The day had come, finally, it was time for the little werewolves of the red pack under Gregor's command to proceed to claim their price.
Harland, Emmie and Solka, the standout students of Gregor's class walked proudly as they marched on like soldiers to the place it was all to happen.
The contest between the red pack pups and the brown pack pups was set to happen and at the very least, all members of Gregor's pack looked ready. Their faces showed determination and a bit of anger which was understandable considering the situations that led to this moment.
Gregor who walked solidly behind them could understand why. Since the little pups joined his class and from the first time he took them out, they had made an enemy in the brown pack.
Although how this had progressed to what it now was remained to be unexplained. If at all, he knew his students to be although quite feisty, also, they were warm-hearted to some extent.
And when he looked at them now, he saw how seriously they took the event.
Walking through the tree paths that had been cleared out for the most part by the werewolf community, there was an air of silence. Not even the usual adolescent tussle between his students occurred.
The stone pathway lined up with tall trees going up to about 30 feet used to be their favourite route. Because there, the dense vegetation provided good cover and a perfect opportunity for them to practice their ambush skills on one another.
Yet today, that didn't seem to interest them a bit. "Harland, a natural born leader. And those two by his side, Emmie and Solka, are definitive teammates he has found for himself. If ever there was a perfect trio like these three, I would say it was now. And then the rest of the pups, a force to be reckoned with. Yet, they are still green. They require immense brushing to be ready, be ready to take the mantle as the next generation. And interestingly enough, I know they will. I have no doubt, "Gregor thought as he walked in their midst. No doubt, one could say he was proud of the little pack he was building up.
Nonetheless, there was a big task at hand. There was a reason he wasn't all too surprised about their behaviour today. He was well aware of how much a hunt meant to a pack. And to have it stolen from one usually resulted in blood being split by more mature werewolves. Then not to talk of bragging rights when it came down to a turf war.
If anything, Werewolves were highly territorial. A reason Alphas maintained a safe distance from one another's pack. The seven-pack system of the werewolf community was built upon the foundation of dispute. In the end, seeing these little ones take a common hunting ground left for training the up-and-coming generations like them so seriously didn't bother him at all. They were well on their way to becoming a full-blown pack, just not there yet.
As they made their way through the thick vegetation, the width of the pathway began to thinning. When they looked up front, a different landscape awaited them.
Moving out of the dense tree area, they were now in an open space and from the looks on their faces, something appeared to be wrong.
"What happened here?"Finally, Harland let out some words from his mouth. He turned his head around looking at the surroundings as though he hadn't been there before. The same could be said for the rest of his classmates. The only person who didn't appear to be astounded by the environment was in fact their teacher, Gregor.
Gregor walked onward and his class followed behind. They approached an area where there were lots of new structures placed about.
Logs of slim, round wood placed in circles like some type of cage, went around with a large space left in the middle. Then in front was an elevated platform made out of wood chopped down to bits to resemble some type of stage.
The final touch was in fact not any structure to be seen but actual faces, faces that Harland and his classmates didn't seem to know the bulk of.
"I see you made it. I was thinking you'd run off with your tail between your legs. I'm glad to see the pup finally grew some fur!!" a familiar voice was heard and there wasn't a need to look further nor inquire who had said so because Harland knew all too well whose voice that was.
Just in front of them was Teva and his classmates. With them was their teacher, Lydia. But they weren't the only presence worth noticing as there were other figures standing spaced out but considerably close to them.
"Gregor, it's of no use making any introduction, I suppose. But for the sake of your students, here with us today is Drew with his elementary class students from the green pack. He has been with the beast core and as promised, he would be serving as a judge if need be for today's event. But certainly, I don't think there will be any need for that. Because by the end of this contest, the result will be overwhelmingly obvious to everyone. And the better teacher will be acknowledged, "Lydia said with a fierce tone. Teva and the remainder of her students looked at her with all smiles on their faces.
"In order not to cause further delay, after much deliberation, we the teachers have decided that allowing everyone here to participate will be a complete waste of our time. As such, we have come up with a simple event that should make things easier. This event isn't a made-up one as its roots stretches to our very being as werewolves. I'm talking about the traditional Alpha versus Alpha battle!!!!"Drew said with excitement on his face.
With large broad shoulders and a whooping near-eight feet tall body structure, Drew was perhaps a mammoth-sized werewolf. But beneath the hard, intensively carved muscles, he was a mould of smiles and pure goodness. This trait also reflected on his students as well. All the green pack elementary students did was wave their hands with the intention of making new friends.
But between the red pack which Harland was from and the brown pack which Teva was from, it didn't seem like anyone of them was remotely interested in connecting with one another on a friendly basis. If anything, the heat from the two pack said it all.
"I think you all know what this means. I didn't tell you all because I saw how hard you all worked towards improving your pack connection. Seeing that this contest was a motivation, I decided to let you all feed off of it. But the moment of truth is here, an alpha vs alpha battle. And while it's an extremely difficult decision to make, knowing how much potential you all have, since it boils down to me to choose who would represent the Red pack, I'm going to have to pick... Solka, "Gregor announced.
"What?!!!"Harland said.
"Yeah, I mean..wh..what?!!!"Solka said out loud with a widened facial expression.
"No... No... What's this supposed to mean?!! I wanted him!!!"Teva said pointing at Harland on hearing who had been picked by Gregor.
"In that case, Teva, teach that pup what a true Alpha is like, "Lydia said with a cunning smile on her face.