Tournament Lottery



Cathrine gave out a low moan as the early morning sun shone through her window. One particularly cruel beam broke through a crack in the closed blinds and found fiendish amusement in shining directly in the young koala’s face.

She rolled over to her side, groaning as she did so, cursing the sun’s cruel existence and the coming of another day. Deep down she knew trying to get back to sleep was futile, she was up and nothing short of an anesthetic was knocking her out again.

Slowly sitting up, Cathrine once again cursed the day and the sun’s bright light. Her muscles were sore, her mind exhausted, and her spirit wishing to run away.

A nightmare. A waking nightmare, that’s what the past week had felt like. As if she was trapped in some horrible twisted dream that she made.

With a sigh, she stood up and ran a hand through her dark hair, knowing to well that she should get dressed before her eternal tormentor showed his face. Cathrine snorted suddenly at the thought; the past week had seen her being woke up with a cold shower while still in bed, courtesy of her caretaker, and she had gotten tired of it.

Well, sitting in bed complaining and thinking about it wasn’t any good and only gave the same result of sleeping late. She stood up and performed a quick series of stretches. When she had finished, she proceeded to groom herself, brushing out her dark gray fur and black hair.

Sighing she stared at her reflection as it stared back at her. Light purple bags hung under her hazel brown eyes. Briefly she wondered when she started caring about the way she looked. Had it been when she first came down to the Detroit area or was it before? Not that it mattered , but she did find it intriguing at times.

She pushed the thought aside as she started getting dressed. Grabbing clothing out of her closet and tossing it on her bed, leaving only three garments in the closet: and off-white undershirt, a short-sleeved nave V-neck shirt, and a royal blue jeans. Cathrine smiled slightly to herself as she put the undershirt on. Sure it might be a messy way to find an outfit, but it had never failed her.

The young koala had just finished pulling her pants on when a trio of short knocks at her door caught her attention. Grumbling to herself, Cathrine walked over to the door and opened it. Standing just outside, was a male fox. His six-foot, three-inch frame clad in a dark blue muscle shirt and loose fitting black jeans. Dark brown eyes gazed down at her, sparkling with mild good humor. IN one hand he clutched a hose, the other poised to knock once more.

“Dammit, Thomas, I’m up!” She growled. “Soak me one more time with that hose and swear I’m gonna hog tie you with the damn thing!”

She slammed the door shut before Thomas could replay and leaned back against it, silently laughing to herself until her sides began to hurt. The look of disappointment and dejection the elder fox had given her in that brief instant was better than any revenge she could have come up with.

After a few minutes, Cathrine pulled herself away from the door and made her way to her dresser. Along the way she thought back to just a week ago when she came to the area and realized exactly how luck she was....


It had been just before closing at the Victory Fight Gym and almost everyone had all ready left; only Cathrine, Thomas, Aubri, and the Nicolis remained.

Aubri was in the locker room and Layla was working the heavy bag while Cathrine, Thomas, and Albert swept, mopped, dusted the gym.

Cathrine was just happy to be doing something other than just watching, even if was something as simple as mopping the floors of the girls’ locker room. Just as long as it gave her something to do. Unfortunately, it was finished all too quickly and the five were in the gym’s back parking lot.

“Well, if you put as much energy into your training, as you did in cleaning, you’ll be one of my best students,” Albert had stated and Cathrine had a sense of pride flow through her.

“Well, I’d like you to here first thing in the morning,” Albert had gone on. “So be sure to get plenty of rest when you get home.”

Cathrine felt a knot well up in her stomach at the mention of home. In all the excitement of coming to the Detroit area and reaching the gym, she hadn’t even bothered to find a hotel and had to place to go. Even worse, she had very little money coming with only what she had managed to save over the last four months.

“Um...about that....” Cathrine had started, unsure and afraid.

The rest looked at her expectantly as she continued to stutter out her dilemma. After quite a few moments of babbling, Aubri had finally caught on to what she had been trying to say, although he hadn’t been able to help since he lived in a small studio apartment barely big enough for himself. Albert and Nicoli weren’t much help either, though they both expressed deep sympathy for her. It was Thomas who had come to the rescue, visibly surprising Albert and the others.

“If you need a place to stay that badly, then I got it covered for you, Cathrine,” he had said. “My place has few extra rooms that I occasionally rent out. I think I can spare at least one of them for you, kiddo.”


