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Ch11. Who has the best guild?

Phillip woke up a couple hours after falling asleep, the anthros were slowly already getting up for the day. The boy lazily let out a yawn before removing his blankets and slowly got up and moved over to his chest, after putting on his proper gear he grabbed his sword before he followed the squad out.

Phillip was walking along the sidewalk before he heard a loud high pitch voice call out his name. He stopped in mid step and slowly turned around to see a flash of fur running at him. 'Oh god no not right now.' He said to himself as the anthro was still coming at him. The boy turned and was about to run away but a set of arms quickly wrapped around him and pulled him into a tight hug.

"Morning!" The anthro yelled.

Phillip struggled in the dogs grip. "M-morning Lieutenant." The lab dropped the boy and was smiling brightly. "The Captain told me that you were going to be a rider for the race." Phillip stood up straight and nodded. "Ok, we don't have much time so let's go get started."

"Started?" Phillip asked.

Bolmic nodded. "Yep, I'm the rider's trainer." His tail was wagging rapidly while bouncing on his paws. "Zach will be informed later so you won't be doing your original training today but tomorrow afternoon." The dog said while grabbing the boy's hand and started to drag him off towards the Hound's field.

When they got to the field Phillip saw four other anthros strapping harnesses onto the hounds. The lab let go of the boy's hand and quickly ran up to the group. "Everyone, this is Phillip." The dog pointed to the human. "And your fifth rider."

"You sure he'll be able to ride? We only have about four days." A tiger asked as he stepped forward. "These aren't slow animals like the horses in this world."

"Yep." The dog nodded "But he will have to learn quickly thought, the celebration is just around the corner."

"Well it's fine with me." A horse said as he walked up to the human with a small smile. "So what Hound would you be riding?"

"Scar." Phillip answered before he started to receive chuckling from the other riders. He looked down at the ground with the feeling of running off from being made fun of.

The horse wrapped his arm around the human and pulled him close. "Sorry it's just that Scar isn't the best to have a riding harness on, he might lets us hook him up to wagons or haul our equipment but he rarely lets anyone ride on his back."

"I already rode on his back." the boy responded.

The horse raised an eyebrow "But I doubt that you went fast and without a riding harness it would be suicide to try it."

Phillip was now lost on what he was going to do. "Then who will I be riding?"

The tiger looked over at the Hounds that they had. "You'll be riding Moon." He pointed to a deep grey Hound that has a small patch of white on his shoulder. Phillip walked up to the creature that was lying in the grass, basking in the sun.

Moon looked up at Phillip for a brief second before laying his head back down on the ground. The Hound gave a small snort while thumping its tail on the ground. Phillip reached down and started to pet the creature on its chest, Moon let out a small murr and stretched as the boy gave him attention.

"Ok, everyone come here." Bolmic yelled out, all the riders gathered around the lab. "Now let me go over on how the races work so everyone is clear, first each team will have five racers. The race is a four lap race, the catch is that you will not know what the track is till you guys are about to race to make it fair for the other racers. Elemental use and weapons is strictly forbidden but fighting hand to hand is not. The goal for the team is to work together to get the Carrier across the finish line."

The dog went over to a small chest and lifted up a small blue ball. "The Carrier is considered anyone that has position of this ball, each team will have a ball so that means one carrier per team. Any questions so far?"

The horse raised up his hand. "Who's going to grab the ball first?"

"We are going to have Altied get it first." Phillip looked over to see a leopard that said yes. "Any other questions?" No one was answering so the lab gave everyone a smile. "Ok, then we will all start practicing speed and taking the ball, Harin will give Phillip riding lessons." The human looked over to see the horse look at him with a smile before motioning him to follow.

Phillip followed the horse over to where Moon was still lying in the grass. The horse walked up to the Hound and said up, Moon quickly got up on its paws and waited. Harin walked over and started to scratch him behind the ear. "First thing you need to know is that this race is very dangerous and the fact that you're being allowed to be in it is actually stupid, if not careful you could be killed. Next these Hounds are very strong and fast." The anthro looked over to Moon's shoulder, Phillip looked in the same direction. Everyone was sitting on the harnesses that laid a crossed the back of the Hounds. They were all strapping on masks, and leaning forward so they could grab the straps on the front of the harnesses.

