Calamity Falls | Wattys 2019

XXXVIII

Calamity caught the punch thrown to her face and the kick that immediately followed it.

"You have left yourself completely exposed. Your stance was weak from the beginning, and you gave away intentions with your eyes and body movements. If I wanted, you would be dead. Your entire torso has been left exposed to me," she critiqued the young male that she had been lightly sparring with.

He nodded in response, taking her words into serious consideration.

She nodded her head towards another wolf near them, gesturing for him to go spar with the other wolf.

It had only been a two weeks since she had arrived, and everyone could see a considerable difference in the fighting capabilities of the wolves. They had vastly improved. Calamity obviously could not train every single wolf by herself, so she recruited some of the more advanced warriors in the pack to personally train--much to Leopold's dismay. Those warriors were then assigned to groups of other wolves to train. Calamity thought that it was about time for them to go to the human territory.

They only had about two weeks left before the coming of the dark. The wolves and humans needed to train together. They needed to live together and establish bonds and trust. They would be fighting a war, and infighting would ruin any chances of winning this war that they had. They would have to be able to camp out in desolate places without killing each other, and they wouldn't be able to do that if they can't even get along on human territory.

Calamity glanced at Leopold before rolling her eyes. "King Leopold, you need to take this seriously, and stop moving like a turtle. If you and Josiah can't train legitimately, then I will intervene and make you wish you had listened to me while you still had the chance."

Leopold winked at her. "You really think you can make me do anything, babe?" He dodged Josiah's weak "punch" halfheartedly.

Calamity narrowed her eyes at that. "You think I can't?" She raised a brow, daring him to claim that she couldn't.

Leopold smirked, a twinkle of amusement in his eye, before walking over to his annoyed mate. "I never said that. I know that you could make me do almost anything, whether you used violence or your womanly wiles. I am at your mercy, my dove." He placed his fingers under her chin and lifted her face up to look at him. He placed a delicate kiss on the corner of her mouth.

She remained unamused. Now was not the time for games. They were going to be in a war in less than two weeks, and he was trying to woo her. "Get back to work, turtle," she said before walking away from him, backed turned to him.

"Ouch. You wound me," he called after her, smirking again when he heard her scoff and saw her shake her head, no doubt rolling her eyes as well.

Despite Leo's playful banter, he did what his mate said and began to spar seriously with Jo, uber-aware of Calamity's hawk-like eyes on his moving form.

Calamity had an odd interest in watching Leopold fight. While she could take him out, he was still very good. He was strong and agile, which was rather apparent with the way he schooled Josiah all throughout their match.

After another hour of observing and giving feedback on fighting styles, Calamity ended practice. Calamity needed to brooch the topic of returning to the human realm--with the wolves.

~~~

"When do you plan on having this mass exodus? No offense, but there are a lot of factors here that need to be considered. The wolves will need shelter and food," Derek explained.

Calamity sighed. "I am aware, but this needs to be done as soon as possible. Their discomfort is not nearly as important as their lives. I understand your hesitance, really I do, but I am already trying to gather an understanding of the relations between the humans and the wolves. The wolves unsettle the humans, and some wolves have the tendency to stick their nose up at humans. There has been discord between these two groups for so many years. We can't just throw them on a battlefield and expect them to be friends that will fight alongside each other. This is war. Everyone is on edge. Fights will erupt, but we can try to minimalize them now rather than later."

Derek released a breath before nodding in understanding. Leopold watched the encounter quietly. Derek and Calamity somehow wound up hijacking the meetings and being the only ones debating the decisions made, with Calamity as the undefeated victor. Leopold tended to let his father do the talking. Calamity's presence had a habit of clouding his mind and judgement.

Leopold finally spoke up. "So when do you plan on doing this Calamity?"

Calamity gazed at Leopold. "Tomorrow we will warn the wolves; tell them to pack. We leave the day after."

Leopold nodded solemnly. "Any other concerns?" He addressed the rest of the men around the table. No one spoke up, a few heads shaking. "Then we will do as Calamity suggests. We will transport the warriors and some physicians in two days time. Meeting adjourned."

Everyone sitting at the table rose. The men began to exit the meeting room. Leopold and Calamity stayed behind.

"Why didn't you talk about this with me before, Calamity?" Leopold questioned.

"This was a sensitive diplomatic matter. It had to be brought in front of your council before anything else, les we be accused of conspiring. Their input is necessary. I decided to do this properly," Calamity explained.

Leopold sighed in exasperation. "Even so, I still wish that you had talked with me about this earlier. We could have had time to make better arrangements and circumstances for the warriors."

Calamity looked at the ground. "I know. I would have, but I didn't even think about it until just recently. I've been a bit... distracted as of late." She looked pointedly at Leopold.

He pointed his index finger at her. "I regret nothing, my dove."

"I'm well aware, my turtle," Calamity smirked at him.

Leopold frowned. "Is that going to become a thing? I don't know if I'm cool with that."

Calamity mock pouted. "But if you put them together, then we're turtle dove."

Leopold chuckled, deep and loud. His mouth hung in an open-mouthed grin. "I love you so much."

Calamity gave him a scrutinizing look. "Haven't we already been over this?"

Leopold leaned down to Calamity's face, the smile never leaving his face. "Yes, and we will continue to do so for a very long time." He pressed his lips against Calamity's softly.

After a couple seconds, she pulled away. "I think that you should go pack." She thought for a moment before huffing out a laugh. "Again."