Lucendra let out a sigh, checking all systems one last time. She was seated within the spherical warform mech, whose legs and arms were currently wrapped around the main body. The mech’s "head", a high-powered camera with an in-built laser, was currently submerged into the steel body. For all intents and purposes, the warform right now looked like a ball, covered by a steel capsule and mounted on the crawler’s launching catapult.

The warform’s pilot seat was a spacious place, meant to house a wolf hag. Lucendra was not one, so she had to put on a special suit meant to enlarge the volume of her body. The helmet lowered itself onto the wolfkin’s eyes, projecting the surroundings onto her retina and showing that every parameter was in order.

"Ready." Lucendra said calmly, forcing her fingers to relax and ignoring the sweat. The operational cabin wasn’t hot by any means, not any hotter than the Ravaged Lands, anyway. No, the problems lied in Lucendra’s own nervousness.

"Got it and good luck." Sly’s image on the screen smiled to her, and she caught the genuine eagerness in his voice. Like her, he too was looking forward to the final stages of the warform’s project. "Five… Four…"

Only the ones who can’t do their homework need luck. The wolfkin smiled, grabbing the controls. And we did ours.

"One… Launch!" Sly’s image pressed a button on the console, and the warform moved up, speeding up across the crawler’s launch tunnel. With pride, Lucendra noticed that this time the metal shell around her mech no longer scratched the tunnel’s edges.

She felt nothing, as the launching catapult had sent the warform flying. The warform’s internal systems suppressed all atmosphere and kinetic pressure, allowing Lucendra to keep a calm and relaxed eye on the radar while the warform flew through the skies at a speed of eight hundred kilometers per hour. Aside from the radar, Lucendra was blind and deaf right now, the outer shell prevented cameras from working, but the sheer knowledge that she was amidst the clouds was enough to set her heart racing from worry.

To distract herself, Lucendra recalled the lessons of honored Dragena and warlord Annie. Both believed that the Wolf Tribe's fear of heights was just a hindrance rather than a useful instinct. Both trained the pack rigorously, forcing them to jump from the planes and land with the help of jetpacks repeatedly.

But this time there is no jetpack nearby! Came a frantic thought, and Lucendra laughed at her fear. Nope, no way, no how!

Like a comet, the ball of steel fell onto the ground, leaving a crater in the stone ground. Lucendra barely shook in her seat, the solid ball of steel absorbed all impact before it could fully reach her. The outer shell still held, the metal plates only shot away after the metal ball jumped from the initial crater and rolled a bit further.

One after another, the heavy armored plates shot up, the tangled legs and arms of the warform straightened up, the head came from the torso, and Lucendra stood up, seeing and hearing everything around her. The panicked shouts of caught off guard soldiers, the starting engines of two tanks, the cracking of dried-up wood in buildings, and the sound of a hundred legs running… She heard it all. Even before the cameras caught the opposition, the warform’s radar and detection systems had mapped up the enemy locations with near-perfect accuracy, the analytic system has reported that based on the initial readings, there were no new breeds present.

The radar quickly updated the location, showing that Lucendra was standing at the edge of the run down hamlet, supposedly taken over by the "raiders". With a smile on her face, Lucendra kicked one of the metal plates at the incoming soldiers. The metal plate crashed into three soldiers, sending them back into the building and collapsing the entrance on them. For a moment, Lucendra got worried, but then she saw the movement within. The power armor held, the men only had rubble holding them down.

Moving the warform’s arms, Lucendra pointed three-fingered palms at the downed foes and at the foes in a nearby watchtower. What left the steel fingers were not the full-powered crimson lasers but a mix of warm light and a radio wave moving at a special frequency. Both were moving fast enough to ensure that no foe here could dodge them, and upon hitting the foes, this frequency locked their armor, marking them as "dead". Through her cameras, Lucendra saw how two enemies on the watchtower and three soldiers under the rubble froze in place, adding the first number to her score.

With a roaring sound, a tank broke through the building before Lucendra. Smiling nervously, the warrior picked up a steel plate at her legs and darted to the left, gracefully evading the shell thanks to the thrusters installed behind the warform’s legs. With the flame trail behind her, Lucendra positioned herself between a building and the enemy tank, calculating the foe's exact distance thanks to the radar. The foe knew her location as well, but the tank’s shell got stuck in the middle of the stone building, just as the wolfkin predicted. In response, she threw the steel plate through the entire building. The warform’s impressive physical strength had sent the chunk of steel at bullet speed, with enough force behind it to fully break the tank’s left tread, leaving it stuck in the circle.