"Keep an eye on them." The horse said. Phillip watched as they all got lined up, Bolmic gave his Hound a light kick on the side before the Hound took off in a fast sprint and was gone. The horse wasn't kidding when he said they were fast. Bolmic was already out of the fenced off field and was heading near the village. Phillip looked back at the horse that still gave him a smile. "Your turn."

Phillip's heart was beating faster as he was motioned forward and was helped onto Moon's back. The horse grabbed Phillip's foot and placed onto a small peg. "Here." The horse handed the boy a small mask, "Put it on then grasp the front of the harness." Phillip did as he was told and looked over to see the horse finished strapping his own mask on before hopping up on the harness behind the human and wrapped his arms around the human. "Ok, hold on." The horse said before giving Moon a small tap on the side and the Hound took off running but not as fast as the others.

If it wasn't for Harin behind the boy, Phillip was sure he would have fallen off. "Grip the strap tighter and keep your body low, feel the Hound's movements and move with him. If you want him to turn just pull on the strap and lean in that direction." The horse reached up pulled on the right side of the strap that started to tighten on Moon's chest and he started to lean to the right, Phillip followed suit while Moon started to turn right. "Good now make him go left." Phillip pulled on the left strap and then leaned but leaned too much and was about to fall over if Harin hasn't grabbed the boy and kept him balance. "Not too much." The horse laughed.

Phillip still had a smile on his face, "How do we go faster?"

The horse gabbed both straps. "Pull both at the same time downward, it tightens the straps on the shoulders so it lets them know to run faster. To slow down or stop just pull upwards." The horse pulled them down and leaned forward to where he was leaning over the boy. Phillip held on tighter as Moon picked up speed and was dashing across the field.

Phillip was having a lot of fun when he heard a load howl from the side. "What the hell." Harin said. The boy looked over to the side to see Scar was running beside them and was snarling and biting at Moon. The Hound slowed down and came to a stop when Scar ran ahead and stopped in front of them. He was still snarling and looked mad. "What's with him?" Moon laid his head down low and ears flat as Scar started to move closer to them. "Get off." The horse instructed and they both hopped off of Moon, Scar quickly came up to Phillip as soon as he touched the ground and started to nuzzle his chest.

Phillip looked up to the Horse with a confused looking face while he scratched the Hound's forehead. "You think he was mad for me not riding him?"

The horse scratched the back of his head, "Could be, but if you want to try and ride him we first have to head back to the barns so we can get a harness on him." They both climbed back up onto Moon with some little protest from Scar but they managed to get back to the barn, Harin and Phillip quickly got off of Moon. The horse quickly went inside the barn and came back out with another harness, after showing

Phillip how to strap in onto the Hound a few times, Phillip walked up to scar and gave him a pet on the side of his muzzle.

"This is my first day, so don't go too fast for me." The boy whispered, Scar responded by getting lower so that the boy could get on more easily. Phillip smiled as he double checked his mask to make sure it was on properly before he slid on to the Hound's back.

"You think you'll be ok by yourself?" the horse asked.

Phillip chuckled. "I hope so."

Harin laughed while walking over to Moon. "Ok then, let's head out to where the others are so we have more room to have these guys to run without the other Hounds around. Don't want to get disturbed in my lessons like we just had."

"Sounds good to me." The boy said. They both took off to the other side of the field. Phillip did as he was taught and wasn't having that much difficulty while riding on Scars back, in minutes they were both just outside of the village where the others were riding. Phillip watched as the other riders were beside each other, he watched as Bolmic jumped from his Hound onto a rider beside him and watched as the lab fought with the other anthro and ended up tossing the anthro off his Hound. Before jumping back onto his own and riding off.

"That's going to leave a mark." The horse said before motioning the boy to follow.

Phillip figured that Bolmic must have seen them since he called them all to head over to where they were waiting. Phillip and Harin both got off their Hounds and took off their masks, Scar's tail was wagging as Phillip went up and let the Hound rest his head on the his shoulder. The others got to them in no time and were already dismounting.

