FSE

Furry search engine

formerly SoFurry search engine

Chapter 3: A Demanding Plea for Unity.

The hours seemed to roll along almost as though on a normal day for Kate. She worked her shift, taking care of whatever tasks needed done, and once that was finished, she had spent the remainder of her day visiting her family. During this time it seemed as any other routine day. Nothing was missing; nothing was different, and it would be because of this that she would be able to move the current situation to the back of her mind and live as though nothing were wrong.

It was not until she had walked into her den late that evening, however, that the reality of the situation had settled in upon her, for as she stepped into the den that she and Humphrey had dug, she found it to be cold and empty.

It felt almost surreal to her, coming home to an empty den, for he was always there to greet her with a smile and a kiss, even on his worst days when his sleep had been haunted by nightmares, and it wasn't until now that she realized just how much she missed it. They were nothing special, nor fancy, but his greetings, his smiles, and his kisses came from the deepest depths of his heart, and when he asked her how her day had gone, he would listen contently, even if she snapped at him wrongfully in place of that which had served as irritants throughout her day.

There was their spot in the back of their den where they had made love on their honeymoon, and in the corner was where they slept, always together. She would curl herself up into a ball and he, as gently and carefully as he could, like handling the most valuable of artifacts would wrap his body around hers and then deposit his head lightly atop the back of her neck and for at least an hour they would remain like this, silent, content with listening to the other's breathing as a way to prove that what they shared was real.

She found now that all of her forethought revolved around Humphrey. She wondered how he was doing. She wondered how his first day of Alpha Training had gone, if he missed her as much as she missed him now when she realized that it's the simplest things like his evening greetings that she missed the most now that he was no longer there to give them.

She sighed softly, running her eyes over the empty den then chuckled to herself softly.

"Look at me," she thought, "been gone one day and I make it seem as though he had died." Again she chuckled. "I'm such a worry wart."

With that said, she padded into the den and laid down in their spot, though on this night, she knew she would be cold without her mate to hold her so safely in his arms.

A&?

Finally the howl that the students had been waiting for all day sounded and brought an end to their drills, but more importantly to them, to their first day of training.

Humphrey had to be dragged out of the river yet again, for he was simply not strong enough to swim against its current as he was instructed to do and as he was laid out on the shore and his safety harnesses, crafted from vines, were removed, he swore to never even so much as look at water again. He lied on his back, splurged water from his lungs, and breathed heavily, feeling the cold liquid as it rolled through the fur all over his body.

"Alright," Cail said, looking toward the center of the grounds, the area from which the howl had risen, then turned to them once again, "get Humphrey to his feet and over to Alpha Miles."

"Yes sir," they replied uniformly and began to take to Humphrey's sides, though still, one student seemed to be repulsed by having to babysit the omega.

Humphrey coughed again, opened his eyes and cursed softly under his breath, for his entire body felt as though it were made of jelly. He had no strength left in his legs, no control over his heartbeat, and was so distant that he could barely remember his own name. He was the worst of the students physically following the first day of training since he got the brunt of the drills, being the black sheep of the bunch, but there were those who were not fairing much better than he.

Though it had taken the forget-me-nots, a half mile jog, a death crawl, weight training, another half mile jog, a rigorous set of grass drills, and the river to do so, two of the other students had lost their breakfast then their lunch later as the training went on a two hour recess at noon for lunch before they had to resume at two o'clock and then finally finish at seven.

Humphrey, despite his weakness, was able to be helped to his paws, and with one classmate on each side of him for support in case his knees should buckle, he began to make his way to the center of the training grounds where he and his class would meet up with the others.

All was silent in the huddle which surrounded Miles and the other instructors, save the heaving pants of the students, for none had the energy left to speak. Though everybody sat on their haunches around the instructors, most of them had their heads down on their chests for they lacked the strength to even lift their heads.

"I would like to start by congratulating you guys," Miles began, "you've all survived your first day of training."

The students, those who were not so near to collapse as the others, anyway, allowed meager smiles to form upon their lips and everybody lifted their heads.

