Today was the day, they were heading to the Temple to speak with the pack leader, and that meant that Anne would have to bring her own pack for their "approval" to be their pack leader. Anne was a lot different than they remembered. She wasn't a proud wolf, she never showed any care for anything, many questioned whether or not she could rule the pack one day. But the girl that stood before them, covered in scars and glaring at them like a hardened warrior, was absolutely nothing like she was before. The pack leader walked up to her, sniffing to make sure this is truly her granddaughter.
'Even her scent is different. Stronger, more musky with nature and blood.' she thought, sniffing all around Anne.
'Nice to see you too, grandma.' Anne thought, watching her grandmother/grand pack leader reintroduce herself to her scent.
Anne's grandma let out a bark to the Betas, telling them to meet her in the den for discussion. She let out a few yelps, telling Anne to leave and reintroduce herself to the others, they had been wondering where she went. She also said she'll send Oum to find her when they have finished speaking.
"Okay." Anne said.
Anne put her hands in her pockets and walked out of the room.
'Better check on Hop Pop, Sprig, and Polly to make sure they're not getting into trouble.' Anne thought.
As she walked, she looked through the temple. It felt weird to be here. Not only because it had been so long since she came her but because she was getting looks from other members. Most likely cuz of her scars or the new air of authority Anne was giving off, an authority that matches that of a pack leader.
'It doesn't matter. I may be "part" of this pack, but none of them are apart of mine.' Anne thought, somewhat cold.
She used to be the "Weak Link" the worst wolf... she used to backdown if a pup growled at her... now most of those that thought her as nothing smell an aura of power and blood coming from her.
A ball rolled up to her feet, making Anne stop and gaze down at it as some pups ran up to her before stopping. Just looking up to her, seeing her scars and sensing her aura of authority, they both whimpered in slight fear before Anne kicked the ball away before walking over them.
"Watch where you play next time, you could hurt someone." Anne said to them, leaving the random pups behind.
Anne opened the doors to the front of the temple and walked down the stairs to the rest of the temple.
"Now, if I were HP, Sprig, or Polly; where would I go?" Anne muttered to herself.
She shrugged a bit and walked to the places she figured they liked. This was part of the territory, the packs home for well over 150 years, it makes sense that she would know some places. She arrived at the nursery, where the pups were. It was the only place in the entire temple that young pups could learn about both their Thai heritage as humans and their wolf spirit animal heritage as wolf pups.
'Alright, let's see if Polly is here.' Anne thought, looking into the open doorway of the nursery.
Anne peered in, seeing Polly interacting with the pups.
"Hahahaha is that all you got?!" Polly said, wrestling with some of the pups while keeping her disguise on.
Anne gave a small smile.
'Glad that Polly is having fun.' Anne thought before going to find Sprig.
He would be somewhere outside, he rarely hangs out inside.
'Maybe he's playing Sepak takraw (kick volleyball)?' Anne thought as she headed to the court within the temple grounds.
Not surprising, he was there, and he was dominating.
"Coming at ya!" Sprig shouted, jumping in the air with a flip and kicking it down at the other players.
"Whoo, get it Sprig!" Anne said, cheering him on.
Sprig saw her and gave a thumbs up, landing perfectly on the ground as the next round began.
'This my new favorite Earth game! I've gotten introduce it to Wartwood when we go back.' Sprig thought with a grin.
Seeing Sprig was having fun and getting along, Anne left to find the last member of her back. The elder, Hop Pop. She could only imagine where he would be (Sarcasm).
"Amazing!" Someone shouted.
"Where has this guy been? He's an amazing dancer!" another person shouted.
'Of course, he's in the Khon Dance studio.' Anne thought with a grin.
She decided to leave them to their new hobbies.
But that just leaves her to think to herself, what was she left to do with her pack busy having fun in the temple? She went to the festival outside.
'I never really did enjoy it before I left but maybe I can today.' Anne thought, keeping her hands in her pockets.
She decided to put sunglasses on.
'Just so people don't stare at my eye.' Anne thought, not bothering to cover her other scars for now.
She walked to the front, where there were tents and shops set up.
"Maybe a little lunch." Anne said to herself, getting looks and hearing whispers once again.
