BELL VS GARETH FIGHT!

27 FEBRUARY, SATURDAY, CONTINUED

27 FEBRUARY, SATURDAY, CONTINUED

"This isn't a game, Gareth. He's aiming for your throne!" Ignatius yelled, "Fight to the death!"

No! Don't fight to the death!

Haku positioned himself next to me, "Don't worry. I will ensure this match will be painless for you."

Thank you? What should I answer to that? Were we really going to just stand here and watch as MY BELL gets minced in a spirit blade blender? Wait, but Shiro said it would be a good fight. Did Bell seem strong enough to put up a fight? He certainly did sound like he had some kind of plan. Yeah, my mate often said he wouldn't be a fool enough to run into something without a plan. He was the amazing strategist behind my Underground Army. If anyone could outsmart a Tyger, it would have been Bell.

Yeah. I should have more confidence in my mate.

And yes, that was me trying to convince myself that Bell was going to be okay.

But the truth was, I didn't really want Gareth to die either. Of all the tygers I've met, Gareth had been the most different - he didn't seem to be stewing schemes or concocting new flavors of teas. He was the most straight forward and simple tyger here. He didn't smile like the others, or insinuate, or played with borrowed knives. I guess he didn't need to, with all those spirit blades.

The moment the match started, Gareth threw out multiple blades. They were invisible, of course, but I could see Bell jump and roll, and at one point when he had dodged a micro-second late, a red line was drawn across his cheek.

My hand flew to my mouth. Haku raised his hand, he didn't touch me, but his hand hovered just above my shoulder. He was serious about not letting me feel my mate's pain, which was very considerate of him, but I did wish these tygers would extend their consideration of me to my mate too.

But I guess, Bell was holding out okay. I couldn't see a single blade, and they were almost soundless - almost, until they slice whatever they hit - be it cloth (barely audible), or stone (a painfully jarring screech). Yes, they could slice stones.

Gareth's blades were OP.

"Let's see who can cast faster." Bell smirked.

Gareth blinked, "My blades do not require cast time."

"I wasn't talking about your blades." Bell said, "I was talking about your mate."

"What?" Gareth looked completely thrown off. He glanced around as if expecting to see his beautiful angel of his soul mate appear.

"How much can you heal before you drain your mate's power dry?" Bell grinned wickedly, "Don't you know, for you to heal automatically like that, she must have placed a life link into your mating bond. This way, your body will automatically siphon her powers and heal itself to optimal condition. How many diseases can you heal off before you start draining her of her life force?"

"No!" Gareth was alarmed now, "Make it stop!"

"I knew he was a bad guy." Ignatius grumbled from the sideline.

Gareth snarled and threw out an open hand... I felt my hair flare slightly. It had to be a forcefield. A large one too from the magic it was radiating.

Bell shot, Gareth's shield blocked. I could see the bullet ricochet in mid air.

But Bell wasn't an apple. He wasn't just going to stand still and be caught in Gareth's forcefield. He jumped, and by now, he had figured out that he could use Gareth's flying blades as stepping stones. I'm not sure how he knew they were there. Could he feel the magic? The air current? Was he also equipped with a lucky sense of direction? One that looked luckier than mine - I wouldn't dare to jump around in a room full of invisible flying blades. But watching Bell, I realized he was jumping in a pattern - dang! he had figured out that Gareth's blades were released into the air in a fixed pattern!

"Young Tygers... Were our fights this terrible?" Hajime muttered.

"Maybe only against Ignatius" Haku allowed.

"Ignatius isn't much older than Gareth." Heller reminded the two men, "They're less than a century apart."

"The younger they are, the more terrifying." Haku corrected with his usual smile, "Do not forget, he is a healer wolf, not a fighter."

The older wolves paused to consider this.

"Where did you find this young monster, Great Teacher?" Shiro asked.

Alpha Gunter sighed, "I might have underestimated him."

Sometimes my mate was so amazing, I feel more jealous than proud of him.

{Mate! ~❤️ }

Lucky for him, Boo was too fangirl to care about my feelings.

Another gun shot. This one bit into the still oncoming forcefield, there was a cracking sound, but the shield didn't shatter. Gareth coughed out some blood.

"Does that hurt you?" Bell looked very pleased, "Don't worry. Your body will simply heal itself. Let me know when your healing starts to slow... It'll be the first sign your mate is running out of power."

Gareth growled lowly, "Tell me how to stop it!"

"You could surrender." Bell suggested, "Or cut off your mating bond."

Gareth's growling took a seriously dangerous edge now, and then suddenly he tripped and fell unceremoniously over. Wait, what?

"Gotcha." Bell smirked.