Once more, the flames licked the warform’s legs when Lucendra had activated thrusters and jumped on top of the building, feeling the stone roof crack underneath the five-ton weight of her mech suit. She calmed herself, even with the structural damage it should hold on.

A swarm of missiles took off from the opposite side of the test town, and Lucendra froze. ECM or flares? She could use both, but using the wrong tool will lead to a lesser score… Wait! In the briefing before the mission, it was stated that Tiny is the person in charge of training the enemy forces! Visual guidance it is, then. With a relaxed sign, Lucendra activated the smoke screen and moved to the left, evading most of the missiles. She had noticed a strange movement of one missile and fired the actual laser from the warform’s head, melting the empty flying dud. Briefly wondering why a random criminal gang would have several types of ordinance, Lucendra activated the plasma thrower and her own missile launcher.

Three missiles left her left shoulder, covering the location of the enemy long-range troops with a spray of paint and adding nine more bodies to her score. Not ideal, two had escaped, but the warform wasn’t meant to be used at long range distances. The plasma thrower moved over the mech’s right shoulder, locking down on the disabled tank. A single shot from the depowered weapon had melted the tank’s barrel, marking the armored vehicle as disabled.

Yay! No one will laugh at me ever again! Lucendra laughed out loud, earning a minus one to her score. She didn’t care, she was raking in numbers big enough to win the test. Feeling herself invisible, she leaped off the building in the torrent of flame, intending to meet the second tank head-on and down it with the sheer might of the warform’s steel fingers before mopping up the rest…

The right leg twisted aside, leading to the shocked warrior being put on one knee. How? It is impossible. Thoughts ran through her mind as she read the damage report, her eyes widening in shock. The warform was meant to wrestle with the enemy mech and armored vehicle, this damned round-shaped means of destruction was designed for the close-range fight because this is how wolf hags fight their battles! It should not break under its weight.

Sly. Lucendra understood with a sense of despair, noticing a structural flaw that she had asked to be removed! He didn’t calibrate the legs, and she was too tired to… The second tank showed up, and Lucendra howled from rage, firing at the tank. The opponent’s shell has reached her body first, sending the steel giant toppling into the building behind. Lucendra’s head rocked, and she slammed her nose across the control panel.

"The test run is over. Failure." Acting warlord Bogumila said over the communication.

"Ouch." Lucendra complained, touching her broken nose.

***

"How are you…" Sly stepped back, catching the helmet that Lucendra flung at him.

"Why didn’t you calibrate the damned legs!?" Lucendra jumped off the platform, leaving the broken mech to be taken back into the engineered bay.

After a humiliating half-hour trip back to the base, Lucendra was fuming. In accordance with the protocols, she had to sit inside the warform, allowing the opposite party, the "raiders" to strap the mech by the leg and bring it back to their base as a "trophy". This idea was implemented by the acting warlord as a way to stimulate the loser to give it their all in the next round. The problem was that Lucendra was the only test pilot, no one else volunteered to help with the development of the warform.

The Invicta base, was the current center of the reclaimers’ technological marvels in the Wastes and Lucendra’s current station. Ultis’ pack, some Ashbringer’s, Aranea's, and Red Streak’s troops were stationed here under Bogumila’s command, along with a large number of normies. Annie herself led the restoration efforts in the Ravaged Lands, Carty was busy training new recruits, Alpha was training for her new role as a captain, and Valerye Red Streak, along with her daughter, were busy delivering provisions to the newly conquered cities. Sometimes Red Streak could be seen working in a soup kitchen, side-by-side with her daughter, trying, in vain, to teach Tiny how to cook. It was for this reason that Tiny had asked for a short leave, joining the Invicta base as one of the trainers.

The base itself wasn’t overly big, most of its testing facilities were located underground. Despite lacking the lushness of Fort Uglo, it still boasted some impressive engineering facilities capable of constructing whole training sites overnight.

