“Sisters, brothers, the ice boys fucked us over,” Bogdan annouo a small gathering. Dressed in the overall of an armory worker, he stood on a crate, his paws dramatically raised above his head. “An honorable name had been stolen! Sword Sairuda keeps s Warlord Janine’s mood! Shaman Impatient One whipped her back to the boer talking to Sword Saint Camelia Wintersong! Injured! Stinky bombs! Insults! These grievances ot stand unchallenged, I say!” He smmed his fist into the wall, causing the metal to vibrate. “The ice bastards must be repelled!”

  The present crowd cramping the corridor included both males and females in it. In the Wolf Tribe, it was frowned upon to permit a male to lead any public speech, as it implied inpeten the part of a female for not initiating the discussion of the troubling topic earlier, and the speaker often found himself bitten afterwards. There were some exceptions. If a male revealed the truth about forced copution, about a wolf hag, or even about a warlord embezzling foleg her duties, shamans and warlords formed ranks around the male, watg hawkishly to ensure his safety afterward. Truth, even bitter truth, was a cost of survival, and a slight had to be corrected.

  But this gathering had nothing to do with such serious matters, and Bogdan treaded a fine line. He smoothed the situation by inviting females to a discussion rather than demanding their presence. He also postured to maintain a non-formal appearao avoid a situation where scouts and wolf hags would not be tempted to assert their dominance, and females returhe favor by letting males speak freely.

  “What we do?” Anissa asked, leaning against a wall. She released her cws and examihem through the aiming scope of her artificial eye. “We tried fighting them, they refused to back dowried ign them and faced the same result.”

  “Yeah, and if we so much as y a finger on them, Warlord Alpha will rip it off. No thanks,” Elzada stated, cheg her meical leg.

  “Have we tried talking to them?” Kirk asked, shrinking and trying to retreat into the shadows as the ehering’s surprised amber eyes focused on him.

  “How would that help?” Zta inquired. The wolf hag ighe male’s weakness and the fact that his family closed ranks to calm him.

  “Well, they are reasonable beings, right? If we expihing…”

  “Kirk, buddy, you don’t speak to the ice boys,” Bogdan said. “They’ll drag you down to their level and trap you with their superior experien wordpy. Remember the duel.”

  “So we are stuck,” Anissa growled.

  “Sis, don’t sweat about a problem when finding a solution is so much funnier!” Ignacy said enthusiastically. Like Bogdan, he wore an engineer’s overall. Ign his older sister’s angry g of fangs, he used his backpack to push Bodan off the crate, then rummaged in it and spread a map over the rusty surface. “Behold! The crawler’s schematics.”

  “Where in the Spirits’ names did you get those?” Anissa raised her brow, calming at once.

  “Who do you think assists with repairs?” Ignacy smugly pointed a thumb at his chest, theured at the intricate web of pipes spreading from the partments owned by the Ice Fangs. “Our crawler is far from being the stunniy she once was…”

  “He,” Elzada corrected him. “The Iable is a boy. Everyone knows it.”

  “Believe me, when you hear the song of w gears, the groaning of wondrous circuits, gears, engines, pipes carrying waste, energy flow ing from the engine, you’ll agree that this is her and that she has a beautiful voice despite her age.” Ignacy dreamily g the ceiling.

  “Maybe you could prove it to me, Ignacy.” The scout leaned on his shoulder, nibbled at his ear, and whispered: “Just you and me, expl the mae world to our hearts’ tent.”

  “Sure, we go tonight if you want to,” the Wolfkin said, and Elzada ched her fist in triumph. “Anyway, see the pipes leading to the septiks? Both they and the tanks are running on fumes from disrepair. Normally, such a situation should not have occurred, as the waste would have been recycled immediately, but our baby is overcrowded, overworked, and the aintenance has finally bitten us in the ass. Theoretically, if somethio happen to the tanks, the automatic system would flush their tents in both dires, and the Ice Fangs will find their precious dens leisuring in a thick yer of feces and piss.”

  “The stench alone will be the stuff of legends!” excimed Melina, closing her snout to the schematics. “That’s bound to cause quite a iption!” She spped Igna the back. “It wasn’t half-bad to let males learn from the Normies!”

  “Won’t we be punished?” Kirk asked. The often nervous-looking Wolfkin licked his lips and looked around, as if afraid that Kaisa would materialize out of nowhere a him up.

  “Pnning to scurry away?” Anissa grinned, her eye shining like a young star.

