In The Shadows (Re-written)

-EIGHTEEN-

My father stood shoulder to shoulder with Masuma, they were muttering something between themselves. Yaga was standing a few paces away with her arms crossed and her usual scowl marring her face. Coda wasn't far from her, his penetrating gaze scrutinizing my every move as I took on the rogues around me.

Four of the savage creatures had been brought in their cages from the basement for this stage of my training.

Whatever this was, it would mark a monumental shift in my training. How, I didn't yet know. I didn't need to worry about that now though. All I needed to focus on was killing these grotesque rabid monsters in a timely fashion.

The secret of the rogues trapped in the basement of the storage cabin was accompanied by the secret of this fighting pit.

It was just outside of the pack boundaries which no one was allowed to travel out of without explicit permission to do so, allowing such a secret to be kept quite easily. The pit was about eight feet deep and twenty feet in diameter. It was open which allowed spectators such as my father and Coda a clear view of the events that took place within the pit.

The ground was earthen which meant that depending on the weather you had to keep in mind your footing. Sliding around in mud called for a different awareness than a nice sure field of compacted dirt.

Luckily for me, it had not rained in recent days but the easy terrain was every bit of an advantage for the rogues as it was for me.

Strangely enough, I didn't feel any nervousness in being trapped within a confined area with four blood thirsty animals.

I had no doubt that I could kill them all. All of my spectators new that, which is why the objective here wasn't to simply survive. This was my chance to show them a mastery of the techniques I had been taught. This was a chance for them to witness where I was comparatively to other hunters.

Each attack and defensive maneuver I demonstrated had to be flawlessly executed and well thought out.

That's what it meant to be a hunter. There was no such thing as a lucky hit or dodge. Every movement was intentional and every wound I took or escaped was a result of my own design.

My mind was empty and so was my heart. I felt no remorse or empathy for the werewolves that had gone Wild. They were murderers no matter their pain, and their deaths would serve to boost me higher and further.

When my demonstration had finished and the bodies of four rogues lay at my feet, their blood seeping into the earth, I stood in the center of the pit and patiently waited for a verdict.

Yaga was gloating with a satisfied and, dare I say, proud look on her face. Whatever she said to Masuma had the male shooting me a skeptical look before gruffly dismissing me and muttering something to my father.

Coda didn't say anything except for a few words prompted by my father.

When they finally seemed to reach a consensus, my father stepped up to the edge of the pit before jumping down.

He stepped over the body of a rogue and kicked the paw of another aside as he made his way towards me.

I was on my guard, able to tell that my father had not come down here to talk to me.

Still, even though I was expecting what was to come, I was hardly prepared for it.

His brown eyes swallowed me whole as he thundered down on me with his quick attacks. I had no choice but to go on the defensive, unable to find an opening to switch to offense.

The alpha mercilessly destroyed me in the matter of minutes, showing me just how big the gap was between us.

I may have had his blood, his eyes, his light brown skin and thick black hair but that was where our similarities ended.