"Sorry about, Lucy," Sly looked at the helmet in his paws, "But we had to know if the warform would really break down under its weight or not. Now that we know how to properly calibrate…"

"Sly, Sprits dammit, you don’t need to physically test every single flaw…" Lucendra closed on the male, massaging her temples to stop herself from doing something stupid. She was sweaty, locked in a stupid suit, and still bleeding. And Sly, now as ever, was stronger than her. She didn’t really need all the wolfkin in the docking area to see her being beaten down. "Please," She pleaded, putting her paws together, "Please, please, do as I ask next time. You are not the one who ends up being a fool in the field!"

"Don’t argue, students," Till Ingo stepped from the operation platform, jumped over the guardrails, and walked toward the broken mech. "You did a most excellent job with the handicap you were given, Lucendra. I concur with Sly’s assessment, there is no defeat or failure during the testing phase, we need to examine the operational abilities of our new weapon through fully. But," Ingo looked at his student, "Next time you ignore your colleague’s words, you will find yourself being assigned to the less dignified duties."

"Yes, teacher, I understand," Lucendra mumbled, ignoring Sly’s guilty look. She breathed in, calming herself. Their job was to test, not to win. Sly is right, this knowledge might help with field repair and save lives. Her pride was irrelevant. "Sly, my nose got hurt. The helmet is meant for a wolf hag and they have a far bigger snout than mine. There is something wrong with the recoil control if it let me smash my face this badly."

"True," All guilt disappeared from Sly’s eyes, he looked at the helmet, fully lost in thought. "I swear, this won’t happen again, Lucy."

"You’re the best. I’ll go get my nose fixed."

Lucendra gave Sly a pat on the shoulder and walked out of the hangar. To say that the base was crowded with people was to say nothing. Just a month before, she could easily take an elevator in solitude, but now she had to share it with seven other people, cameras were placed on each step, filming everything and everyone. Even toilers no longer provided any privacy.

The warrior had no idea why there was so much secrecy. The warform, as potent a potential addition as it was, was nothing great compared to Iterna’s mechs, and aside from them, who could sneak into the base and why? Some soldiers speculated that Till Ingo was placed in charge of a new program about producing a special alloy to equip the entire First Army and that there were whole new crawlers and tanks being assembled in the hangars below. Lucendra always laughed at these assumptions. Why would the Reclamation Army have any need for a special alloy? Sure, she saw countless convoys arriving with the new materials to the base, but there was no way in the world the Third Army would be responsible for outfitting the First Army. They were elites, led by the strongest champion of all, his excellency Outsider. The First Army had helped the Third Army numerous times in the past, never the other way around.

Lucendra walked down a few hallways to get to the medical room. When she opened the door halfway, she heard voices inside.

"Is this my medic?" Danulka asked, looking over a thin woman in a field medic coat.

Mia, assigned by Annie to be the chief medic in the base, stood side by side with another bald medic before the wolf hag, who had her arms folded on her chest and sniffed over the newcomer before leaving a marking on her, claiming her to be of her pack.

"Lee Takamasa, reporting for…" The woman saluted the wolf hag. Lucendra spotted two augmented fingers on the woman’s hands.

"She looks thin." Danulka accused Mia, "Have I been given the most meek of them all?"

"I-I am assuring you, wolf hag, that I am fully ready to complete my duties…" Lee stuttered, sounding both insulted and terrified.

"We need to fatten you up. After me." Danulka gestured with a finger,

"B-But, wolf hag…"

"Just call me Danulka."

"Wolf hag…" Lee swallowed under the wolfkin’s eyes and forced herself to say the name, "Danulka, I was supposed to check your pack and fill in the reports and…"

"You can do it after the introduction. First, we eat, then we work."

"Can I go? Lee might need a support…" Mia asked innocently.

"There is no need for coddling, medic." Danulka replied coldly, "But, if you want to have a snack, sure, come right ahead. Meals on me, none of this regular nutrient paste today."

This looks personal. Lucendra decided, closing the door and retreating. Her nose still pulsated with pain, but Mia was always nice to her. Besides, it wasn’t the first time someone had broken a bone in her body. It’ll hurt for a couple of days before coming into place like nothing happened.

Trying to be silent, Lucendra quickly retreated back to the corridor and moved toward the showers. The acting warlord had very strict rules about this. No matter who it is, upon returning from a patrol or from a test run, all are to clean themselves of parasites to keep the base in pristine condition. A wolf hag from Aranea’s pack, Kate, tried to weasel out of this responsibility and soon found herself splattered across the ceiling after Bogumila’s throw. Since then, no one has dared to disobey the acting warlord.

