn what exactly Zeke tried to pull off. At least let’s end it properly.

Scout grabbed her shocked opponent by his right shoulder and by his crotch. Zeke squeaked against his will when his body was lifted into the air by Annie. Both used almost everything they could in this round. But unfortunately for her opponent, despite all her mistakes, Annie still had enough endurance to go on and the attack in the first round damaged her opponent way worse than he expected.

"That’s… This one is gotta hurt like..." One of the students said, with a pale look on his face.

"S… Sur…" Zeke grunted weakly as Annie threw him over herself. Seeing how Zeke’s head was approaching the ground with the speed of a cannonball, Svetlana screamed in panic. Yet just before his head could touch the floor, Annie stopped his fall, allowing only the hair of her opponent to touch the mats.

As gently as she could, she put the youth upright on his feet, bowing deeply to the surprised Zeke. Annie dared not to look at his triumphant, no doubt, muzzle. A member of the Wolf Tribe showed her inability to honor the word given. Inability to control one's instincts

"Even at the end, I could not match your skills fairly. If you were in your prime in the second round, I would never have been able to carry out my escape. Victory in the second round is yours by right, sir. Let's count our sparring today as your victory or as a draw," Annie smiled weakly, looking at the bared legs of the youth and understanding for the first time just how worn she was from this simple clash, "My grappling skills are but an amateurish joke when compared to your skills." It pained her to admit it, yet you can’t grow up by lying to yourself, as Dragena often said. Accept your failure, and try to get better.

How can I become better if I refuse to lose? It was easy in the Wastes. Kill the target, spare those who surrender, save people, keep allies safe. And yet, that was not enough. Annie was a wild beast in the Core Lands, in the ideal that his excellency Dynast tries to build, a beast who made her sister afraid and angry. One day. One day, I will master my instincts and become a soldier worthy of the blessed mother.

"You both were awesome!" Shouted Svetlana when the bubble of the shield fell. Annie smiled embracingly, trying to keep her sister away from her wet and soaked by the sweat body. Her attempts failed and both sisters ended up hugging once more.

"I thank you for your magnificent performance and gladly accept a draw, dearest lady. Please allow me to thank you for saving my pride," The student said as he accepted the towel from the trainer, "Does this mean you will accept compensation for the damage I caused?" Zeke asked, straightening up and wiping out a thin line of blood from his nose with a towel.

"Screw you, liar! As a loser, I will pay myself!" Annie snarled at him angrily, before she could grab a hold of her instincts. Her outburst only caused everyone around her to laugh more. Unamused, the scout looked around with a sour expression on her face before asking the trainer for a paper copy of the manual about this "olympiada" style.

****

"… In short, the Core Lands are bigger than the Wastes by approximately two hundred and fifty times… Are you even listening to me?" Sveta hit Annie with an elbow.

The two were seated in the back of a six-wheeled taxi car speeding down the lonely road leading to the Oaksters mansion. Ronson Oakster, the Sveta's father, owned a large tract of land near the city. The land around here was rich with the black earth, making it one of the richest soils in the region. Countless farms have been built here, several kinds of wheat, potatoes, and other valuable food sources for the Core Land was growing here through the hard work and care of the farmers. Even at this late hour, when the skies were only lightly touched by the last lights of crimson sunset, Annie could see herds of six-legged lambs grazing in the fields, watched over by the flying drones. Workers were busy closing greenhouses to protect the most vulnerable plants from the breeze of the night, trucks were moving across the fields, gathering workers for the night's rest. Svetlana explained that people live here for the entire season, extending their contract at the end of the season, or returning to the city looking for a new job.

People lived in their thousands even in this farming area, which was 42 kilometers away from the Houstad. The Church of the Planet built a small school around here, along with two schools owned by the government. The Oaksters themselves owned several barracks for the many immigrants who came to these lands to start a new life. Annie half expected to see some dark-looking buildings surrounded by stone walls, but the barracks were four-story tall structures painted a bright orange color, with nice-looking sidewalks and gardens surrounding them. Only immigrants who lived here yet worked in the city had to pay Ronson, whereas the state compensated the farm owner for providing living space for the rest of his workers and their families.

Annie herself spent time during travel by pestering her sister with questions about various martial styles of the Core Lands. Angoro left to meet with his family, half uncertain if he could leave Annie alone, but both sisters promised him that no problems would happen. Zeke bothered the scout the entire time while the sisters waited for the taxi driver to arrive, yet Annie was unmoved in her decision. Sveta refused to accept Annie’s tokens for the taxi, making the scout content with the fact that she could at least pay for a new set of clothes in the shop on the way to Sveta’s home. The Sunblade family was the most influential family among the sword saints. Their scions were involved in political life, the scions of the Sunblade family were some of the most famous knight captains. Some members of the Sunblade family even owned companies within the state, the wealth of this family was truly immense. Their word was not a simple matter. Annie had to force the store owner to accept money from her, the woman stubbornly tried to refuse at first, claiming that the Sunblade family was ready to cover the expenses.

But finally, all the unusual events were done and gone, and the six-wheeler was closing in on the Oaksters mansion.

"I am listening, truly," Annie responded offhandedly, thirstily reading through the manual. Olympiada was not a useless sport. It was an ancient martial art technique, predating even the destruction of the world. Apparently, it had numerous branches and schools around the Core Lands. Zeke trained himself in the "raw" version of Olympiada, a version that relied on outmaneuvering the opponent and using the weight and momentum of the foe for the crushing throws that send all the liquid inside the opponent’s body crazy. But other branches knew how to send foes flying by just grabbing the clothes or hair of the enemy with two fingers. Putting aside the manual, Annie looked at her sister with gleaming eyes, "I just can’t believe… This." She helplessly gestured at the world outside of the car, "There are just so many new things to see, so many different combat styles to experience…"

"An, seriously!" The scout grinned as she received another kick in the ribs. Stupid as it was, she really missed moments like these from her childhood, "Enough with all this fighting! First thing first, we will meet with my family, then dinner, and finally sleep time," Svetlana said in a command tone, bending fingers on one paw one by one, "Tomorrow we are going for a tour, I am going to show you around the city. Bet you never saw a proper cinema, zoo, or theater… And no fighting! You are here to rest and recover, sis!"

"What about having fun?" Annie asked innocently.

"That too!" Sveta eagerly nodded, "I have so much to show to you, waterfalls in the south, have you ever seen them?" Scout shook her head, and the student eagerly gesticulated with her arms, painting something in the air, "In short, these are magnificent manmade rivers made in a mountain range around the site of the battle where Ravager offed Mad Hatter. Originally, people wanted to build some memorial or something here, but you know how Ravager viewed those things. People kept pestering her and finally the blessed mom said that if people wanted to honor her, they should build something to have fun. Now you have a statue of Ravager there and a complex system of waterfalls that fall directly into hot springs."

"I am going to be honest, Svet, I think that I am not into this whole swimming thing." Annie shuddered at the thought of being surrounded by water once more.

"But you never tried to swim properly! Come on, give it a try, the water there is scalding hot and the marble scenery around..." Seeing the bored expression on Annie’s snout, Svetlana quickly added, "Also they make the best curry that I ever tried!"

"Now you’re speaking my language." The scout smiled in anticipation, hugging her sister.

The car passed through a simple iron gate, coming across the road to a large three-story tall mansion, made out of sturdy blocks of stone. The walls were painted brown, six black columns supported a huge balcony over the entrance. The road to the mansion was divided in two, creating space for a tall oak in the middle of the road. Several old-looking trucks were parked near the walls of the building, their drivers were busy performing maintenance. Most of the windows in the building were black, save for a few on the first floor.

A man in a dusty-looking working jacket, brown pants, a red shirt and boots dismounted from the brown horse at the sign of the taxi car. A wild grin appeared on the tanned face upon seeing who was in the car. A man quickly gave up reign of the horse to a nearby helping hand and fixed his wide-brimmed hat, trying to look imposing and strict while he waited for a car to stop. Yet when Sveta charged from the car toward him, the man easily grabbed the student under her arms, lifting the wolfkin in the air with ease, taking the student into a spin around himself and flashing the light of happiness in his grey eyes.

"Three months! Sveta, it’s been too long!" The man laughed, putting the student back on the ground and hugging her.

"Dad! Stop embarrassing me before my sister!" Svetlana said, yet the happiness and laughter in her voice told Annie that Sveta was faking her indignation.

Annie walked out of the car, noticing slashes on the oak before the main building. The ones near the bottom of the tree were barely visible and were crudely made. But the slashes that ran up and up across the trunk of the mighty tree were slowly becoming more elegant and more visible. Annie smirked, understanding who left these slashes. This is how Sveta measured her growth, huh?  The slashes above may have looked more elegant, but there was something that united every single cut. No matter how Annie looked at them, they were all made by an amateur’s paw. The bark was badly damaged. Instead of smooth lines, the damaged area was torn and made into zigzag patterns.

The man let go of the student and looked up into the face of Annie. Scout half expected uncertainty or fear in his eyes. Annie stood head and shoulders above her sisters and weighed at least forty kilograms more. The scout's face was marred by scars, and her current clothes were honestly a bit of a mismatched mess, even by Annie’s modest standards. And yet the man sized her up carelessly, extending his hand for a handshake.

"Howdy there, Annie! Name’s Ronson Oakster, but ya can call me Ron just like everyone else," Annie carefully shook the man's hand, trying not to hurt him. Ronson grabbed her paw with all his might, prompting her to shake his hand for real. She felt several calluses on the skin of Ron’s hand, yet his grip was tough. Ronson did not fake his smile, he truly was unafraid of the wolfkin before him, "Ya can tighten your grip, girlie. These old bones can take quite a bit of punishment."

"Sorry, force of habit," Annie let go of his hand and bowed low to him, placing her paws over her knees and looking at his boots, "Thank you so much for taking care of Svetlana and nice to meet you, mister Ronson!"

"Pleasure is all mine, lass!" Ronson took Annie by her shoulders, lifting the scout upward. The farm owner mockingly gestured with his finger, "No need to bow, we are all friends here. Off to the dining room we go, before Jey burns the shit out of our home!"

"Dad tries to cook again?" Sveta asked with a mix of fear and disbelief in her voice. She wrapped her arms around the left arm of Annie, leading her sister inside the house.

"Don't worry, he's being watched." Ronson cheerfully said, out-speeding a maid in a white dress and opening the door before the sisters. He touched his hat with two fingers in a gesture of apology to the servant, before leading the sisters to a dining room.

Annie half expected this mansion to drown in luxury and gold. Instead, the insides of the mansion looked modest. The floors were covered by comfy-looking carpets, and light-colored wooden panels were installed on the stone walls. The staircase leading to the second and third floors was made out of wood, rather than stone. The halls were spacious enough for all three people to walk side by side and not stumble on the small tables across the corridor. One of the maids took the jackets from the people. Annie noticed that while the servants kept themselves official with the farm owner, despite his antics, most of them were smiling furtively at Sveta. And none of the servants seemed worried about the larger and more ravaged copy of the Sveta walking around.

As if they had already seen someone bigger than me. Annie thought, looking at the pictures on the walls. Most of the paintings were made in the old style, yet there were few photos among them. Svetlana and her parents live on a lake. Grinning mister Ronson with an enormous fish in his hands, Sveta and an unknown man were both busy tending to the plants on the field… I am envious. The scout admitted to herself, looking around in awe. This place felt wholesome and safe. But most importantly, this place felt like home. Svetlana must have had such great memories of her parents and a great childhood, while Annie… What do I have?

Restless thoughts left Annie's head at the moment when the doors to the dining room were open. Her mouth watered, while her nostrils caught the delicious smell of the meat. Spices! Tender meat! Weird vegetable dishes… Fried potatoes on the plates! The food, still hot and smelling like something out of heaven, was arrayed on a long table for guests to see. A tall and lean man was busy placing dishes on a table, looking critically at the picture of arrayed dishes before him. Unlike Ronson, he was cleanly shaven, his green eyes looked with curiosity at the approaching people, not a single wrinkle could be found on his face, his brown hair was cut short. The man was dressed in a strict gray suit, a white shirt, and a golden tie. Nodding to Ronson, he gently hugged Svetlana, kissing her on the forehead once, before turning to Annie.

