those who have died in battle, defending the pack, and peace.”

This fact sunk in among the contestants, who hadn’t thought of what they were doing quite like this.

Shadow continued.

“I need everyone who doesn’t think they could do that were they called to… to leave.”

About ten of the contestants stood up and walked away.

Some of the remaining wolves stared after those who had left with a look of disdain on their faces.

Shadow noticed this.

“There is nothing dishonorable about what they have done. This is definitely not a job for everyone.”

Shadow paused.

“Are there any questions?”

None were asked.

“Okay,” Shadow said, “if you’ll move up then, we’ll kick this thing off. Good luck to all of you.”

 

Talkeet’s heart was racing.

He’d been standing in the line for about an hour, and now it was finally his time.

He looked over at the wolf who would be his opponent in the first fight.

It was a female, and he’d seen her around the cave.

Finally the call came.

“Talkeet.”

He stepped forward and was told to stand at the other end of the chamber.

He walked in, and found it was a flat round chamber.

No drops, no water.”

“This should be easy.” Talkeet thought.

The female walked into the chamber, led by an orange wolf.

The wolf walked to the center of the chamber.

“Remember,” he said, “the death of either contestant will not be held against the winner, do anything you have to to win.”

Talkeet nodded.

The orange wolf moved to the side of the chamber.

“Can I do this?” Talkeet thought.

“Go.” The wolf said.

The female rushed him.

Talkeet found himself on his back, and felt a blast of pain, as the female belted him in the face about three times.

Talkeet shook his head, trying to clear his vision.

“Time to get to this…” Talkeet thought, as he threw the female off of him and into the wall.

He was able to stand up before she rushed him again.

She reared up on her back legs, going for another leaping attack.

Talkeet was ready this time, and sent a flurry of attacks into her unprotected underside.

She stumbled backwards, and Talkeet hit her in the side of the head, throwing her over backwards.

As she fell, she bit at him, her jaws snapping closed on nothing but air.

“Dang,” Talkeet thought. “She means to hurt me!”

The female hit the floor, and rolled, coming up on her paws.

Talkeet was on top of her by the time she looked up.

He landed on her back and tore into her back leg, grimacing a bit as he tasted blood in his mouth, but not his… hers.

She screamed, and thrashed around, trying to get him off of her, but Talkeet held on tight.

She finally hit his head against the wall, and he fell off of her back.

Talkeet had done some damage, and it showed.

Blood matted the fur of her back left leg, and she was limping pretty good.

She ran as hard as she could at Talkeet.

As she neared him, Talkeet caught her paw in his jaws and used her momentum to throw her violently into the wall.

The female’s head crashed into the wall, and she fell to the ground, unmoving.

The orange wolf walked over to him.

“You’re the winner, what do you want to do with her?”

Talkeet looked down at her, and wondered what it would feel like to take another life.

“Let her go.” Talkeet said.

The orange wolf nodded.

“Head through that opening there, and follow the corridor to the next chamber.

Talkeet nodded.

“Congratulations kid.” The wolf said.

“Thanks.” Talkeet answered.

Then he ran toward the next chamber.

 

Chapter Six

 

Talkeet ran into the next room, and stopped.

He was third in line for the next event.

It was a leaping contest.

There were five small pillars of rock stretching up out of a drop that was at least a hundred feet.

Talkeet watched as the wolf that was on the rocks at the moment slipped and fell.

Talkeet didn’t hear him hit the ground.

The next two wolves stepped up.

The first jumped onto the first rock, which was just barely big enough for all four of his paws to fit on.

He jumped to the second, and the other wolf jumped on the first.

Before the first wolf could jump to the third, the second one jumped to the second rock.

He hit the wolf, and the wolf stumbled, and fell off.

The second wolf smiled, and then finished jumping over the rocks.

Talkeet gulped.

There was no way the first wolf had survived that fall.

The gray wolf at the side of the drop motioned him forward, and Talkeet stepped up.

“Go ahead.” The wolf said.

Talkeet jumped to the first, and made it.

