“We had a lot to celebrate, but your point's well taken." Gregory wanted to Lie back in the grass and go back to sleep. But he sensed that might have been frowned upon even in his camp, and it might have encouraged Janette or Algra to dump the entire barrel of cold water on his head when they got up. At least, that's what he'd have done in their situation.

Valise nodded with an admirable attempt at stifling her amusement at their suffering, and then raised herself up to go find them a hangover cure amongst the supplies in her tent. This left the pair alone, and Gregory soon remembered something he'd been meaning to ask ULf.

“How'd it go with your dad Last night? Was he alright?" ULf nodded against his own palm, and then opened some slightly bloodshot eyes to look over at his human friend.

“Yes, it went well with us. I thought I would have disappointed him, but he was gladdened by it."

"Much, sorry man. I didn't mean-" "No, it wasn't anything like that. He favours you, Gregory, but I am his son. He favours me more." Ulf managed a smile.

“Oh. Cool." Gregory nodded.

“He said that he placed me with this pack because he knew I had it in me to be a great Leader one day, and a great leader is only as great as the least of those who he leads. I don't think he expected the pack I found to be quite so troubled. He's been supportive, but the truth is that I don't think even he could have gotten a win from our pack if he'd tried. So, Last night he told me that he was proud that I'd found someone who seemed to know the business of fighting with weaklings, and that I should learn from him."

“Weaklings?"

“I don't think he meant to be insulting. He is just... he's never had to fight someone bigger than him. So he sees these things in a harsh light, and doesn't understand what it really is to be on the weaker side. It annoyed me for a time, but I don't suppose I should blame him. It's not his fault that he's the size of a mountain, is it?"

Gregory laughed, and then groaned when it felt like a fork of alcohol induced Lightning struck through his brain.

“No, no I guess you shouldn't."

"Then he said that when the time is right, and I have learned how to make my pack great, I should challenge you to be alpha once again Honour demands it."

Gregory slowly turned to look at Ulf, who was clearly suppressing a grin at that. They both Laughed, and another round of groaning quickly followed at such audacity.

“Competition's fine, I guess. Just do me a favour and leave off all challenges for today? Even standing up hurts right now."

“Agreed, my alpha. Though it would certainly be an even match." ULf rubbed his pained head again and then raised his cup of water to Gregory who happily clinked his tankard against it.

In the weeks and months that followed, The Runts found themselves facing a number of ups and downs in their renewed attempts at proving themselves. Their initial matches had been won on merit, but also with an element of surprise in their shift of tactics. The return of Ulla into the fold had also helped immensely. Soon enough, the other packs stopped underestimating Frelki and Nullik, whilst preparing for an onslaught from Ulla. This made things much more difficult, initially forcing Gregory to come up with new ideas to outwit the other proving packs.

Unfortunately, there were only so many tricks in the book and after a month or so those tricks began to run dry. They had a promising run of 10 victories out of 14 matches, but that rate of triumph began to decline shortly after Gregory began to run out of surprises. Thankfully, Algra stepped in and reminded him that he was running a war pack and not a theatre troupe. He didn't have to put on a different show every night. He simply had to focus on smoothing out the issues of the tactics he was comfortable with.

Taking that notion to heart, Gregory began adapting his ideas on a smaller scale to match up with some of the bigger problems he was facing. This eventually took the pack back onto a fresh winning streak. It certainly helped that the focus on the smaller details allowed him to begin to think on a more individual level. He now worked with his pack members one-on-one more often, rather than continually making them conform to sweeping changes in their tactics that required a complete rework from the ground up in order to get it right.

It was also making him a better fighter in his own right. Working one-on-one often meant sparring, and in the past that usually resulted in him being on the losing side of an ass kicking. He'd often been working with Wrut and Frun in their past sparring sessions, because he had a lot of trouble keeping up with the others. Having a head for planning didn't automatically guarantee that he was good when it got down to the gritty matter of actual scrapping.

Throwing caution to the wind, he'd started spanning out to go one-on-one with the others. ULf was a better fighter than him, but he could just about manage not to get himself hurt too badly in a bout. Nullik and Frelki were both guaranteed to leave him with a few bruises, but working with them vastly improved on his own reflexes. Ulla was a different matter entirely. In fact, sparring with her was almost as much of a guaranteed face-plant in the dirt as fighting Algra. Since Ulla had decided to make a real effort in keeping her shit together in training, she'd gotten far more dangerous. Goading her used to be a good way to get her off-balance, but now it just got him a very sore jaw.

Not that she had completely lost her edge, of course. It was just that now whenever she did lose her temper, instead of blindly attacking everything in sight, she would simply grab Ulf and drag him off into the trees for a while. They'd then return, bright-eyed and bushy-tailed to get back to sparring. Everyone agreed not to remark upon it because it clearly worked for Ulla, and ULf definitely seemed all for it.

Janette found her schedule similarly busy during this time, and her focus spread further. She spent time learning the arts of the courtesan from Fiona with occasional assistance from Lydia and Talina. The training was a good deal more detailed than she'd envisioned, given that her first impressions largely consisted of having to simply take her clothes off in an appealing way.

Fiona, Lydia and Talina each had different skill sets based on where they had come from. Over the years together they had shared these skills with each other, and practiced them to become something more. Dancing and the art of exhibitionism was certainly a part of it, but they seemed to pride themselves in their arts. They didn't just dance to excite, but to impress and even amaze with their movements.

Dancing was mainly tutored by Talina and Fiona, but Janette had other things to learn from Lydia. The busty woman had instead focused her pursuits on storytelling, and the art of conversation. She would instruct Janette in keeping attention, how to listen properly and engage with her partner or partners. After they had talked, she would offer advice on how she could have made her point more interesting, or how she could have shifted the theme of it to something she was more comfortable with. There was a much greater depth to it than Janette had realised, and in learning those lessons she found herself with a myriad of new tools to keep people enthralled.

Music was also encouraged, and she'd begun to familiarise herself with several instruments including a flute and a lyre. She didn't take naturally to them, but her singing voice was usually enough to make up for it.