"Annie, I presume?" The man stepped forward, looking at Annie, as if she was some rare curiosity. He walked around the wolfkin, sizing her up, checking the size of her arms and legs. Finally, he nodded to himself, standing before the scout, "My name is Jeysich Oakster. Pardon my curiosity,"

"Pleasure to meet you sir." Annie tried to bow to him, but the man waved his hand quickly, an indication that this was not needed.

"The pleasure is all mine," He looked at Ronson, "I told you that Svetlana eats too little for her age."

"Your truth," The second man shook his shoulders cheerfully, "Girly looks like a midget compared to her sis. We should never have listened to her."

"With all due respect, dads," Svetlana folded both her arms over her chest, speaking each word slowly, "I am perfect as I am."

Jeysich Ronson burst into a roar of laughter, and even Jeysich smiled thinly at the words of the student. 

"Thank the Planet that your sister is alive," Jeysich made a quick gesture with two arms, pressing the thumbs of his arms to the area above his heart. It was a simple prayer of the Church of the Planet. The man looked over the scout with a critical look, "Hm... Bruises, scars... We will need to..."

"Jey, we are dying of hunger over here!" Ronson clapped his hands together, "You can't just make a feast and keep us waiting!" Annie found that she was in agreement with the man, her eyes were locked on the food at the table. She tried to look respectable, but the food smelled like something truly divine.

"Right, it can wait. The Planet deemed it fit to allow me to prepare a food without...." The second man looked at the two servants at the other end of the room. The shirt of a male servant bore minor burn marks, and the man's face was dirty. Jeysich sighed, "Almost without incident. Let's enjoy it, everyone." He gestured at the table, showing places for everyone to sit, and finally Annie felt herself at ease. Annie tried to keep some manners at first and eat her food by using a fork and knife, like a normal person would. Alas, the food before her smelled so tasty… In the end, the scout allowed her instincts to take over, picking up pieces of meat, wrapped in green leaves of cabbage, with her claws, swallowing them whole. Mister Jeysich looked at Annie with a raised brow, Sveta tried to stop her sister, while mister Ronson gestured to his daughter to be calm, gulping food down his throat at a speed that alarmingly approaches Annie's speed.

"Sorry, if this may sound like a stupid question," Annie crashed a pumpkin between her jaws, licking the remains off her lips, "But if I understand right, both of you are Sveta’s parents, right?" Ronson nodded briefly, swallowing the sausage.

"Ron and I first met during the time when Oaksters first expanded farmland to the west," Jeysich calmly said, slicing a steak before himself, "Long story short, Ron and I have become life partners. Does this look unusual to you, Annie?"

"A bit," The scout admitted plainly to the man, "Among my people, such relationships are rare. Sorry if I offended you, you took great care of Sveta, and that’s all that matters to me. Also, your food tastes great."

"You can't offend me with the truth," Jeysich said, accepting the praise and nodding to Annie, "and I am pleased to hear that my efforts are appreciated," He smiled with his previous thin smile, turning to his daughter, "Sveta, have you thought about our proposition?"

"Thought and the answer is still no," Sveta shook her head, drinking juice, "Sorry dads, I want to test myself and not be led by the hand all my life."

"What is this all about?" Annie asked, before putting a finger to her lips, "If this is okay for me to ask, of course."

"Sure it is," Mister Ronson wiped his lips with the back of his hand and leaned back on his chair, "We purchased…"

"Rented." Corrected his husband mister Jeysich.

"Same thing. We obtained land in Pearl for the length of fifty years. As you know, Pearl currently experiences massive problems due to internal corruption and…"

"That’s why I am against nepotism, by the way," Sveta pointed with a fork at her dad, "If corruption can ruin even such a beautiful place as Pearl…"

"Sveta, please. Not today." Asked mister Jeysich.

"…An exodus of people from the north and because the cartel keeps flooding Pearl with drugs," Ronson became serious for a while, looking Annie in the eyes, "They can no longer efficiently use their own land. In exchange for providing a safe workplace for locals to work and paying them, in addition to selling part of the crops that we will grow on these lands to the government Pearl at a discount, we get to own their land, one at the south end, close to the border with the Ravaged Lands. If the cartel won’t off us, of course. We wanted to take Sveta with us as part of her first big job."

"Don’t joke like that, dad. I heard that people often go missing around there," Sveta asked quietly, looking at the plate of food before her. "You will be fine there, right?"

"Of course, we will," The lean man smiled and put his hand on the shoulder of his daughter in encouragement, "Svetlana, you know how cautious I can be. The respected mercenary company has already signed a contract with us, the company that is made up entirely of new breeds, no less, they will keep the pests off our backs. Plus, we paid the tribute to the Respectable People. Come on, relax a little, Ron is just messing around as usual. You think we would ever take you anywhere dangerous?"

"From what I've seen on the news, the cartel and their thugs primarily operate in the northern parts of the Pearl," Annie added, trying to cheer up her sister. "Misters Ronson and Jeysich should be fine if they stick to the southern border,"

Sveta smiled at her sister, removing the sausage that Ronson tried to sneakily put on her plate, and reaching to fill her glass with more juice. Annie took this moment to look around the room. The firewood crackled slowly in the flames of the fireplace. A large painting depicting young Sveta, surrounded by her parents and several other people in workers' uniforms, was placed on the second floor of the room. The walkways of the second floor run across the edges of the room, but tried as she might, Annie could see no stairways leading to the second floor. From the walls, portraits of the other members of the Oaksters family sternly look at the guests. The whole room was flooded with bright electric light coming from the ceiling.

"Speaking of, if this is OK to ask..." Seeing the nod of mister Jeysich, Annie continued her question, "Why in the world did you pay tribute to the Respectable People? If I understand the situation correctly, they are simply another gang in Pearl."

"They are a bit more than this. The Respectable People have their fingers in the government. Unlike the cartel, they hold someone by the..." Ronson started to explain, but his husband cut him off.

"In short, it is cheaper for us to work with them. They will keep the cartel's goons out of our land," Seeing the surprised face of Annie, Jeysich tapped his temple, "Yes, the Relcaimers will come to our aid if things go the way of the Old World. Yes, the mercenaries will protect us. Sveta, Annie, here is the question for you. Why do we need protection from someone within the Pearl then?"

"Maybe you want to keep the convoys that will move food back to our lands safe?" Sveta made her guess, while Annie folded her arms, lost in thought.

Dragena taught her to always look into the core of a problem. No one would be foolish enough to attack the convoys of the reclaimers. As Ivar demonstrated, such actions have disastrous consequences. What was left then? An attack on the Reclaimer's property? Out of the question as well, worst case scenario, the state will simply hire a bounty hunter or send the Omega team after the attackers, if Pearl's government refuses to cooperate. Maybe the Respectable People can halt the deal about food supply to the Pearl? No, this doesn't make sense, they get money from this deal and food for the population at a discount. Many store owners pay this gang for their protection. No goods to sell, no money to pay, this option is also out. Then the obvious answer was...

"To protect your new workers, right?" Seeing the confused face of Sveta, Annie quickly explained, "The people who will work on the new farms of your dads are locals. While they are on the state's rented property, they are safe. But when they're outside..."

"It is a fair game because they are not from the state," Ronson nodded with a shadow on his face, " If Pearl's police are so shite, it is cheaper to pay one group of thugs to keep our new workers safe from other thugs. The people are not at fault for being caught in all of this."

Seeing how the number of dishes on the table was slowly decreasing, mister Jeysich snapped his elegant fingers, calling for the maids to bring the second portion of the feast. Annie smiled broadly when she saw several large turkeys on silver plates. The smell of it really was something from the realm of the divine. With a single motion, her claws bisected the roasted turkey before the scout into four parts, her claws picked up delicious meat. Annie was swallowing large chunks of meat while listening to mister Ronson. He told several stories about Svetlana’s childhood, causing the young woman to groan from frustration at her childhood mistakes. Finally, it was Annie’s turn to tell stories about herself. It was easy to talk about the time under the leadership of the warlord Zero, although Sveta gasped for some reason upon hearing how Annie got her scars. Trying to find the right words, Annie told people around the table about her first mission as carefully as possible, trying to omit the most gory details. When the scout noticed Sveta's parents' suddenly darkened faces, she shut up immediately.

"Um… Sorry, if I said something wrong." The scout said nervously.

"I heard about mom’s passing. What about dad?" Sveta quietly asked, "How’s he doing these days? I tried to contact him, but…"

"He’s with mom now." Annie said bluntly, and looked at the empty plate before herself. There was no reason to beat around the bush, Annie decided that it was better to tell the harsh truth right away and be done with it.

"What?"

"The stupid fool drank himself to death and left me all alone," Annie responded angrily, staring at the plate before her. She remembered the constant insults from her father and his constant absence after the attack. Yet another person was also before her eyes. The one who always stood by Annie and Sveta and read them stories at night, the one who risked his life to save them. And he was gone, along with the drunken fool that he turned into, all because Annie could not bring the better person back on her own. Because she was too distant, because she was a bad daughter.

"Father had never drunk before … Nevermind," Sveta blinked, trying to get a hold of herself. She gestured to her parents to stay out of this, "Annie, how did this happen? New breeds like us are durable enough to endure even the strongest of poisons, surely there would be some signs of him getting sick. Annie how did you not noti…"

"Because I fucked up," Annie released her claws, allowing them to bite deeply into the table. Memories of that day pushed her into a rage. Annie felt the blood pounding in her temples, demanding the wolfkin to lash out on anyone or anything. Frustration, fear, and humiliation that were built in her over the years speared her body once more, and this time the scout could not handle them. Bad, bad, always the one who is bad. Annie raised her head, looking into the eyes of her suddenly small-looking sister, "Go on, say it, we both know that it is true. He was in my care, and I fucked up. Just like when I let you fall. I…" She licked her lips nervously, noticing fear in the eyes of people and understanding that she was growling and showing her fangs. Mister Ronson stood up from his chair, looking a bit pale. Jeysich merely pressed a finger to his lips. Svetlana looked horrified. Wolfkin retracted her claws, feeling nothing but shame, "Sorry about my unruly behavior. This was unworthy of me."

"Well, enough talking for today." Ronson clapped his hands, breaking the silence, "Today was a big day and we are all tired. Sveta, I will show Annie her room and…"

"I will escort my sister myself, dad." Ignoring the worried looks of her fathers, Svetlana first led Annie to the bathroom to wash her claws clean and then to the room on the second floor.

Annie walked alongside her sister in an awkward silence, far too ashamed to say anything. She could feel the rage boiling inside, but this time it was a sweet hatred, one that she knew how to handle. She was frequently filled with rage at herself. Hatred for being weak and a hatred for embarrassing others. This one was a sick and unworthy feeling, according to Kayleen and Carty, who both insisted that you should accept yourself to move on. And yet, Annie refused to let go of this feeling. She always believed that when you do something bad, you should feel bad. Like she felt right now.

She was invited to such a grand and magnificent place. She was reunited with her sister. All that was required from her, all that she should have done was to behave. And naturally, failure that she is, the scout found a way to fail in this as well. Sveta was afraid of her! Punishment for this seemed only fitting and deserving.

Sveta stopped before the wooden door on the second floor. The student opened it and came inside the spacious room, with a bed big enough to fit even someone the size of Annie. The wide windows were closed, behind them the scout could see the wall that surrounded the mansion and fields of the Oaksters farm. A lonely river runs far away on the horizon.

"Sorry about… Questions," Sveta scratched the back of her head, "I don’t know when to shut up sometimes."

"Beat it, Svet. The fault lies with me and me alone. You have done nothing wrong." Annie smirked, showing that everything was fine. The temperature inside the room was great! After the annoying breeze outside, the overheated air of the room felt like true home to her. Whoever prepared this place sure was aware of the heat preferences of the Wolf Tribe members.