Cathrine chuckled dryly to herself at the memory. Of course she had agreed to stay with Thomas, rather naively as she considered in hindsight, but she knew that he was the best option(the only other being the streets, not a healthy choice in her mind). Yet, if she had known what her rent was going to be like at the time, she would have ran the other way screaming like a madwoman. It wasn’t that it actually cost her money, far from, in fact. No, Thomas’ version of payment was in private lessons. So over the last week while doing weight lifting at the gym, Cathrine had been getting short boxing lessons from her caretaker as well as being taught Thomas’ own style of fighting. Hence her soreness and less than good humor.

Another trio of knocks came. These harder than the previous ones, Thomas was getting impatient.

With a sigh, Cathrine picked up her denim jacket off a nearby chair and exited her room.

“About time,” grumbled Thomas. He was leaning against the wall opposite the koala’s door.

Briefly, Cathrine entertained the thought of arguing that in truth, only Thomas needed to be at the gym today, but she knew it would be pointless. he had taken it upon himself to take the role of older brother and guardian and there was no chance that he would let his ‘little sister’ stay home by her. Not like it mattered, though. Today was the drawing for Albert’s tournament and Cathrine wanted to see it.

Thomas pushed away from the wall and ran a hand through his long hair. “Trying to impress someone?” He asked, a roughish smile playing on his lips.

“Is there something wrong with wanting to look nice?” Cathrine questioned as she kneeled down to put on a pair of black sneakers.

Thomas walked past her towards the living room. “Oh, there is nothing wrong with looking nice,” he assured the young koala. “In fact, I’m sure that Aubri’s definitely notice you now.”

A deep blush crept up through Cathrine’s cheeks an she was glad that Thomas couldn’t see her. Once more she cursed herself for asking Thomas about Aubri. The elder fox had made it his mission to tease her about the crush. Still, he hadn’t said a word to Aubri about her. Cathrine was grateful for that. Unfortunately, he had yet to tell her anything about Aubri and aggravated the young koala to no end.

“If you don’t hurry up, I’m gonna leave ya here, Cath.”

Cathrine smirked. Leave her behind? Only if Hell freezes over. Still, it’d be a decent punishment if Thomas went through with it.

She finished with her shoes and headed out to the living room. Thomas was waiting by the door idly spinning his keys on one finger. The good humor was gone from his brown eyes, replaced by a deep seriousness.

“You finally ready?” Thomas’ voice carried the same seriousness that shone in his eyes.

“Yeah,” was all that Cathrine said as she followed Thomas outside.

In just the short week that Cathrine had known the older fox, she had realized that Thomas did not let much out about his life prior to when he started at the VFG, even to those he counted as friends. Aubri and Nicoli couldn’t tell her much about the quiet fox. What she could figure out was that he had money and lots of it. His car and house reflected that much. Where he got all the money from was what she couldn’t figure out. She knew that he rented rooms out sometimes, but even the revenue from that couldn’t have covered the cost of the house and its utilities.

As she got into Thomas’ Explorer, Cathrine let out a soft sigh. There was no reason for her even to care about Thomas’ past, but she was still compelled to wonder. Whenever she asked about it, Thomas would tell her that his past wasn’t important and not to worry about it.

Cathrine had tried not to worry about it, but it was no use. Even as she went through Thomas’ rigorous training regiment, the thought festered and gnawed in her mind.

The trip was made in silence. Thomas was abnormally silent and Cathrine found herself missing the fox’s playful banter and teasing. She knew how important the drawing was, yet, she had a feeling that the tournaments themselves held more importance to Thomas than to anyone else. She didn’t know why and she was afraid to ask, knowing all to well what the answer would be. It didn’t help that she had a feeling that it had to do with his mysterious past.

It didn’t matter. She forced the thought out of her mind, instead trying to think about the upcoming lottery and about how her friends would fare.

She was still thinking about it as Thomas pulled into the back parking lot of the VFG, which was abnormally full forcing Thomas to pull around and park in front of the aging brick building.

The pair was greeted as they entered by the sight of twenty-plus furs and a smattering of humans, most of whom wore the dark green gis of the World Fight Dojo. That group was situated towards the back of the gym and were all hanging around short mouse who looked to be in his early to mid forties. That was Blair Rivers, head of the WFD. Cathrine had met him once on the second day of her training. He was nice and had accepted the young koala’s declination of his offer to train under him with full grace, but she couldn’t help but feel that he was disappointed when he learned that Thomas had taken her under his wing.

“Cath! You made it!” called a rather exited and slightly high pitched feminine voice.

A perky young mongoose trotted over to Cathrine and Thomas, a wide grin her gentle features. She wore a white sports bra and matching jogging pants. Her brown hair was tied back and short bangs hung over her wide, hazel eyes. Like many of Albert’s students, she wore black sneakers and had her fists tapped up.