We on the platform all stepped towards the edge of it, just to get a better view. Gareth was clutching his heart, and then he started wheezing, but he didn't give up.

"No." Gareth wheezed, "I.got.you."

And suddenly Bell was lifted off the floor like the apple had been in Gareth's hand.

"Yield." Gareth commanded. And I realized that despite the story about him, he wasn't a cold blooded killer.

If their positions were reversed, I felt sure Gareth would have been paste by now.

"Young Tyger, it's over. Surrender and live!" Alpha Gunter shouted.

"I'd rather die." Bell said.

"Okay." Gareth said.

No!!!!

Boo reacted then, and the next thing I knew, my hair had krakened and I've pounced into the concave arena, "Mine!" I told Gareth.

Gareth had to drop Bell to block my blades, "What?"

He sounded completely shocked.

Someone on the stone platform exclaimed, "She's a blade wolf?!?"

Ignatius laughed, "Oh man, this is mad!"

Bell rose up darkly, his curse fuming about him.

"You've lost." I told my mate, "This is my kill now."

And then Gareth fell to his knees shaking hard.

"Bell, cut it out!" I scolded, "This is my fight! Heal him!"

Bell shrugged, "It wasn't me. He's already healed on his own."

And then I realized Gareth was crying, "I found you... I had searched all the mountains for you... I can't believe I've really found you."

But Gareth was so distraught that I couldn't understand him. He grabbed my leg and cried at my feet. Bell kicked him a few times, quite hard too, but he wouldn't let go.

In the end, the other tygers came to separate us. We got Gareth to the Cave Library and sat him down. Eventually he calmed down enough to tell us the rest his story - THE UNTOLD TALE OF GARETH:

Gareth had not killed EVERY Blade Wolf.

There was one other wolf from the Blood Lake Pack who could still be alive.

When he was very young, the pups all knew the story of the young alpha who was so powerful, he could not control his blades.

From the day of his first shift, his blades would flare and attack the other wolves, and sometimes even himself.

"It wasn't his fault." Gareth choked back tears, "He just couldn't stand the sight of injustice."

There was a lot of injustice in the Blood Lake Pack. The strong enjoyed preying on the weak, even among brothers, and their favourite quote would be, "You have no one else to blame but yourself for being too weak."

The young alpha's blades fought against it, but even though he was strong, the goddess did not reward those who rebelled against their pack. Sometime before his 18th birthday, he was forced out of the pack.

"I didn't realize it as a pup, but it was nothing to do with the goddess. There must have been some underhanded politics happening." Gareth explained.

"You can't blame yourself for that, Gareth." Hajime agreed, "You've never been very sharp about these things."

Gareth nodded jerkily and then continued his tale.

Originally, Gareth had meant to leave to search out this young alpha. Even though he had no bloodline power, Gareth was good at fighting with what he did have - his fists. But on the morning when he was about to leave, Gareth met his soul mate in the daughter of the new guest healer family. He decided to stay.

At this point Gareth broke down again, "I...I should never have stayed."

He had thought, in his young mind, that the new guest healer would have accepted him, but they did not.

"I should have known." Gareth shook his head miserably, "I'm ashamed I did not realize it sooner."

I don't think that he was in the wrong! It was that stupid healer family's fault!

"It brought her so much pain. Sometimes I felt it would have been better if we never met." Gareth sighed, "Then she would not have to reject me, or follow me out to the Tyger's Lair... or..."

When Gareth received his new powers, he immediately set out for revenge.

"She tried to stop me, but I wouldn't listen." Gareth was now just speaking through his tears and snot. It was like a "Oh well, what the heck, I'm already a sobbing mess, might as well go on" kind of thing.

So Gareth attacked his home pack.

"I never meant to kill everyone. Only the ones who had hurt me." Gareth said.

But then, the other wolves in his pack found out about his mate.

"She had written home so her family wouldn't worry about her." Gareth explained.

The Blood Lake Pack then killed her entire family. Gareth killed his entire pack in return.

"Eye for and eye, tooth for a tooth." Gareth said.

Yes, but I don't think Gareth's wolf was very good at math because he killed way too many back then.

Anyway, after the revenge was exacted, Gareth was left truly alone. His mate could no longer return home to her pack...

"The both of you are most welcome anytime." Haku smiled.

Gareth shook his head, "She says she's too ashamed to meet her extended family."

Why? But she didn't do anything wrong! It was the Blood Lake Pack. Sigh, shame wasn't something that could be reasoned away I guess.

But eventually, they settled down in Jin's pack. His mate was a guest healer there, while Gareth just floated.

"It is a meaningless existence," Gareth said, "when a wolf is without his pack."

