“This is it? This was your idea?” Mikey asked, his feet at the very edge of the pit.

“Yeah, this is insane, Buggro. I don’t know what the fuck is going through your head,” Lazarus added on, his head surveying the area below.

“Insane? Na way! Best idea eva!” Buggro carolled.

Mikey, Lazarus and Buggro stood at the edge of a bone littered, corpse rotting, dirt pit. It was wide enough to act as a comfortable pen to hold six to seven horses; instead, the pit held three juvenile wargs.

Despite their age, the wargs had grown far larger than even the average cattle.

“Bruthas ‘ey are! White one ‘ere is Ribs,” Buggro gestured to the smallest warg of the three. Its fur coat had been well stained with dried blood, matting much of the mane that ran down the length of its spine. It was currently gnawing at a large bone left lying in the pit.

“Brown one ‘ere, middle pup, he’s a real devnant, his name’s Mud,” Buggro said while shaking his head.

“You mean deviant,” Lazarus corrected him, as the triad watched the carob coloured warg rip into an old corpse - tugging and tearing it apart in a brutally playful manner.

“Ye, ‘ats what I said. Anyways, last one 'ere is Bat, he's a leada of 'em," Buggro gestured to the final warg, lying over a pile of fresh corpses. The other two kept their distance from the raven black canine as it watched over the pit with a dictator's demeanour.

In contrast to its jet black coat, the warg had eyes eerily clear and crystalline, like a tincture of fine grain salt.

Bat, sitting atop his corpse throne much like the war chief in his hut, slowly tilted his head to face Mikey, Lazarus and Buggro. Unlike the other two, who were both completely oblivious, Bat held a chillingly studious stare towards the triad.

“And you wanted to bring them with us, so what, we could provide them with a bite-size snack on our way? A nibble of the arm, a couple fingers here and there?” Mikey found himself rambling, dumbfounded by why Buggro chose to bring them here.

“Na, not bring ‘em with us. We gonna ride ‘em!” Buggro chuckled before he leapt from the pit's ledge, over the log barriers around the rim, and into the pen below.

"Wow Buggro, great idea," Mikey chuffed in disbelief as he watched the little goblin drop right in the middle of the three Wargs. "We can't die when we're already dead."

Buggro’s landing in the sloppy mush saturated his feather leggings with a repulsive mixture of mud, blood and rot. The wargs, hearing the sudden drop, all turned their attention to him suddenly; Ribs dropped the bone from his mouth, straightening up on all fours, as Mud did the same with his ragdoll corpse. Bat simply shifted his attention to Buggro, barely moving a muscle.

“Goblin for lunch in, three,” Mikey began, watching Ribs salivating whilst greedily observing Buggro. Buggro seemed to be rummaging through some pouch on his waist.

“Two,” Lazarus continued after him, Mud licking his teeth as he crouched low to the ground. Every step he took was cautious, moving only when Buggro wasn’t facing in his direction.

“One,” Mikey finished as Buggro pulled something from his pouch, holding it high above his head in a proud moment of victory. It was a red ball.

“Goo’ boys! Fetcha!” Buggro roared out, throwing the bouncy ball against the wall of the pit. Both Ribs and Mud launched off after it, their tails wagging a hurricane behind them as they ran. Bounding over one another, Ribs made a dive for it as the ball rolled off of a decaying animal. As his jaws opened wide, a sharp pain shot through his tail - forcing a whine. Mud had bitten down on his tail, pulling him the other way to keep him from getting the ball.

As the two brotherly wargs continued their roughhousing over the red ball, Bat seemed completely uninterested. He continued to lie atop his meat mountain throne, simply watching over the pit.

“Come down ‘ere cap’ins!” Buggro waved to Lazarus and Mikey up the top. “Got’a quick!”

Mikey looked to Lazarus in absolute disbelief. Still lifting the pressure off of his leg, he wasn’t willing to put himself in a feeding pit as a lame lamb.

Lazarus however kept his eyes on the wargs. A devious smile appeared on his face as he inched forward.

“Are you serious?!” Mikey asked with great scepticism warping his brows.

“Dude, that’s a whole pet wolf,” Lazarus glanced back to Mikey before leaping over the ledge as well, landing in the mud below.

“What’ll I tell the crew?” Mikey whispered to himself as he couldn’t help but bury his hands in his face.

Lazarus’ boots, already damp from disembarking the rowboat earlier, forced a splash of the muck below up and onto his pants. This same splash was a sudden beacon to the other wargs, pulling their attention from the ball.

Both Ribs and Mud began to let out a low growl, baring teeth, as the warg’s ears folded over the back of their head. Lazarus kept a low stance, his hands flat and extended in an attempt to show them he meant no harm.

“Good one fancy cap’in!” Buggro clapped in applause while the wargs completely ignored him. “Now, all ya got’a do is give ‘em a red ball!”

“The fuck? Why didn’t you say that earlier? I don’t have a red ball,” Lazarus replied as he stopped his approach while keeping his eyes on both the wargs. “What else can I use?”

“Else? Uh, bones aren’ excitin’.” Buggro looked around, trying to find something that would work. “Arms no good, too borin’.”

The wargs continued towards Lazarus until they were within pouncing range, stopping and now beginning to walk back and forth between each other.

"Buggro!" Lazarus tried his best to whisper loudly, not wanting to set off the wargs.

