Preparations and last hunt part 2

 It had been a day since Ivan had first left the Tribe. On the first night, they had not encountered any danger, and they had rested during the day in a natural cave not far from their homes. And today, when the night began, it was also the day of the full moon. Only parts of the moon could be seen and its color was much weaker as well. The entire pack had transformed and they were running together. Ivan was completely unconscious at the time. He ran following the majority, but sometimes he would get out of the way and be brought back by the Alpha's screams or through the violence of the other pack members.

All of this was necessary because they were already entering the most dangerous area of ​​this region. This time, the pack's objective was to hunt at least one Night Deer. It was the strongest and easiest creature for these nocturnal predators, weighing more than 1 ton, it was faster than any of the lycans present here and had enormous horns capable of impaling and tearing a lycan apart easily. As a nocturnal creature, it also escaped the dangerous Kralgor Eagles. The only downside was its natural habitat, the surroundings of the Deadly Swamp.

The Deadly Swamp did not always have this name, it was an ordinary swamp before the events that brought great destruction to this world. Its name changed to fit the new name of this world, because it was one of the most dangerous places now, not only were there places contaminated by the abyss, but the entire Swamp had evolved to become lethal to living beings, there were terrible poisonous mists, lakes that looked like quicksand, carnivorous plants and a huge amount of poisonous animals and insects. No Lycan entered this place, but just getting so close already brought a huge amount of danger...

When the first night of the full moon came to an end, Ivan found himself in another cave along with all his companions, different from the previous natural cave, this one had been dug in the ground by the members of the pack a few years ago. Last night they managed to find a trail of a Night Deer almost at the end of the night, but they had to get as far away from the Deadly Swamp as they could without losing its scent, now all that was left was for the day to end for them to resume the chase. This powerful Deer that was bold enough to enter the Deadly Swamp during the day to rest, would be a very nutritious meal that would easily feed the 6 novice lycans including Ivan, so that they would already be a little more useful during the Tribe's migration, after all the lycans were the first line of defense during this migration.

As for any prey other than the deer, that would be an extra and they would not try too hard for it since losing their lives on the eve of the migration would be an unacceptable loss for their pack and would greatly weaken their power. When everyone went to sleep with only a few lycans staying on guard to take turns during the day's watch, Ivan also positioned himself in a corner of the cave ready to sleep and closed his eyes. But at that moment Dmitri kicked him and exclaimed:

"What do you think you're going to do? This was your first night as a Lycan, start doing your partial transformation and let's fight a little, you need to understand your powers and your limits!"

Ivan, who was still tired from the previous night, which he had no memory of, began to do his partial transformation for the first time, the result was quite satisfactory, he had wolf ears on his head, claws on his hands and his feet and legs had completely changed into paws. Before he could analyze his new physique further, Old Dmitri began to punch him in his human form, and his strength was terrible. Ivan began to spit blood with just 3 blows from the gray-haired man. And every time he healed, the beating would start again, that day, Ivan "trained" most of the day, only resting for a few hours before they continued their hunt…

***

 Back in the cave system, wagons and carriages were being made using all the metal and wood the Aqua Tribe had, whether it was Alpha Borys' beautiful home or the High Priestess' temple, everything was being dismantled so that materials could be collected. Some carriages had powerful metal armor that almost looked like war tanks. In addition, almost all humans were gaining leather and metal armor and weapons in preparation for the dangerous journey. On the fishermen's side, they were smoking and salting all the remaining food that could still be preserved, and making preserves from the seaweed, roe and few fruits they had. The priestesses were the only ones outside of manual labor, while a minority took care of the calculations and logistics of supplies; most of them were collecting all the scrolls the Tribe had and preparing them for the journey, for them the history and their knowledge were of extreme importance for their Tribe to start over in the Great Lake Arkon.

Outside the caves, five veteran lycans were returning with the five new males who had passed their first full moon. They had tired faces, but they repeated this journey every day exploring the surroundings, bringing large logs of wood and wild fruits collected from outside the Tribe. They were all excited about their new partial transformation and eager to eat a powerful prey, the veteran lycans told them that the feeling of eating and becoming stronger was something incredible…

Half an hour before sunrise, a group of 5 women with long black hair were on the outskirts of a huge pit. They laughed constantly and bet fruits and other benefits they had while watching 4 female lycans climb the pit constantly. When one of them was about to reach the top, one of the women would hit them with a wooden stick or simply kick the young lycans back to the bottom.

What made this event more exciting than the others was that among the 4 young lycans, 3 had already completely lost their energy and only one was still angrily climbing to the top constantly. The women then bet how many more times she could climb before the night was over.

"She'll definitely be a good mother, she should have some pureblood babies if she's so determined in marriage matters." Said the oldest of the 5 women, who had some white hair mixed in with the black, laughing out loud.

"Hahaha"

"Huhu"

"There she goes again!" shouted one of the women.

"Everyone's already lost the bet, shall we make a new one?"

"Fine by me! I've never seen someone with so much energy and determination. I bet she'll only stop climbing when she becomes human again!"

"I bet she won't, her regeneration is very weak right now."

"I bet 3 cerys fruits that she will!"

In the end, 3 women voted for the young lycan to go all the way, and only 2 voted against.

Half an hour later, one of the women kicked the young lycan back into the pit one last time. When she hit the ground, she only lay there for a few minutes and got up again, ready to start climbing again. But at that moment, the night finally ended and she became human again. Natasha, who had just regained consciousness, felt a little confused. She only saw three girls passed out around her and the same familiar walls of the pit she had entered yesterday afternoon before the full moon began. She then felt a terrible fatigue overtake her mind and body and lost consciousness, fainting from exhaustion alongside the other girls...