“-and forgive me lord but I keep telling you that battle was not winnable.”
“Excuses Vulper. I do not want to hear your excuses for your failures, I want to hear why you thought it wise to return back here with such a weak performance!”
The Clan had gathered in the ma in cavern, multiple showing signs of injury and fatigue. Vulper stood in the middle of the room looking up to Azala with rage spread across his face. Atop the ledge stood Phil, Britt, Rusty, and the clan’s Queen Mindy. Many eyes on the group faced Vulper, many damning eyes.
“Vulper, you surely must understand my predicament here. You failed your assessment of the situation and jumped the gun when you should have just retreated. The failure is on your team, the failure of you and my daughter.”
“You’re the one who pushed for the immediate invasion sire. This has nothing to do with Britt’s plan. We were not privy to all the details of this assignment either!”
“I’ve heard enough out of you. Vulper, you have disgraced the Clan of Vulfax with your poor judgment and opened floodwaters to wash away the entire Clan. Where Stark Pack sees victory, others will see weakness. We will have an uprising on our hands. I can not let this go unpunished.”
“Father please, this was my doing, my plan that failed. If anything I-”
“No Britt, it was the execution of your plan that led to this. Unfortunately three of the initial team are dead so I have only two to look upon for judgment. Hmm, what to do what to do. Ah, yes. I shall have one of you banished for your failure.”
“What?” Elise spat out.
The crowd quickly parted as all eyes shifted focus to the rear of the room as Elise moved forward.
“Do not question my judgment girl.”
“I will most certainly question it Father. We had no idea of what was going to happen and from what I have heard you acted too swiftly.”
“Elise hold your tongue!” Britt shouted, a strong touch of worry in his voice.
“I will not Britt. Vulper has worked his ass off for this Clan for so long, becoming an elite. I’ve even broken my stance on being passive and started learning how to fight just so I could contribute more. And here for following orders you want to banish one of us? Our own died for this, really!?”
Azala smirked as he looked upon Elise, continuing to listen.
“You are just a useless girl Elise, I’m surprised you even bothered to-” another individual began.
“Shut up Nocknar!” Elise spat.
The individual who spoke crept back as Elise stopped beside Vulper.
“My you’ve certainly found some backbone recently haven’t you? Though really you should watch your tone my child. Did Vulper not detail you to the part where he knew about the ambush ahead of time?”
“What?”
“Vulper, yes, he knew what you five were walking into. Britt tasked him with that. He was supposed to pull back if he believed the battle wasn’t winnable before the others attacked. He failed to do so, he judged the enemy’s strength wrongly.”
“That- that doesn’t matter. How could he have known, he had no signal to give, no recon, he had nothing and was just as surprised as the rest of us to see Dustin! You know why this failed? Because of your rushed impatient viewpoint we lost many people in something that shouldn’t have happened the way it did.”
“Oh I get it. You’re mad because those two friends you had died. Such is the way of a warrior though.”
“Are you serious?”
“Enough! My mind is made up. I brandish you both as cowards who retreated and for questioning my authority. As for you, Vulper, I hereby strip you of your rank as an elite of Vulfax. Your performance was legendary for how crap it was.”
“You weren’t even there Father, don’t judge what you did not see-”
“Enough! Be silent before I banish the both of you. And on that note, which of you shall it be that I send away, hmm?”
“My Lord, please, can’t we just-”
“No more talk Vulper. I want one of you out of my sight right now for the last time.”
Elise glanced down at once, “{This- this can’t be real, can it?}”
Her eyes traveled around viewing the damning stares of her clan mates, her eyes shifting up to see a smirking Rusty and a sorrowful Britt. Her head turned to face Vulper with a glance and then back down, “{This is what happens after all of this? Because he won’t just- no, this is not. This is not what this should be like.}”
Vulper’s feet shuffled as his right arm slowly went up. Murmurs of shock filled the room though only on the ground as Azala and Rusty continued to stare confidently, “My Lord, for the sake of Elise and for failure of my squad, I take full responsibility.”
“Heh heh, expected as you are a proud warrior. Well in that case you may collect your things and go. As for you Elise, I’ll gladly give you another opportunity to prove yourself. You must go to the Southeast Forest and meet with-”
“No!” Elise spat looking up with her face as a scowl.
“No? Explain yourself.”
“I mean to say that I’ve had it with this Clan and I’ve had it with you. Vulper stays, I’m the one leaving tonight.”
All at once the room filled up with chatter, many cries of shock, many coughs, many people shouting. At this point even Azala appeared phased, his eyes quivering slightly as apparent rage filled him, Rusty stepping forward, “Oh you can’t be serious.”
“Elise, no!” Britt shouted.
“Child, you had best rethink yourself-”
“Rethink? Rethink! Maybe you need to rethink yourself! Because of your arrogance people died tonight who did not deserve to! Vulper did his best with an assignment we did not know about, with such stupid restrictions I swear you had intended to get us killed… and yet you punish him? This Clan so easily rejects him after all he has done for the sake of everyone? I think not Father. All I’ve ever been hammered with by all of you is contempt. I’ve been mocked, I’ve been laughed at, I’ve been shoved around, abused, beaten, and for what? If not for me you would’ve all had to have gotten your own damn water over the years. You wouldn’t have these torches constantly supplied. You wouldn’t have anything that the mortals have like chairs. You’d all be cavemen! And when I finally try to do something to show myself, after beating Sacho, it still doesn’t end. To top it off some fat old shithead who sits on a throne while sending people to their deaths blames us for failure? Hell no. Everyone should think about it, if the cost of following orders we know are damned is going to get us banished no matter how we perform.”
Yells of shock filled the room again as Azala appeared to choke, Rusty’s jaw hanging, everyone roaring out. Phil and Mindy at such a point began to look uncomfortable with shifting eyes and slight sweat dripping down their foreheads.
“At least Sacho held his ground Father, at least I got some hits in, at least Vulper commanded us well even though there wasn’t much to command due to your crap. Everyone here who went into battle did more than you!”
“Now see here, I will not have any of-”
“You never do. You know what? I’m done, goodbye.”
Elise turned quickly and moved away with her back to the ledge. As she cleared the passage she brushed shoved passed an approaching individual. She moved passed.
“Excuse me, pardon my carelessness,” the individual spoke.
His hair white seemingly glowing from the torch light. The individual crept forward into the room as Elise moved passed after granting him a quick look, disappearing down a tunnel towards her room. Azala glanced down at the individual as the individual stopped to return a glance.
“The hell is this guy wearing?” Nocknar muttered, “What’s with the red stars?”489Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡM8n5YmMsYI
