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38. Fight Club

I nudged him with my foot. "Don't make it sound like incest." I crinkled my nose. "Technically, Zander is your son."

Xena tilted her head. "What?"

"Long story short, Orion adapted a cat who turns out to be a witch."

That very witch chimed in, "A handsome witch that you have the biggest crush on. Details, darling. Details are very important." And then he just dives back in to playing with the strings of his hoodie.

The female witch looked at Orion. "I give you lots of props for dealing with these two."

"Thank you."

We all returned our attention back to Daniel and Angel and saw that the two were still arguing about whether or not tickling is a valid move. Zander clapped his hands, stands up, and screams, "You both absolutely sucked. Next!"

Emory and Owen now stand inside the ring of duct tape, circling around each other cautiously. Emory is fifteen years old and had shifted only two years ago, while Owen, who is sixteen, shifted four years ago. Owen was able to attend a year of classes that Queen's Garden offered, while Emory had been with their mother all their life and learned everything from her. Emory's mother is in the castle as well, though she's much older now and cannot do much fighting. Emory shared that they wanted to learn how to fight without shifting to their wolf form, so Owen also decided to stay in his human form for a fair duel.

We asked Scooby to join us and help the young wolves train, but he declined as he will be busy parading around the castle to make sure everyone is okay. It would be nice if he's here though because not only are the teens the same age as him, but they're all werewolves. He is a trained member of the Gaia pack. He would be the best teacher.

As soon as the Emory and Owen began, I already knew they were going to be great. Although they don't have experience in fighting, they definitely know how to pull punches as well as block them. At first, they both looked fully concentrated and serious, but as the minutes go by, the teens loosened up and their training almost seemed like a dance. Whenever Emory would be close to get Owen out of the ring, he would unsteadily but successfully stay in, and vice versa. They also lasted much longer than Daniel and Angel, who fought for only ten minutes. It must be nice to be young. Orion asked where they learned all those moves and both of them answered with an action movie.

About thirty minutes later, Emory hit victory as Owen tripped over his own feet and sent himself out of the ring. Afterwards, Orion and Zander ran to the kitchen for snacks. Xena then decided to summon me into the ring and I almost cried. "I'm okay, thanks." I curled myself into a ball and hugged the hoodie that was left on the spot beside me. "I'll just sit here and cheer for you. Daniel, you go. Tickle her or whatever."

The angel shook his head. "Against Xena? I'd like to keep my fingers attached to my hands so I'm going to say no."

"Come on." Xena sang, gesturing me to join her with her hand. "How are you going to kick Florencia's ass?"

"With a flask full of Hydrofluoric Acid and a water gun."

She groaned. "Astoria. One round."

"My butt is stuck to the ground."

"Oh." She smiled. "Let me help you out then."

Before I could reply, I immediately felt my body lifting from the ground. I levitated fifteen feet off the ground and suddenly, I was flipped upside down, causing me to glare at Xena's smirking face and hands glowing purple. I heard the others snickering as they watched me float towards the center of the room like an astronaut in zero gravity.