Called by the Goddess

Chapter 7: Assesment

~Kate~

I followed mrs. Winger into the garden and saw a pathway leading further into the forest. The cat that still reminded me of Garfield came towards them and rubbed his head against her leg. “Hey kitty, thanks for your company just now!”

“Oh, so you’ve met Boris already, that is quite the honor, he usually does not take to well to strangers invading his house”

“Oh, so you’re not Garfield, sorry about that!” I jokingly said to Boris. He looked at me with what I could swear was a look of exasperation. You could almost imagine him shaking his head “were-wolves… silly creatures”. I chuckled at this image that popped in my head, told him “you are so right!” and mrs. Winger looked at me curiously.

Before she could say anything, another she-wolf joined us. She tried not to stare at me, but I noticed her curiosity. Of course, me at my turn, was curious as hell to find out who she was and why she was coming with us. Where mrs. Winger was obviously very old, with her white hair and wrinkly face, this other she-wolf was probably in her early twenties. She had brown skin and black curls, held out of her face by a very colorful headband and looked very at ease in the forest. She walked towards us with an ease I only saw back home with our trained warriors, so I guessed that was her job, guarding the secret order, here in the forbidden forest.

“Kate, this is Maya Cadogen, Maya, this is Hekate Tudor, who seems to be our long ago prophesied chosen one”.

“Ok, so there you have it, that is my title now… from ‘you omega girl’ to ‘the chosen one’”, I sighed to myself. I was not sure if I thought that was really an improvement, but hey, time would tell.

Suddenly I realized that her last name sounded familiar and without thinking I bursted out “Oh, you are William and Margaret Cadogen’s daughter… but I thought you…” oh shoot, me and my big mouth. “Think before you speak, Kate!! How often did mum and dad tell you!!

Maya smiled grimly and said “Yep, that’s me, I knew you when you were just a little pup”. And she obviously did not want to talk about her parents anymore. I could see why, the whole pack presumed she was dead, I could swear even her own father did, since he is the nosy neighbor we had back in the pack house, that always tried to get on the good side of alpha Ḱendrick by tattle taling. Like THAT is the way he would ever get his status as beta back. Everybody knew that once demoted to omega, meant always demoted for you and your entire bloodline…

“Here we are, the training centre and dojo of the order” mrs. Winger announced, breaking my train of thought.

I looked up to see that we indeed had come to a clearing that was obviously a training area, with some benches at the side. With a building behind it for indoor activities as well. There were tracks for running, sparring circles, and there were a few teenage kids there, who were looking at me like I was some kind of rock star.

They obviously had been sticking around after they were supposed to, because Maya shooed them away. “Run along now, kids, time for school, you will get a chance to know Kate later today, let’s give her some peace now!”

Reluctantly the kids left, leaving only us three. “Maya is our chief warrior and one of her jobs is to assess new members that are brought to us, to see how their overall condition is and where their strengths lie, when it comes to fighting. Plus physical exercise might help you clear your mind a bit with everything that you had to go through since yesterday”, mrs. Winger continued.

That kind of made sense, I really felt like running to clear my head.

“Yeah, I would love to have a good run, it would be weird and great to do so without having to hold back for the fear of offending an alpha or beta brat with my speed” I said.

“Ok then”, Maya intervened, “let’s run! Follow me!”. And off she went. It took me a few seconds before I started chasing her, realising she took me on a path that had been used a lot, by the looks of it. You would think this meant smooth running, but no… they made it a difficult path on purpose, with rocks, low hanging branches of the trees beside the path, and what was that? Did I actually see Maya do commando crawls underneath a net?

I chuckled. Yep, definitely a bootcamp kind of set up, like you saw in all those military movies, but only a bit more advanced. I realized that I had been going at a slow pace, because I had been so busy to take in my surroundings and still was only a few feet behind Maya, so I sped up and overtook her, laughing out loud. She sped up after that as well, but did not catch me. I wasn’t sure if that was because she couldn’t, or because she wanted to observe me. Probably the latter I shrugged to myself.

I kept on following the path, figuring it would eventually bring me back to where we started, and it did. Good thing too, because I was getting out of breath, never before had I really been allowed to test my limits. Wow, I never had been able to go all out, and I loved it!

I ran towards mrs. Winger, who sat down on one of the benches and looked up to me, while I put my hands on my knees and felt exhausted from physical exercise for the first time in my life! “That … was ... fun!” I told her in between catching my breath. She smiled and said, not bad for the first time, took you only 33 minutes! At that moment, Maya came running towards us, she seemed less out of breath, so she had paced herself, but she seemed impressed with me. “33 minutes I heard you say? Not bad at all, only 3 minutes above the track record! Cannot wait to see what you can do when we get you in the right condition!”, she smiled at me.

“Now… let’s get ready for the next part!”

“Uh, next part?” I asked, standing up right and turning her way, unsure of what to expect. Good thing I did, for she came towards me and aimed a very impressive looking kick, right towards my face. “Woah!” Instinctively I ducked, putting my arms in front of my face and twirling out of her reach, falling down on the ground. She missed me by a few hairs it seemed! “A little bit of warning would be nice”, I grumbled, looking up at her, not amused.

“Sorry, Selena asked me not to hold back”, Maya grinned, "and if the pack’s warriors find out you are the chosen one, you can be sure that they won’t hold back or give you fair warning."

“Sh*t… she had a point there!” I felt less and less happy about the whole chosen one thing...

“Are you getting back up or what?” she continued, while hopping from one foot to another, her hands making boxing moves…

“Real nice”, I said out loud, while stumbling back to my feet “getting away from being abused by those brats, without being able to retaliate, only to be attacked again here?” I was getting angry, not at Maya, I knew she was right, but at the whole situation. What had I done to deserve this?

“Yeah… tough luck” Maya grinned, not taken aback at all, “Difference is, you don’t have to lie down and take it this time, and we are trying to train you so you can go back and kick those brats behinds!”

That sounded like music to my ears, and because that kick looked real cool, I figured I would try that out on Maya in return. “Would serve her right if I would manage to kick her. I was the chosen one, so let’s see what I can do!” I encouraged myself.

So I took a leap in the air, my foot aimed at her face, and before I knew what was happening, I found myself flying through the air and landing on my back. “Ouch!” I moaned, looking up at a now grinning Maya. “I am impressed, you pick up things quickly, but there is also a lot for you to learn, like how to use the opponent's strength and attack against her!”

She held out her hand to help me up. “Thanks”, I grimaced, “I guess…”. I looked at her warily, not sure if I liked this way of training…

“I think I’ve got a good feeling now on where to start her training”, Maya nodded to mrs. Winger. “Let’s wrap it up for today, so she can get ready to meet the rest.

She grinned evilly at me: “Wrapping up means taking the path we started with twice more, and try not to be so out of breath this time, pace yourself. And try to keep your but down at the commando crawl sections, if you get the technique right, it really saves you a lot of energy!” she added as an afterthought. “Off you go, I will discuss your training schedule with Selena, she can fill you in when you are done! We will see if we can make you into a half decent chosen one” She told me in a strict voice, but I could sense that she had been impressed with me.

I groaned and rolled my eyes at her, secretly enjoying myself. I loved this kind of workout and being able to exchange banter like this… I had never really been allowed to enjoy working out, with the sole purpose to get into shape, so I ran off with a big grin on my face.