Beatrix was woken up early in the morning by everyone in the den moving about, stretching, yawning, and talking. The light of the sunrise shone in his bright blue eyes. He squeezed his eyes shut as his pupils adjusted. He lifted his butt into the air and expanded his spine, he took a deep breath and stretched out his ribs. His arms kneaded the mossy bed in front of him as he groaned into awakeness. He stood upright and shook his head, moss and needled flung out of his cheek fur and out of his ears. 

Beatrix gathered his morning thoughts and realized both Bartholomew and Yolanda were not there. The other catoblepas’ in the den glared at him as he walked outside. The early morning sun glittered across the field of grass that separated all the dens in the circle. Birds were singing and there were beautiful orange and black butterflies. 

A sudden impact made Beatrix go flying and land with his chin in the rocky and needle-speckled grass path. 

“Come at me, I dare you!” A loud growly voice came from somewhere behind him. 

“Oh I will, don’t you worry!” Bartholomew called. He was standing right behind Beatrix’s flattened body. 

He got up and turned around to see Bartholomew fighting a very tall and lean catoblepas. His fur was golden wheat, and his mane was ashy like parched trees. His dark brown eyes stared into Beatrix’s soul with a laid back, yet serious tone. His horns were long and pointed forward like a bull. He was ready to charge. 

“You ready for this!” Bartholomew practically screamed. The other catoblepas rolled his eyes and smiled at Bartholomew. 

Bartholomew launched himself towards his big target. His hooves clomped as he crashed down just beside his opponent. 

The larger one raked his talons across Bartholomews right shoulder. Bartholomew twisted his head around and caught the other arm in his mouth. His protruding left canine tooth sunk deep into the other person's wrist. He let go of the other’s hand and plummeted his talons deep into the chest of his foe. The large catoblepas whipped his hand at Bartholomews neck and jabbed him with his talons, he flipped him over onto his back and held him down. Bartholomew couldn’t get up. 

“Take that, kid!” He said. Bartholomew got up and shook dirt out of his bison ears. He turned to see Beatrix staring at the bigger catoblepas in awe. 

“Whatever, Hunapo!” Bartholomew growled as he padded away towards Beatrix. 

“Who is that guy?” Beatrix whispered. 

Bartholomew licked his snaggle tooth and looked down at Beatrix, “Why are you whispering?”  he asked in a monotone voice. 

“Sorry. Who is he?” Beatrix asked again, louder this time. 

“He’s just an overconfident moss-wad,”  He rolled his eyes. “Are you ready to train today?” 

Beatrix nodded his head enthusiastically, “I haven’t trained at all before,” Beatrix stated. Bartholomew squinted his eyes at him. 

“You haven’t trained AT ALL?” Bartholomew scrunched his eyebrow as he emphasized his words. 

Beatrix looked down at the ground and rustled his right paw through the grass, “No,” He whispered. Bartholomew let out a grunty “hmm”, then a catoblepas with a moss green mane and chocolate brown fur called out their names and told them to come. 

At the entrance to the path that leads to the tenderfoots arena, there was the green haired master, and Beatrix, Yolanda, Bartholomew, and four other catoblepas from the den. Beatrix recognized the female from last night, she was glaring at him and laughing with two of her friends. 

“Don’t pay attention to them, they’re goose brains,” Bartholomew whispered. Beatrix gave him a small smile. 

“All right everyone, we have a new tenderfoot joining us,” A catoblepas shouted over other voices. He was short but well muscled. He had a dark gray mane and light brown fur, his eyes were stunning sage green and so were his back-pointed horns. His dragon scales were black and so were his hooves and talons. 

“His name is Beatrix, he is a kitsune that has come into our care. I expect you to treat him no differently than you would any other catoblepas,” He glared at the snickering group of females. 

The catoblepas strutted up to Beatrix and smiled cooly, “My name is Kian, I will be your master for our training sessions. Follow me and we’ll be there soon, and we will go over rules,” 

Beatrix stood between Bartholomew and Kian in the front. 

“Ouch!” Beatrix yelped, something snapped on his tail. Bartholomew and Kian looked back. The big girl from the other night was looking away and dragging a talon in the dirt. 

