WHY THEY CALL US BARBARIANS

4 MARCH, THURSDAY, CONTINUED

I had always wondered why wolves from other packs liked to call us barbarians. I mean, at first I thought only the Lorents did it, and I figured that was what they probably called everyone who wasn't a Lorent. But then I started elementary school outside our packlands and the kids there also asked if I were from one of the barbarian packs when I told them I was from the Green Packlands. One of my most shameful nicknames was derived from this fact - sometimes the boys called me Barbie - which was a doll, not a barbarian wolf, but back then, the girls told me that Barbie was short for Barbarian. Well it made sense to me as an elementary school kid!

Anyway, I didn't tell anyone about it for years until one day when my gang played Truth or Dare X Spin the Bottle. Like we sat in a circle, spun the bottle, and then whoever the bottle pointed to had to tell a truth or do a dare. Now I've seen the kind of s*** they made each other do as a dare, so I always picked "Truth."

"I have no secrets." I would boast. I was such a dumb pup.

So when the bottle landed on me, I picked truth and was asked, "What's the worst nickname you ever got called?"

So I ended up telling them, "Barbie."

And my friends laughed till our circle broke apart.

"Like the doll?" Lizzy asked, "That's not too bad."

And then everyone started telling me how they got called a worse nickname... well everyone except for Savy who said she couldn't remember.

"They used to call you Little Sam when we were in pre-school." I remembered on her behalf.

Savy shrugged, "I didn't feel Little Sam was bad. I WAS your little sister."

Anyway, I never told them that Barbie was short for barbarian.

But ever since I started hanging out with Henry and my gang in school, I was beginning to see how our pack got our Barbarian Pack nickname. Sometimes my wolves can be a little overwhelming when they were charged up. They had terrorized Delta Oran when he first came back with us too, but now those same wolves call him Delta O. Like if you got your own unique nickname from a wolf, you've made a lifelong friend - I mean, the nice kind of nickname, not the mean kind. If you got called a bad word for a name, the wolf was just being a jerk.

Oh, and would you look at that! My Underground wolves were really getting into our local culture. Nothing like razing our guests a little to build community spirit. I sighed and stepped up onto the stage.

"Opps, now you've done it." Ben told everyone, "Alpha Princess is here."

"Yo, Alpha!" The underground shouted like good soldiers. My other wolves looked surprise because I had always been Sam to them, and then they laughed sheepishly when they realised I WAS the alpha, just like I realised Ben WAS the beta just now.

Tada! We were growing up right before their eyes!

I held out my hand and Ben placed his mic into it. Then (because I knew how now), I coolly returned the mic to the mic stand, adjusted it, and said into the mic, "Yo."

This was greeted with cheers and applause like I just performed the entire set of The Last Hurrah all by myself.

"Thanks, I guess." And then I released Boo and smiled widely at all the wolves gathered, "Thanks for coming to support our first tournament with Snow Moon. I know you guys are just having fun but if you scare our Snow Moon friends away, I will never invite any of my friends over to play again."

My wolves were so super chuffed at this point, I couldn't help but add, "And don't go threatening random pillars before their names are announced! The Fire Pillar is Sir Wolfgang. He's run with some of us before."

"Hotstuff's a pillar?" EJ's voice rang out too loudly.

Hotstuff. Hahahahaha.... Looks like Wolfgang already had friends here.

"Okay, let's start!" I decided not to waste any more time. The sooner we start the matches, the sooner it would be my turn.

"The first tournament is now officially open." Ben announced in unenthusiastic monotone. I guess that counted as my opening speech then.

All my wolves cheered like we made a last minute goal. It was going to be a fun night, we were going to watch a good fight - or make our own fight.

I gotta feeling...that tonight's gonna be a good night.

{So fun.}

Yeah, if you liked running with barbarian wolves.

The first fight was the demonstration between Bell and Beta Glenn. Ki led me the the audience seats and sat me next to my Mum and Dad. Harvey appeared to take over "accompanying the alpha." Meanwhile Ben was on stage explaining the match. Because this was just a demonstration, both men had to limit their attack to rapiers (a kind of sword). Their wolf powers may only be used to support or defend themselves.

Normally, this would be all the introduction time you needed for a Night Leaf or Morning Light wolf to get into the ring and fight, but Bell was a Lorent wolf whose entrances were punctuated with dramatic paused and unhurried steps.

By the time Ben had informed us of the special rules, Bell had only stood up for Ki to help him remove his jacket - which was just draped over his shoulders so he could've just shrugged it off, but no. He required assistance to remove it.

Then he needed assistance to remove his white sling and fold up his shirt sleeves, exposing the white bandages that ran down his entire arm to his hand. The sight of my luna's arm wrapped in bandages unexpectedly plucked at my heartstrings, and I nearly fell for it except that I remembered that his hand was working fine. And then I remembered that his wolf was still missing a whole leg and my heartstrings twanged some sappy sweet meaningless ode to my poor lovely luna.

"Hoi, hoi, everyone! My name is EJ!" I was temporarily distracted from my internal mourning for my Luna's lost arm by the red head bouncing about on the stage.

"And I'm Fluffy. We've just self appointed ourselves to be your commentators for tonight." Fluffy explained.

We never had commentators at our fights before. I mean, this wasn't a fight cage, and as long as you tapped onto the mindlinks, you would be able to hear all the commentary you wanted.

"It's so nice to see everyone here tonight!" EJ said.