"Now, I'm not gonna sugarcoat this," Miles continued, "based off of the reports given by the other instructors, you all have a lot of hard work ahead of you if you are to walk away from here with the right to call yourselves alphas. In fact, you are probably one of the worst groups we've ever had to train. Granted, you do have those amongst you who are better, but only hardly, and there is not a one of you that is in any way shape or form, ready for what lies ahead."

The students sat listening, sweat pouring down their faces, but there were many who did not like what they were hearing, for they knew for a fact that they were at the very least better than the omega, who in their minds was a weak-bodied, weak-hearted waste of time who had absolutely no right to be one of those chosen to become an alpha, regardless of the fact that he may someday be leading the pack. On top of all of this, they felt threatened as well, for if, on the slight chance Miles' words were true and not lies to provoke motivation, they would be put to shame by something who was to them lower than the dirt they walked upon, and they would not allow such a thing to happen. They had far too much pride to allow themselves to be bested by inferiorities. It was time to set things right, time to put the omega in his place.

"...be waking up at four o'clock tomorrow morning, so make sure that you get some rest. You'll need it."

There were groans of distaste from nearly everybody, for they knew just how early four o'clock would come after all they had endured today.

Miles smiled.

"Your enthusiasm is music to my ears," he said with a sneer, "Alpha Erik, any words?"

The red-furred male shook his head silently.

"Alpha Dakoda?" Miles asked, turning to the blonde.

"Make sure you wash up before going to bed," she said to him, "we don't want any diseases to spread through the sleeping dens, and yes it is mandatory."

The students nodded.

"Alpha Cail?" Miles asked.

"I would like to commend my group for their ability to act as a unit," Cail began, "though it seemed as though the most of it revolved around picking our omega friend up off the ground."

There was a soft chuckle amongst the group and Humphrey lowered his head ashamed.

"But they did not give up on him nor did he give up on himself and for that I am quite proud. Watch and perhaps you'll see that he is more than meets the eye."

The students turned quick glances back at Humphrey and around through the masses in search for the others in his class then turned to the front.

"Alright," Miles began, "make sure you wash up. Your names will be in front of the den in which you've been assigned to sleep, and make sure that you rest up. Dismissed."

The students rose starkly to their paws and began to plod their way over toward the river where the current was not so strong and upon arrival began to file their way into the water.

Humphrey was so ill of body that he practically threw himself into the water despite his earlier resolution to never go near it again and lied on his back motionlessly, his eyes lightly closed.

That is until his tail was stepped upon.

He yelped involuntarily and his upper body shot out of the water until it was arrested and shoved forcefully down once again and pinned.

He opened his eyes to find a brown-furred male standing atop of him, his teeth bared.

"Who the hell do you think you are, omega," he demanded with a snarl, pressing down harder on his chest, "you have no right to be here you pathetic piece of shit."

"Get off of him, Gauge," Jake demanded, stepping in beside Humphrey and growing threateningly, "he has as much right to be here as anybody else."

Gauge scoffed.

"Shove off, douchebag, this is between me and the runt," he replied smugly.

Jake growled louder, drawing the attention of the others.

"I'm not gonna ask you again," he warned, "get off of of him."

Gauge smiled.

"And just what is it that YOU are gonna do about it?" he asked incredulously, "save yourself the humiliation of getting your ass kicked and leave this business to myself."

"Guys, stop," Rain said demanded, stepping between them, "Gauge, leave him alone and get to bed."

"Shut up, bitch," Gauge growled, "let your boyfriend fight his own battles."

"Bitch?" she asked pointedly, "who's the one trying to have a dick-swinging contest with everybody all the time? Sounds to me like somebody is trying to compensate for something."

The others who watched laughed, causing Gauge to snarl loudly.

"Shut your mouth you little whore!" he seethed, getting off of Humphrey and beginning to stalk his way toward her.

Rain tensed, preparing for battle, but was surprised when Gauge was leapt upon and taken down by Humphrey.

This immediately resulted in a riotous uproar from the others and snarls shot into the air.

The instructors heard this and sighed.

"It's started already," Erik mused with a shake of his head.

"I'll put an end to this," Miles stated and turned away.

