Katana

Staring at her father, sitting on his old sofa as he prepared his clothes, placing them into a small backpack. He was preparing to leave with the rest of the pack. Katana felt despair. The thought of her father going to war and not coming back made her feel a kind of desperation she has never felt before.

She fell to her knees in front of him and lay her head on his lap. He looked down at her in surprise before slowly smoothing her hair back.

“Katana.” He chided gently. “I am sorry that I don’t get to spend the time I want with you. I wish that things were different, pup.”

“I am sorry for being gone for so long.” Her voice cracked, and she swallowed the lump in her throat. “Do you really have to go? I can try talking to Alpha Jamison. Maybe he will allow you to stay and ask someone else to go. I haven’t gotten a chance to speak with him about my arrival. He doesn’t even know I am here yet. I can go now and speak with him-”

“Katana.” He interrupted.

“Why do you have to go? Out of all of the people in this pack, why did he choose you? How selfish can he be? There are warriors who are much stronger than you and out of everyone he chose you!”

“Katana!” Her father’s voice rose demanding her to obey.

She looked up at him and shook her head. Pushing herself up on her feet. All kinds of thoughts came to her mind. What if she had not gone to school for that long? What if she had come home way before all this? This wasn’t fair and she was angry.

“I don’t want you to go.”

“Stop, Katana. This is for the Alpha King. It should be an honor to serve him and to be chosen by our Alpha. It just means that he trusts me to protect-”

“Bullsh!t!” Katana spat angrily.

Katana’s father stood up to his full height and even with old age, he was still tall and strong. His eyes looked down at his pup as he demanded her to respect him as her father. After a moment her eyes lowered.

“This isn’t fair.” She said through her tears as they now dripped down her cheeks.

“Katana...” Her father sighed and reached for her but she pushed his hands away.

“No! This isn’t fair!” She pushed away from her father and ran out the door. The moment she was out the door she shifted. She heard her father call out to her, but she ignored him and ran into the woods. She needed to work off some steam.

She arrived at a stream where she stood over it and bent down to drink. When she pulled back and really looked at her reflection, her heart skipped a beat. If only she was a boy. She would be able to go in place of her father.

Snarling she snapped her jaw, it was because of that stupid law that didn’t allow women to fight. She wanted to kill whoever created a stupid law like that. Women were not handicapped! They were just as capable of doing it.

Capable...

Capable...

Her wolf head lifted as an idea appeared in her mind.

She stood in line with everyone else as they waited in one of the army compounds that was situated 300 miles away from her home. She knew her father would be upset with her, but she couldn’t let him go. Hence, her chopping off her long hair. Her hand tentatively went up to touch what was left of her hair, which wasn’t much.

Names were being called to make sure that everyone arrived. The alphas had all answered the king and sent a list of names of all the soldiers that agreed upon going. Luckily, her Alpha had no clue who she was as he was still very young and new to his position. He assumed that Katana’s father did have a son and allowed her to replace him.

She left early that morning before her father was awake. She took his weapons and his clothes and when she was near the compound, she wrapped her chest with a cloth and put on her father’s clothes. It was done with a lot of difficulty because everything looks baggy on her, but she didn’t mind it at all because it hid her shape.

“Kenneth Richardson.” She heard her name being called for the second time.

“Here.” She squeaked and then cleared her throat before speaking in a manlier tone. “Here.”

The man looked back down at his paper before nodding. “You will be in barracks A.”

Katana glanced around in confusion until the man looked up and saw her still standing there. He huffed in annoyance and pointed to his left.

“That building.” He barked.

She nodded and scurried toward the rectangular building. The building wasn’t extravagantly built. It looked like someone whipped it up quickly, just to provide a roof over whoever was going to be inside. She walked over to an empty cot and looked around.

It was loud and boisterous. Men were taking off their shirts and walking around naked. A few were putting their stuff away. She hugged her backpack to her chest and sat down as she stared at what was in front of her.

“Kenneth Richardson.” A man said next to her and she turned to see a man around her age sitting on the bed next to her. He had dark brown hair and a crooked smile with one dimple. “You must be new here.”

She nodded and he sighed as he moved to sit next to her. “Don’t worry. You will be fine here.”

“He’s weak. He won’t last a week.” A blonde man sitting across from Katana voiced his opinion.

“Shut up, Lewis.” The guy next to Katana retorted. “Don’t worry about that asshole over there. Apparently, he thinks he’s the best out of all of us, but we will show him when General asks us to fight later today.”

“Fight?” Katana squeaked again.

He looked at her strangely. “Yes, fight. He needs to test our strength and divide us into groups. Those who have higher training will move on to help the Alpha King. The others, who need some extra support, will remain behind for the General to train.”

Katana doesn’t know how to fight. In all her life, the only fighting she knew was from a few movies she watched in the past. Gulping, she hugged her pack tighter.

The man next to her seemed to have noticed and took her frightened state as nervousness. “You’ll be fine, man. No worries.”

Katana nodded. Fine, she thought, perfectly fine.

“What is your name?” She asked.

“Isaac.” He grinned.

“Thank you, Isaac.” She said.

Isaac got up and continued to unpack. Lewis was throwing her cocky glances and pumping his chest every now and then. She stood up and started putting her father’s stuff away. The thought about the fight to come with the General was twisting her stomach into knots.