  “No way.” The youngster shook his head stubbornly, holding his left paw to keep it from shaking. “They called our pack a bunch of dirty barbarians…”

  “Well, they ain’t wrong,” Kirk’s sister giggled, and Elzada lightly elbowed her. “We are dirty. And barbarians.”

  “Speak for yourself!” Elzada tugged on her sleeveless t-shirt. “I myself and wash my clothes regurly.”

  “Elzada, you wash them in sand.”

  “Yes!” The scout blinked and pricked up her ears. “Where else am I supposed to do it?”

  “The Ice Fangs could’ve been less of an ass about delivering that statement,” Kirk insisted.

  “Then it is settled!” Bogdan announced and walked before the gathering, meeting the eyes of the males and bowing to the females. “My kin from different packs and from different parents! We are bound by saltiness and grief!” He ched his fist, raising it high above his head. “Time to get even! We…”

  “And why should I not send you directly to the shamans for punishment?” Janine’s voied from the corridor’s dynamics. Her calm tone froze everyone present in pce. “Warlord Alpha has made her will clear. No fighting outside the arena.”

  Ja in a small operatioer, surrounded by dispys that showed her everything important ihe crawler. The rejuvenation shot had left her refreshed and full of fresh energy, and the warlord eagerly joined her sisters in carrying out the duties, even if it meant trying to fit her oversized body into a small armchair meant for the Normies.

  The short moment of unity after the ret battle was short-lived. Hundreds of Wolfkins from both groups had begged permission to join Onyxia on her scouting mission, and as the number of volunteers grew, heated insults flew bad forth as the Wolfkins and Ice Fangs tried to prove their superiority. Eventually, Onyxia chose First to apany her, g that he alone could restrain her if she went too far iioning the svers and, if the rumors were true, at Alpha’s direct behest.

  Tens of thousands of able-bodied Wolfkirapped ihe crawler for weeks on end. To bat boredom, they peted for the right to escees from the ruined settlement to safety, as the custrophobic corridors of the giant mae took a toll on the morale of the soldiers. The Blessed Mother herself stood as an unmoving statue on the hull of the Iable, panting and clutg her head. Warlords and dozens of lesser ranks often joined her, sometimes returning proudly bearing new scars as the Spirits tested the progenitor’s sanity, and she shed out, g at those near her.

  Fears of enclosed spaces could be overe. The hardest thing to deal with was boredom.

  There wasn’t a warlord of her rank who would let her subordinates fool around for too long. In the Wastes, Wolfkins always had an abundance of duties to perform: reissions, raising young, training, or hunting. A period of peace always led to dominations. And now, with so many packs sharing ohe arena was never idle.

  It was Dragena’s idea, and Jani kig herself for not suggesting it first. The warlord requested a sealed hangar bay for the ritual sparring procedures, and Captain Cristobo obliged. Engineers removed the broken maery, workbenches, assembly lines, and everything else from the hangar and structed four pits for individual sparring. To the north was a rger ptform where entire groups could let loose and hoheir skills in free-for-alls or team petitions. Later, workers added bleachers and rudimentary balies for spectators and judges.

  Blood, torn fur, broken fangs, and the remains of cws littered the arena floor. Day and night, scores of Wolfkins fought, biting, snarling, losing, and immediately seeking a rematch. Their cousins joined in the gruesome spectacle. Knight captains engaged wolf hags in individual bat, and an orderly wall of defenders and knights tried to withstand a bck tide of warriors and scouts p at them. Sages and shamans walked along the edge of the arena, often saving lives by breaking up the fiercest cshes to the dissatisfa of both sides, as her was ready to give up.

  Wolfkins fought with cws and fangs, closing distances quickly, unleashing a flurry of stabs intending to rupture an artery or defleg an ining blow to open their oppo for a bite, and willingly g ground to avoid daheir ice-blooded cousins used martial ons. They fought measuredly, trying to adapt to their oppos’ ent strategy, and proudly held their ground, masterfully weaving patterns of death in the air. The fighters agreed on one unspoken rule: never maim or aim for the eyes.

  Knight captains viewed this situation as madness and pleaded the Wolf Tribe to at least bring in battle ko the battle. But it was not iribe’s nature. They seldom relied on melee in a battle, preferring to leave it to the shamans and warlords and use shardguns. It was all the more humiliating for the Ice Fangs to see so many of their own being wheeled into the emergen with horrific wounds. Not that the Wolf Tribe was without its share of wounded and near-dead.