Ribs already had a big droop of drool swinging back and forth from his mouth.

“Oh! Of cours’,” Buggro said as he scuttled over towards the red ball he’d thrown earlier. He then picked it up and lobbed it towards Lazarus.

Lazarus watched the ball float into the air, before depressingly landing in a shallow puddle. The puddle, out of reach from him, had landed almost perfectly between Mud and Ribs.

“Are you fuc- Shit,” Lazarus said under his breath. He shifted his weight onto his back foot, ready to push off of it at a moment’s notice - and it was a moment’s notice he had.

The hunt began with Ribs, pouncing towards Lazarus with his jaws opened wide. In response, Lazarus quickly dashed towards Ribs, though promptly slid into the mud underneath him.

As the blood-stained warg sailed over him, Mud bolted towards Lazarus. With the carob brown warg rushing towards him, Lazarus pulled his coat off as he rolled away from Mud. Once his coat was off he spread it in the air between himself and the warg. Like a blanket, the coat wrapped itself around Mud’s face as he came charging.

Lazarus used this brief moment to step out of the way, but also grip onto the mane of the canine as it passed by. Pulling himself up, though uncomfortably jerked by the bestial momentum, Lazarus successfully managed to mount Mud.

Mikey, watching all of this from above, was speechless. He gripped his thigh in envy, though realised even with his leg healthy, there was no way he could do something like that.

Lazarus and Mud wound up sprinting in circles around the pen as his warg tried desperately to get him off. Rolling into the mud, bounding off of the walls and snapping at his feet, Mud did all that he could think to do but failed to pull Lazarus off. Covered in a gory mess, Mud had completely tired himself out.

“Atta boy,” Lazarus smirked.

It’s as the warg tired out that Lazarus let one of his hands go and extended it. This same free hand began to violently vibrate and emanate a blaring buzz, growing so intense that the form of Lazarus’ hand had become unrecognizable.

During the past few days on the Blackjack, Lazarus’ training with Adendé had allowed him the chance to hone his latent familial abilities. In his flustered excitement, he finally had the chance to display his progress: vibrational energy capable of building up to a release of force that mimicked a thunderclap.

When the buzz finally reached an almost ringing pitch, Lazarus whipped his hands towards the rear of the warg.

Bazoom!

A small shockwave blasted from the area of impact, sending Mud collapsing into the ground. Lazarus had already prepared to jump off the warg, his feet pushing from the side of its chest as he leapt from Mud before he hit the dirt.

A giant, hand-shaped mark had clipped away at Mud’s fur and left a blistering red mark on his bare skin. As the warg whimpered in the mud, Lazarus approached its snout and crouched over it while drenched in the liquid filth of their den.

“You’re mine now little boy, hear me?” he spoke down to Mud, hooking his finger around its nose authoritatively.

The warg growled in response but made no move against him.

“Ha! Mud’s got a cap’in now too! Ya the Mud cap’in now!” Buggro cheered as he sat atop Ribs, holding a bone out for the warg to chew as they approached Lazarus.

“He’ll let me ride him now, right?” Lazarus asked as he straightened up, letting Mud slowly get on his feet too.

“Course he ‘ill!” Buggro chanted, gesturing insistently for Lazarus to mount it.

Taking Buggro’s word for truth, Lazarus moved to Mud’s side, hauling himself up onto the canine’s back. While keeping his head low with an unsteady growl, Mud made no attempt to bolt or snap at him.

“Fuck yeah! Wait till Galli hears about this. I’ve just one-upped that motherfucker for life!” Lazarus began to cackle out as he sat atop the warg, gripping its mane firmly. He then looked up the ledge above the pit, his attention searching for Mikey.

“Mikey! You seein- Mikey?!”

Whilst Lazarus had mounted Mud, Mikey had shuffled all the way around to the other side of the pit.

‘He did it. The goblin did it. I’m a fucking captain - I can do it too yeah? Of course, I can! You’re Mikhail fucking Drewitt! You made it all the way to Jorgansol! You survived a serpent attack! You took over an entire ship! That’s me! I did that!’ Mikey thought to himself, trying desperately to hype himself up as he stared directly down below him.

Still, lying atop his sovereign pile of power, the black warg Bat held his head high. He was completely unaware that Mikey was lurking over the edge above him.

“Na na na! Not ‘at one li’l cap’in! ‘At one ain’t friendly!” Buggro reached out to garner his attention, though made no effort to get closer.

“Mikey! Mikey, you heard him!” Lazarus leaned forward to push Mud closer, though even Mud was reluctant to approach his brother.

“Na! Not closer Mud cap’in! He ‘ill eatcha up! Eat us all up!” Buggro shouted out to Lazarus.

‘Shut up. It’s just a stupid dog. I can do it. They did it, I can do it,’ Mikey thought to himself, his eyes locked on the warg below him. ‘I can do it!’

Mikey’s legs slowly began to bend as he went to jump, however, a sudden and sharp pain struck his thigh. The wound from the scale made Mikey buckle under his own weight, the injured quad completely giving out. Under the pain and loss of strength in his leg, Mikey’s feet slipped from the ledge.

“Fuck! Wait! I don’t got this! I don’t, I don't, I don't, I don’t!” Mikey began to ramble with his arms swinging, trying to grab onto the ledge, though only pulling a handful of dirt down with him.

“Fuuuuuuck!” he screamed one last time before descending into the pit.

Thump!