Kate kicked at the warm sand lightly as she stepped out into the arena. She could hear the crowd cheering, from somewhere to her right her ears flicked as she caught the distinct voices of Tellka and Frank. She tried to focus on them and ignore the fact that currently she was in the middle of a large arena surrounded by hundreds of people, dressed up in a fighting garb not too dissimilar from Tellka's, and was about to launch herself into a one on one fight with a perfect stranger. However, that was a bit too much for her to just ignore, and the woren swallowed nervously as she made her way towards the center of the arena. What if something happens? What if I get too hurt? What if I hurt my opponent? What if I get stuck or something? What if-

'KATE! Just calm down! Frank and I are here, don't worry about a thing! Concentrate on your fight and you'll be okay...'

Kate sighed. It was hard to concentrate on this fight when all she could think about was how similar this was to the last time she had gone to battle someone. Last time... when she had first met Frank and learned about Red Wing. Kate shook her head, trying to knock the memories away. Tellka was right. She had to focus on what she was doing right now. Her mind had been too distracted to even notice that the announcer was currently introducing her opponent, and Kate looked up to see a forestclan teen, not too much older then her, stepping into the arena. His fur coloring was tannish, fading to a lighter cream color at his lower neck and chest. He was wearing a pair of open toed boots, similar to Kate's, and a pair of greenish pants. In his right hand he was weilding a whip, and Kate noticed his eyes studying her as the two fighters stepped towards each other in the center of the arena. The woren did her best to try and remember what her opponents name had been announced as.

'Luke. His name is Luke. Now think about what you're doing!'

Right... Kate's ears batted uneasily as the two met in the arena. Kate offered her opponent a bow, as Tellka had taught her to do. As she stood back up, she couldn't help but notice that not only did her opponent not return her guesture with any greeting of his own, but that he was grinning down at her with a toothy look that made her tail flick uneasily. Luke let out a rough chuckle before speaking quietly.

"It's a shame, really."

"What?" Kate blinked in confusion. The wolf man just snickered again.

"You fighting, I mean. You've got such a pretty face, I'm going to hate to have to bruise it. Maybe after the fight I'll have to take you somewhere to make it up to you."

Kate just stared at him for a moment. She blinked in surprise when Tellka's voice suddenly slipped into her mind.

'What did he just say to you?' Kate repeated it to her guardian mentally, and suddenly a wave of disgust rushed over her, startling the young woren.

Tellka?

'Kate, squash him flat.'

The two opponents stepped away from each other, and as they each dropped into their fighting stances the announcer called out the start of the fight.

Luke made the first move. As the wolf charged, Kate barely had time to leap out of the way before Luke's whip snapped at where she had been standing just a moment ago. The woren whirled to face her opponent and once again just barely had enough time to dodge away from another quick lash of the whip. The wolf's taunting call echoed after her as Kate pulled a couple backflips to put distance between her and the other fighter.

"Here kitty kitty! I just want to play a little, that's all!" Luke snapped his whip in the air before recoiling it and charging at Kate. This time, the woren didn't attempt to dodge. She waited as Luke closed in on her, the wolf finally snapping out with his whip again and Kate raised her right arm to block it. The weapon hit her glove and immediatly wrapped itself tightly around her arm. With a strong jerk from the wolf man, Kate felt herself pull forward and let out a startled yelp as she moved to keep from falling foward. Finally catching her balance, she brought her other hand up and grabbed onto the whip, giving the weapon a strong tug of her own and for a moment the two fighters were caught in a small battle of tug-o'-war. With a determined heave, Kate finally managed to pull the whip from the wolf's grip and tossed it behind her, bringing her clawed hands up into her fighter stance as she placed herself between her opponent and his lost weapon. Luke blinked a moment, startled from suddenly being disarmed, but regained himself quickly and charged at the woren, slamming into her with amazing force before following up with a punch that caught her just below her ear and a high kick that hit her shoulder and sent her sprawling onto the sand. With a growl, Luke hurried over to reclaim his weapon and finish the match. What he didn't count on, however, was how quickly Kate had already managed to recover from the attack.

All the wolf felt was Kate slamming into his back and Luke let out a startled yip as Kate's tackle hit him full force, knocking him to the ground with the woren perched on top of him. Now all Kate had to do was keep him pinned until the announcer called the end of the fight. Her opponent began to bark and growl furiously as he attempted to worm his way out from under the woren, but all of Kate's practice from constantly pouncing Frank in greeting proved to help the woren maintain her perch on her opponent and kept him firmly down on the ground. With a defeated whine, Luke's muzzled pulled back in a snarl of annoyance and embarassment as the announcer finally named Kate as the winner of the match. The young woren finally got up, allowing her opponent to work his way back into a standing position as he brushed himself off and snatched up his whip. Kate's tail waved curiously as she watched the loser storm back towards his side of the arena and towards the door that led back to his dressing room. The woren's ears twitched and she looked up as the crowd around her errupted into cheers (and a few boos for those who had placed a good sum of money on the wolf man) for her victory. The woren flashed the crowd a nervous smile before she headed back towards her own dressing room. Sore, and with a throbbing jaw, Kate's tail continued to wave in amazement as the young woren realized she had just won her first fight.

'And it didn't last any longer then about ten to fifteen minutes.' Tellka's chuckle rumbled through Kate's mind. 'Good job. You're now a colosseum fighter.'

Thanks? I think? Kate closed the door to her dressing room behind her with a sigh and rubbed her throbbing jaw as she waited for Tellka and Frank to come see her again.

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