Strange Pack (Doctor Strange Fanfiction)

Chapter 7: Library

The sun shone bright one day. It was the first break of rain that they had had in a month. Everyone had been cooped up for far too long and everyone had rushed out at soon as they saw sunlight. The only thing on anyone's mind was sparring, including Sergantis's and Indarra's. Stephen had never sparred before, but he knew that he was going to have to learn eventually and now appeared to be the time.

"It's not that bad," Indarra meowed as she flicked her paw.

Stephen rolled his eyes. "From what I remember of your fight with Mijo; it doesn't look that fun."

"It's usually not that bad and that was Mijo," pointed out Indarra as he bounded forward, nearly knocking Stephen off of his paws. She let out a laugh and worked her claws against the ground. "Now I'm fighting someone else. This someone won't try to choke me out, I hope."

Stephen looked down in interest to Sergantis. His breathing sounded more ragged than usual and all he could do was clear his throat. "Who are you fighting?"

"I'm fighting an older master. He's skilled and I taught him some higher battle moves and we're going to practice them," Sergantis explained as he twitched his ears, snorting deeply in an effort to clear his throat in another manner.

Stephen rubbed at his ragged hair. Whatever Indarra had done was starting to grow back. He might have to ask her to do it again if she didn't mind. "I hope I don't fight someone that powerful."

"Probably not at first," answered Indarra as she emerged into the outdoor area. She let out a deep breath. "I fought Sergantis my first time and he didn't go easy on me."

Sergantis let out a laugh as he nudged her. "I didn't go that hard on you. You were just a pup. You need to practice more, fish-brain," he chided, licking her ear once more.

They marched forward and they each took turns matching up with whoever they were supposed to spar with. Stephen gulped as he was matched up with someone that Sergantis had never spoken to. He knew who he was, but he couldn't remember his name or any other detail. He hung his head as he squared up.

Sergantis tried to ignore him as he marched over to the older master. He was ragged and looked a lot older than he was. His muscles were rippling and he had a snaggletooth that poked out from his mouth. He gave his head a shake as he looked at Sergantis.

"Who's that human that you keep hanging around, Sergantis," asked the wolf.

Sergantis looked over to Stephen. "Just some new blood," he replied with a shrug. "What does it matter, Bayren?"

"Are you finally going to settle down and take a companion? It's been years and you still haven't," Bayren pointed out as he started to prowl around Sergantis.

Sergantis did the same to match him, but it was clear that they weren't done talking. "I've just been waiting."

"For what," pressed Bayren with a snicker.

"For someone to be able to keep up with me," replied Sergantis as his tail kinked over his back and tense to show his anger. His tail tip twitched as well and a growl rolled in his throat.

Bayren leaped forward before he drew back, grumbling deeply under his breath. "You're going to have to decide quickly. There are rumors going around that you're losing your touch?"

Anger bubbled inside of Sergantis. He knew that Bayren was trying to rile him up, but he couldn't let him do that. He knew that everyone had been talking. He had wanted to stomp out the rumors, but what good would that do? He was appearing weaker to everyone around him and he had to make sure that they didn't think that he was too weak to do anything of importance. It was clear that he was Magister's favorite and he had a reputation to uphold.