  Warlords Ashbringer and Dragena found the Wolf Tribe’s performance g. From the opposite side, Leonidas Summerspring and Camilia Wintersong echoed these ses, expressing their dissatisfa at the inability of their proud troops to achieve total victory. The bloody tie pleased Janine. She found joy in witnessing white furs express their familial fury in melee bat, plowing through ining stabs and bites to rehe Wolfkins’ bodies immobile with a single swing of their great bdes. Earned scars uhe warriors. Ravager was the Blessed Mother of the Wolf Tribe and the Ice Fang Order. her side was superior to the other. They merely had different roles assigo them by the Spirits, but at their core, the two groups remained one family.

  The arena became a favorite spot for the Normies’ regurs and w persoo unwind and pce bets after w hours, as they cheered on their favorite teams. Priests, doctors, and the Iternian cmored for an immediate ban on the violent sport. In a brief show of unity, the Ice Fangs and the Wolfkins failed to uand the reasoning behind such a weird request.

  Soldiers eagerly seized any opportunity to assist the crew, and many males, motivated by Ignacy’s example, bored in workshops, preparing mobile artillery and repairing bat armor for uping battles. Elzada soon joihem, bringing in warriors and scouts from various packs.

  Lacerated One happily reported that one hundred fifty-two females were carrying lives, with newly formed soulmates eagerly mating in every er of the crawler. Unlike Normies, who often gave birth to a single cub, Wolfkin females’ litters ranged from four to eight cubs. Even if it was the first or sed litter for the life-bearers, it still meant six hundred cubs at worst and a thousand at best. Meaning two hundred potential fighters could be expected to live to adulthood. A very blessed sign.

  Desperate at these news, Janine sidered crushing her own head, but instead, she apanied Alpha and Dragena ter. By the progenitor’s will, the future mothers were to eat exclusively officer’s rations, highly nutritious packages of ed meat aables ri vitamins. They paled pared to the succe of a cusack, but Janine ighe grumbling and cursing directed at her. The bnd food could help unborn cubs be born alive, and that was all that mattered. She refused to let anyo her mistakes in carrying the malnourished cubs, and Cristobo and Ravager agreed to her request to send the life-bearers back to the vilges, where they could eat a in peace. Ashbringer grumbled, unsatisfied that the packs were losing numbers, and cimed the solution to be pointless, but Dragena and Alpha firmly supported Janine’s initiative, shutting down any opposition.

  To Ja didn’t matter whether or not Ashbringer was correct. Cubs of the first litter had a better ce of surviving in a stable enviro, and she was willing to do whatever it took to give them that ce.

  This left the Ice Fangs and the problems they brought. The arena helped bridge the gap between the groups, but outside of it, the distrust persisted. The act involving Impatient One’s self-fgeltion, persistent demands for ‘truce’ from the Mountaintops, and the eous demands of several Sword Saints for Jao meet with Bertruda ehe packs. Tancred’s wound and persistent rumors of the Ice Fangs deliberately hiding in the rear during the war infuriated the Order. Wolfkins of the tribe were baffled that their cousited males to lead, and the Ice Fangs found their bck-furred kin’s lifestyle abhorrent.

  Insults flew bad forth, and soon Bogdan found a stinky grenade by his door that left him smelling of urine for days. Tancred Ironwill discovered the culprits, personally apologized for their childish behavior, aed a knight captain and several other knights who were responsible for the peculiar joke. Bogdan hated he hadn’t thought of this prank first, more than the smell.

  The situation could deteriorate, and the warlords had implemented drastic measures. An open insult aimed at an Ice Fang was worth twenty shes by a shaman arm. Alpha dealt with anyone who dared assault or bite their cousins outside of the arena. The warlords took turns in the operatioers, monit their packs’ behavior, and groups of shamans stood ready to stop any troublemakers.

  “Warlord!” Bogdan straightened up, looking around for the hidden camera. “There is no need for endation! We seek no urels for fixing the drainage system in the Order’s dens. The sight of their irritated snouts when they realize who solved their problem is reward enough for us to strive freatness!”

  “Is that so? And you haven’t even sidered flooding them with the former tents of their bowels?” Janine asked skeptically.

  “Perish the thought, Warlord!” Bogdan faked terror. “Your orders are absolute. And we are very obedient soldiers!” The reed, and Janine’s booming ughter raced through the corridor.

  “Fine, fine. If that’s the case, go for it. I expect a full report of your splendid success within the hour. And after you’ve dohat, you’ll do the same for every other drainage system in our crawler. We ’t let them break down on us, we?” Janine smiled and switched the s’s image.