"So I guess he's going to be ridding Scar." The leopard laughed.

"Guess so." Phillip responded with a pat on Scar's muzzle.

The tiger crossed his arms. "Ok then let's see what the boy can do." The tiger grabbed his harness and slapped the side of his Hound, it started to run while the anthro swung his leg up and over the harness. Everyone else just smiled and laughed before they all got onto their own to join the tiger.

Phillip wasn't going as fast as everyone but could see that Bolmic was coming up to a small stump that had the blue ball on top of it, the lab swung his body so he was sitting sideways on the harness and leaned back so he was upside down. He rode to the side of the stump and reached out with one paw and snatched the ball up. Bolmic swung back up with his arm outstretched up into a sitting position and hurdled the ball to the leopard that caught it and made a quick right to get away from the others that were coming up close to him.

Two riders, a panther and the tiger both were closing in until Harin came from the side and shoved the panther into the tiger. The horse got up beside the leopard and rode beside him, defending him from the other two. For the rest of the day Phillip watched as they fought and tried to take the ball away from the Carrier, while Phillip was also still getting the hang of riding Scar.

...............................................

For the last few days Phillip was out with the riders in the morning and training with Zach and Xavier in the afternoons. Phillip really was surprised how well he was getting with riding Scar, he was able to keep up with the other riders and had some ball handling time and stayed away when they started to get rough. It was late in the afternoon that

Phillip managed to get Xavier onto his back into a pin that they all noticed everyone on the base was running towards the main gates. The boy looked in the direction of where everyone was running to see that there were buses and trucks coming.

"Looks like one of the other guilds are finally here." Zach said. Phillip helped Xavier to his feet as the bear dusted himself off. "Looks like it."

"What Guilds is going to be here anyways?" The boy asked.

"Not too sure." The bear responded. "But I did hear that Wolf Fang was one of them."

Phillip looked over to the bear surprised. "You said Wolf Fang?"

The two looked a little confused. "I did, why?" The bear asked.

"I have friends from that Guild."

Zach looked back at Phillip. "Really?"

"Yeah, they came to my school for the tests." Phillip said with a smile.

"Ah," The bear said as he cracked his knuckles. "How about three more rounds then we'll let you go to see if your friends are there." Phillip responded by grinning and getting into his fighting stance.

.................................................

After a small shower and a quick change into his civilian clothing, Phillip hurried down towards the village. He looked down every street and gazed at all of the anthros that were visiting, he eventually came to the edge of the village to see the anthros were busy setting up tents and preparing for the events that was just around the corner. The boy seen that they were wearing the armor over one shoulder that confirmed that it was the same guild that Padreion and the others were in, Phillip got excited with hope that his friends could actually be here.

Phillip saw how busy they anthros were and didn't want to interrupt them to just find his friends so he decided to just come back later until he heard his name being called from behind and turned to see that

Gradeg was waving at him and Scrit was standing right beside him, tail wagging. Phillip waved back and rushed over to them to be greeted with a hug from each of them.

"How's the training with Scar coming?" The big bear asked.

Phillip gave him a small shrug, "Not too bad, he tends to get carried away with his speed but nothing too bad. I actually got the hang of ridding pretty quick."

"That's good because you ride tomorrow afternoon." The dog said.

Phillip gaze went to the ground and nodded still kind of worried about how the race was going to go. "Yeah I know. Didn't think it was going to be this nerve racking." The bear placed his paw onto his back. "Don't worry about it kid, I know you'll do well."

"Yeah don't have much choice now do I." Phillip laughed "So what are you two up too?"

Scrit looked out to the camps that looked almost finished being set up. "Just here to give our welcome to the guilds, show them around the village and base, you know to show our hospitality. What about you?"

"I'm actually looking for some friends from this guild. Kind of hoping that they are here." Phillip answered.

"Why don't you just ask someone?" the bear suggested.

Phillip shrugged. "I guess that I don't want to bother anyone."