"Piss off, sis. I know when I screw up. Anyway," Sveta pointed at the dresser with a mirror over it. Annie's backpack lay carefully on the dresser along with her jacket, a thin TV, one of the latest models, judging by the appearance, was mounted against the wall, "If you want to have a midnight snack, it's better to call me over the terminal. The restroom is down the corridor, pass the dining hall and then head on to the left. If you get lost, don’t worry, just find any servant, they will show you around. Spirits knows, I got lost here quite often as a kid," The wolfkin chuckled softly. She looked at Annie in a mild confusion. Annie saw a hint of fear in the eyes of her sister and allowed another surge of self-hate to bloom within, "There is something we should talk about... Would you like to… You know what? It doesn’t matter right now, we can speak tomorrow. Have a nice sleep!" Svetlana cheerfully waved her paw in a gesture of goodbye before closing the door behind herself.

With a tired sigh, Annie lowered herself on her knees, looking in the mirror. This whole room looked more expensive than anything the soldier ever had in her life. Although, technically, her power armor probably cost more... But then again, the armor belonged to the state, not to Annie. And this home was not the only thing that Sveta had. She had a loving family, she had friends, and she was smart.

Spirits, my sister is truly amazing. How can I even start to compete with her? She won before we even met. Annie happily smiled at her own reflection. Losing to her doesn’t even feel bad to be honest.

She stood up before the mirror, pressing her paws together. Closing her eyes, she allowed herself to fall into a trance, silently intoning a prayer of thanks to the Spirits over and over again.

****

Annie’s eyelids opened wide when the scout realized that she spent a good portion of the hour in her trance, silently speaking prayers to the Spirits over and over again. Lack of sleep was nothing to be worried about, the scout was too excited to sleep anyway, yet bodily needs snapped Annie out of her prayer. She did eat a bit too much. Taking a deep breath, she stretched her entire body before walking out of the room. In times of need, she could go on for weeks without an ounce of sleep, tomorrow she will be as fresh as today. Her worries receded, meditation allowed her to take reign over the destructive self-hate impulses and allow the brighter parts of her personality to resurface. Dragena’s lessons really paid off.

I won’t spoil Sveta’s day this time. Annie promised herself, going toward the walkway that led across the kitchen. And besides that, there were plenty of places in the Core Lands that Annie herself wanted to see. For example, the sports palace of the Dynast in Houstad. Aside from regular sports events, there were also numerous schools and trainers of martial arts from around the country. The state paid trainers to give free lessons for the young and old, trying to keep citizens healthy by involving them in sports activities. That was all well and good, but Annie herself was more interested in getting stronger. The Olympiada thingy proved to be incredibly fun, and, with the right amount of training, Annie may even be able to actually use it in combat. Who knows what else she could learn? Maybe there is some form of martial art in this world that would allow the scout to become even with Virginia after all. Or, perhaps, become even greater than the bitter rival?

"…Sveta, you have to agree that her behavior is a bit…" Annie stopped before stepping onto the walkway above the kitchen. Her ears caught the voice of mister Jeysich coming from below, the man spoke in a half-guilty, half-worried voice.

"Wild. Lass is sure one wild horse." The voice of mister Ronson finished the sentence.

"Dad, she is my sister. Not a horse." Sveta answered her parents in an icy voice.

"I received a call from the Sunblade household today," Jeysich said in a calm voice, matching the tone of her daughter, "Details are a bit sketchy, but apparently, she attacked one of their kids…"

"Dad, I was there. No one was hurt. Zeke was fooling around and got what he wanted. You know how sensitive Sunblades are, they are ove…"

"Fine, lemme ask a simple question then," Mister Ronson cut off the explanation, "Daughter, did ya felt yourself safe when the young lass gored the table tonight? Cause I’ll be honest with ya, I nearly shit bricks at her sudden mood shift. Reminded me of that one time in a bar when one fellow introduced my forehead a bit too close to the bottle all of a sudden. Her look made me want to jump in front of ya."

Annie folded her arms on her chest and leaned against the wall, lost in thought. All her instincts are inside her to announce herself and defend herself from accusation. Yet at the same time, they had a point. She lost control, not once, but twice at least. Once, when she nearly hurt Zeke. And the second time, when she was called on about her lack of care for her father. This was not someone else’s fault, but her own.

"Listen, we're not trying to say she's evil or anything," Mister Jeysich said quickly after a long period of silence from Svetlana, "Given the circumstances of her life, such behavior is completely understandable. But you can’t deny that she is bad news for now and in need of prof…"

"Answer the question, please, Sveta. Did ya felt safe or not?" Ronson demanded to know.

"I got scared for a second," The wolfkin sounded like she had to squeeze out an admission, "We were happy all day, sure, some troubles happened, but who cares. Annie is alive. And yet, for a moment, Annie looked like she was about to hurt me. But…"

Annie silently turned away, storming toward the room and praying that no servant appeared in her path. She felt first numbness, then cold in her arms, cold that spread all the way toward her head, turning into scorching heat, before turning to cold again. And yet, the scout refused to let confusion derail her walk, refusing to succumb to anger or depression. Her claws remained in her fingers. Her eyes were calm. Each of her steps produced next to no sound.

Hurt me. Annie walked down the corridor and looked at her paws. She would never hurt her sister, right? Annie prayed, she begged the Spirits, she…

Scout stopped before a large painting on a wall. On this piece of art were portrayed nearly sixty people: several cubs with their parents, who were wearing work clothes, Sveta’s parents, Sveta herself surrounded by a group of teens of her age. Every single one of them looked happy, despite being originally from the Wolf Tribe, Svetlana barely looked out of place on this picture. Her size was similar to that of people around her, no scars marked her body. Annie's paw ran across her own face, allowing her fingers to feel the ugly marks left by this blasted scumbag during their first meeting. The bones of the scout were tough and sturdy, the product of countless days of training and healing after countless cracks. Compared to the people in the picture, Annie was a person from another world.

She looked down at her hand, her trusted oversized weapon of maiming and killing, as realization crept inside her head. Bad news. This is true, isn’t it? Annie swore to herself that she would behave properly and would not ruin this day in any way, but on this day she had already snapped at Ulrica, hurt Zeke, scared her sister at least twice, and scared her sister's foster parents... No. Not foster parents. Parents. Etch this into your head, dimwit. And who knows what else she did indirectly. Yes, it may be a bit assholish to speak about the scout behind her back, but with someone as unpredictable as Annie, can she really blame these people? Can she blame her sister for being careful? Of course not, no matter what Annie may swear to herself, the fact remains. Scout can’t control herself, she can’t behave as a normal human being would. And worst of all, the mere presence of Annie in this house has already started to drive a wedge in Svetlana’s family.

I got scared. Thought snapped her out of confusion, and the scout nodded, understanding what she must do. Returning to the room and quickly gathering her things in the backpack, the wolfkin took a piece of paper, taking a pen in her paws, and briefly became lost in thoughts.

I never intended to scare you… No, this sounds way too much like Annie was blaming Sveta. Please forgive me for causing troubles… Again, this sounds like Annie blames either Sveta or Oaksters. No, the scout needs to tread carefully here; she can't afford to stir up more trouble among the Oaksters. Annie bit the end of the pen, wondering what exactly she should write to make this whole situation look innocent enough. What would Dragena do in her place… Well, she would never be in her place at all… Annie bit off the tip of the pen when inspiration finally hit her like a lightning bolt: "Apologies for my sudden disappearance, unexpected duties call me back to the Wastes. Can’t tell you more, military secrets. Please thank misters Oaksters instead of me for their hospitality and for the greatest dinner that I have ever had in my life. Love you all, stay safe!"

Annie, satisfied with what she had written, briefly considered asking for an apology for her behavior tonight, but decided against it. People were not fools, they would easily figure out the true reason behind her disappearance if she left as much as a hint. After sending a signal to Angoro, mapping the place of the meeting and picking up her backpack, Annie opened the windows and took a breath of the night air, frowning from the cold and allowing the breeze of the night to wash over herself. And then she jumped, crossing several meters between the wall and the room in a single leap, gracefully landing on top of the stone wall. Despite the late hour, gentle moonlight illuminated the lands, allowing even the normie's eyes to see in the darkness. Meanwhile, Annie could see her surroundings as clearly as during the day. She turned around, looking at the mansion, keeping a smile of happiness on her face. Some things are just not meant to be.

Your sister was left in your care, you useless idiot! … you can’t deny that she is bad news… she was about to hurt me… The wolfkin chuckled, keeping a smile on her face despite the pain in her chest. If Oaksters had cameras, it would be easy for them to get a hint. At the corner of the building, she could see light falling from the windows of the dining hall, indicating that Sveta was still there, talking with her family even during this late hour.

Why am I such a failure? Why am I the one who is the bad one? Annie wondered, trying to understand the reason. Sure, she wasn’t the greatest person. Not smart, prone to anger, killed people before. But surely there had to be a reason for her misfortunes, a solution to her constant...

Spirits, take my life, give Sveta back. Annie looked up as a cloud obscured the moon's view, leaving the land in complete darkness. Darkness, the patrimony of the Spirits. This time, darkness came accompanied by the barely audible squeak of a rat, beast expired under the pressure of the metal trap on the field. The mind of the scout remembered the plea that she was saying to the Spirits over and over again. This was the deal, was it not? Spirits gave Sveta back, in a sense. And they also took Annie's life away, also in a sense.

"I will protect you all, don’t you worry and live happily, Svet. Goodbye." Annie widely smiled, feeling how the pain in her heart was disappearing. Everything became clear once and for all. Her life for the sake of Sveta's happy life. This was the price that she was willing to pay. Not just to absolve herself of a sin before the family. But also, for the sake of living. The Spirits gave her a task, and she will see it through.

The wolfkin made a jump backward, making a somersault in the air and landing on her feet. The long and large car stood near the gates of the mansion, the car itself was covered with ornate gilded symbols, and the vehicle had been painted in a deep blue color. Annie could not remember if she had seen it when the taxi arrived here, yet the lights of the rich looking vehicle were off. It was probably the car of one of the owners of the mansions. In any case, this is no longer relevant.

Like a bullet, she charged across fields, evading traps meant for rodents. Making sure to not crush even the tiniest thing underneath her mighty legs, Annie ran across the field, unbothered to hide her presence. There was no need for this, her long ears would warn the scout in advance about any presence of the night guards, if the local owners even had them. Angoro was supposed to meet with Annie at the other side of the river and…

Scout stopped, hearing a strange noise of the door being open behind her. Turning around, her amber eyes caught the silhouette of the rich car before the main gates, the passenger door of the car was wide open, showing nothing but the darkness inside the car. Annie looked around, trying to see if anyone was following her. But aside from the barely audible night wind, the cracking of the wood in the greenhouses and the rustle of leaves, there was nothing. There was not a single bird in the sky, and no movement of rodents from beneath the ground. In fact, the silence that surrounded her was unnatural for such a place. At the very least, at this very moment, she should hear the sounds of a trap slamming shut, crushing the rodents on the fields. She saw couple of dead rats already. Why the sudden change? The silence that fell on the plains reminded Annie of the silence when an alpha predator moved across the rocky lands of the Wastes. All living beings tried to hide themselves, begging for the scary thing to pass by. Silence right now reminded her of a time when skinwalkers were on a walk.

Turning away from the mansion, the scout walked forward, this time slowly. The feeling of someone or something looking at her was almost unbearable. At times, Annie could have sworn that she had heard a step just behind herself. During such times, she would stop, turning back rapidly. The emptiness of the night farmland was all that welcomed her. Even the scout herself started doubting if she even heard anything to begin with. Her own steps, silent as they were, produced small tremors on the ground. If anyone had followed her, she would have felt the same tremors.

Yet the sense of being watched, the feeling of being followed, refused to recede. Fur moved at the back of Annie’s neck, her instincts screamed to her "Protect your neck! Run! Hide! Defend yourself!". Angrily the scout turned toward the river and ran, deciding to ignore the sense of several eyes looking at her. Maybe she was on edge because of some hidden cameras. Or simply being paranoid because of the stress. Regardless, there was no danger. The Core Lands had no large enough wildlife to threaten a grown-up human.

