She looked over each of the alphas one by one, and stopped for some time when she came to Gregory. Her examination was slightly more thorough, as she leaned in to sniff at his neck, and reached out to squeeze his bicep in her hand before caressing down along his arm like she was testing the meat. Eventually she gave him a satisfied nod and stepped back to stand before them all.

"You have all been deigned as alphas of your packs. Now, are you ready for the final test of your abilities?"

“Yes, shaman!" Everyone except Gregory yelled immediately.

“Y-yeah." He half choked on the word before managing a much more assertive, "Yes, shaman!"

"Theknit," She addressed the first alpha in Line, one of the females.

“Do you have three who would speak for you?"

“Shaman, I would name another to tend this duty. Birkut!" At the alpha's command, one of her packmates ran forward and stood beside her.

“He has myself, as well as Tilur and Yurkash to speak for him."

At this, Theknit turned to smile affectionately at Birkut, who smiled back. Two other female orcs stepped forward from behind them and nodded their assent. Gregory guessed they were Tilur and Yurkash.

The shaman nodded her approval at Birkut, and it seemed Like it was ok to offer this particular duty away to another pack member. He momentarily considered nominating Ulf in his place, but decided against it. If he had to face some dangerous challenge then he couldn't damn well call himself a leader if he didn't give it a shot himself.

"Very well, Birkut shall have this duty in your stead. Begin the test."

The shaman stepped aside and the four orcs walked into the tent to face whatever was inside together

After that, the shaman went over to the next orc and three other pack members vouched for him before they went into the tent together. The next one was the other female, who decided to do the deed for herself.

She disappeared inside the tent with her three pack mates. The next two alphas did the same, until finally the shaman stood before Gregory.

“Gregory Hopkins. Do you have three who would speak for you?" she asked.

It suddenly became painfully clear that Algra was the only one who was standing behind him. Shit! Was the wait supposed to be an opportunity to ask others? Had he embarrassed Algra? By the sound of the others being put on trial, this test wasn't something where he could offer up some names. He was supposed to stay quiet and the others were to speak for him.

As a result of this, he was going very red in the face by the time the shaman finished her question, and Algra casually spoke up.

“I will speak for him," she said.

“And so shall I," Frelki added whilst stepping forward.

There was a pointed silence after that during which time Gregory both wanted to kiss Frelki and bury his head in a hole in the ground. The shaman looked over his shoulder at his pack, and saw something that seemed to make her understand. Finally, she looked him directly in the eyes.