After a while, Gareth remembered the young blade alpha who had been cast out of the pack. He began his search for him. That was also how he found the other tygers.

"I must have been looking for more than half a century by now." Gareth muttered to himself.

Which was also why the other tygers had free rein under Gareth's rule. He was too busy looking for his young blade alpha.

"Tell me." Gareth looked to me now, "Please. Where is my young alpha? How is he now?"

How should I know? I tilted my head, "I've never met him."

"No?" Gareth's eyes looked to me, still brimming with tears.

"I'm afraid her father is a black wolf." Alpha Gunter said.

"Like her real father?" Ignatius asked, "I mean, she's obviously a blade wolf."

I flared. What's that supposed to mean?

"Her blades came from her mother's side." Bell intervened.

Gareth looked confused.

"So your young alpha was a female?" Ignatius asked.

"I'm pretty sure he was a male." Gareth frowned considering this.

"Time flows differently in the plains." Alpha Gunter spoke then, "Wolves live only a century, two at most. They have offspring rather early too. Within the first two to three decades."

That was NORMAL!

"Very much like the humans they live among." Alpha Gunter explained.

"Then my young alpha..." Gareth pondered this.

I looked at Gareth, I would have guessed he was 18 or 19. Maybe 20, like just a little older than Bell. Yet he said he had been searching for his young alpha for more than 50 years... I'm not good at math, but could he be older than my Dad? How old would that make his young alpha? Not very young for sure!

Gareth didn't look his age at all.

And his expressions - unlike the jaded smiles of the older tygers, they were still so genuine.

"He might not be alive now." Alpha Gunter said kindly, "Based on what you say and the historical records I've read, he would be at least 300 years old if he were still alive."

"But she..." Gareth looked at me straight in the eyes, "You are definitely an alpha blade wolf!"

I was? Why? Was there something that distinguished an alpha blade wolf from a normal blade wolf?

"Maybe your young alpha went out to the plains and she is one of his descendents." Shiro suggested.

"Which part of me makes you think I'm related to your young alpha?" I asked, "I could have descended from someone else."

"There was only one blade wolf who was ever sent out of our pack." Gareth told me, "Your blades look or move like swords... this level of flexible control was only what our Alpha bloodline had. And they are everything as described of the young alpha's blades - wild and uncontrolled."

Who you calling wild and uncontrolled? My hair was just free spirited!

Gareth made an extremely perplex expression, "Please tell me if you know anything at all. I've been searching for my young alpha or another kin for the larger part of my life now. Are you not the one I seek?"

I felt bad for Gareth, "My mum's grandfather was a blade wolf from the colored mountains. He was of alpha descent. Maybe he was your young alpha. In the plains, he went around helping people everywhere, and then he met his soul mate, saved her village, got married and protected her pack during the Great War. Later on, I think he became the village head... he was my favorite hero in my bedtime stories."

"Oh." Gareth said.

"So yeah, you found me." I decided, I gave Gareth my wide smile, "Now, you can stop looking and start spending your time doing more fun things."

Gareth stopped crying, "Fun... Is fun that important?"

"What?" I asked, and then I amended, "Well, I guess you don't have to. You can do other good things too. It doesn't necessary have to be fun."

Gareth had a wry smile now, "The young alpha was known to say that one day he would be the alpha of a fun pack."

"Was the Blood Lake Pack a fun pack?" I asked. They didn't sound very fun.

Gareth shook his head.

Well, that figured. I shook my head, "But that old pack is gone now. If it means anything to you Gareth, I think you can let it go now. Its over... everything in the past, its gone."

You can have fun now.

I remembered the Ceremony of the Departed we just had, "The dead are gone, but we who are still living need to carry the mantle of those who have gone before us and move forwards."

Gareth nodded and stood up from the sofa he was seated in, "Okay."

Good. Now we can all get back to life, right? I hope with all my heart that Gareth and his soul mate can enjoy their happily ever after for the rest of their long lives.

We all stood up from the sofas around the blue fires.

"Well then, how should we settle this?" Shiro wondered aloud.

And then Gareth suddenly dropped on one knees in front of me, "I pledge my allegiance to you, alpha!"

Wait what?

"**** ****** ****!" Ignatius swore, "Don't just do whatever you like! You're supposed to be our King, dammit!"

"Although I usually like your laid back attitude," Hajime added, "I must say in this case, I would rather you were less laissez faire."

"You don't even know if her pack is any fun." Shiro pointed out, "If you wanted to join a nice pack, you could join mine."

"My pack is fun!" I flared out in full, "My pack has the nicest wolves in the world!"

The others only laughed at that. Such cynical old tygers!