Annie reached the outer wall, a wall that was made of a series of the iron bars that marked the end of the Oakster farmlands. Barbed wire ran at the upper end of the wall, and the wall itself reached five meters in height. Annie squatted, feeling muscles strain in her legs for a brief moment. In the next moment, Annie launched herself into the air, leaving perfect footprints on the ground. The scout landed on the other side of the wall after making a spin in the air just for the sake of fun. Wolfkin made two steps toward the river and felt the ground beneath her tremble when something or someone landed behind her. Once again, Annie felt that several persons were looking at her, gauging her every move. The clouds that blocked moonlight moved on, allowing moonlight to fall on the ground once more. And Annie saw. Some immense being stood behind her, casting a shadow big enough to cover the entire body of the scout in the darkness.

"Who is there?!" Annie shouted, spinning around and attempting to land a kick at the being behind herself. Her kick hit only the empty air behind her. Once again, she felt neither the tremors, nor the sound of the footsteps. Annie was not the best person when it came to stealth, but she knew the basics well enough. Whoever was toying with her right now had to be an incredibly dangerous person to move like a ghost.

"My apologies for the scare. Tell me when you become calm enough for a talk." Someone said behind Annie, words that were almost whispered into the left ear of the scout.

Scout jumped away, spinning in the air to look behind her. Her wide eyes dart around the open field, hoping to catch a glimpse of anything or anyone who said these words. Once more, all she could see was air and land. But this time, an unknown person did not bother to hide their footsteps. The presence of something powerful could be heard behind Annie, sound of steps could be heard while the unknown person walked to keep the distance between itself and Annie’s back.

The moment her feet touched the ground, the scout ducked and landed a low kick behind herself, combining it with a rapid elbow strike at the night behind herself. Once more, her leg sliced through the empty air and only the night air touched the fabric of her clothes. Whoever was chasing Annie was both faster and more experienced than her. Annie's ears picked up footsteps behind her once more, and she leapt from the spot, covering ten meters of ground in two giant leaps. Hoping to bait the pursuer into making a mistake, Annie made one more leap forward, hearing how someone was keeping the same two steps away from her. This time instead of landing on her legs, Annie landed on her paws, looking into the darkness behind her.

"Not the worst attempt," the voice said in approval behind her. Judging by the voice, the unknown person stood the same two steps behind Annie, "Can we talk now?"

Like Abyss! Annie thought in annoyance. She can’t run back to the mansion, not with this unknown person after her. She had to find a way to draw whoever this was away from the mansion long enough for Angoro to arrive and hopefully help her. There was still one way for Annie to reveal the unknown stalker. Up to this point, the scout was running along the side of the river. The wolfkin dashed toward the river on all fours this time, leaving prints in the mud. The thought of being submerged in the cold water horrified the wolfkin at some subconscious level, but she stubbornly charged forward to the calm and dark waters. The cold can be endured, her fur and clothes will dry out. And the pursuer will either have to jump after Annie and reveal itself when the water slows down the movements or stay at the shore and reveal itself as well. The scout made a leap, casting her shadow over the water of the river. The impact of her jump carried her all the way to the middle of the twenty-step wide river before gravity slowly took its toll, lowering her body in the air toward the waters. When a hand closed around the Annie's neck, jerking her in the air, her fingers nearly touched the surface of the river. The grip around the neck of the woman was strong, and yet at the same time, the unknown person mostly held her by the nape of her neck, allowing the scout to breathe freely. The fingers of the unknown person felt almost gentle despite the strength of the grip. The crater of water rose in the air with the booming sound of an explosion when someone stepped on the water, pushing all the water away from the middle of the river and spilling it over the shores.

"Sound idea, cousin. However, the young lady should not embarrass herself by getting soaked in the water all of a sudden. " When Annie and her captor landed at the bottom of the temporarily empty river, the same calm voice said. The unknown person's single step diverted the river's flow. The water started gathering back, flowing in a torrent toward Annie and her captor. The scout blinked in surprise as her surroundings rapidly changed when her captor made a soundless leap away from the midstream all the way to the shore. The hold on her neck was released, and the unknown person allowed the scout to softly land on her feet. Turning around, Annie finally saw the person who pursued her.

She was tall, easily reaching Dragena's height, although the build of this stranger was slightly leaner. Moonlight from above caused the pristine white fur to shine in the darkness. Her long hair was put into a lock and held with a silver lock just over her head, allowing blonde-colored strands of hair to fall all the way to her waist. Twin crimson orbs, shining just as brightly as the eyes of any warlord, glanced at Annie with casual interest. She was dressed in long riding boots, trousers, and a jacket of deep-sea color. A duo of black belts run across her lithe waist, holding in place a thin longsword in a metal sheath at her left side. Both of her paws were covered by a pair of black gloves, one paw lovingly lay on the handle of her sword. A silver brooch in the shape of the moon rested on the right lapel of the jacket. Rare glimpses of the skin that was visible through the thick fur bore signs of tan, slightly different from the tanned skin of Annie. Whereas warlords were built to be a testament to raw power and ferocity, this being was built to be a testament to artistry and efficiency, even her every breath was elegant, but the scout knew just how deadly this being could be if she so desired.

"My boot got wet. How… unsightly," The woman before Annie lifted her left leg, dispassionately looking at her own boot for a moment. Putting her leg back on the ground, she addressed Annie, "My name is Camelia Wintersong, and you and I will have a talk."

Annie took one step back against her will. Sword saint, one of the greatest members of the Ice Fang order. Equal to warlords in both skills and military insight, these individuals often wielded more than one power. Even a single sword saint was enough to make shamans fearful, as these were truly the opponents worthy of warlords. To make it worse, the individual who stood before Annie was famous even among other sword saints, ruling as a matriarch over the third strongest house in the Ice Fang order. Known as the Striking Blow, Camelia once had a sparring match against warlord Zero, a sparring match that the sword saint gracefully won. In a war, sword saint Camelia was known for being able to leave a trail of destruction in her wake, even enemy tanks often ended up being crushed into a pile of rubble with a single hit from Camelia. Annie knew all the rumors about this woman, yet the scout was confused by the weapon of the sword saint. Camelia was known for her superheavy long spear, not for her prowess with the sword. No wolfkin of the Ice Fang order would ever part with their personal weapon willingly.

"What… what do you want to talk about?" Annie forced herself to be calm. There were rumors about the explosive temper of this woman, but no shaman ever claimed that Camelia was a danger to other wolfkins. They were all allies, surely nothing bad could happen.

"Our dear cousins of the Wolf Tribe are such a rare sight to see in the Core Lands. Keep calm, for in my presence you are safe from harm, young one." Camelia’s burning gaze locked itself on the eyes of Annie. The crimson flame in the eyes of the sword saint looked unnatural for the scout. Instead of spilling out like a light, the crimson color in the pupils of the sword saint devoured the whites of her eyes, coloring them entirely red.

"Safe? Just like warlord Kalaisa was safe in the very home of the Ice Fangs?" Annie allowed herself to mock this inane proposition, "Thanks, but I ref…"

Scout bit her tongue and took one more step back. The expression of the being before her did not change, the lips of Camelia were still locked in the straight line and there was calmness in her eyes. And yet anger, not rage but pure, undistilled anger, sprouted in all directions from the elegant form, hitting Annie as physically as a real whip could. Scout wanted to fall on her knees and beg forgiveness or try and run away. Anger emanating from Camelia felt akin to a natural disaster, one that flattens everything in its path rather than anger directed at a person. And in a flash, that anger was gone, as if someone had turned another channel on a TV. Instead of raging fire, ice calmness wrapped into a human form now stood once more before the scout. Fear let go of Annie's chest, and the scout took a deep breath, warily watching the being before her.

"You were saying something. Carry on," Camelia lifted her paw in a generous gesture before cocking her head to the left side, looking at Annie like an archeologist would look at the curiosity, "I scared you. Annoying. Make something clear to me then. The majordomo of the Sunblade clan reported that you attacked young Zeke. Why did you do that?"

"Lies!" Annie clenched her fists, biting her tongue to feel the blood. She should have known. Blasted ice boys, always flipping everything upside down to... She closed her eyes, tasting blood in her mouth and calming herself by force. Opening her eyes, she continued speaking calmly, "It was not an attack. He and I had a proper sparring match. But in this match, I did break my own rules and went overboard. I ask forgiveness for this."

"Sparring match, you say? This was not what I heard," Camelia said. Not allowing Annie to refute or explain the situation, Camelia produced a golden terminal from the right pocket of her jacket. Her fingers pressed something, and she elegantly lifted the terminal to her ear, calling someone, "Zeke? Apologies for the call at such a late hour," The sword saint asked with a hint of steel in her voice, "I want you to clear something for me. Your majordomo told me that you came under attack by the wolfkin named A…" She fell silent for a moment, listening to heated words on the other side of the terminal. Finally, the sword saint nodded, speaking in a slightly more honeyed tone now, "I see. No, there will be no need for this, I will clear up all misunderstandings myself. One more thing, Zeke. Never interrupt a sword saint ever again. Protocols exist for a reason." Not allowing the person on the other side to answer, Camelia put the terminal back into her pocket, looking a bit more warmly at the wolfkin before her, "I suppose your scramble with young Ulrica was blown out of proportion by her guardian as well. Just when you think that we are supposed to be better than this… On behalf of the Ice Fang order, I ask thee to accept our apologies for this slander," The sword saint made an elegant bow to the surprised Annie, "Oaksters will be informed about…"

"Apologies accepted and there is no need to speak with anyone about this any further. Please, just let me leave in peace." The scout said quickly, feeling a strange sensation. It felt almost like someone’s eyes were locked at the base of her neck.

"In a few moments, perhaps. There are still things to clear," Camelia said, walking in a circle around Annie and pointing to the distant mansion with her paw, "I spoke with young lady Svetlana when she first arrived here, but she had no answer for me. "Nonetheless, allow me to say that Svetlana is a charming young lady with a bright future ahead of her. You should be proud to have such sister."

"I am proud of her," Annie responded calmly, unclenching her fists and allowing claws to slide freely out of her fingers, "If you plan to hurt her in any way or…"

Another surge of anger stopped Annie mid-sentence, but this time scout stood her ground, looking in the crimson eyes of the deadly being before her. Camelia was ancient, she saw Ravager and even fought side by side with her. And now this being is clearly insulted. A mere gesture from this being could have easily ended the life of Annie in an instant. Sword saints were accustomed to being respected, even revered by those they considered to be their inferiors. For all their rumored manners, sword saints were a product of the older era, they were just as wild as members of the Wolf Tribe.

"No, I will never harm her. This I swear," The sword saint hissed, stopping in place with the mansion behind her. Running a paw over her perfect muzzle, Camelia calmed herself, "Your distrust is… annoying, cousin. I merely want to have a healthy conversation with you."

"What do you want, cousin?" Annie asked plainly.

"Aranea Wintersong. Where is she?" Camelia replied in the same tone as Annie. The long ears of the sword saint twitched in annoyance at the familiarity, but otherwise the woman showed no sign of anger.

"She is dead and buried."

"Who is the liar now? You just threw an accusation about dear Kalaisa against me. However, there was no accusation made against me about her daughter's fate. Surely, after seeing the Core Lands even you have to admit that the Wastes are not the place for a child to grow up. Certainly not among the cruelty of the Wolf Tribe," Camelia once more tilted her head to the side, waiting for a response. Annie pressed her lips, afraid to say anything that might give the hint to this woman, "Nothing to say? Come with me then."

"Where to?" Annie blinked in surprise.

"I saw you going out of the mansion’s window," Camile giggled, pressing her right paw to her mouth, "Ah, it reminds me of the days of my youth… Your hostility towards the Ice Fang order is somewhat expected, now that I know that Sunblades once more jumped to conclusions and muddied the waters."

"You have a point?" Annie looked around, desperately wanting to hear the sound of the engine, "I am waiting for someone to pick me up."

