Before he could ask her what the hell was going on, she stepped back to disappear into the crowd. He took a deep breath and savoured the taste of her still on his lips, and then he too walked toward the entrance to the arena floor. It was a relatively dark tunnel, but he found his way with a few others out into the Light. The familiar sensation of the pit sand beneath his feet made a part of him excited for the thrill of battle that usually followed with it.

Except this time it seemed they were there for something else, as every pup in training was standing around talking in hushed, excited tones. A few of them nodded to him when he passed, and he tried to find The Runts amongst them. This wasn't as easy as it sounded, given that they were all standing rather close together and that most of the orc race, even in their very late teens and early twenties were at least a good six inches taller than him. He was thankful that the provings weren't something orcs went through in their mid to late twenties. Orcs didn't usually stop growing until they hit thirty, and if he'd been amongst them then he'd have had no chance.

“Alpha! Over here!" Frun's voice carried over the background noise. The stout orc seemed to have long endured the same problem he was having right then, and had managed to sniff him out somehow. The familiar greeting relieved a bit of nervous tension that had been building between his shoulder blades. With a nod to his pack mate, Gregory took to a jog and caught up with him. Frun soon managed to Lead him between the other gathered orcs until they came out amongst The Runts.

“Hey guys, would someone mind telling me what the hell's going on?" he asked.

“You shall see, my friend." Ulf grinned to him and gestured up to the box where the proving master oversaw the pit.

“Ok, can you just tell me if whatever's about to happen is going to drastically increase my chances of getting hit on the head today?”

His question was soon followed with a blow to the side of his head that nearly knocked him sideways. He turned on his surprise attacker to find Ulla grinning at him.

"What?" she asked.

“You were worried about getting hit in the head. Now it's happened and you don't have to worry about it anymore. I helped!"

Gregory momentarily considered asking if there was any risk of anything more serious happening, but from the playful glint in ULla's eyes such a question might have caused him to risk a serious head injury. For someone who loathed Algra as much as she did, he thought that the pair of them were disturbingly alike in many ways.

Before he could think of anything else to say, the assembled crowd fell silent when Ulag emerged to stand over them in his viewing box. This was somewhat unusual, as the proving master often simply showed up, sat down, and occasionally grunted a few orders. Standing just wasn't his normal style, and he even managed to look rather solemn. Gregory braced himself for the announcement of an all-out brawl between every pack, in which he'd likely be crushed to death before he could even form any sort of defence.

“Young ones,” Ulag addressed them in an unusually formal tone.

“You have long endured the trials of the proving grounds, and I have seen the great warriors of our future born here in these pits over the past months and years. Now is the time to find out if your training will allow you to join the war packs."

A great roar of approval went up all around Gregory, and many orcs raised their fists into the air in an aggressive celebration. Ulag waited patiently for them to calm down. Unfortunately, patience wasn't one of his strong suits and he eventually let out a deafening roar of his own over their heads.

“Shut it!"

Silence soon fell across the pits, and quite a few of the pups actually flinched at the noise.

After a brief snarl, Ulag cleared his throat and continued his announcement .

“On this day, I call a Grand Proving. The challenges are listed at the entrance to the proving grounds, and shall be brought about over the oncoming days. At the end, the packs who have shown me that they are capable of making true war will be named and brought to the final proving ceremony. Good luck to you all. Fight with honour!”

With that, Ulag turned his back on the pit, and another roar of approval followed him.

“What was-" Gregory started to ask before he was literally swept away by the excited crowd of orcs. It was only because of his extensive training that he managed to stay on his feet and not get crushed to death by the roaring pups, who were now piling toward the exit.

Trying to find answers or help amongst The Runts was impossible. It wasn't just that he wouldn't have been able to hear them over the noise, or even see them over the shifting crowd. The truth was that they were just as bad as the rest. Nullik had managed to use his natural athleticism to haul himself up Wrut's back and was now leaping over the heads of the crowd going from shoulder to shoulder. Frelki saw what he was up to and quickly pulled a large passing orc next to her before doing the same thing. He watched them disappear over the surrounding heads, and started getting annoyed with all the shoving. Dammit, he was an alpha! Getting shoved around wasn't something he had to put up with.

Although he didn't quite have the dexterity or nimbleness to follow his friends' examples, he was more than capable of losing his temper and elbowing a few other orcs out of his damned way. The aggressive approach seemed to work, and soon enough he'd managed to get free of the moving wave of green bodies and out into the open air of the proving grounds. It bought him enough time to catch his breath before he jogged along beside the crowd to see where the hell they were all headed.

Ah, right, the listing of challenges that Ulag had spoken of. It was like being back in high school P.E. class after the teacher announced who'd made it on to the school football team. Except there were a shitload more interested parties.

Since Gregory still didn't quite understand what was going on, and he was in no mood to plunge back into the chaos of the crowd, he instead went over to the empty training fields where his pack usually practiced and waited for them to show up. Given that no one else was around, he wasn't difficult to spot, and soon enough he saw The Runts struggling out of the crowd and walking toward him with some very serious Looks on their faces.

That wasn't usually a good sign.