Lucendra left her suit in a locker and stepped inside the showers meant for wolfkins. The white walls were cowered with slashes and cuts, smells of dried-up blood, perfume, markings and shampoo were in the air, giving the place an impression of a den. Aside from Lucendra, only two other women, both wolf hags, were present in the room, finishing cleaning themselves.

Lucendra allowed the water to pour on her, turning the handle all the way to the icy cold level, to let herself truly wash away all her frustration and deal with the swelling on her nose. Pressing both paws on the wall, her ears picked up the footsteps behind her. The wolf hags.

"You saw her flailing at the last moment?" The Alpha’s pack wolf hag chucked. "Even a cub could have landed from such heights just fine."

"I suppose this is what one should expect from the Branded." The Red Streak’s pack wolf hag answered thoughtfully.

"Come on, don’t slander them! Unlike this one, they are not a waste of space."

Lucendra felt a vein twitching at her temple. She could picture them smirking and laughing, looking at each other rather than at her. Jump back before the woman turns around, grab her by the back of the head, slam her face down into the wall, and bite down, bite at her neck. It doesn’t matter how strong she is, if her carotid artery is busted, Lucendra would win. Deal with one and go for the eyes of the second, curse the consequences, none would dare to laugh at her later…

Calm down. I refuse to become a beast. Lucendra once read in a book that if you stare into the abyss, the abyss will stare back. The shaman explained to her that if you give in to Spirit of Rage, even a little bit, it will hook its claws into your soul, changing you.

And Lucendra liked herself as she was now. A person who helped others. This was what the Spirits had in store for her. One day, Lucendra swallowed a bad pie from a trash pile behind the tribe’s village. The cub lay on the ground, vomiting in desperation, choking on the strange substance that clotted her throat. It was then that a shaman showed up, saving her. The shaman didn’t ask for any payment, she didn’t even say her name, the woman simply saved Lucendra’s life, ignored the fact that Lucendra was a Branded, and moved on. This was when the girl saw the true meaning of a good person. Someone who helps just because she or he can. This was the ideal Lucendra had chosen for herself. She won’t go down the drain because of a few assholes. Let the entire world laugh, so what? She is she.

After all, today was great! Lucendra won a ticket a few days ago into a newly opened cinema, and not to just any film, but to Spiritbound, a fantasy sci-fi action-packed adventure that takes place in outer space! Dangers at every turn, amazing space battles, an ice fang in the lead role… She felt her heart speeding up at the thought of seeing this gorgeous white furred on the screen. Yeah, the tribe might not understand that she was a fan of an ice fang, but Lucendra would never, ever share this fact with anyone.

"I am no longer a Branded!" Lucendra pointed a finger at the woman. "The Blessed Mother herself took away my brand. Suck it, ha!"

"You needed the help of our progenitor to stand at the same level as us, yet you are still failing." The wolfkin threw a towel over her neck. "Truly a shame. Ah, but what can I expect out of someone who can’t even beat a male, much less mount one? I would have beat you down for your insolence in talking back, but you aren’t worth even this much."

"Come, it makes me sick just looking at this loser." The second one added, leading the other wolf hag out.

Lucendra stayed alone for the next ten minutes, letting the cold shower take the edge off her burning shame. Loser… That’s all she ever was, wasn’t it? Her dad tries to help the other former branded, her mom works hard to raise Lucendra’s sisters and brothers… And what does she have? Lucendra looked at her paws. Tokens. Barely any tokens. Oh, how happy she was after Dragena—Dragena herself took her in! A way to earn tokens and support her family! An honest work! She failed even in that. Lucendra turned off the shower and walked to look at herself in one of the mirrors, showing a tongue to her reflection.

"Hello, worthless." She laughed. Yeah, she is a loser and a weakling. She also has a ticket and will have fun today!

The warrior reached out to her nose, remembering her dad’s lessons. Carefully, she forced the broken cartilage back into place, straightened the nose the best she could, and blew up blood into the sink. Checking the swelling once more, Lucendra felt a tingle of envy. Had she been strong, this damage would’ve healed by now. Had she only reached the rank of a scout… She banished the dark thoughts. Quickly wiping off the water from her fur, Lucendra came face to face with the acting warlord Bogumila, who stepped inside the room.

The acting warlord was dressed in a simple military coat, with the sign of her rank resting on the lapel. In her oversized paws, Bogumila carried a clipboard, the leather of her coat did very little to hide the sheer mass of muscles underneath. Each breath, each movement of Bogumila, threatened to tear through her coat.