"The point is, based on what command told me about you, you're on leave, and there's no reason for you to flee civilization so quickly," Camelia smiled, speaking to Annie like one would speak to a scared cub, "Your fears are easy to guess. If you are afraid of spending time with your sister, how about you spend several days as a guest at my house instead? We have quite a number of things to teach and to show you. And it will do wonders for the youth of my house to get a taste of the might of their cousins. And I am sure we can clear up all misunderstandings between you and your sister as well. You saw cruelty, now you will see the other side of life. Maybe after getting to know Ice Fangs a bit better, you will even tell us where Aranea is, hmmm?"

"Thanks, but no thanks." Annie took a step back.

"Alas, my proposition is not negotiable," Camelia took two steps forward, easily covering the distance between herself and Annie. The scout hit with her right paw, closing her fist at the last moment and slamming her bare knuckles into the chest of the sword saint. She may as well try to punch the mountain for all the good that her attempt to resist has brought to her. The knuckles of Annie failed to even push the flesh of the sword saint, while the fur and jacket of Camelia fully absorbed the impact. Annie swallowed drool, awaiting inevitable punishment for her attempt to resist and for breaking the law. Lowering herself on one knee before Annie, Camelia instead smiled, like an adult would smile at a stubborn child. Seeing fear in the eyes of Annie, the sword saint calmly spoke, "Fear is understandable, but unneeded. No one will hurt you. First, we will go to Oaksters and explain everyth…." The paw of the sword saint extended to Annie…

And pushed the scout back several steps, while the sword saint herself jumped back in the opposite side, narrowly evading the blow that was coming from the skies above. An elephantine shape landed between two people, smashing the ground where the sword saint was just a moment ago. The newcomer's punch was like an artillery strike, and Annie felt tremors beneath her feet. A small crater appeared beneath the mighty form, at the center of the strike, the ground had been pushed inward for at least ten to fifteen steps. The person stood up, casually stretching her back.

Warlord Ygrite, dressed in a simple gray turtleneck and loose cargo pants, smiled at Annie while cracking her neck. She wore an eyepatch over her left eye, the center of the eyepatch was torn, giving way to a tip of needle-sharp new fang. A small, dried-up trickle of blood ran down across the fur from the left eye all the way to the jaw of the warlord.

"You are like a magnet for disaster, Annie. Was it really hard to give me at least one night of a good sleep?" The mouth, filled with countless fangs open, allowing the rasping voice of the warlord to come out. Despite her straining tone, the warlord clearly was in a good mood, "Ah well, it’s all water under the bridge now."

"Warlord Ygrite?" Annie saluted the superior, "Pardon for asking, ma’am, what are you doing here?"

"At ease, Annie. We are supposed to be on leave," Ygrite yawned. She loudly blew her nose before continuing, "Curse this cold. Dragena forced me to visit the Core Lands, to allow eggheads to try and maybe develop a cure for my condition," Ygrite tapped the fang in her eye, "And she gave me the order to keep an eye on you, in case any trouble. Speaking of, good night and what the hell was that, Camelia?"

Shaking off the ground and grass from her perfectly white costume, the sword saint stood up, visibly relaxed. Taking her jacket by the lapels, Camelia fixed the position of her clothes, critically checking herself, before finally bowing to the warlord with the grace of a dancer:

"Good night to you as well, lady Ygrite. If I am guessing right, you moved into position for an attack the moment I stepped onto the river, is that right? By timing your movements with a flow of water, you managed to hide your presence from me, am I correct?" Ygrite only smirked at these words, continuing to stare upon the face of the sword saint. Camelia sighed and shook her shoulders, "If by "hell" you mean me sneaking after the scout, then the answer is that I wanted to test my skills and to see what our cousins could do. If by "hell" you mean my invitation, then I simply want to provide the best possible experience for my sweet cousin."

"And, from what I could see, you couldn't take no for an answer," Ygrite turned away from Camelia, returning her gaze to Annie. Annie's ears caught the sound of a moving car behind her. The dim light of the distant headlights caused the shadow of Annie to spread before herself, stretching forward bit by bit with every movement. Angoro was coming just on schedule. Ignoring the sword saint, Ygrite walked to the scout, dwarfing the woman before her, "You are aware of the law, right Annie?" The Warlord asked softly.

Annie nodded. A non-aggression pact between the Wolf Tribe and the Ice Fang order. Devourer and Wyrm Lord forced it upon the wolfkins of the Wolf Tribe, after they both got sick of the constant fighting of youths from both sides. Even when wolfkins were separated in various regions, hot heads from both sides challenged each other to meet on neutral territory in the Core Lands. Such meetings were extremely rare, but almost always resulted in horrific wounds for everyone involved. The Wolf Tribe could care less what their people were doing during leave and during free time, as long as their endeavors were legal. The Elders of the Ice Fang order, meanwhile, were in genuine shock upon seeing their youth savaged and demanded a stop to challenges. Thus, the law of non-aggression was passed. When in the Core Lands, before throwing the first punch, both sides had to properly challenge each other and agree upon the rules of the sparring match in the presence of either trained personnel, a warlord, or a sword saint. In the Wastes and in the Ravaged Lands, it was still free for all, but wolfkins of the Ice Fang order rarely visited these places. But even when ice boys visited the lands of the Wolf Tribe, warlords and shamans were often around to reign in the hotheads of the Wolf Tribe. This was the law that Annie broke by throwing the first punch. Meanwhile, Annie could have sworn that Ygrite missed Camelia on purpose. Warlords and shamans were tasked with upholding this law.

Why am I always the one to make mistakes? Annie wanted to ask but decided against it. She was the one who willingly broke the law, and now she will pay the price, as was proper. She took off clothes from the upper part of her body and threw her backpack on the ground, bowing to the warlord and showing her neck.

"You will not do it," Camelia said in an icy tone, walking to stand between Annie and Ygrite, "I push no charges."

"This is not for you to decide, honorable sword saint. Please respect our laws and step away." Annie felt no fear. Physical punishments were not something unusual, Spirits know that she has endured a lot of them by now. But the burning shame was. This time, the scout had done something truly bad. By breaking the non-aggression law, Annie cast a shadow on her own warlord. And Dragena did not need any stress right now.

"I will not allow to…" Camelia looked at Annie briefly. Her words were cut short when Ygrite picked this moment to bite Annie. The jaws of the warlord closed on Annie’s back in a blurring motion.

This was the first time Annie experienced punishment from the warlord. Zero never punished anyone. Dragena never used physical punishment. Now, in a sense, Annie had finally become a proper member of the Wolf Tribe. Fire exploded on your back when countless fangs of the Ygrite pierced the skin of the young woman. Even with the warlord holding back, Annie felt the sharp fangs scratch across her shoulder blades. With a twist of her head, Ygrite sent Annie cartwheeling up into the air, splashing blood all around the shore and leaving a sizeable chunk of flesh and fur in the mouth of the warlord. Camelia moved to catch the falling Annie, but was stopped by the warlord's arm, causing Annie to fall to the ground. The scout landed on her head, feeling how her organs moved in the lungs, making it hard to breathe. Impact from the fall and shock from pain left the scout gasping for air, lying face down on the ground.

"How dare you!" Camelia once again found her way blocked. The sword saint looked at the warlord with barely held back rage and put one hand on the sword hilt, "I will not stand for it. Let me through, or I will move you, cousin."

"You talk too much." Ygrite spit out flesh from her mouth and walked to help Annie. The warlord reached for the backpack of the scout, taking off bandages. By the time lieutenant Angoro and his driver arrived at the shore, the warlord had finished bandaging the scout's back, allowing Annie, who was still trembling from pain, to stand.

"Care to explain what happened here?" The lieutenant asked, holding a sizable package underneath his arm.

"Just a misstep," Annie laughed, feeling rivets of blood running underneath her bandages. This will take at least two weeks to properly heal, "Accidently broke the law, that is all."

"Uh-huh." Angoro looked at the Camelia and Ygrite through narrowed eyes. He looked back at Annie and asked if she needed any painkillers, but the scout turned down his offer.

"This will not stand. I will not allow you to mutilate your own people," Camelia calmly said to Ygrite, "Lady Anne will leave with me to the proper hospital where her wounds will be treated and later her scars will be removed. Her time with the Wolf Tribe is over, I will personally oversee her transfer to a safer…"

"Not for you to decide." Ygrite scratched behind her ear, answering in a plain tone.

"Thank you for your worries," Annie bowed to the sword saint, nearly falling down from pain. Angoro gently helped Annie stand up. Heavily breathing from pain, Annie accepted the offer, allowing the agent to hold her upright. Despite all the pain, she felt relieved. Punishment for breaking the non-aggression law was purely a physical one. She paid for her crime and cleared all the shadows from Dragena’s name, "But I am fine where I am."

Camelia looked at Annie for a moment. Scout could practically feel the thoughts of the sword saint. The woman was thinking about stopping them by force and clearly wondered if she could get away with this.

"Camelia, you need to vent," Ygrite spread her arms wide, "Come, l can take it. Let us have a sparring match."

"You? But you are weake…" The sword saint stopped, pressing the finger of the paw covered by a black glove to her lips. She looked at the warlord with curiosity, "How about these rules. If I land a hit on you, lady Annie will have to go into a hospital of my choosing. Worry not, I will not try to "capture" her, just ensure that her wounds are properly treated. And if you fail to land even a single hit on me during our sparring match, you will tell me where Aranea Winterson really is."

"Aranea is dead." Ygrite replied to this offer by hunching her head down and lifting both paws in front of her face.

"Then you have nothing to be afraid of." Camelia put her right paw over the sword hilt once more, putting her right leg forward and using the fingers of her left paw to pull aside the belts around the sword scabbard. Ygrite nodded once, agreeing to the rules.

Camelia moved at the same moment as the warlord began her nod, moving faster than anyone that Annie had ever seen up to this point. In her eyes, the sword saint became a stream of light, covering the distance in ten steps between Ygrite and herself in a single bound. The sword, still locked in a scabbard, struck forward like a lightning bolt, aiming to bite the warlord across her shoulder. Even Ygrite herself seemingly found herself in a shock, stepping back to avoid the mighty swing. The sword moved across the fur on the paws of the warlord, failing to touch the skin by a millimeter. In a single fluid motion, Camelia returned her weapon back into her belts, striking once more and creating a wide blurring arc in the air, tearing through the cargo pants on the knees of the warlord and making the massive being take another step back, evading the blow by the hair. Once more, Camelia put her weapon back, just in time for Ygrite to start her own attack and throw a punch with her right paw. The warlord timed her attack based on the previous move of the sword saint, and had Camelia moved with the same speed as before, the sword saint would have either had to dodge or she would have been hit. Only this time, the quickdraw slash came at an even greater speed. By attacking with the same speed during the first two attacks, Camelia lured her opponent into a false sense of security. And now the ornate scabbard of the sword saint tore through the turtleneck and left a bloody line across the Ygrite’s chest, striking across the right paw of the warlord and throwing aside the mighty punch of the warlord. Annie felt something hit her. It took her a fraction of a moment to understand what it was. The slash of Camelia moved so fast that it passed the speed of sound, creating a small sonic boom in the air.

Annie felt her heart sink at such a casual display of dominance. This was not surprising, not in the slightest. Camelia beat Zero, the first of the warlords. Third among the sword saints, this woman was a living testament that sword saints were superior fighters compared to warlords. But watching Ygrite jump back, shaking off the pain from the dent on her arm, was too disheartening to watch. The pride of the Wolf Tribe is about to be shattered again. The sword saint came to a halt two steps away from his opponent, no longer pressing the attack.

"Cousin, please forgive my harsh words from before," Camelia put her sword back behind her belts, her voice was filled with sadness, "I will pay for the cost of your clothes. Your tenacity deserves respect. We also have good massage parlors. Let us stop this senseless fighting and go have a proper evening as befits ladies."

"Now, ain’t that an interesting offe…" Ygrite loudly blew her nose once more, grabbing her nostrils with her right paw and trembling with all her body as another eruption came from her nose.

"Are you alright, lady Ygrite?" Camelia asked in a worried tone, making one step closer.

"Yes, just this damned col…" Ygrite’s body trembled once.

At this moment, the warlord launched an attack. When Ygrite leaned forward in a fake gesture of blowing her nose, the right paw of the warlord made a chopping motion toward the lean neck of the worried looking Camelia instead. The left arm of the warlord struck forward as well, aiming to grab the sword saint by her side.