Humphrey and Gauge rolled around in the shallow water, splashing, struggling, clawing, biting, fighting for the upper hand and those around who watched cheered them on.

"Come on, Humphrey!" Mark yelled, "kick his ass!"

Humphrey rolled and threw a paw down upon Gauge's muzzle, causing his teeth to click together painfully, and all the while the others cheered them on, not a one wanting to break up the fight.

"That's enough!" a loud voice suddenly boomed and the two were ripped away from each other.

Gauge tried to throw in a cheap shot as Humphrey was pulled away, but missed and rose to his feet, soaking wet, and above all, physically and pridefully sore.

"What the hell is this all about!" Miles demanded, turning sharp eyes between everybody who stood in the shallow water.

"Gauge started it," Rain voiced immediately, "he attacked Humphrey."

"Bullshit," another voice interjected, "Humphrey jumped him!"

Bickering ensued between the students and Miles snarled loudly, causing them silence themselves once more.

"Until we figure out what really happened here, you are ALL guilty of lying," he seethed, "and until everybody is willing to be straight and give me the real story, you'll all be running until your paws fall off! Move!"

The students all groaned and began to run, some faster than the others, but they quickly began to slow down as the distance grew.

About three hundred yards later, Miles ordered them to stop.

"Anybody got anything they'd like to say?" he asked, one student lifted his head, but Miles spoke before he could, "no? Why don't you all get down on your stomachs and start doing push-ups? Now!"

They groaned again and began to do as they were told, pushing their bodies off of the ground with wobbly legs.

"Repeat after me," Miles ordered, "we are a unit."

"We are a unit," the students replied shakily.

"And we shall act as one or we'll do this shit all night."

"And we shall act as one or we'll do this shit all night."

"We will not lie to our superiors," Miles continued.

"We will not lie to our superiors," they repeated, pushing up yet again with a grimace and groan.

"And we will treat each other with mutual respect regardless of rank or gender."

"And we will treat each other with mutual respect regardless of rank or gender."

"With all of this said, I believe we are ready to tell the truth, if not, then we will continue this until we are."

"With all of this said, I believe we are ready to tell the truth, if not, then we will continue this until we are."

"Now rest," Miles ordered and the students threw themselves down on the ground with a synchronized groan.

Miles ran his eyes over the group.

"Who wishes to speak up?" he asked.

"Gauge did it," one student answered and the others nodded in agreement.

Miles turned to Gauge.

"Is that true?" he asked.

Gauge growled under his breath.

"Yeah," he replied venomously, "it is."

Miles smiled.

"Good, so they can be taught," he mused, "everybody except for Gauge and Humphrey, wash up again and go to bed."

The others rose and began to make their way toward the river once again and once they were gone, Miles turned down to them.

"Get up," he demanded.

Gauge grunted impatiently and rose to his feet, as did Humphrey, though his grunt was brought about by his soreness.

"So tell me exactly what happened," Miles asked of Humphrey.

"He stepped on my tail, then threatened Jake and Rain when they tried to intervene," Humphrey replied breathlessly.

Miles nodded and turned to Gauge.

"Is this true?" he asked the pup.

Gauge lowered his eyes.

"Speak now or you'll run all night until you pass out from exhaustion," Miles growled.

"Yes, sir," Gauge replied bitterly.

Again Miles nodded.

"Very well. Gauge, since you were the root of all of this, you get to run around the perimeter three times," he ordered to the offender, "and after that, if I feel as though you've learned your lesson, I'll allow you to sleep. Now get moving."

Gauge growled under his breath and began to run.

"Better make that four!" Miles called after him.

As Gauge grew distant, Miles turned to Humphrey.

"As for you," he stated, "I'm proud of you for sticking up for yourself. That took balls kid." He reached a paw out for Humphrey and helped him to his feet.

"Thank you, sir," he panted, releasing the alpha's paw.

Miles nodded.

"Go get cleaned up and get some rest," he said, "you'll need it."

Humphrey nodded and walked toward the river once more, washed his body, then carried himself toward the sleeping area where he found his den and, despite the early hour, was asleep before his head even touched his paws.