United With Fate

Chapter Nine

HUNTRESS

I stood in the field, facing my opponent.  I am wearing my dear-skin dress, my daggers lain across my body so that they are easily reachable. My pups sat at the edge of the field against the back of the house, in a line, beside Danny, Kai and Hana. From the two corners of the house, out to the edge of the forest, curious wolves from the pack stood and watched what was happening.

I had given Danny the shish-ka-bobs so that he could feed them to everyone of my pack, one by one. Even so, my pups kept the food in their laps as they watched me intently, knowing that this was a time to learn. Alpha Dene had assigned me to fight his best warrior, as he watched the battle with his back against a tree.

I bent my knees slightly and kept my limbs from tensing too much as I watched my opponent.  At first I had been surprised that Nick was not the strongest warrior next to Dene, but seems as Nicks specialty was wits instead of brawn. The Wolf who stands before me now, is rather large; a muscled chest, tones arms and lots of bulk. At most though, he looks like the type to fight like a bull; hard headed determination to win, with little technique.

Everyone in the area was quiet, save the birds and the crickets in the surrounding vicinity. My opponent, who's name I learned is Albrich,  was tense. His entire body was stiff as a wooden board as he watched me. I stepped to my left, so that my back would face my pack instead of the Alpha, and watched in mild amusement as Albrich stiffly followed my movements. He seemed uncertain, and slightly afraid, as he moved, making a smile tug at my lips.

Just as he put his foot down on his second step, I walked forward quickly, jabbing out with my arm so that it looked like I was going to punch him in the face. Instantly his own arm came up to block my attack, blocking his view from me. I stopped my attack half way and, keeping my momentum, stepped around his side. As I go around him, I jab him quickly in his baby ribs. Quickly put put my back to his as I whack his back with my elbows in my second step, then took a third step, leading me to his other side. I gave a few more jambs into his ribs as I put myself in the first position that I was in when I went to hit him in the face.

All of this happened in only a few seconds, where the most that Albich could do was lower his arm a slight bit and start to twist to where I had gone. His eyes spotted me before he could move, as if time slowed down so that I was the only one who was moving at normal speed. I hit him hard in his unprotected gut, sending him to his knees once time caught up to him. All my blows seemed to come in at once and he fell to the ground groaning, holding his sides with his arms.

I put myself in natural position as I took in a breath and let it out to calm my body. I was not in the least tired, seeing as Danny and I could fight blow for blow for hours on end, and I watched the specters expressions carefully. The face of he spectators were all of confusion as Albrich's balled up form barely made a sound on the ground. Even Dene had gone white as confusion showed in his face for a moment. Hana had a look of pure amazement in her eyes, even awe as I grabbed a bob from Danny to chew on as I waited my judgement from the Alpha, though I knew what he thought just from his reaction.

From the look on Danny's face, I knew that the only people who actually saw all of what I had done was my pack. After a few moments, Dene shook himself and looked at me with a new regard as he walked over to me. Several wolves came out of the crowd at about the same time and helped Albrich up from the ground.

"You have-"

"Sir! Allow me to fight her next!" a man that had been standing in the crowd came to stand behind Dene, with a determined expression on his face. He was not nearly as bulky as Albrich and he looked a bit under weight, but he was probably fast and skilled. Though, not fast enough to be my opponent. I saw that Dene was about to protest, but I spoke before he could utter his first syllable.