Camelia only smiled, striking once more with her sword still in the scabbard. Her quickdraw technique was perfection itself, even inside the sheath, the sword caused the very air to scream. This time, Camelia aimed her attack at the ribs of her opponent. A smile disappeared from the lips of the sword saint when her scabbard ended up being locked between the paws of the Ygrite. Annie could see that the sword saint timed her attack perfectly, but the wolfkin fell for the warlord's trick. The heavy-breathing warlord looked into the eyes of the sword saint.

"You know what is the best quickdraw strike?" Ygrite asked Camelia in a rasped voice, causing the woman to lift her brow in surprise. This moment of surprise cost the sword saint. The warlord kicked with her right leg, aiming for the abdomen of her opponent. The force behind the blow sent Camelia back, leaving the scabbard in the paws of her opponent, while the sword itself was unsheathed. Ygrite smiled and continued, "First one. All following up attacks from the quickdraw stance are easier to predict with each new attack."

Upon seeing her opponent, the warlord's smile disappeared. Camelia was unharmed. Before the brutal kick of the warlord could reach its mark, it ended up being absorbed just in time by the left paw of the sword saint.

"Ain’t making it easy for me, huh?" Ygrite asked in a cheerful, strained voice, throwing the scabbard in the air and catching it with another paw. The warlord rolled her trophy behind her neck, playing with a masterfully crafted piece of art like a cub plays with a dried up branch of wood. Still tossing the scabbard in her paws, the warlord loudly inhaled air, before continuing speaking, "Sheesh, why is this thing so heavy? No wonder you had trouble sneaking around."

"According to information available to the Ice Fang order, you are the weakest of the warlords. Nonetheless, your quick attacks and combat sense are impeccable. Could it be that we will need to reevaluate the ranking of the warlords?"

"Eh, after losing so many times, even I will pick up a few tricks." Ygritte responded to the sword saint.

"I'll remember your lesson, lady," Camelia stood up with a smile on her snout, once more fixing the position of her jacket, "My scabbard, please."  The sword saint asked and extended her arm toward the warlord.

"Sure, have it back, lady," The warlord shrugged her shoulders and casually threw the scabbard at the sword saint. The sheath spun in the air several times, flying toward its owner. With graceful movement, Camelia lifted her sword, catching the scabbard on the tip of the deadly looking weapon. The sheath soundlessly slid across the weapon, producing a soft clicking sound upon connecting with the hilt of the sword.

A white explosion devoured the world before Annie for a brief while. The flash grenade, hidden inside the scabbard by the Ygrite, exploded right in the face of the sword saint, temporarily blinding the woman. The warlord leaped right after the explosion, closing in on the woman. The left palm of the warlord was meant to land upon the lean neck of Camelia. The air screamed, when the chopping strike of the warlord hit the empty air. The sword saint circled to the left of the warlord, hiding in the blind zone. The sword covered by the scabbard struck forward, once more moving faster than Annie could see. Ygrite caught the sword in the space between her right shoulder and neck, growling from the pain of the strike and helping herself with her right arm to hold the weapon trapped. Such was the force behind the blow of the lean sword saint that the right leg of the warlord ended up getting buried to the knee in the ground. Without looking at the opponent behind her, the warlord struck with her left elbow, landing a brutal hit on the graceful form of Camelia.

The sword saint ignored the hit from Annie. For someone like her, it felt like the sting of a parasite or even less. The beautiful woman failed to replicate this feat with an elbow strike from the warlord. The mouth of the sword saint opened wide in a gasp of pain. The blow that could have easily punched through the front armor of a tank now speared the sword saint. Letting go of her sword, Camelia ducked low, sliding from the elbow strike like a stream of water. Ygrite found herself in the air when the low kick of Camelia sliced across the ankles of the warlord. A second kick landed in the chest of the warlord, sending the woman flying toward Annie and Angoro. Like a cannonball, the body of the warlord crashed into the ground near people, sending dirt and ground in all directions. Ygrite rolled to the side, standing up and wiping a stream of blood from the corner of her mouth, looking warily at the sword saint.

"Your tactical decisions and speed are commendable," Camelia said as she caught the spinning blade in the air and slid the scabbard back behind her belt. Her eyes narrowed and she spread her shoulders wide, "It seems we will really need to reevaluate our ranking of the warlords."

"Oh, please, I can’t sustain my peak for long," Ygrite coughed out a drop of blood onto her palm. Seeing the surprised look of Camelia, the warlord explained, "Not from the kick. One of the fangs punctured something inside of me. Okay, this is enough for today." The warlord threw her arms up.

Annie looked at the warlord in shock. Angoro just chuckled. The sword saint turned into a statue. Her paw was already on the sword hilt, lean form was ready to attack. Blinking once, Camelia’s facial features turned from stone-faced concentration to that of surprise, narrowed eyes opened wide, brow lifted.

"Beg your pardon?"

"I know that look on your face," The warlord loudly inhaled air before bursting into strained laughter, "You were about to take me on seriously and kick my ass. I think I’ll pass on that part of a duel, thank you very much."

"You... you are an odd individual, lady Ygrite," Camellia straightened up, disbelievingly looking at Ygrite, "Even despite your mutation..."

The sword saint jumped back into combat position upon hearing a growl. The warlord dropped into her own combat stance, hunching low and giving out a loud growl. Drool mixed with blood fell from her lips.

"You just had to push me over the edge, didn’t you?" The warlord hissed, raising her arms, "Looking all superior to us, treating us like second-class beings, calling us names…"

"I never intended to purposely insult you in any way, lady Ygrite…" Camelia put her paw on the hilt of the sword. The sword saint spoke slowly, trying to deescalate the situation.

"I am not a mutant. Get it through your thick head. Unleash your sword. You want to have a serious fight? Here we go then." The eye of Ygrite opened impossible wide, the edges of the eyelid getting torn and spilling out tiny drops of blood. The body of the warlord shook, sweat appeared on her head, falling from the edges of her fur. The pupil dilated and wildly swayed in the eyeball. Instead of veins popping on the mighty arms, countless fangs pierced the turtleneck cloth covering the arms of the warlord. Blood soaked the gray material of the turtleneck, covering her arms in crimson. A thin line ran from the lower jaw of Ygrite, all the way to the neck. Annie saw in shock how the lower jaw and neck of Ygrite opened wide like a mandible of some insect, a hole that led down the throat. A long tongue fell on the neck, covered in countless cuts and looking like a dead leech. The warlord took a breath. This time, air went into her lungs with ease. The eye of Ygrite closed to its normal size. Her pupil stopped moving, locking down on the figure of sword saint.

The warlord moved. For the first time in the evening, Ygrite moved with the same speed as her opponent. Unlike her gracious opponent, Ygrite resembled a comet wreathed in flames of rage and fury. Her steps left traces on the ground, causing chunks of earth to fly in the air. Her assault was met with a gleaming blade. For the first time in the evening, Camelia unleashed her blade in defense as well, making the heart of Annie go crazy. A net of blinding strikes stopped Ygrite in her tracks, slashing the tips of her fangs at the arms of Ygrite. The wolfkins of the Wolf Tribe were famous for their hardy fangs and claws. Yet even when compared to fangs, claws were the main natural weapon of the Wolf Tribe. And as two beings, one fueled by rage and another wreathed in ice-cold calmness, Annie understood that Ygrite refused to use her claws. The warlord took the hit of the blade on her arms, allowing the foe to shatter and slice through unnatural fangs before regrowing them just in time to block another hit. Ygrite controlled the muscles of her arms with ease, turning flesh and rapidly growing fangs in half-circle motion, with speed that produced enough impact to deflect or slow down incoming hits of her opponent. The arms of both opponents were a blur, the legs of both fighters barely move, while the two beings exchanged furious blows. But finally, an opening came. Camelia moved her head aside to evade the tip of the sliced fang that flew toward her eye. At that moment, Ygrite pushed her arm forward. The sword master jumped aside, narrowly evading a hit that shattered the ground where she stood. The impact of the hit caused Annie's legs to become wobbly, Angoro had to help scout stand upright. Camelia struck at the open back of Ygrite. The cloth of the turtleneck was torn, when a new set of fangs grew on the back of the warlord, slowing down the incoming strike just long enough for the warlord to turn toward her opponent.

"That’s seems like it will take a while," Angoro sighed. He looked at Annie and nodded at the package, "Want a cake or two?"

"Sure thing." Annie agreed, sitting down on the ground. Still keeping an eye on the two blurring forms that clashed with each other before the river, she took food from the agent and sat on the ground.

The sword master took a step back, avoiding two hits that would have rendered the armored car into a pile of rubble. The blade ended up being kicked aside by the arms of the warlord that were spinning around like a pair of drills. Ygrite left blood traces on the ground while more and more fangs grew on her arms. The clothes of the warlord were turning red from blood loss, her breathing was slowly getting heavier with each step. Immense control over muscles did not come cheap for the warlord, immense strain that such an act put on her body devoured the stamina at a rapid pace. Her opponent, on the other paw was perfection made flesh. The pristine costume was never touched by a single drop of blood. The breath of lady Camelia never became heavy. The eyes of the sword saint were concentrated on the opponent’s posture, reading the movements of legs and arms, waiting for the right moment to press her advance. And she found one. Taking her blade in both arms, Camelia raised the deadly blade before herself. She made an overhead strike, stopping the blade just in time before Ygrite could block the attack. The eye of Ygrite widened in surprise upon seeing that the sword saint refused to back down. Camelia made another attack from the same position, this time a blindingly overhead arc aimed at the base of the neck of the opponent. All the while, the arms of the warlord were still up, trying to block the initial fake attack.

Both opponents charged at each other from point blank, passing each other and creating another boom of sound. Both of them ended up with their backs to each other, arms of Ygrite nearly touched the ground, the tip of the blade of the sword master looked down as well. Several of the sliced fangs fell to the ground from the left shoulder of Ygrite, and the warlord laughed, fixing her lower jaw right back into the proper form and putting her tongue inside her mouth:

"You are one fast girl, Camelia! That nearly sliced my clavicle in two!" The cloth on the left shoulder of the warlord was sliced in two, revealing a minor long cut on her flesh. Not a single drop of blood was on the blade of lady Camelia, yet the sword master still shook invisible dirt from her weapon, before putting it in the scabbard.

"Why did you stop? My right side was wide open." Camelia demanded to know. Ygrite smiled, showing the brooch from the jacket of the sword saint. She threw it to Camelia, and the woman caught it carefully, examining it before putting it on, clearly worried about another possible flash grenade.

"It would be unsightly for me to dirty such a dignified lady," Ygrite laughed, tearing off fangs from her arms in small fountains of blood, "Me on the other hand? Just a ragtag savage."

Camelia looked at her opponent in disbelief. Finally, a wide grin appeared on the face of the sword master, she grabbed the side of her head with one paw and laughed with a natural and infectious laughter. Ygrite joined the sword master in laughing, frowning from time to time during moments of tearing out fangs from her body.

"Lady Ygrite, you really are a unique being. I never expected you to be this strong," Camelia finally forced out of herself, still laughing, "I am not that frail to go down from a few torn ribs."

"Oh, I know that. You were one of the people who tried to stop Ravager from leaving. How are the scars?"

"Stop? Now here is the exaggeration," Camelia giggled in her glowed, dropping her serious façade once more for a second, "She simply walked past us, and six of us were left lying in pools of our own blood and entrails. Doctors had to work overtime to remove the scars of that day from my body. There was no attempt to stop Ravager because the six of us were mere children in comparison to her"

Ygrite touched the wound on the shoulder. She looked at the blood on her paw, then at Camelia, and smiled: "You too, held back. Now I am sure about the event with Kalaisa. You know, she called me a day before her… change. She called me to apologize for one old thing."

"Then this means that…" Camelia asked hopefully.

"Aranea is alive." Ygrite simply said, and Annie nearly choked on the cake, feeling how her eyes were about to jump from their sockets. The warlord utterly disobeyed the command of the shamans right now.

