I slammed into the ground, cursing under my breath.

My sparring partner, Durgal, stepped back, breathing heavily but grinned. He was just shorter than me, standing at 1.3m or so, but probably outweighed me by a bit. Stocky, cocky, and strong. I had tried multiple approaches, but nothing I had tried on him worked. I tried to leverage my strength initially, just as I always did in the hunt, but he was stronger than me and quickly took me down. I tried to dart around him quickly and upset his bearing, but he carried himself calmly in the fight, and was able to mitigate any advantages I had in speed with his positioning and experience. Finally, I'd resorted to using my sonilphon, and blasted as loud a scream as I could muster right in his ear, and he'd startled from that, but as I tried to press my advantage, he'd maneuvered his footing in a way that forced me to overcommit, the Durgal had pulled me over himself with one arm as I stumbled forward.

There I was, gasping, trying to recover my breath, as Durgal, the 14 of the Alqat, sat back on his haunches. "Was this what you expected when you asked to join us?"

Three days ago, I had approached Rulac and stated my intentions to qualify to join the Alqat. He'd laughed in my face in an amused yet not unkind way, then said that I should try to be around them for a while, see what the Alqat thought of me, and then try again. I'd been busy with running my swarm and training the spawnlings, so I'd only gotten down to the Alqat's den today. It had been... eventful.

There were three present. The 7, 10, and 14, Histy, Berk, and Durgal, respectively. Histy and Berk were the female and male that had accompanied Rulac and my pack during the night raid, Histy controlled the flame and Berk the wind. When I'd entered and announced my intentions, both Histy and Berk looked to Durgal, who quickly understood what they were trying to communicate to him and grinned.

"Great, Rulac wants you to introduce yourself. Step in the ring with me. I won't draw blood, I just want to see how you fight."

The three fights had been quick and painful, and interspersed with little chuckles and commentary from the two onlookers, too quiet for me to hear over my pounding heart and gasping breaths.

"Alright, you got me. How the hell do you do what you do?" I sighed.

Durgal looked at me. The humor started to drain from his posture, and he began to assume a more serious stance. "What, exactly?"

I felt my shoulders tense. "All you Alqats. You--" All three interrupted me, almost in unison, "Alqat." Histy continued while the two males nodded along, "No 's' at the end. Ever. We're one body."

"... Ok then. You Alqat are all exceptionally experienced in interkeelish combat. I've seen several of your number brutalize others handily, and even non-Alqat subordinates are obviously trained. How? And, I think more importantly, why?"

Durgal smiled faintly. "Well, how is an easy question. Practice. Always. Both in the hunt and in combat. Some of our number are damn good fighters. 3's the best of all. She trained all the rest of us, and I don't think Rulac's ever beat her in a fair fight."

"Wait, 3? Isn't that Wisterl?"

"Ah, you know her." Durgal displayed his neck briefly, showing an ever more familiar line of scar tissue running up his neck. "This is her... mark. It shows defeat, but learning. If she decides to teach you, you'll receive your own."

"Wait, so shouldn't she be '1'? Since she's stronger than Rulac?"

All three looked knowingly at each other, and Berk spoke up. His voice was strangely sibilant, almost like a snake. "No, she's not. Could she beat him in a fight? Yes, but she's inferior to him in every other way imaginable. She's not a great hunter, and a piss-poor leader. You wouldn't find any of the Alqat willing to follow her unless absolutely necessary. Fighter, though? You won't find a more qualified, bloodthirsty warmonger."

Histy spoke up, "Anyways, as for why? That isn't our place to say. I'm sure you have some ideas, and I'm sure they're at least partially correct." She stood tall, clicked something with her tongue, and Durgal helped me to my feet as she continued to speak.

"We've seen you fight. Let's see you hunt."

"Ok, I think that one of my packs should be--"

"Not as a leader, but a member of a pack. Come with us."