“Hello, Airanna,” greeted the koala.

The mongoose bounced over to Cathrine and wrapped an arm around her shoulders. The koala chuckled as felt pure excitement shiver through her friend’s arm. The mongoose literally radiated pure energy as she walked/bounced Cathrine through the gym.

Arianna, or Ari, as she preferred to be called, was from the thumb region of the state and shared a lot in common with Cathrine. She too came to the VFG at the urging of her father, though the she had never revealed the reason why to Cathrine, and although she didn’t act like it, Ari was valedictorian of her graduating class and like her, Arianna had a deep love of boxing.

The two had met during Cathrine’s second day at Victory Fight and they became fast friends. Cathrine’s calmness and slight shyness off setting and complimenting Arianna’s seemingly endless supply of energy.

“Of course I came,” stated Cathrine. “Do you honestly think that I would miss this?” She smirked. “Besides, you know Thomas wouldn’t leave me home by myself.”

Arianna laughed. “Cha! No rest for ‘little sister’, right?”

Cathrine nodded in agreement as the two weaved their way through the crowd, continuing their way towards the ring. Albert stood by the ring watching the going ons. His daughter, Layla, stood by his side. She slightly as Cathrine and Arianna approached.

“We’re just about ready to start,” she claimed. “Just waiting for Aubri to get his ass out here.”

Cathrine was about to say something but was interrupted as a loud, feral roar came from the locker rooms. All activity ceased and the young koala found herself frozen in fear. The roar was soon followed by a series of crashes as the sound of metal hitting metal drifted out. A few students who were near the locker room entrance moved away slowly soon leaving only Thomas by the door. The elder fox was crouched in a slight defensive stance as a second roar emanated from the room. This one more ferocious than the first.

Chills ran down Cathrine’s spine as she looked around, hoping to find some clues as to what was going on. She was surprised to find that with the exception of those that had been near the locker room, everyone had a clam expression on their faces. Even Arianna was still bouncing in place, her eyes filled with excitement.

Albert gave a soft sigh. “That boy is gonna be the death of me yet, I swear.”

“Wonder what got under his skin this time?” commented Layla.

Cathrine was dumbfounded. How could everyone be so calm at a time like this? Some crazy was possibly wrecking complete havoc in the locker room and no one was going to do anything about it? However, she guessed it couldn’t be helped. She certainly didn’t want to see could produce such horrible screams and Thomas was guarding the door....

There was another crash then a metal trash can came flying out barely missing Thomas’ head. It bounced off a butterfly machine and rolled until it hit the foot of a male otter. The otter picked the trash can up and tossed it back towards the locker room. It was caught in mid flight by a male grizzly who had come out of the locker room. Grumbling a string of obscenities, he threw the can back into the locker room before looking around.

“What?”

For a few seconds no one said anything. Once the grizzly left the locker room entrance activity started up again.

“Interesting, usually he crushes the can on the wall before throwing it back.”

Cathrine leapt nearly a full foot in the air from surprise as Aubri spoke. The tall fox seemingly appearing out of thin air. He looked over to Layla and grinned.

“He must be in a good mood!”

Layla let out a soft chuckle as did her father. Arianna, on the other hand, openly laughed at her friend’s comment.

Cathrine looked up at Aubri in the hopes of getting some sort of explanation. She regarded with a grin from the tall fox.

“That’s Lucas,” he explained. “He has a tendency to over-react to the littlest of things, such as tripping over trash cans. He seems to do that a lot though....”

He looked over to Albert. “How many cans has he tripped over now?”

The elder wolf sighed. “At least ten,” he replied. “Possibly more.”

“He’s normally a nice person,” added Layla. She looked around the gym. “Well that would make everyone accounted for, Dad. She we get things started?”

Albert’s reply was a silent nod as he picked up a ring hammer and hit the nearby bell three times. Just like one week prior, all activity in the gym ceased as students began to gather around the ring. Cathrine was surprised as she watched female arctic wolf extract herself from Blair’s group and made her way towards the ring.

“That’s Elizabeth Harley,” Aubri had leaned close to whisper in Cathrine’s ear. “She’s the only one who’s a full-time student of both Albert and Blair. Gets her a double shot at the tournament next month.” He smirked. “’Course that doesn’t mean much. I’ve heard that she’s one of Blair’s worst students and she’s only a mediocre boxer at best.”

Cathrine noted the weary expression on Aubri’s face as he watched the rather shapely wolf take her place on the outside edge of the group. She let a frown play on her own lips. A double shot at the tournament? That was a bit unfair in her opinion. The young koala felt that the wolf should only choose one school to represent with on style.