Bogumila refused to accept the rank of a warlord, like Olesya. She named herself the acting warlord, beating down mercilessly any member of her pack who had dared to name her a warlord. This was Ashbringer’s pack, Bogumila declared, and it will stay so until the warlord grows up and returns to her prime and the two women have a fight. More than any other warlord, Bogumila encouraged augmentation, going so far as to boast about her new artificial lungs. Perhaps for her open-mindedness about the technology, she was put in charge of the base’s defense.

"Lucendra," The acting warlord gestured for the warrior to be at ease. "How are things?"

"Excellent!" Lucendra saluted, reaching into her locker for a new set of pants and a shirt.

"And the truth?" Bogumila’s voice gave all the boredom in the world.

"We forgot to calibrate a leg." Lucendra’s shoulders sunk.

"We? A curious choice of words, considering that a pilot should not be involved in the maintenance," Bogumila wrote something on the clipboard. "And your mood is strange. I’ll get to the bottom of this, warrior."

"Please don’t shut down the project, acting warlord!"

My fault! Lucendra thought of it in horror. The warform was meant to serve as an intermediate link between a wolf hag and a shaman. And instead of proving it, Lucendra lost to fifty soldiers and two tanks, a group of foe that should be easy prey for any wolf hag worth her weight. Abyss, they were easy prey for a wolf hag, Lucendra saw how Carty and Annie dealt with the bigger group with ease!

"I won’t," Bogumila’s amber eyes glanced at her. The woman was gigantic, it was hard to believe that she was a wolf hag a few months ago. But the most curious things about Bogumila were her bored personality and lack of anger. Very few people ever saw her angry, even when dashing out punishment, the acting warlord was cold as ice. "Believe me or not, but I have lost one too many friends in the war. This wonder armor has potential, and I’d be a fool to deny it. Ingo’s wastefulness, however, is getting on my nerves and creating a bad atmosphere on my base. This I won’t allow. Enjoy your leave for now, Lucendra." Bogumila’s fingers reached out to Lucendra’s nose, and the warrior felt a little squeeze, followed by a tingle of pain. She noticed, to her surprise, that her nose felt a bit better. "I am relying on you."

"Um…" Lucendra scratched behind her ear, seeing how the acting warlord stomped away, sending tremors through the room. "Thank you, ma'am! I guess."

She briefly wondered what this was all about before finding the precious ticket and forgetting about everything. This day wasn’t a total suckage after all! Jumping in the air once, Lucendra finished changing her clothes, closed her locker, and charged out of the room, only to come face to face with Yuki and Svetlana.

"Great timing!" Yuki smiled, putting a paw on Lucendra’s shoulder. "Sly is claiming that he is busy fixing his mistake, and we need someone to establish a link with a very certain person. Care to help?"

No! Absolutely not! This is my day, my! Lucendra wanted to shout. Hasn’t she given enough, hasn’t she endured enough? Can’t she have something for herself, something to cheer up, and…

But this is not how a good person acts.

"Sure thing." Lucendra smiled falsely, crumbling the ticket in her paw.

Fuck my life.

****

"You." A display came to life, revealing a young-looking woman. Lucendra heard of her, even saw her train once, back during the siege of Moon City. Her hair looked way shorter than before, and one of her eyes glistered in the light, betraying the sight of a high-cost augment. So, it seems that honored guest Jeki also didn’t live through the war unscathed.

"Yep, we!" Yuki smiled warmly, sitting next to Lucendra and waving her paw at the screen. "Have a few minutes, Jeki?"

"Tehuoto hasn’t yet come back from the training," Jeki moved a large chair and sat herself before the screen. "Yeah, I have a few minutes. Say your piece, mutant, and fuck off.."

"I wanted to apologize." Lucendra blinked, raising her brows at the sudden change in Yuki’s voice. Jeki seemingly bit her tongue too, "Back when you were injured, I mocked and teased you, acting partially like a scum who had tortured me. I even threatened you with a claw. For this, I ask forgiveness. If I can do anything to repair the damage I’ve done…"

"Go drown down the well and we’re even, ‘kay, mutie?" Jeki furiously scratched her forehead. "Just kidding. Have cubs with your male and stay away from our lands and this is it. I… Just…. The fuck are you calling me about it? I’d thought you'd mock me or something. Hey, melonsbreasted, Is she for real, or is she yanking my chain?" Jeki looked at Svetlana.