A part of me rankled at being told what to do, especially after my pride had been quashed by Durgal repeatedly and easily, but the rest of me recalled why I was there--to gain support, after we got through this human crisis. Additionally, I wasn't so prideful as to not recognize that I needed to learn the skills that the Alqats--no, Alqat--seemed to have in spades.

Thus, I ascended the tunnel with an unfamiliar pack.

...

As we approached the tree cover, Histy spoke. "Berk, you're in charge today. Where're we going?" He looked over at her with a knowing look. "You know my choice." The Alqat all nodded, then Berk turned to me.

"In the hunt, where are you, usually?"

"Frontlines."

"Good for you. Let's see how you do there for today then."

I wasn't too sure what he meant by "for today", but it seemed relatively promising, so I let it go.

It was strange for me to not have much of anything to do as the pack began following a track that was slightly familiar to me but I couldn't place. I watched the others, but I wasn't in charge of them, so there were several times where I needed to bite my tongue, and another where a part of me panicked, wondering where a wandering spawnling had gotten off to, only to realize that there weren't any underlings for me to worry about.

As I mused, somewhat lost in thought, I realized that Histy, who was leading the scouting, was slowing. I approached, and she spoke softly, "I'll tell you once. This sound," She clicked her tongue sharply, "means go, and this one," she clicked her tongue again, but with her mouth closed, muffling it, "means wait. The prey is in the clearing up ahead. Berk, whaddya say?"

He looked forward, and I could see a slight rope of saliva beginning to trail from the corner of his mouth. "Alright, you, Ashlani, go forward about 15 steps and to your left about 10. From there, wait for the signal. We'll follow you after you follow the signal." I nodded, and got myself low as I began to follow the instructions.

As I entered the clearing, I noticed the prey. It was a scaled deer buck, about the same size as the one that Took had brought back a couple of weeks ago. Its rack of horns was less tangled than that of the one Took had felled, but it was otherwise almost the same size. Then, I heard a soft click, almost too soft to hear. I twitched, about to rush forward, but realized it was the waiting signal. The scaled deer twitched, and looked around, cautious. I settled back, almost worried I'd ruined the hunt, and my right shoulder ached in response to the sudden, forcefully controlled movement.

Another 10 seconds passed, another soft click. Then another 10 seconds, another click. Another. Another. Another. The deer began to calm, then lowered its head to graze. That was immediately followed by a louder click, and I rushed forward.

As I got close enough to begin my assault, I activated [Bloodlust] and tore into the front leg near the shoulder. I bit down as hard as I could, but the scales shifted, redistributing the force, and preventing me from beginning to tear in as hard as I'd wanted. The creature jumped, trying to get free, and reached out with my left arm, grappling the other front leg as I ground my teeth against the hard scales while I began to pull some of my magic towards my jaw instead of my throat. I wrestled with the deer as it began smashing its horns against my back, unable to get anything more than a glancing blow off on me as the magic reached my head, and my jaws began to shudder into motion. With a buzzing noise, my teeth began to clatter irregularly against its leg, and I felt the scales beginning to give way when its hind legs collapsed, and I finally shouldered the beast over.

At that point, I finally noticed what the other three were doing--Berk was in front of it, snapping back and forth, and preventing it from committing to striking out at me. Whenever it began to try to smash into me, he would conjure a bit of wind and push it, or move forward and get towards the nearly exposed throat of the deer, and it would retreat back. Durgal had hamstrung both the back legs, with crimson blood flowing like a waterfall down the dully shining muddy brown scales of the scaled deer. Histy was nowhere to be seen though.

I felt my vibrating teeth finally tear into flesh, and with relish, I tore a huge mouthful of meat off the sprawling creature. It squealed in pain, and I dug back in for more. It continued crying out for just a moment, before Histy darted forwards and slammed her full weight on its head, and, with a wet crack, the deer's head turned an unnatural angle, and flopped limply to the side. Histy looked back at me as I tried to shake off the [Bloodlust].

"Not bad, youngster. Let's get back to the den."