Style. Cathrine’s frown got deeper. It didn’t seem as if anyone actually boxed. Her preview last week had her wondering if anyone actually used boxing as their primary fighting style. She looked up at the ring where Albert now stood flanked on his left by a wooden easel with a sheet of paperboard on it and on his right by a small table adorned with an equally small cardboard box. Once he was sure that everyone was gathered, he quickly drew up a trio of eight-tier tournament brackets.

“Okay students, let me lay down the law here.” he stated, a slow smile spreading across his features. “First of all, this is a boxing tournament. Use any other style and you’re disqualified and eliminated. You will use every skill I have pounded into your thick ‘eads or else.”

A loud groan emanated from the gathered crowd causing Cathrine to smirk, a par t of her satisfied with Albert’s statement and the worry that begun to build within her started to dissipate.

“Second,” Albert went on, “You’ll be randomly split into three groups of eight by lottery. There will be no changes and no exceptions to this. The winner of each group will represent Victory Fight at the tournament next month and at least one of you had better damn well make it to the finals.

“Third: As you can tell from the brackets, this is going to be a single elimination tournament. Each match will be one round and will last until there is a knock out or one fighter can no longer participate, same as how the match rules will be next month.

“Finally: the tournament starts next week and I want to see each and everyone of you training your asses off to prepare for it.”

The last part was received with loud “Yes sir!” from the gathered crowd, including Cathrine. The energy from everyone was contagious and the young koala soon found herself wishing that she too could take part in the tournament.

“With the rules now set,” claimed Albert, “lets begin.”

He reached into the box, drawing out to slips of paper out. “First group, first pairing: Aubri Griffon vs. Gabriel Payton.”

Behind her, Aubri gave out a soft sigh causing the koala to look up at him. The tall fox was looking over towards a well built male moose whom Cathrine assumed to be Gabriel. She was about to ask if anything was wrong, but Aubri had already turned his attention back to the ring and the question died on Cathrine’s tongue before it could be asked.

“First group, second pairing:” the sound of Albert’s voice drew the young koala’s attention back to the ring. “Thomas Rivinian vs. Phillip Carter.”

“’Bout fuckin’ time,” exclaimed a male’s voice. Cathrine looked towards the back of the group where a male badger stood grinning. “Finally get ta stick it ta ya, Rivinian. Gonna knock the arrogance right out of ya!”

Cathrine looked over to Thomas who was standing not too far off. The fox made no reply, but the expression that he wore said that he was more than ready to take the upstart badger at anytime.

Albert gave an exasperated sigh and muttered something under his breath before drawing two more slips from the nearby box.

“First group, third pairing: Theodore Rivers vs. Trenton Claus.”

There was a moment of silence as if the entire gym was waiting for an outburst from either named combatants. When none came, Albert reached into the box and pulled out two more slips. When he looked at the papers, a look of pity crossed his face.

“Final pairing of the first group: Malcolm Evans vs. Ginger Maxwell.”

“WHAT?!” This came from Ginger, who was stared at the ring in disbelief.
“Can’t you do anything about this?” asked a male wolf, Maxwell, though the pained look on his face said that he knew what the answer would be.

Cathrine couldn’t help but feel sorry for the pair. She knew that they had been dating for a while now and this was the last thing either had wanted to have happen.

“I’m sorry you tow,” stated Albert, “but like I stated earlier, all pairings are final. Besides, it wouldn’t be fair to change you two but not offer the option to everyone else.”

The pair nodded silently before walking off, Ginger looking as if she was getting ready to cry.

“Bum luck for those two, you know?” stated a male field mouse on Cathrine’s left. “They were ‘opin’ not ta ‘ave ta face each other in this at all. Ah well, them’s the breaks, as they say.”

Cathrine nodded in agreement, though a part of her wished that Albert could have been bit more lenient in the matter.

The elder wolf continued with drawing though he looked as downfallen as some of his students. Slowly, he drew out two more slips of paper.

“Second group, first pairing: Melody Triss vs. Elizabeth Harley.”

“And her I thought I’d actually have a challenge to start with,” sneered Elizabeth, giving a rather petite jerboa a glare of disdain. “Instead I’m practically handed a victory to start.”

“Don’t get too full of yourself, Lizzie,” spoke up the male otter who had tossed the trash can earlier. “Don’t want to explode or anything.”

“Watch your mouth, Marcus,” warned the wolf, “or you’ll find exactly what I’m capable of.”

This brought a few sniggers from the crowd and behind Cathrine, Aubri snorted and muttered something under his breath.