The gaps got progressively bigger, and Talkeet sprung to the second.

The third was much smaller than the others, so Talkeet jumped, and landed on his front paws, doing a dangerous handstand on the rock.

He almost slipped and fell, but he regained his balance.

He then jumped to the fourth, doing a back flip, and landing on his paws.

He then jumped to the fourth, and then the ledge on the other side.

He breathed a sigh of relief, and looked back to see the wolf behind him miss the third rock, stumbling over his front legs, and going head first off of the drop.

This time Talkeet did hear him hit the floor.

He shivered, then turned and ran to the next chamber.

 

In the next chamber was another fight, but this one had a drop, about as far to the floor as the leaping room, behind him.

Talkeet stared down another female.

“God,” he thought, “how do I wind up fighting the girls?”

The female charged him and the fight began.

This one was a lot more intense than the first.

This female knew how to fight.

When he finally got away from her, Talkeet was bleeding from a cut above his eye. He could also taste blood in his mouth.

He was glad to see that she hadn’t gotten out without him leaving his mark as well.

Blood ran down her face, from a good sized cut on the side of her head, and she had a pretty good limp on her right front leg.

She growled, yelled and leapt at him again.

Talkeet ducked, and she sailed over him.

He turned, and as she hit the ground, he was on top of her.

The two of them rolled on the rocks, snapping and slapping, rolling right toward the drop.

Finally, she got away from Talkeet and stood up shakily.

Talkeet had won out on this one.

He hit her in the side of the head, and she reared up on her back legs, trying to avoid another shot to the face.

Talkeet turned, and put all of his strength into a kick with his back legs, right into her exposed belly.

She was picked up by the impact, and landed on the edge of the drop, trying hard to keep her balance.

She seemed to stand there, on her back legs forever, as Talkeet realized what was going to happen.

He jumped forward, snapping at her leg.

His jaws snapped shut on air.

The female fell off backwards.

Talkeet heard her hit the floor.

He looked over the drop.

He could see her, or rather what was left of her.

There was a stream far below, and there was a red stain slowly spreading through it.

Talkeet thought he was going to be sick, and stumbled back away from the awful scene.

“My God!” He thought. “I… I killed her.”

He hung his head.

“Why? Why did she have to die, why….”

The white wolf walked over to him.

“You’re the winner son, move on to the survival section.”

Talkeet nodded, still numb from the female’s death.

He turned, and ran from the room.

 

Talkeet ran from the chamber, leaving the dead female back there.

He didn’t know how he felt about it, she had wanted to do the same thing to him, so he didn’t feel like a murderer, but…

Well, he didn’t feel good either.

Talkeet pushed those thoughts to the back of his mind.

There’d be time to think about that later, right now, if he kept thinking about what happened back there, he’d wind up the same way as she did.

He ran out into the snow.

“Survival…..” he thought.

The snow was falling so hard now, he could only see about five feet in front of his face.

“What a time for it to storm like this…” he thought.

“Hey, over here!”

Snow’s voice caught him off guard, and he walked forward.

Slowly, through the snow, he could see the eight or so wolves huddled together against the wind.

A female, she was one of his friends, her name was Snow, stepped forward.

“Hey, we’re banding together, and you’re the tenth one to come through, you want to join us?”

“Is that okay?” He asked.

“Does it matter?” Another voice, this one male, said from behind him.

Talkeet turned, and saw a brown wolf walk by him, and move to stand next to the group.

“Well… yeah,” Talkeet said, “I’m not going through all of… this to get disqualified.”

“They said to win at all costs right?” The brown wolf again.

Talkeet nodded.

“Yeah, I guess so.”

“Look around you,” Snow said, “look at the storm, we’ll never make it to the next event, unless we stick together here.”

Talkeet thought about this.

“Okay,” he said, “I’ll join you.”

“Good,” the brown wolf said, “now, we need to choose a leader for our little pack.”

Snow stepped forward.

“I nominate you Light, this was your idea anyway.”

The Brown wolf stepped forward.

“Alright, everyone else?”

The wolves all

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