She didn't know if they were talking about her scars, or the fact that she's returned from being missing. But neither mattered. Anne was back, she was stronger, and she was a pack leader now. What they thought of or said about her doesn't matter or bother her anymore. Anne just hoped that nothing bad would happen, she was tired of her blood leaving her body.
"Can I get a bag of Water Bugs and Beef?" Anne asked a food stand vendor.
If there was one thing Thai culture and Amphibia culture shared, it was eating certain bugs.
"Coming right up." He said to Anne.
'Meat is meat.' Anne thought.
Anne still ignored the looks she got before one of her aunts walked up to her.
"Anne? Is that you?" She asked in complete shock, up close and personal.
"Yeah." Anne said.
"W-What happened to you?" She asked, looking Anne over.
"I... I learned." Anne said, "I learned that who I was before is not the kind of person or wolf I should be."
She took her sunglasses off to look at her aunt.
"I learned a lot while I've been gone, and while it was painful, I don't regret it."
Her aunt was silenced by the sight of her eyes and her words, never in all her life expecting such wise, warrior like words from her niece at such a young age.
"Here you are, Water Bugs and Beef." The stand attendant said.
"Thanks." Anne said.
Anne took the bag and walked away, leaving her aunt as she ate the meat. Anne kept walking around. The sun was shining, the Thai Temple pack was getting along with her pack, and the food was so good. Almost nothing could ruin this day.
Almost.
A certain robot just had to be the one ruining the day. And this time, it wasn't alone. It had dozens of drones.
"Hehehehehehehe!" It chuckled, looming over the temple grounds with the drones flying in the air.
One of them flew down and produced a speaker from its back.
"Remember, failure will not be tolerated a THIRD time." Andrias said through the bug drone.
The robot had no intention of failing.
"Grrrr!" It growled, spinning its buzzsaw arm in anger.
'I will not fail.' Is what that meant as the drone flew back to the others. They had one goal... Kill Anne.
"YAAAAAAAH!" the robot screamed, pointing to the temple!
The dragonfly swarm drones flew off, heading to the temple to cause destruction. Anne smelt something. She stopped mid walk, crushing the bag of her food as she recognized this scent but found it multiplied somehow. She let out a growl.
'The robot, it's close!' Anne thought, throwing away her bag and rushing off to her family's car.
The reason? She secretly packed her sword just in case of trouble like this. And Hop Pop called her paranoid at times. She's not paranoid, she's a survivor, and you get like that by being ready for anything. Reaching the car, Anne opened the trunk and pulled out the blade before-
"Anne, what are you doing?" Bee asked, standing behind her.
"Just... making sure that my sword was polished." Anne said, "I like to clean it regularly, you know. Helps keep it from rusting."
"But why is it in the trunk? Why did you bring it to the temple?" Bee asked.
"Look dad, just-" Anne stopped talking when she heard a loud buzzing sound, looking up to the sky, "Oh no."
"What are those?!" Bee shouted, looking up.
The dragonfly drones began to attack the temple, scaring people and attacking randomly to draw Anne out. Anne wasted no time in going in to fight them. She transformed into a whole and held the sword in her mouth, rushing off as Bee tried to stop her!
"ANNE!" He shouted, transforming and running after her.
She wasted no time in throwing the sword at one of the drones. Stabbing through, the drone fell as everyone, and every other drone turned to see the cause. Many of the temple pack were shocked to see a scarred wolf walk up to the downed drone and transform back into Anne, who then pulled the sword out and gazed up at the drones.
"Stay away from them." Anne growled.
The drones then began to swarm around Anne, producing lasers cannons from their backs and blasting at her! They didn't kill but they hurt a LOT. Anne was sent to her knees, but quickly got up. She began rushed to the stands, transforming and using them to get to higher ground to attack the drones! She didn't care about the burns on her back, she just wanted to destroy these things that were threatening her pack.
"Anne!" Sprig shouted as he, Hop Pop, and Polly ran to the scene.
Anne ignored him as she jumped off a tent stand, getting into the air, and transformed into a human as she dived into the swarm!
"RAAAAH!" She screamed, slashing at drones relentlessly.
She was blasted by another laser, which sent her to the ground.
"Ugh!" Anne said as she crashed to the ground!
She breathed heavily and began to pick herself back up.
"That all you got?" Anne asked, spitting some blood away.
"YEEEEEEEEEEH!" The stealth robot screamed, jumping into the air and aiming at Anne!