"Thank the Planet," Camelia pressed a paw to her chest, "Where is she? Is she fine? Did you or any other hurt her…"

"That is all that I will tell you about her. Zero spoke with the wolf hag in charge of raising Aranea, girl has no intentions of going back," Ygrite replied, shrugging off her shoulders at the look of Camelia, "As for the rest. You already know how we are."

Camelia angrily hissed, putting one paw over the hilt of her sword. This time Annie felt no danger from the woman, but the sword saint was angry at something outside of her control. With but two breaths, the woman calmed herself, removing her paw from the weapon.

"Who won?" Annie asked, finishing another tasty cake. Whoever baked them sure knew his or her craft.

"Friendship," Camelia answered, looking at the scout, "We are all tired and all also unsightly at that. Lady Annie, you are a welcomed guest in our hospital," Seeing how Annie looked at the warlord, sword saint smiled thinly, "Needless to say, this is a non-negotiable invitation. Unless, of course, you want to return to the Oaksters mansion?"

"I am ready to go with you, ma’am!" Annie jumped up, frowning from the pain in her back. The agent put a hand on Annie’s shoulder, holding the scout steady. The wolfkin could feel the back of her pants getting soaked with blood that was running down her spine.

"About the massage parlors…" Ygrite asked, tearing the fangs off her back. Her voice became strained once more, and the enormous being inhaled air with the sound of an industrial machine, "Never been there. Does this offer still stand?"

"Only if you too, agree to have your wounds treated as well." The sword saint smiled.

"Deal. But it’s better be worth it. Angoro. Please find someone to clear this place up, before Oaksters freak out." Ygrite commanded, straining to reach for a couple of fangs on her back. Her dress was a blood-soaked rag, blistering red in the moonlight. However, through the wide gaps in clothing of the warlord, Annie could see how flesh of the woman flowed toward each other, edges of the wound slowly closed on their own. Self-recovery of the warlord Ygrite looked freakish even for the eyes of Annie.

Annie threw one last glance at the distant mansion. While the warlord and lieutenant were speaking, the scout silently intoned one more prayer to the Spirits, begging them to keep Svetlana safe from harm. Upon seeing lights flashing in the room where Sveta left her, Annie hurried to the car.

Scout spent the next three days recovering in the luxurious hospital in the middle of Houstad. Instead of driving here with Angoro, the sword saint insisted that Annie ride here with her. The wolfkin felt herself embarrassed, dirtying the gorgeous seats in the car of lady Camelia with her blood. Ygrite invited herself to take a ride with them, blatantly rummaging through the bar in Camelia’s car. By the end of the trip, passenger seats in the regal car looked like something out of a slaughterhouse, blood was everywhere: seats, floor, windows, and even the ceiling. Mostly because the warlord refused to sit normally and constantly moved around, looking out of the windows and asking Camelia about various buildings around the road. Annie initially thought that the warlord was doing this to rile up the woman, but Ygrite looked honestly excited by the trip. And Camelia was calm as ever, treating the damage to her car as a trifle.

Upon arriving at the hospital, Camelia left two women in the care of doctors. Ygrite had a few broken bones in her shoulder and upon providing the warlord with basic care doctors, a mix of normies and new breeds, they consulted for a really long time among themselves. Annie overheard how one of the nurses asked one of the doctors how it was possible that the warlord was still alive with so many fangs forming inside her body. Camelia herself spent a whole day in the hospital, allowing medical personnel to fix the sprained wrist and large bruise on the abdomen of the sword saint. Annie was locked in the operation room for the rest of the evening. She had no idea what exactly the doctors did to her back, but upon waking up in the room after the operation, she felt the fresh fur and new skin on her back. Aside from a furious desire to fiercely scratch her back, the scout felt neither pain nor discomfort. The scout spent the next two days using training equipment and making sure her body moved the same way it did before. Three messages came onto her terminal, two from Sveta and one from the Oaksters family directly. The scout dared not open them and simply deleted them. The Oaksters probably hated her for causing minor discord between them and Sveta. Sveta herself… Annie had no idea what her sister could want from her. In any case, it would be far safer for Sveta to stay as far away from Annie as possible.

Ygrite, meanwhile, enjoyed herself to the full, trying the massage machines in the hospital. Her human fingers ended up being too soft for her liking, and she used special massage machines in the recreation rooms. Such devices could be potentially deadly for most normies and new breeds and could only be used under the supervision of medical personnel. The warlord insisted that Annie try them as well. Not knowing what to choose and too shy to ask for help, Annie foolishly chose "bone settler" mode in the menu before lying on the massage table. Scout never knew that there were so many bones in her body that could be so loudly cracked in ways she never knew possible. Feeling her body like a toy in the metal fingers of the machine, Annie gave herself an oath. Never agree to something like this ever again. And to keep a safe distance from the warlord.

At the very least, the warlord also managed to get herself into a problem. Willing to try new things, Ygrite left with Camelia to a beauty parlour. Upon returning to her room in the hospital, Ygrite looked weird, her fur was cut to an even size, her hair changed color, her brows changed color to that of the night sky, and the warlord herself smelled of a gentle perfume. Ygrite said that she hated every single second of this experience and advised the scout to keep a safe distance from such places for the sanity’s sake.

Annie left the Core Lands on the day that doctors approved her recovery. Skulking in the shadows, Annie sneaked into Angoro’s car, hiding from the windows in fear that by some miracle she would run into Sveta again. Feelings of calmness fell upon her soul when the car left the border of the Core Lands, passing through the massive defensive walls and entering the desolating area of the Wastes.

"Sorry that you had to leave your family so soon." Annie said to the lieutenant, feeling guilty that he had to leave with her. The man was spending his entire free time with his family.

"You kidding? A few more days and I would have burst from all the food that mom cooked. Speaking of which, are you hungry by any chance?" Angoro smiled, reaching for a package beneath his seat. Annie smiled at this offer and looked in the window.

There was no clear border between the Core Lands and the Wastes. Green life and a few trees found their way onto the harsh plains of the Wastes and stubbornly took hold here, refusing to back down. Rather than dying, hand-crafted nature adapted, clawing life for itself. Annie looked upon this and found it good. There was nothing wrong with being from the other world. Her sister was meant to live happily and safely in the Core Lands. Annie was meant to fight and die in the lands outside. All according to her deal with the Spirits.

There were some things that she decided to change. Upon returning to the barracks, Annie consulted with Lucendra and bought some stocks, as well as took all available jobs around the base. The scout would never be as rich or successful as her sister, but the sight of the magnificent house of the Oaksters still burned brightly in her heart. A place to call home. Not a stupid tent or a room in the base, but a proper home. This was a stupid dream, perhaps, but Annie never claimed to be smart. A simple dream for a simple person. At least one thing she can use to convince herself that she isn't that far behind her sister.

Not much had changed in Annie’s absence. While Lucendra was helping Ultis prepare documents for the upcoming trial, some hunting company shipped the wrong hunting gear for the scout and refused to take it back. Kayleen and the other wolf hags had their paws filled by keeping the soldiers busy, the wolf hag was visibly annoyed at the inability to use physical punishment anymore. As a side effect of this, the toilets in the Refugee Center Gamma had never been cleaner. Carty got overly excited when the Oathtakers sent their elite forces to pick up someone from the refugees. She challenged one of their members to a sparring match and lost, remaining happy that she managed to at least land a punch on the chitin plating of her foe before being knocked out cold. Annie never thought that her fellow scout was into challenging others this much.

Upon coming back, Annie challenged the scouts of two packs to the Trial of Ten, where one challenges nine in a series of one-on-one sparring rounds with full contact. The winner of this trial will hold the title of the strongest scout in the entire Dragena pack. For a year, Carty held this title before giving it up for a pack of cookies.

****

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."

"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.

Upon entering the hangar, Annie saw a huge stone of uneven proportions, towering at least five meters in height and far wider than Annie herself. The stone itself was green in color, the edges of the stone bore the marks of the industrial drills. It stood in the middle of the half-empty hangar, looking out of place.

"Peridotite," Dragena answered, to a question in Annie’s eyes, "It will serve as a dummy for the demonstration. Hans and his fellows really did a good job of bringing it here in one piece." Dragena closed the doors behind Annie and herself, leaving both women alone in the hangar.

The warlord put the toy in the corner of the hangar and sat with her back to the stone, gesturing to Annie to sit before her. Feeling uncomfortably all of a sudden, Annie obeyed the command. Both of them sat for a whole minute in silence, looking at each other. It was not uncommon for females of the Wolf Tribe to lose weight during lifegiving. And it was unheard of for all cubs to be born alive, usually at least two or three cubs were born stillborn. And yet Dragena looked as immense as ever, and all five of her cubs were alive.

"No one will show up in this hangar for the next hour. The walls of this facility were meant to absorb all sounds coming from inside. Annie, do you need to speak with anyone? "Lashing out on someone perhaps?" Dragena asked all of a sudden, "I can take quite a punishment, I assure you."

"Warlord? I am not sure what you mean." The scout answered honestly.

"Upon returning from the Core Lands, your behavior has changed. You used to like relaxing with the rest of the scouts. Now you are pushing yourself to earn tokens to the point that Kayleen had to give you an order to rest. You used to avoid domination matches, yet today you challenged our fellow scouts," Dragena pointed out the obvious, "I have received five requests from your sister and four requests from the Oaksters farm owners, asking me of all people to make you speak with them."

"I am sorry for the inconvenience." Annie whispered. She knew about these calls, of course. But what good would it be to speak with them? The Oaksters will just berate Annie for bringing bad news into their family. As if she did not blame herself for this already. And only spirits know what Sveta is thinking about her sister right now. No, it is best to forget about them. Less pain that way.

The Wolf Tribe members had certain liberties when it came to their desire to keep their secrets. But no one, not even commanders themselves, had any right to keep family members from knowing whether their relatives were alive or not. But Annie’s situation was an oddity, because such things never happened before with the new breeds of the Wolf Tribe. There was no law that would have forced Annie to answer the calls of her family. And the warlord had no power to force Annie to speak with relatives either. Yet, calls had to be answered by someone. As the commanding officer of Annie, it fell to Kayleen to take the calls from the operator. Eventually, even she had to ask Dragena for help, confused and frustrated about threats of being sued for "hiding" Annie. Barely anyone in the Wolf Tribe ever has any encounters with the judicial system. The prospect of being sued for anything terrified most wolfkins, aside from a few oddballs like Lucendra. Lucendra relished assisting other wolfkin in suing companies for poor service, almost reveling in the judicial process. According to rumors, Dragena even offered to help Lucendra join UNU in order for the young wolfkin to pursue a career as a lawyer, but the warrior refused.

"Pay no thought to that, this is part of my job. Kayleen handles their calls now well enough, although both she and I are of the opinion that you should speak with your family," Dragena lifted a finger, stopping Annie from speaking, "Ultimately the decision is yours, however. If you want to keep them aside, as a pack we will support your misguided way. Usually, I would leave things at that, my hands are already full trying to make a proper person out of Ultis and the others. Compared to them, at first glance, you are a relatively normal, well-adjusted person. If this were all, then all would be fine."

"Warlord, you really should not waste time on me. You have your own cubs and…"

"They are inefficient," Dragena said without baiting an eye, "All they do is crawl around, beg for food, and squeak all day long. Until the moment when proper sentience first starts showing in them, I see no reason to waste any more time on them than needed."

"They are your cubs, Dragena!" Annie jumped to her feet. Even standing, her eyes were merely on the same level as the utterly calm eyes of the warlord before the scout, "Parents are supposed to provide for their cubs, care for and love them!"

"They are well fed, doctors check their health regularly. Upon growing up, they will receive proper education and all the material support that I can afford to," Dragena stopped for a moment, thinking about something, "I can’t give to them something I do not have myself. This is why I asked Zero for help. She will provide emotional support for the cubs to stimulate proper growth in them."

"And what about their father?" The scout demanded to know.

"Leave him out of this. I paid him to mate with me, he is under no obligation to pay me material support for my kids."

"It’s not about material support!" Annie desperately spoke, looking for the right words, "Listen, you said that Ultis, me, and others have problems, right? Well, my sister doesn’t have such problems."