  Ah, the wonders of being young and reckless. If Bogdan had been a girl, she would have enced him to pursue a career as a scout. As weak as he was, the boy had a knack fathering crowds for his mischiefs. And unlike her and Martyshkina’s pranks, Bogdan rarely left anyone broken. Still smiling, Janine pressed a button that toggled the dispy.

  In the medical bay, white-furred and bck-furred Wolfkins worked together, scrubbing the floor. Aside from friendly banter and the occasional encement from the little ones who had retly awakened from their injuries, everything seemed in order here. She switched ss. Arruda was asking Osiris to let her try out his swun in his den. Weird, but it seemed i enough. . Impatient One led a prayer. Several white-furred attehe prayer, kneelio the believers and listening to the sermons. No harm in this either, but the absence of Soulless One saddened Janine.

  The elder shaman expihat her distrust toward the Ice Fangs was the reason for her absence. She didn’t want to offend the spirits with half-hearted prayers, so instead she taught the healthy little ones and several settlers new nguages. Soulless One even ihe Iternian, asking him to firm if her pronunciation of certain words was correct. Jached their lessons for a while, finding te in the fact that her friend had regained her vigor and spoke in a clear voice, enjoying putting her hobby to use. s.

  “I don’t get it.” The dispy showed Kaisa and Anji sitting alone in a dining hall. Kaisa tossed a bent needle in a trash . “Why is that night still b you? And don’t lie! I heard you smashing the mirror.”

  Kaisa had fully recovered after the beating; her scapu had regais shape, and fresh neuro-link impnts repced the ruined ohe recovery period burhrough her internal reserves; her ribs protruded from her skin, and the impnts protruded from her fur like rown ticks. The wolf hag still visited Janine for advice, but tely she spent more time beside her rival, no lorying to dominate Anji. The two women were busy sewing the remnants of Kaisa’s several tarments, spread across the long table, into something resembling a skort and a jacket. Kaisa cursed as a tremor in her formerly broken arm prevented her from pushing a thread into the ring of a needle, and her finger bent the metal instead.

  “Patience,” Anji said. She leaned in, helping Kaisa push the thread in. “We are in no rush. Take it slowly. The spasms will soon be gone. As for your question, I keep w if I’d dohings differently, if I could have saved more people. And when an idea es to me, I react,” she easily admitted.

  “We’re killers. Not saviors. Death is what we do,” Kaisa insisted. She released a d drew a line in the air, struggling to articute her thoughts. Then she shrugged, drank a gss of nutrition drink, auro the sewing. “Like… You’re older than me. Surely you have been involved in a few quests by now. People die. Get used to it. We’ll all die, eventually. Don’t overthink it; train, Anji! If your brain is slow, let your physical speed carry you. trate on keeping a tally of dead bastards so the Normies one day build their peace.”

  “Thank you for w, Kaisa.” Anji smiled, ign the bristling. “When I see a dead cub, I keep remembering those rascals I pyed with when Dad and Mht our family to help.”

  “Tch. Mother, father, brothers, sisters… A prio the core. Bet they tucked you into a boo.” Kaisa ched her fist, took a breath, and her shoulders slumped as she rexed. “Sorry. Was rude.”

  “Oh, they did. In fact, they still try to do that when I visit home.” Anji ughed. “Mom is weird.”

  “Not weird, good,” Kaisa grumbled. “It was nice, right?”

  “It was awesome,” Anji admitted, putting her paws over Kaisa’s. “Stop tensing so much. You do it. Here, let me help. See, this way the pattern will look nice…”

  Jaurned off the sound out of respect for privacy. Kaisa looked a bit more stable than usual… But Janine remembered the look on Kirk’s fad the way Kaisa had treated her family. There was a long way ahead before the gifted fool could be a true pilr for the tribe. Jaapped her cws together and called Marco to herself.

  “M… Warlord!” Marco saluted her.

  The events of the past days had left her little time to spend with her son, but her little boy wasn’t a scker, scampering up and down the crawler to help Zero deliver packages from local traders. But a worry kept b into the warlord’s mind. The sight of dead little ones ba the settlement lured her back to the memories of her stillborn daughters and her little cubs, who had perished is. Overwhelmed by her worries, she asked Till Ingo for a particur gift.

  It was a modified trag device used by the Iigation Bureau. Not many things could suppress its signal; even Iternian teology had failed several times to silehe emergency signal when they kidnapped agents for questioning. Janine had to call in owed favors from both the Iigators and Till Ingo to get the device, which was safely encased in a sturdy g and could be activated at the touch of a button.