That’s what I would like to know too. Lucendra waved her finger around the keyboard, feeling her mood souring with every moment while the women kept on chatting. Jeki asked if Svetlana was still training, Yuki occasionally teased the former enemy, earning herself insults in return, Svetlana complimented Jeki’s new eye, earning back nothing but scorn. At the end, the three agreed to meet in a bar near Moon City in a month. I can’t believe I spent an hour and a half installing the link just for this!

Lucendra was fuming with anger at the wasted time, at the wasted opportunity to see the movie, but at the same time she was kind of proud. The base had access to the Net, sure. But contacting Iterna was one thing, and contacting the Bento tribe was another thing all together. And most seriously, neither Yuki nor Svetlana knew Jeki’s number, and the idiot didn’t even have a social page. No photos, no presence on any forums, nothing. Who does that? Even the Wolf Tribe has its own Web page, listing every important member. Abyss, even Jekaterina had a social presence on the Net!

The former foes had no love for the reclaimers and tried to cut off Lucendra despite all her explanations and pleas. It took four attempts, all made from different secure servers, before she found an operator who had agreed to listen to her story and patched them through to Jeki’s house.

"Okay," Yuki turned off the terminal, looking at Svetlana. "How did I do?"

"How do you feel?" Svetlana asked back.

"Better," Yuki admitted, looking at her glowing paws, "Actually a bit better. Philip’s sessions really do help. Now, Lucendra. I am sorry for how I treated you…"

"Oh, really?" The warrior rolled her eyes.

"Lucy, we are your friends," Svetlana put a paw on Yuki’s shoulder, "I heard that happen between you and…"

"No you are not!" Lucendra roared, jumping off her chair. She felt her blood boiling in her veins, felt an urge to do anything, to… She looked at the chair, grabbed it, and smashed it against the floor. Friends? As if! Svetlana made a step toward her, and Yuki stopped her. "Friends? I fucking asked you to never tell anyone about this night, Yuki!"

"Lucy, I am sorry," The glowing warrior stood up, and Lucendra backed away in fear, afraid that the warrior might strike her. Yuki bowed. "If you just let me fix my mistake…"

"What will you fix, huh? Make me not worthless? As if this is possible!" Lucendra laughed at this inanity. The frustration of this day, her defeat, mocking, everything came back to her, driving the woman mad with anger. "If you had ever given a flying shit about how I feel, you would have asked, just once, 'What are you wanting to do, Lucendra’! But no! Each time I get dragged into everything," She clenched her fists, "Test pilot, let’s make Lucendra do it, she’s tinkering with the stuff, not like she has any personal plans of her own. Drone training? Lucendra, teach me! Calling someone? Me again! I wanted to see a movie today, you fucking bitch!" Lucendra found herself shouting. "To have a fun time and forget of… Of whom I am! And you still have to drag me…" She made a step back toward the door. "It’s not my fault, okay? I am not at fault for wanting to help others! It’s not my fault that I like learning new stuff and know a lot! I am not at fault for having an unreachable dream! But do you, all of you, really need to abuse my willingness to help? Is it so hard to ask, just once, what I want to do? I am tired of helping everyone, tired of waking up and being weak, tired of having an unreachable dream… Just let me have some time off! What sort of friendship is this when I am always the one to give something!" She stopped herself, running a paw over her hair to calm herself. "We are not friends. My only friends are Annie and Carty, because they are the only ones who helped me without asking anything back!"

She turned around, intending to run off from the room like a naughty cub, and came face to face with Ultis, who sneaked into the room, blocking the exit.

"I am sorry, scout, this shouting and behavior was unworthy of…" Lucendra tried to find something to say. Dammit! Damn everything and her stupid mouth! The Annie’s pack has a strained relationship with Aranea’s pack because of Yuki and her own weaknesses. She had a chance to make things right, but instead…

"It’s ok, Lucendra," Ultis merely shrugged. "We’re on leave. Go on, have fun at the cinema."

But the free session is already over. She wanted to say, but stopped herself at the very last moment, forcing her lips to spread in a cheerful smile. Fake it. Then people will leave you alone and won’t think of you as someone weak or worthless. "Thank you, scout!"

"Stop," Ultis looked into her eyes. "Is something wrong, Lucendra?"