"If you say so." Dragena responded in dry voice, "Svetlana was very… vocal in her demands. I am not used to being spoken to in such a manner. It was a good exercise for training my social skills, though. When she calmed down a bit, she was… normal."

"Yes, and she has both parents who support her, and you know, speak with her about things and stuff. They help her with money and with words and they work with her and take photos with her…" Annie once again lost the trail of thought, trying to explain her position to the warlord, "They look like awesome people in short! The point is, Zero is correct about the importance of giving attention to the cubs! You didn't even want to give them names, Zero can’t always be around due to her own duties…  Imagine what kind of a mess you'll make raising the cubs on your own."

Dragena became silent. The massive body of the warlord stood up, towering over the scout, making the young woman put all her effort into not stepping back in fear. There was always something off about Dragena. Despite not practicing methods of physical punishment like other warlords, one is always wary in the presence of this being. No wolfkin under Dragena's command dared to oppose the warlord. No one dared to believe they were intelligent enough to see flaws in the logic behind these lifeless amber eyes. And Annie just did something no other soldier dared to.

"There is logic in your words," Dragena said amiable, attempting to calm Annie down, "it appears that the original plan must be adjusted. I will try to involve him in their life, hopefully he won’t be afraid of my offer," The wolfkin reached for the pocket, lifting the terminal and showing the display to Annie, "However, there is something more important that we need to talk about."

The display came to life, showing the site of the main history channel of the Reclamation Army. Dragena's finger moved, navigating the site’s menu, until the warlord stopped at the last uploaded video on the channel. To the surprise of Annie, she saw a documentary about life in the Wolf Tribe, narrated by Larry Kosh from WWB and a woman from SU. This documentary was long, capping at twenty-eight hours. There were even moments in the video dedicated to the Kayleen group. Annie blushed when she recognized the woman, whose cub Annie saved during the battle for the trading hub. The woman said thanks to Annie personally and to Kayleen’s pack. Two farm owners grudgingly thanked Lucendra for her advice in helping clear critters out of their lands. Larry himself admitted that he was saved by the efforts of Dragena’s pack, giving personal thanks to Annie. The award ceremony of the Dragena pack was also included in the footage. Footage soon changed to less glorifying aspects of life in the Wolf Tribe. Suppression of males, domination fights, including footage of the wounds after such fights. The culling of defective cubs, as well as the culling of the elderly. Dragena skipped through all of this, reaching the part about religious life. Skipping various rituals and commentaries of shamans, Dragena reached all the way to the part that showed examples of prayers. And Annie screamed from rage upon seeing herself.

"These bastards!" Her fist crushed into the metal floor, sending a ringing sound across the hangar. On the display of the terminal, Annie of the past offered her life in exchange for the life of Sveta, "Why! How the fuck did they filmed that…." Annie stopped, understanding just where exactly this was filmed. In the praying den near the military base, "Scum! They had no right! They had no right!" The scout howled in fear and rage. This documentary will be released on TV, what if her sister…. Annie slammed another fist into the floor, bending the metal. Of course, this documentary has already been released! How else would Dragena knew!

"Annie, do you need any professional help?" The warlord asked. Annie looked at her leader in disbelief. The voice of Dragena sounded fake. The warlord was trying, and failing, to sound worried! "I admit, never in my entire life have I dealt with a situation like this. I read through the terms of the contract that the shamans and Zero had signed. I do not think we have any grounds to sue, but Lucendra thinks otherwise, she is betting on some law that protects less developed groups of people. If you want, we can try to sue the journalists. In any case, you are important to all of us, and your life have value…"

"I am not suicidal!" Annie snapped in horror at the sudden understanding of what exactly the warlord was thinking.

"I can’t just let it go this time, Annie. You are my responsibility, and I have failed you. This prayer to the Spirits, your unexpected return from the Core Lands, your unexpected brawl with your kin...Your behavior looks unusual to me. There are people who can help you," Dragena ignored being cut off mid-sentence, "I read some books about how to deal with such situations. If you want to, I can hug you and we can speak…"

"Enough!" Annie slammed her paws into the ground, fully understanding how immature she was acting. Anger, fear, humiliation, and embarrassment were threatening to overflow her, and the scout had no idea how to handle these feelings. She wanted to lash out at someone, anyone. What will people think about her now? Who cares about it, what will people think of Dragena! "Oh, hi there! I am the only warlord who never hurt my pack members. Why yes, one of my pack members is also suicidal, why do you ask? Totally has nothing to do with not hurting them." As if the warlord doesn’t have enough stress to deal with right now! "I am sorry, I am so sorry for bringing such shame upon you in this situation, warlord."

Dragena took Annie by her shoulders, forcing the smaller wolfkin to sit before her.

"This is unknown territory for me," The warlord admitted, "But this is how Ravager used to calm down Alpha in her darkest hours. Now take a deep breath and calm down. Shame is irrelevant. When Ultis was first assigned to the force, I was summoned to captain Scorpio. He told me that cooks accused me of starving my pack. Turns out Ultis was stealing food from the kitchen, instead of eating with everyone else. Usually, such a problem could be solved by Kayleen, but you know how strong Ultis is. I myself led her to the kitchen by the paw, making her sit with everyone and eat like a normal person. It took just two months for her to adjust and learn that no one was planning to steal her food. Ultis needed help to excel, and help was what she got. Shame, honor, and pride are irrelevant. Results are all that matter. And right now, I need to make sure that you continue to be a productive member of my pack, like you always were," Dragena raised a finger, stopping Annie, "By the way, I asked Ultis if I could share her story with others. Any secrets you will tell me, will be safe with me, unless you decide otherwise."

"Dragena, I do not intend to off myself, this I swear," Annie forced herself to speak calmly and look directly in the eyes of her leader. The scout felt the blood pounding in her temples from sheer rage, "I promised myself to live and become the shield for my sister. I am just angry that I am always the bad one, always the one who messes up and… This. It pisses me off that I don’t know the reason why I always mess up so badly!"

The warlord looked into the eyes of the scout for a long time, searching for any trace of a lie in them. Enormous paws let go of the shoulders, and Dragena leaned back on the stone, looking up:

"Answer… I believe the answer is because nothing truly gets forgiven once you’ve crossed a certain line," The warlord said quietly, "You, I, everyone else who kills people. In the eyes of normal people, we must look like monsters to them. How could we not be? When life expires beneath your claws, when life is gone from the sight of your scope, when you look at the sliced form before you… Then you are tainted for the rest of your life," The warlord looked back at Annie, "But despite being monsters, we all still yearn for something, we still live. Day after day, night after night. We try to reason with ourselves, try to tell ourselves that maybe our crimes are not that bad. We only do it for the sake of the greater good, after all. Deep down, we know that these are just sweet lies. We are monsters, and that is why we suffer. I was bad even before my creation, this is why the Spirits deemed it fit to strip me of emotions. Sometimes I try to remember what sort of crime I committed during my creation that the Spirits punished me so. Alas, I have no memories of the time before I was created. And yet," The warlord’s voice returned back to normal, "Bad or not, I can still choose. This is what Ravager told me when I asked her why I should keep on, if I can’t even feel like others. My blessed mother told me that I could either lie and be still or try and claw something out of life for myself. She gave me simple rules to live by. Obey the laws of the Dynast. Try to be a good person. Don’t hurt others if possible. Save others, even at the cost of your own life. By trying to repay for my sins, I pray that the Spirits could give me a better life next time, one where I could feel emotions like others. For me, such a simple dream is enough to live as a monster of the state."

Annie had no idea how to respond to this. Monster. There was some sense in this. Sveta found happiness in life. When Sveta was in school, playing or learning, Annie was berated and hated by her father. The teachers of Svetlana never harmed her, meanwhile Virginia wiped the floor with Annie. There had to be some reason for all that has happened. If Spirits viewed Annie as the bad one… Yes, it makes sense. The scout failed to fit in in the Core Lands because she was trying to be someone she was not meant to be. The Spirits deemed it fit for her to be the one who put her life on the line for others. Trying to weasel out of responsibility was… stupid. Annie was the bad one all alone. She failed to save her mother, her father, lost her sister… How else could the Spirits view her? Monster. Being bad is not the end of a road. Living for the sake of others. A simple answer for a simple mind. How many lives did Ravager save through sheer power? If Annie only concentrated on getting stronger instead of wasting time on trying to change traditions that made the Wolf Tribe who they were… How stupid could one person be? And yet the Spirits were kind enough. They gave Sveta back to Annie. And how did the scout thank them for that? Did she redouble her efforts and training? No, she ran off to see her sister. Stupid, lazy, ungrateful idiot! No longer. I won’t fail others again.

"Looks like you found the answer or reason for yourself too now," Dragena nodded, standing up. The warlord turned toward the stone, "There was something I wanted to show you as well. Can I break the stone from this position?" Dragena pressed her right paw to the surface of the stone.

"If you strike with your left paw or kick, sure." Annie answered in confusion.

"Perhaps" The large wolfkin pressed a paw to the surface of the stone. For a moment, the woman stood like a statue, unmoving, not even daring to take a breath. And then her right leg jerked ever so slightly, almost like something was running up from it. The warlord loudly exhaled, pressing her paw harder to the stone. And Annie saw how the air around the warlord’s right paw began to vibrate. Something ran down from the shoulder to her paw, expanding skin and making it visible even despite thick fur. Muscles visibly popped over the arm of the warlord, and finally Dragena pressed the paw all the way into the stone. The gigantic chunk of peridotite did not slide forward under the pressure. Like the limb of some ghost, Dragena’s right paw entered stone all the way to the elbow. Cracks run in all directions from the point of entry, creating a web of destruction around the stone. Dragena thrusted her arm back, and the stone came apart in a shower of dust and rain of tiny stones, ringing across the surface of the metal floor.

"Vibrations," Dragena explained to the surprised scout, "By compressing and then releasing muscles, a person of our physique statue can forcibly create vibrations by essentially shaking up a paw hard enough. Through rigorous training, one can also send these vibrations into another object. With stone, it is less effective but can be destructive as well, as you could see just now."

"But the air around the paw…" Annie tried to form her question.

"This is my immaturity. What you just saw is known as sound fist," Dragena said, turning around and looking down on the scout, "Vibrations produced by my body encompass the surroundings of my paw, acting as a minor shield capable of deflecting even bullets," The warlord looked at her own paw, "I can only use this technique from the stationary pose and with a long wind up. I could potentially master it in full, but my lack of emotions stops me. I have little interest in things that are not efficient. Why would I study the flash step technique further when I can already kill enemies with my current knowledge? Why would I study sound palm technique when I use weapons? It makes no sense," The warlord looked at Annie once more, "But you, like others, feel. Your… pride can potentially force you to excel, and by creating your own style and by fleshing it out, there can be born something truly... monstrous. In the next couple of years, we are entering the period of supposed peace. I received permission from captain Scorpio for additional training for my pack, while I am indisposed. Ultis, Kayleen, Lucendra, and a few others will leave to study in the Core Lands. The rest will be trained by me in my spare time. Meanwhile, I want you and Carty to study under the person who taught me flash step technique and the basics of the sound palm. Annie, do you want to become stronger?"

Annie felt her heart beating faster in her chest. Will the pack be dissolved? She will be on her own? But she just got back… The scout closed her eyes, calming herself. Strength. If only she was stronger, her mother would still be alive. Had she had the strength, she would have never failed to save all the hostages during the battle against Alsyn. Had she had the strength, Kayleen and Carty would not have been injured in that battle, trying to save her. Strength. Oh, how Annie yearned for it now. If she just had it, Virginia would have never beaten her. If she had been stronger, the people in the trading center would not have had to suffer. Lucendra would not have come so close to dying. Strength. Had she had it, her soldiers would not have died during the battle for the archeological station. Strength. Monster. If Annie was like Ravager, her sister would never fall. Her father would never end up as a drunken mess. They all would have live happily.

Annie opened her eyes and looked up at the warlord.

"I want to become strong. Stronger than anyone else." She simply said.

"He is currently living in Pearl. You will leave tomorrow."

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