Nine

In less than two minutes, Morrigan stands tall, breathing heavily, while Kaya lays on her back on the ground, a look of confusion on her face. Morrigan enters her vision, holding her hand out for the older warrior. Kaya takes it, letting herself be pulled to her feet, and she looks down at the young woman in front of her with newfound respect. Morrigan looks around to see the crowd is silent, clearly not having expected her victory.

They knew that she was a warrior and had Beta blood, but no one outside the Gamma family saw her train. Oskar has spent her entire life telling lies that she’s weak and unfit in little ways that slowly crept into people's subconscious perceptions of her. Today, she shattered that idea of her.

Takota is the first to break the silence, clapping as she walks towards Morrigan. Hesitantly, the other warriors start clapping as well, and they’re quickly spurred on by the Gamma family. Morrigan searches for yellow eyes in the crowd, but she can’t find any. Even as Takota declares her the winner, and therefore the best female warrior in the pack, she can’t help but notice a bad feeling forming in the pit of her stomach.

- - - - -

“You did well today,” Takota says.

Morrigan turns, surprised to find the guard behind her. The day had been long–they had sparred for hours before lunch and spent the afternoon being tested on a plethora of other skills including archery and swimming. 

After dinner they were tested on their knowledge of battle strategies and the strongest and weakest points on their territory, and that was where Morrigan began to fall behind while her brother flourished. Being a future leader, that is what he has been training for. Strategy. Morrigan, on the other hand, had never been allowed to join Leader training. Even so, she did her best to catch on quickly.

“Thank you, Takota,” Morrigan says, bowing her head. When she looks up, she sees the guard just standing there, looking at her. “Is there anything I can help you with?”

“I believe there is,” Takota says, taking a few steps closer. Her face and tone of voice don’t reveal much about her intentions, which puts Morrigan a bit on edge. “May I walk with you while we talk?”

“Of course,” Morrigan agrees, nodding her head again respectfully. Takota quickly catches up, and the two walk side-by-side along the street.

Though the sun is still up, the days only growing longer and longer this close to the North Pole, there are few people outside their homes. In exchange for twenty hour days in the summer, they endure four hour days in the winter. They’ve adapted to trusting the clocks in their bodies rather than the sun.

“It’s gorgeous here,” Takota says to begin the conversation, looking up at the distant mountain peaks.

“I’m sure it’s not as gorgeous as the capital,” Morrigan replies. She’s lost track of how many times she’s tried to picture the bustling city and royal castle based on Nicholas’s stories.

Takota shakes her head.

“It’s beautiful, but it’s nothing like this. This is natural beauty. I’ve been to a lot of places, from the grasslands to the ocean, but this… this is something else,” Takota continues in awe.

Morrigan looks around. First she sees the gravel road that is often layered with ice or covered in mud puddles. She sees the log cabins lining the street, and she’s able to name who lives in each one. She looks up at the deep green pine trees, their needles falling to the ground when she would climb them as a kid. She turns to look at the top of the mountain, the peak hidden behind clouds, so far up in the sky. She takes a deep breath, smelling the pine and the smoke from the few fireplaces that have already been lit, feeling the gentle breeze on her skin as the days get warmer.

“I suppose it is,” she says softly. She turns to Takota. “You didn’t want to walk with me just to talk about the weather, did you?”

“No,” Takota states, right as the two come to a stop in front of Oskar’s cabin. She turns to directly face Morrigan. “I’d like to meet privately with you tomorrow morning. Training won’t start until after breakfast, around seven o’clock, but if you’re able I’d like to meet you in the clearing the same time we did this morning.”

Morrigan perks up. 

“I’ll be there,” Morrigan replies. 

Takota chuckles lightly.

“I figured you’d say so. I’ll see you early tomorrow then.”

Morrigan takes a step up towards the porch, and with simple nods, the two women say goodbye to each other. A private training session with the second in command of this division of the guard? Was that even a question? She wonders what she’ll learn, if she was the only one invited, why she was invited out of everyone else. 

Her thoughts don’t get very far once the front door closes behind her. It’s like deja vu as she’s pushed to the ground and kicked in the stomach. It isn’t just a warning this time, though, as it doesn’t stop after one or two kicks. Whoever it is keeps going. Morrigan’s lungs burn as the wind is knocked out of her and she can’t breathe, and her stomach begins pushing her dinner back out of her mouth. She can taste blood in her mouth after a blow to her head that left her vision fuzzy for a few moments.

“That’s enough,” a deep voice calls.