"I-I am not sure what you mean, scout!" A paw stopped her from leaving.

"My name is Ultis, if you forgot." She felt the other wolfkin sniffing the back of her neck. "Lucendra, I can tell when someone is lying to me. I think I’ll walk with you. I have a sudden urge to enjoy some culture."

"B-But I wanted to see a movie alone."

"Then I’ll leave you alone, the moment you find yourself a seat."

"I…" Lucendra looked around in panic, reaching into her pocket and finding her wallet. She checked it, fully knowing what sort of funds she had, and swallowed nervously. "I changed my mind. I want to sleep off the rest of the day…"

"Lucy, what’s going on?" Yuki demanded to know, "Is this something about tokens?"

"I am not poor!" Lucendra shouted back, not daring to move Ultis out of the doorway. "I just… I just… I have responsibilities, that’s all!"

"We can pay for you." Svetlana offered.

"Don’t you dare!" This was one thing Lucendra would never accept from anyone. She wasn’t prideful, this was beaten out of her. But there were some principles that the wolfkin always held on to. Be a good person, even if the world hates you. Help others. And never, ever take any help that you can’t repay for.

It was hard enough to balance her budget as it is. Almost all her pay, save for what she invested, went to help her family. She let her investment stay a little longer before selling the stocks for a quick token and sending them back to her mom. Lucendra remembered well just how guilty her mother looked after taking the tokens—the trembling of her sole remaining paw, the pain in her amber eyes. And she never wanted to experience this herself. To take from someone without being able to pay them back was… unbearable.

"I am sorry, everyone," The wolfkin pressed a paw to her head, forcing herself to sound cheerful. "I am just a bit tired and… I don’t want anyone’s help, you know? Silly thing, but it’s my pride."

"Then there will be no help," Yuki smiled back. "But a payment. You helped us, we'll pay for the movie. ‘Sides, it’s been ages since I’ve ever visited a cinema. C’mon, Lucy, let’s go have some fun!"

"This is a good suggestion," Bogumila’s voice cut off all the protests. The acting warlord stepped into the room, followed by the two wolf hags, whom Lucendra had met in the shower. "I have reviewed the latest tests and asked two new pilots to try the warform. They failed right at the start, failing to even accumulate any score, waste of space they are." Both women stood at attention, ignoring the warlord’s words. "Lucendra, I would like to ask you to keep on being the test pilot and help with the training once the warform is complete."

"I… of course, acting warlord... Wait!" Lucendra felt a surge of thoughts running through her head. Wolf hags! "You said that they operated the warform?"

"Yes. Sly made the immediate repairs for two test runs."

"Can you keep them on the program!? We asked for help from the packs, but no wolf hag has ever volunteered!" A wolf hag! Not one, but two! This will make adjusting the warform so much easier! Lucendra almost lost her breath at the possibilities. Sly is going to be so envious!

"Sure," Bogumila wrote something down on her clipboard. "Losers! You two stick to Lucendra like a glue and follow her orders to the letter."

"But… Acting warlord, I can’t command wolf hags!" Lucendra saw the women’s looks and took a step back to Ultis.

"But I can, and I put them under your command by the power that their warlords gave me. Any objections?" Bogumila looked at the wolf hags, who only bared their necks in submission. "Good. Also, it came to my attention that you haven’t been properly compensated for your work as a test pilot. Check your balance, the additional pay should make it worth your while," The woman turned around before stopping once. "I do highly recommend visiting the cinema, Lucendra. I heard that they are showing Spiritbound today. While most of the actors there are meh, there is one orais… Well, you’ll know once you see his muscles.  Simply adorable."

Lucendra stood, dumbfounded, before reaching into his pocket and finding a terminal. It took her a few seconds to access her bank account. The moment she saw the sum on her balance, a whistle came from her lips.

"I… I guess the cinema is back on the menu," Lucendra never smoked, but at this moment she desperately wanted a cig. She could afford everything. A pizza every night. Proper clothes, not just the ones provided by the Ice Fang order. A brand-new TV! Everything her heart could ever want, even chocolate! She looked at the wolf hags. "Uhm… Sorry if we got off on the wrong foot. I don’t have any work for today, so I guess… A day off?"

"The warlord told us to stick near you like glue." One of them answered, and Yuki laughed.

Lucendra looked around weakly: "Then… How about a cinema before the night’s end?"