The entire floor of the room is padded with mats. The walls are, too. There is a cage in the middle of the room. An arena. There is an upstairs with a track rimming the room. Weight and endurance machines lie up there, too. We stand in a line. Slowly, warriors trail in. Training will begin shortly. Aaron walks in, flanked by two buff wolves who are snickering at something he has said. He sees me, and stops short. I see him growl under his breath, than he adjusts himself and strolls towards me casually.

"What are you doing here?" he asks.

"I am the new guard of the king's daughter."

His ears flatten.

"Is that so?" he drawls, "well, I will make that very hard on you."

"We will see," I say, and watch him walk away into his position in the line.

The training commander walks into the room. He walks up and down the line, making some soldiers straighten themselves up so everything looks perfect. Than he stands in front of the center of the line.

"Goodmorning soldiers," he begins, "today we have practice fighting in human form. I will pair you up. I will not pair evenly. I want to see those of you who are smaller using your agility against the larger warriors. That being said, I want the larger wolves to use their sheer strength to dominate their opponent. It will be held in a tournament fashion. The wolf that rises to the top will be put against current warriors in the arena. Before that begins, I want you to watch the current warriors fight each other; pay attention to their technique.

"I also have some news of a new member of our training. Leonitis will be joining us in fast-paced training so that he can become a guard to the princess. He will also be the father of the princess's child."

Every head in the room turns to stare at me. I stand my ground and stare straight ahead, hoping that no emotion is flitting across my face. In all my daydreams, I never imagined my dream to come true in this way. Dreams never happen the way you think they do, if ever. This is better than the alternative, I remind myself. It is better than patrolling the border without purpose. The chaos is better than a life of repetitive days.

"Let us begin," the commander says, than backs away. Soldiers stream into the room. He selects two to hop in the arena. I'm surprised to see that not all the soldiers are big. Many of them are smaller with muscles rippling underneath their pelt.

The two that are in the arena are very different. One has a black pelt and is very large. The other has a auburn coat and steady gray eyes. In a flash, they transform into their human form and circle each other.

"Begin!" calls the commander. The two charge at each other in the arena. The larger one is screaming, coming at the smaller wolf with everything he has. Much to my surprise, the smaller one falls to the ground, than slides right under the larger man. In a flash, he is back up. The larger man doesn't have time to slow down. He rams into the side of the arena. Before he can turn around, the smaller man swings a punch directly into the side of his head. When the larger man does turn around, he is met with another fist. Than when he swings he is met with a kick in the ribs. He staggers to the ground. The auburn haired-man approaches him warily, not yet backing from the fight. When he gets close, the man jumps up and leaps. The younger wolf is crushed to the ground beneath his bulk, unable to get out of his grasp. He takes a few hard hits before spitting into his opponents face and squirming out from underneath him.

He knees him in the stomach, throws so many punches I can't keep up with them, and finally, the larger man falls to the ground.

I am speechless. My skills are nowhere near theirs. I have barely fought anyone, and won even less times. My techniques are good, but my strength is lacking. I have a lot to work on.

We watch a few more rounds, until finally our commander sends the warriors out. He faces us.

"Tell me what you learned,"

"Strength is necessary to win," I call out boldly, "but the more important quality is using your brain to win a fight depending on your opponents strengths and weaknesses."

He nods. "That is what I wanted you to see. Leonitis, come into the arena."
Swallowing my fear, I climb up onto the platform.

"If you are knocked out of the platform or fall off, you lose. There is no wins based on injuries done to the oponent. It is whoever remains in the arena."

I nod my understanding. The commander walks along the line of other soldiers and selects a smaller but lethal looking wolf.

"Fight in human form," he demands."Start whenever you want."

I chose to wait for my opponent to make the first move, but it seems like he has decided to do the same, so we both slowly circle each other, arms held out. I feel exposed in my human form. I am aware that everyone is watching, scrutinizing my every move. I do my best to forget about the crowd and focus on the man in front of me. I make the first move, choosing to slowly walk up to my opponent to see how he will react. He stands still for a moment, than he lunges, grabbing onto my shoulders and trying to push me out of the arena. I throw my body to the ground. I'd rather be on the floor than let him kick me out of the arena. Once I'm on the floor, I use my legs to sweep him to the ground, too. He collapses, and in that window I take the opportunity to punce on top of him. I hesitate a moment before I punch him square in the face. Blood spurts out of his nose, and I'm surprised that I did that to him. I'm the one who made the blood run. Instead of feeling guilty, I feel invigorated. Again, I punch him into the face so as to put him into a comfortable delirium. Than I take his feet and sweep him off the arena.

I have won.

I stand up and face the rest of the soldiers. Their faces are emotionless, as we have been trained to do, but I can see their face, and they are impressed. At least some of them are. I can tell Aaron isn't as impressed. He looks very angry, and that is bad for me. If I face him in the arena, I will face his anger, and that is dangerous. Anything goes in these arenas; I've seen it in the fights with other soldiers. Ripped nails, scratched eyes, and spitting has all been used. They play dirty, and to stay in here, I will have to play dirty too.

The commander chooses my next opponent. He is larger, but not huge. I am able to trick him into sliding off the arena and onto the floor without even touching him. This is a tacticul game, and I am good with outsmarting my dumb, large opponents.

Next, he choses Aaron. After fighting two other wolves, I am already starting to feel tired. I want a break, but I know warriors don't take breaks. It's than that I notice that the princess and the king are watching. In that moment of distraction, Aaron has seen the opportunity and taken advantage. He swats me across the face with his large paw and takes the gruff of my neck into his jaw. I know he could win right now, but he wants to make it a show. He wants to give me as much pain as possible while impressing the league with his brutality. I am viciously swung around like a puppy in the maw of a puppy, feeling the skin around my neck rip all the while. His teeth sink deeper. He flings me to the ground and I fly towards the edge of the arena. I could let myself fall off right now, save myself a lot of trouble, but instead I dig my claws into the ground and rise. I feel blood spurt out of my wound, dribbling onto the floor of the arena.

Limping towards Aaron, I make out as if I am going to attack, than swerve to the right and barrel into his hind legs. They cut out from underneath him, causing him to sit on the arena. I dig my claws into his stomach and drag, letting blood slosh onto the floor. He howls in pain and bats me away with his right arm. I go flying, but before I can hit the ground he is on me again, but he has pinned me down wrong. I can still swipe at him. While I am on the ground, we both swipe at each other madly until he grabs my throat with his teeth. He could kill me. I feel his grip tightening. I let my paw find his face and slash blindly. My eyesight is covered in blood; his or mine I do not know. I hear him yell in agony. I may have blinded him. I know I have scratched his nose badly.

That is when I hear our commander yelling for us to stop. I let go instantly, but Aaron takes his time releasing my throat from its death grip. He was close to losing control. I could basically feel my life fluttering out of my chest.

"No more blows! No more scratching! Now, turn back into man form and push each other off."

Neither of us have relaized us, but in our anger we have both turned back to being wolves. I transform back into a man and charge him, shouldering him across the arena, but I have no chance. I am in so much pain, and he is so much larger. My thoughts are clouded by hate, and Aaron easily pushes me off the arena stage.

I have lost.