Howling at the Moon - [A Werewolf Adventure]

Loathing the Days of Yesteryear (Auron)

In slight pain, I de-shifted back to my human self. I rose to my own two feet and inhaled deeply. "Of all the things, what could you possibly have in mind Lore?" I squinted my eyes and glared into Lore's skinny face. I could feel an anxious feeling growing in the pit of my stomach.

"Ah, no need to rush, dear boy," Lore waved me off and walked forward about ten meters. He raised his hands and raised his voice. "I only wish to offer fair game to those willing to take it. Auron and company have already proved themselves in comrade combat," he paused for a moment then continued after frowning and raising an eyebrow, "But what I have yet to see is one-on-one, man-to-man, mano a mano, and such on and so forth."

I immediately looked towards Tamara and Auron who had already shifted back to normal and were already walking towards me. I looked at Darion first who met my eyes. He stood there for a bit before shrugging. "I'm down." As easy as that my best friend was ready to throw down.

Then I turned to the person I was worried about most, behind Jaxon of course which reminded me that we needed to get out of this fast. Tamara held herself while staring at the ground. I suppose she was contemplating. Either that or she was just spacing out. 

"Tam, what's going through your head?" That was a really dumb question that slipped out. But she simply looked at me. A sharp glare that pierced the very sorry soul inside of me.

"Obviously not my brother," Tam looked away for a moment, sighed, and return her eyes back to me. 'I'm sorry, but we need a plan," Tamara said. "I think we shou-" She began but was interrupted.

"Ah-ah-ah," Lore shook his finger shamefully. He lowered his head slightly. "No plan, my children. No more contemplating your actions. We simply make moves from this moment forward." Lore took the liberty of jumping straight into things which I didn't mind at all. Each second wasted was critical in our haste to save Jax. Poor kiddo.

I was just getting deep into thought and must have zoned out pretty bad because I snapped out of it, I found myself standing across from about fifteen of Lore's goons. Next to me as always was Tam on my left and Darion on my right. Nothing changed except the fact it was a solo fight. We had no back up. I was completely fine with that. I've actually been itching to get someone all to myself for once.

Lore found a patch of grass to his liking in which he had chosen for his seat. He was sitting Indian Style with Dom and that other guy standing on either sides of him. Lore's voice came jamming itself into my head making me wince. I shook it off and payed close attention to his words.

"As I have said before, one-on-one. To make things a tad bit more fair for the kiddies here, they get to choose three of my idiots to fight." I'm sure the three of us were slightly overjoyed at the fact that we got to chose from his group seeing as how most of them were weak. I thought it was going to be an easy win for us. But of course I had jumped the gun way too soon.

"Three idiots of my six most brutal and cunning fighters, that is." Lore winked in our direction. "Sorry, almost forgot to mention that." He slapped his knees in a sort of giddy rush before continuing. "Children, you may choose who gets to go first and then that individual can decide of they want to square off with."

I raised an eyebrow, my decision already made. Darion burst out, "I actually want to see what these guys have, so I'll be sitting the first one out." Apparently Darion had his mind set just the same as Tamara had hers.

"I wanted to the same. I need to observe and adapt to this," she said brushing a long strand of crumpled hair from her face. I threw my hands up in small frustration.

"What the hell," I groaned.

We all had the same idea of sitting back and watching the first fight to observe the tactics and brutality. This meant that no one wanted to go first. It all had come down to one final tie breaker.

My eyes narrowed to slits and shot a death glare at Tam and then beamed over to Darion. His eyes were nearly shut just as well and I could tell they were going back and forth between Tamara and I. Then I looked back and Tam who had one eyebrow raised but the same slitted eyes as Darion and I. Her beady eyes bouncing in turn between the two of us.

I clenched my fist, balling it as tightly as possible. Perspiration began the accumulate in the palm of my hand. I bent my elbow and ninety degrees toward my face. Tam and Darion followed suit. I was not going to lose, and knowing my best friends, they hadn't planned on it either. 

"One..." Tamara whispered.

" Oh...They can't be serious," I heard Lore say.

"Two..." Darion mumbled.

"They're serious," Lore snorted.

"Three..." I murmured.

"Shoot!" We yelled in unison.

I summoned scissors, Darion conjured rock, and Tamara created paper. I found it ironic that the scissors, rock and paper were symbolic to us. Other than that, it was a tie. In any way, one of us could be the first to go out, we just couldn't decide on who exactly won. So we attempted it once more.

"One."

"Two."

"Three."

"Shoot!"

Darion and Tamara both chose paper while I chose rock, which meant I was automatically put in the losers bracket. I cursed under my breath. The two went once again while I pouted away.

Tamara shot her fist out and produced a rock as Darion immediately returned with a paper, declaring him the victor and the one to sit out and watch the match. He punched the sky and slapped his knee in rejoice for a glimpse of a moment before returning to his manly, rock hard personality. "Cool," he nonchalantly said, sat down and crossed his legs waiting for Tam's and I results.

I looked at Lore, hatred returning to eyes. He shot a look at me. I nearly felt him pierce my soul. Eventually, he had rolled his eyes and said "Oh, come on with it already," and a couple of the readied men had grunted and huffed at us.

 Tamara turned to me grimly, her face bearing the one a warrior determined to bring her country honor, and by bring her country honor, I meant she looked as if she wasn't going to lose this important game of Roshambo.

We shook our fists simultaneously and summoned our hand objects. Both opened palms facing down - paper. I narrowed my eyes and stared at her and she returned the gaze.

Once more, tight clenched fists, veins erupting through our skin - rock.

"Damn all," I exclaimed.

For the third and possibly the final time, we rocked our fists in each others direction. Darion in the background started a drum-roll on his lap, surprisingly but not so surprisingly enough, Lore joined in chuckling as he did. He was just that kind of person.

One fist flew out, releasing an index and middle finger to a scissor gesture, another fist retained its shape, a rock gesture.

This time we had a fair loser. Lore stood up to applaud.