  “At ease.” Janine pced the devi his paw. “Marco, Houstad is a big city, and your family might not be around all the time. If aries to dominate or cw you, press this button. And I will e, no matter what.”

  “I don’t need prote,” Marco said, looking down. “I’ve survived the pits just fine.”

  Janihe seat and k, taking her son by the shoulders. Traditions and rules called for severe punishment to be meted out to a male who dared to speak back to a female. But she simply hugged him, letting go of the discipline and trying to be a mother.

  “We both know it isn’t true,” she said softly. “Marco, the reason your knees hurt is because of me. It is my fault for ruining your future, for failing your sisters and your brother, for not giving you and them enough vitality to thrive.” He tried to speak, and she pressed a fio his lips. “Colt has asked me to watch over you and your siblings. Permit me this one weakness. If things get scary, call me immediately.”

  “I am not weak!” Marco shouted. “I uand precisely why yiving this to me! You think me weak, worthless! Everyohinks the same! ‘Oh, poor Marco, how are your knees? you walk today? Why do they make you carry these greaves? They are too heavy for you. Do you need help to carry this box? No, I don’t; no, it’s not too heavy; and no, I don’t o be pitied or reminded of how useless I am! I... I’m going to be as mighty as you, Ani, and Y...” He gurgled, gasping for air, when Janine closed her paw around his throat.

  She rose to her full height, lifting her boy to eye level. A low growl ignited a spark of fear in his gentle eyes. Marco ched the remote and tried to bare his ne submission when Janine closed her snout to his, baring her fangs.

  “You are not like me or your sisters,” Janine said mercilessly. It hurt her heart, but the boy must learher he accepts his harsh p the tribe, or he makes the right choid agrees to be exiled and bee happy. Janine loosened her grip so that Marco could breathe freely. “No male in our tribe will ever be equal to a female. Such is the will of the Spirits. Do you think we care for you and offer to help because you are weak? Is that it? Because we pity you? We care because we love you. We help because we are a family. And you will always be our family, regardless of whether you are stronger or weaker than your living brothers. Sit.” She dropped him and summoned Martyshkina.

  Marco obeyed Janine, found himself a p the er, and sat quietly, massaging his neck as Janine observed the packs, no lng at him. The warlord paid no heed even to the hirious chaos happening on the dispy as the ‘repair’ team faced ued difficulties.

  Was that what Marco was thinking? Did he truly believe that his siblings stood by him out of pity for his illness? Spirits, no wonder he thought that; she had taken him from the pits! Her as were the reason her boy drank richly from the isery. She used him as a glorified delivery boy and failed to emphasize his value as a soldier for the nation. No, Janine had made enough mistakes. She had failed Marco’s siblings; she would not hope for the best again. The mistake will be corrected tonight. A lesson was in order—a lesson every cub passed is. It was her responsibility to show Marco just hoable he was, and that the path to soldiering was not barred to him.

  “Called?” Martyshkina showed up, pressing two fio her temple in a mog salute. When Jaurned in the chair to meet her, the warlord raised her brows at the sight on the ss. “Jani, mind telling me why our boys and girls are standing knee-deep in shit?”

  “By the Spirits, it’s everywhere! What the Abyss are they eveing!?” Anissa cried in disgust. “Ignacy, you bastard! You’ve told us that the pipe will hold!”

  “How is this my fault? The ice bastards uated the severity of the situation iest report!” Ignaapped back.

  “Clearly by a lot,” Kirk said as he assisted his brother, who had been thrown to the ground by a torrent of brown mass, to get to his feet.

  “Ignacy, if I die drowning in this, I swear I will get your ass in the Great Beyond!” growled Zta.

  “Why am I at fault? It was Bogdan’s pn!”

  “It was a horrible idea to let males learn! They ruined everything as usual!” Melied.

  “For once, I agree!” Anissa dug her cws into the wall to keep from slipping into the brown mire.

  “Alright, folks, we’re fag a literal shitstotta work fast before the system flushes the pipes! If we hope to salvage the situation, we ’t afford to look bad in the eyes of the Ice Fangs,” Bogdan said.

  “Not sure about the looks, but we sure as shit smell like... shit,” Elzada chuckled.

  “Practig in perf emergency repairs,” Janine quickly replied to Martyshkina, standing up and pig Marco up. “Listen, could you take over the watch? I’ll owe you one. I have an emergeny paws, too.”

  “No problem here.” Martyshkina gracefully leapt over Janine and nded heavily in her seat. She put both paws behind her head and watched the dispys with a grin. “Is this Zta trying to clog a pipe over there? For such a show, I am willing to do it for free.”