The bear quickly grabbed the boy's hand and started to take him to the camps with the Dalmatian close behind. "Non-sense, if you know someone there then they will be thrilled to see you." No matter how much protest the boy was giving, the bear didn't stop till he walked up to one of the Wolf Fang members. "Excuse me." He tapped a coyote on the shoulder.

The anthro turned around and looked at the three. "Yes, can I help you?"

The bear held out his paw. "I'm Gradeg of Frozen Claw."

"Tilid of Wolf Fang." The coyote announced.

"This little guy here is Phillip," Gradeg moved the boy in front of him. "He was wondering if you can tell him if his friends are here."

"Sure what are their names?" Tilid asked.

"Umm...Padreion and Troit." Phillip responded.

The coyote's ears flatten immediately. "Yeah Padreion is here but Troit couldn't come, there was a big attack a few days ago."

Phillp's heart sunk quickly at the news. "Attack? What about his partner? Is he ok?" the boy quickly asked, Tilid held up his paws to slow the boy down.

"Well his partner was better off than most, from the size of the attack he was lucky to just get a small cut on the head. Troit is actually now under full medical attention and had a couple surgeries." The coyote said and watched the boy as Phillip stood in his spot tensed and was staring at the ground. "So, if you'd like I can take you to Padreion?"

Phillip nodded and followed the anthro, while the other two started to talk to some of the others from the guild. The walk wasn't that far when they came to one of the finished tents, the coyote instructed for the boy to wait outside as he slipped in for a moment before the flaps flew open and Phillip was engulfed by a grey mass. The boy couldn't help but giggle as the wolf hugged him closely and spun around, Phillip was more than happy to return the hug. Phillip felt a wave of happiness that deep down it felt as if he felt it from the wolf countless times but he also felt the wolf had some small pain that he could feel as if needles were in his arm.

"God it's so good to see you kid." Padreion said as he let the boy's feet touch the ground but kept him in his arms.

"It's good to see you also, is everything ok? I heard about the attack." Phillip grip tightened on the anthro.

The wolf smiled as he lifted up his left arm. "Just a deep cut and some small ones but nothing too bad." The wolf said quietly and his expression disappeared as Phillip looked at the long cut that ran almost his entire forearm, with a soft touch the boy moved his fingers up the cut a little, feeling the stitches that keeps the wound closed. The wolf let out a soft grunt from the still small pain. "I'm fine. Really."

"I know, I just..." Phillip didn't know what to say but the wolf understand how worried the human was when he heard about him and pulled the boy close. Phillip just rested his head on the wolf's chest and held him close. Phillip felt tears starting to roll down his face. "They said Troit got hurt badly." The boy mumbled.

Padreion started to run his paw over the boy's head. "Yes, but he will be fine. We just got a little surprised on the attack."

Phillip nodded and stepped away from the wolf and wiped his face. "Sorry." He whispered.

"Don't be." The wolf lifted the boy's chin up so they could see eye to eye. "You were just worried was all." He gave Phillip a small smile. "So me and the others just finished setting up and now I'm starving. How about we go get something to eat."

Phillip smiled back at the wolf and gave his face one more wipe. "Sounds good." After greeting Padreion to Scrit and Gradeg, the two went into the village and found a small outside place to eat near the center. Phillip told the wolf about the attack that wiped out their squad and how he had to go to the other world and how they were attacked. He eventually got to the point on how he became scared and froze.

"Look, it takes a lot of courage to do what you did." The wolf reached over from the other side of their small table and held Phillip by his arm.

"I know." Phillip replied. "I just hate the feeling that I let Blaferis and the others down."

"You didn't let anyone down kid." The anthro said softly. "They were most likely worried for your safety as much as you were for me just a while ago."

The boy couldn't help but smile at that. "Yeah." Phillip looked out and seen all the anthros from the three guilds dancing and hanging out, having a good time with one another or with some of the females, he caught sight of a female cat run up and grabbed Padreion's paw.

"Mind dancing with me?" She said softly.