"For those who aren't familiar with us yet, we're from the Alpha Princess' Special Team." Fluffy continued smoothly, "Owen and I were also your official hosts at the Ceremony of the departed."

"Yes, but I'm more fun than Owen." EJ said, "Oh! Charming Beta is handing the sword to Luna Bell now. I think he's ready!"

"I wonder, can our Luna Bell really sword fight in that condition?" Fluffy asked with all the innocence in the world.

"Of course he can, Fluffy!" EJ answered without missing a beat, "Our Luna Bell can use a sword with both hands."

"Really? Is he ambidextrous?" Fluffy asked, although I felt quite sure Fluffy knew the answers to the questions he was asking, "Can he use a pen with either hand as well?"

"Is this really alright, Luna?" Beta Glenn worried for Bell's arm from his start position. He had been waiting politely, sword ready in hand for a while now.

Bell stepped up to his start position, sword in bandaged hand, and smirked, "Don't worry, beta. Since this won't take long, it's fine."

"A little friendly exchange and I think both gentlemen are good to start." Fluffy concluded for us, even though I thought Bell sounded way more arrogant than friendly.

"Who do you think will win, Fluffy?" EJ asked.

"It's too early say..." Fluffy made a show of considering it, but seriously, they should at least wait till the two men started fighting.

"All the matches have been arranged so that the opponents would be able to perform evenly." Fluffy divulged, "Our Luna Bell is a deathly scary opponent, so Beta Glenn will have to go all out from the start if he wants a good showing tonight."

"Oh look! Captain Tie is refereeing. It's gonna start now." EJ bounced with excitment, "I can't wait to see how strong snow wolves are."

Captain Tie, aka Titanium, the original human tank of our pack approached the two men, "Are you both ready?"

Now, Bell wasn't small at all. Although he was still 18, he was already standing at Dad's height. He was also, like Ki in physique - like they both had the same trainer or something.

And Beta Glenn was pretty big too. He stood like a mountain whenever he was next to Alpha Gunter. He was tall - like Beta Lucas' height. But while Beta Lucas was more long than wide, Beta Glenn was wide too.

So I don't think Beta Glenn was expecting the referee to be bigger than he was.

But neither Bell nor Beta Glenn made any expression when they nodded to Titanium's question.

So Titanium said, "Go!"

And then the human tank quickly stepped back to the far side of the ring. It was a good thing too. I think Beta Glenn had decided to take our commentator's advice to heart. He immediately started with ice columns - huge pillars of ice that broke the ground as it shot out from below.

This forced Bell away to create a distance. I'm not sure how that would save him from the death god, but then I remembered they couldn't use their powers for attacking so Bell can't cast some horrible disease or curse him. Whew. Just stab him with that rapier thing.

But yeah, I guess the distance was good. Wait, but since Beta Glenn can't attack with ice either, it's not like he could impale Bell with an ice spear or anything either right? If he wanted to impale Bell he would have to get close enough to poke that rapier thing into him too.

And then I realized what Beta Glenn was doing a few moments later (and with running commentary by Fluffy), Beta Glenn (according to Fluffy) was playing it safe. Not only did his ice pillars create tactical shields, it also trapped his opponent, and if he stood at the sweet spot, he would be able to track his opponent through the the reflection on the ice.

My wolves ooohhhed and ahhhed and then clapped for the Snow Beta's impressive technique. If I were Beta Glenn, I'd yell at Fluffy to shut up and stop giving my strategies away. But, Beta Glenn only politely bowed a little to acknowledge the applause.

Meanwhile, the commentary had shifted the spotlight to Bell.

"What's Rebel doing?" EJ asked.

"I think he's trying to find a blind spot." Fluffy guilessly pointed out, "Oh, he's found it. He's going in from above."

So now Beta Glenn was fully aware where Bell would be coming from.

Bell's deftly finished scaling up one of the pillars on the far side and gave Fluffy a third finger. EJ laughed and laughed, "He's so mad! Ooohhh... You're so dead, Fluff!"

Did I mention how my wolves seemed to enjoy flirting with death?

But now that both their game plans had been called out, Bell had decided to just move faster. Beta Glenn was like WTH and grew a pillar right out from under him.

"As expected from the Ice Pillar of Snow Moon." Fluffy praised, "The arena is iced and Rebel's now forced to play by his rules. He has effectively changed the field into his home ground."

But Rebel was surefooted, and pretty quick given that he was now moving with ice underfoot. He jumped and slid over to Beta Glenn's platform (now that they were fighting on top of the pillars, the columns doubled up as iced platforms). The two men clashed swords and the impact caused them both to slide.

Beta Glenn charged his rapier for a second attack. His movements were decisive and powerful. Plus he could shift and vary the heights of the ice pillars to his advantage.

Did we know that Beta Glenn was one of the most senior swordmaster in the continent? I didn't, but now that Fluffy told us... EJ made all the appropriate (and inappropriate) noises to express his admiration. EJ had been making the sound effects for the action as it happened. I guess that was his style of commentary.

It was Fluffy who was telling us actual facts like the Blue Packlands had one of the highest concentrations of swordsmen. Which explained why all their warriors carried swords.

Our Luna Bell was quite an ardent fencer too. Fluffy had to add. He had studied fencing for years although he had never competed or anything.

"Mou, Fluffy..." Occasionally, EJ would stop making swooshing and whooshing noises to use actual words, "Then isn't our Rebel gonna lose? It's like amateur VS grandmaster."

"Don't worry, EJ." Fluffy smiled, "Our Luna Bell doesn't know how to lose."