Its saw arm was ready to slice her to pieces before Anne blocked with her sword, forcing Anne to a knee while in a deadlock! Sparks flew as the robot chuckled, having the upper hand as he gazed down at Anne. Anne pushed the robot back, and then swung her sword at it. The robot blocked it and then it shoved a sharp blade into Anne's chest, making her drop her sword and gasp for air.
"ANNE!" The planters screamed.
The elders and Oum rushed out to the scene and gasped, the mother slowly crying as she saw a blade sticking out of her daughter's chest! Anne's eyes began to close, and the robot took the blade out. Anne fell to the ground and just laid there. One of the pack members threw a fruit at the robot, which made it turn its attention to the crowd. It produced a laser from it's back. Anne's blurry visions saw this and she let out a growl, as her eye turned blue and her blind eye became a blue wolf's eye. A flash of blue light exploded from her, sending all of the drones and the large robot away from her! The white wolf growled, ignoring the glowing blue blood dripping from her fur. Everyone in the temple pack gasped in shock of Anne, feeling an even greater aura of leadership and power coming from her than before!
'Stay away from my pack!' Anne thought.
Anne blitzed forward and destroyed half of the stealth bot in one attack!
"GAAAAH!" It screeched, falling to the ground!
The dragonfly drones prepare their lasers for attack before Anne gave a roar and unleashed multiple energy blasts! They were destroyed. It was almost like fireworks as everyone watched in awe, except the Plantars and Boonchuy parents as they kept their gaze on Anne and her still bleeding chest. Exhaustion began to set in. Her body was slowly flicking between white and brown as Anne dropped to the ground.
"ANNE!" Sprig, Hop Pop, Polly, Bee and oum shouted, rushing to her.
Next time Anne woke up, she was in the den.
"What happened? Was it all just a dream?" Anne muttered before leaning up then wincing.
Looking down, she saw that her chest was wrapped in bandages and a blood stain on the front. What happened was NOT a dream.
"Add that to the collection of scars." Anne mumbled
Anne looked to the side and saw her sword in its sheath, grabbing it to use as a cane and stand up. She breathed heavily as she pulled her tired body up.
'Shit, that's knife hit really took a lot out of me. Nearly took my life if it wasn't for that calamity energy.' Anne thought.
Anne slowly began to walk out of the room. She needed to find someone to explain what happened after she passed out and maybe tell her how long she was out of it THIS time. Thankfully, her mom came rushing up to her shortly after she made it out of the room.
"Anne, you should be resting!" Oum said.
"I'm fine, mom." Anne said, pushing her mother's hands off. "Where are Sprig and the others? And how long have I been out?"
"We took them home… yesterday."
"Home?" Anne repeated.
"We're still in the temple." Oum clarified.
"Let's get you back into the bed." Oum said, "You need to rest more."
"I'm fine." Anne said, "I've been through worse."
"Well, as the new Pack Leader, it's my job to make sure the pack is safe."
Anne looked at her mom.
"What?"
"After you risked your life to defend that temple, your grandmother decided it was time to step down and let me take her place." Oum said, "Making you the new heir."
"So soon?!" Anne shouts, nearly falling if her mom didn't catch her. "But grandma-"
"She knew the pack is in good hands with me as the new leader. Just like it will be when it's your time." Oum said, "Now rest."
Oum pushed Anne back to the den and made her lay down on the couch again, taking her sword so she couldn't get up again
"Just stay here and rest, I don't want you to hurt yourself."
"Mom, I've been through worse." Anne said.
"And that's exactly why you're resting. Disobey me, and you'll be babysitting the tribe's pups for a month." Oum said.
"Fine."
Anne laid back in the couch and let herself rest, seeing her mother watching her for a moment before taking her leave with Anne's sword.
"Ugh." Anne said.
'Guess I'm fucking stuck here for who knows how long. Great.' Anne thought, staring at the ceiling.
Her eyes slowly began to close. Anne drifted back into a nap, resting to regain more of her energy and speed up her healing process. In the hall, Oum was very concerned. And it wasn't about her new title as the Pack Leader of the Thai Wolf Temple, it was about Anne and apparently some crazy, godlike power she had inside of her... and that robot. Where did it come from? Why was it after her daughter? And…are there more of them somewhere? She could only hope nothing bad happened because of this... little did she know.
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