The wolf smiled. "All up to the boy." He looked over to see Phillip smiling back and gave him a small nod for him to go. The cat didn't wait to drag the wolf out where the others were. Phillip watched as the two stood in front of each other as the music from a nearby band started to play a song, they clasped paws and started to spin around and laugh as the came to another and switched partners but eventually came back to each other. Phillip leaned back in his chair, watching the two. He felt a soft paw on his shoulder and looked up to see Scrit standing beside him.

"Enjoying yourself?" The dog asked.

The boy nodded. "Yeah, you?"

"Yep, so why aren't you out there?" The dog asked.

"I don't know how to dance." Phillip chuckled.

The dog grabbed him by the arm. "Well let's go."

Phillip's eyes widened and pulled against the dogs grip. "Wait, no I couldn't and besides it's getting late and I have to get back to the barracks."

Scrit chuckled. "It's a day off for us that don't have to stand duty while the festival is going on and tonight is pretty much an early party."

"No, Scrit I cant." The boy pleaded as the dog dragged the boy to the center of the crowed. The boy heard some clapping and hollering as he went out. "Ok, first hold up your hand." The boy raised his hand and held it against the dog's paw. "Spin around and switch and spin the other way." Phillip tried and followed Scrits instructions, when he came back to where he was a lion was coming by and took the Phillip's hand and did the same movements, Phillip had a huge grin as he was weaving and moving with the other anthros he came beside until he ended up back with Scrit. "Okay now hold paws and step forward." The boy took a step forward and seen everyone quickly took a step back and he followed suit. The dog told him to switch and Phillip gave the dog his other hand before they moved back into the rotating movements again. Phillip was having lots of fun and after a couple of mess ups he was moving with the crowed as if he had been dancing for years.

Once the song ended everyone started to clap and cheer. Phillip got a few hugs and nose touches, he was told he should dance with them more often. Scrit came over and hugged the boy tightly. "See it wasn't that bad was it?"

"No not too bad." Phillip said.

Padreion walked up to the two. "You didn't dance to badly kid."

"Thanks."

"Well hate to go but I have to catch up with Gradeg." The Dalmatian gave the boy a hug and took off. Into the crowed.

"It's actually getting kind of late." Phillip said.

The wolf nodded. "Yeah, and a big day tomorrow."

"I know." The boy gave the wolf a hug. "I think I should be getting back to my barracks."

The wolf gave the human a tight hug back and nuzzled the top of his head. "Ok kid." Phillip moved away from the hug but not before receiving a lick on the cheek. They both said goodnight and parted ways, the wolf waited for the human to get out of sight before heading back to his tent. Phillip was walking to the edge of the village, trying to make his way through the crowed when he was suddenly shoved and fell hard onto the ground.

"Watch it!" Phillip heard and looked over to see a massive horse walking by from the other guild talking to a dog that had the same wrist guards as his guild. The dog looked back and had his ears down and mouthed sorry while the Phillip could hear the horse say what an ass.

Others that was nearby came over and helped the boy up and asked if he was ok. After reassuring that he was he continued to make his way to the barracks but with a few of the anthros making sure he got back safely.

..............................................................

The horse snorted. "Damn kid just didn't move out of my way."

"Yeah." The dog said quietly.

"I mean, I'm a champion. I should have more respect than that." The horse announced as he gave his arm a flex.

The dog chuckled. "I suppose but he really wasn't in your way though and you did pretty much push him over." The horse snorted at the comment.

"Anyways, where is this human I heard the guilds argue over, I heard he has good potential."

"Why so you can try for him." The dog tilted his head to the side.

"Of course, someone like me needs a good partner." The horse said as they continued to walk. "You know him?"

"Yep."

"Who is he?" the horse asked.

The dog smiled up at the anthro. "He was the kid you pushed over." The dog grinned as they both stopped and almost busted into laughter at the horses shock expression.

"N-No that couldn't be him, the human I heard was supposed to be older than what 16-ish" the horse was shaking his head back and forth.

The dog chuckled. "His name is Phillip, he passed the test the first time and came here right from the Processing Center."

The horse was still in disbelief that the one human he was going to try and get close to was the one he shoved over and walked away.

"Shit..."

To be continued................