“Behave yourself, Duvessa,” Kian warned. He turned his head and continued walking, 

Beatrix could hear them snickering behind him.  

The walk wasn’t long like before, there were no distractions this time. They made it to the 

tenderfoots arena and everyone split into pairs. 

“Come with me Beatrix,” Kian said. Beatrix looked back to see Bartholomew already 

paired with Yolanda. He followed Kian to the center of the arena, which was home to the largest tree he had ever seen. This tree too was hollow inside, but you did not have to crawl through roots to get inside, instead, it had a great arched opening right into it. 

“Pretty cool, right?” Kian said, Beatrix was staring at the tree with sparkling eyes. 

Beatrix ran all around the tree and inside, it was spacious and beautifully decorated with gems and flowers. 

“Alright, let’s talk about how we train here,” Kian called Beatrix to come outside of the tree. He sat down beside Kian and smiled as he stared into his eyes. “There used to be an even number of us, six, but since you are here, you will have to train with me,” He explained, “I will teach you how to take someone much bigger than you down, how to stalk prey, how to use your whole body in a fight, and a lot more,” Beatrix grinned and nodded enthusiastically. 

“Why don’t you show me what you already know?” Kian walked a little ways away from him and stood there. 

“Like…Attack you?” He tilted his head and flopped his right ear. 

Kian chuckled, “Yes! Attack me, show me what you’ve got!” 

Beatrix stood up and looked from Kian, to the dirt, to his paws, and back at Kian. He fiddled his claws in the dirt for a few moments. He closed his eyes, Kian isn’t a kid, he won’t hurt me. With that thought, he stared into Kian’s poisonous green eyes, he dug his hind claws into the dirt and tensed his arms. 

Alright, I got this. Three…two…one! He ran fast at Kian, leaping up to his neck and batting his paws on him. Kian quickly used the strength of his muscular neck to fling him off and make him fall on his back. 

As he lay on the ground, Kian smiled at him, “Try again,” Beatrix got off the ground and made a cloud of dust as he shook out his fur. He hurriedly walked back to his starting spot. Once again, he buried his claws into the soil and tensed his arms. This time, he launched himself up with his claws sheathed. Kian quickly moved his head, but his type was not made for quick movements. He landed on his side, the force of the impact made Kian harden his stomach and back muscles, the move hurt Beatrix more than it hurt Kian. He slammed to the ground after he knocked his head on the rock hard surface of Kian’s leather skin. 

“How old are you, kid?” He stood tall over Beatrix, who had the wind knocked out of him. 

“Six seasons,” He whispered. 

“Wow. Did you train much with your skulk?” He used his muzzle to nudge Beatrix up. 

“I didn’t really get to do any because no one wanted to train me, and the other tenderfoots weren’t nice to me,” His ears went down as he stared at the ground. 

“Oh…Why didn’t a master teach you?” Kian asked gently.

“Because…they said it wouldn’t matter if I was trained or not, my siblings are already the best of the whole skulk, and since my mother was supposed to have another strong girl, the whole skulk was disappointed,” Beatrix practically mumble-whispered all of his words, but Kian was used to tenderfoots in this kind of situation. 

“That’s a wasp sting to the heart hey?” Kian leaned close to him and gave him a warm look. 

Beatrix started to cry, “I don’t know why I have to be so small and skinny. They used to call me a mutt because they said I look like a mutt left outside with no food. And my mother says she loves me, but sometimes I don’t believe her because everyone in the skulk hates me, everyone wishes I wasn’t the one to be born. And I am the last child she will ever have, I’m not supposed to be alive! And now I don’t know if I will see her ever again!” Tears dampened his fur as he hiccuped and gasped. His voice was small and squeaky, he had his head so low he was almost a little sad furball. 

“Hush little one, It’ll be okay. No one here will treat you badly. You’re not a mutt, and you have a great body, look how fast you can run, and how high you can jump!” Kian exclaimed. Beatrix nodded his head slowly and wiped his eyes with his paw. 

“Don’t worry kid, let’s get on with your training. You will be a great warrior!” Kian exclaimed