“And you should be watching yours, Miss Harley,” came Albert’s voice. “You should understand that I still can disqualify you at anytime for breaking any of my rules, and I wouldn’t be surprised if Blair banned you for it either. The same goes for you, Marcus. You should know better to begin with.”

The only reply Elizabeth gave was slight sneer as she walked off. Marcus simply nodded in understanding.

Cathrine looked over at Melody. The jerboa had barely batted an eye during the whole exchange and she stood head slightly bowed but a look of pure determination was etched on her face. The koala had a chance to meet Melody before and knew that she was a much better fighter than Elizabeth gave her credit for. She truly hoped that the jerboa would be the one to teach the upstart, arrogant wolf femme a dire lesson.

“Next pairing,” the sound of Albert’s voice drew everyone’s attention back to the ring. “Lillith Donovan vs. Layla Nicoli.”

“Oh shit.” This came from a rather tiny fruit bat female standing not too far off from Cathrine. She looked up worriedly at Layla who just smiled and gave her a wink. This caused the fruit bat to give a soft eep and soon she rushed off towards the locker rooms muttering oh shit to herself the entire way.

Aubri chuckled lightly. “Can’t help but feel sorry for poor Lillith.”

Cathrine looked up at him, an expression of pure confusion on her face. “Why’s that?” She asked, the whole scene leaving her a bit baffled.

“Well, we’re not exactly sure why, but Lil has a fear of woman taller than her,” explained Aubri, “and add to that the fact that Nicki’s the tallest girl ‘ere....Well, I’m sure you get the idea.”

Once more, Cathrine nodded silently. She didn’t fully understand, but she did get the gist of what Lillith’s problem was. She turned once more towards the ring. Albert had already drawn the next pair and was writing the names on the tiers: Hillary Davids vs. Marcus Peeking. When he had finished, the elder Nicoli drew for the final pairing of Group Two.

“Second group, final pairing: Miles Trenton vs. Julia Kirks”

To Cathrine’s right, Julia gave a low sigh.

“Oi! So this is my divine punishment for being late so many times,” she muttered, low enough for only those around her to hear.

The field mouse who had commented on Ginger and Malcolm’s pairing looked over at the vixen and smiled.

“Cheer up, luv,” he said. “You should be thankful Albert allowed you to participate in the first place.”

“I know,” said Julia though her voice was still low and carried a hint of dismay.

Cathrine smiled to herself. She knew exactly how lucky Julia was to be competing. Through Aubri she had heard about how part of Julia’s punishment was not be allowed to compete. It was only later that Albert changed his mind and put Julia on probation, saying that if she was late one more time between then and the drawing, Julia would be taken out.

Needless to say the probation went without a hitch. Over the next week, Julia had become the epitome of punctuality, showing up sometimes almost a full hour before she was supposed to arrive.

“Well, don’t worry ‘bout it too much, luv,” the field mouse said. “Jus’ take it easy on me.”

Julia was about to retort, but was cut short as Albert called out the first pairing for the third group: Rebecca Peeking vs. Trevor Davis.

“Third group, second pairing,” called out Albert, “Nora Oxford vs. Harmoni McCoon.”

“A match for the ages,” stated Arianna. “The one with least amount of tears by the end wins!” She grinned good naturedly to a nearby raccoon femme as a soft round of laughter came from the crowd. Even Albert chuckled at the mongoose’s comment.

“You’ve got it all wrong, Ari,” piped up a gray squirrel. “It’s which ever one of us breaks a nail first!”

This brought yet another round of laughter from the crowd. Cathrine laughed as well, though she didn’t understand the joke at all and was unsure if she should even ask.

Once the laughter had died down, Albert once more continued with the lottery. He drew two more slips. “Third group, third pairing: Arianna Erikson vs. Christopher Lincoln.”

“So, I get to take Chrissie on first, eh?” Arianna stated as she looked over at a fidgeting male flying squirrel. “I didn’t expect to have fun with him until later in the tournament.”

Christopher blushed, a deep crimson seeping through his dark tan fur. Still fidgeting, he muttered something, but Cathrine couldn’t understand him though she thought it was something along the lines that Ari shouldn’t have put it that way.

“Well,” Arianna said, “here’s to a great match.”

“Yes, I h-h-hope t-t-to ha-hah-have a guh-good match as well,” stammered Christopher.

Cathrine smiled as the small flying squirrel shied away from the rest of the crowd and made his way towards the locker rooms.

“You shouldn’t tease him like that, Ari,” admonished Aubri.

“Aw, but it’s so much fun,” whined the mongoose. “And it so easy too!”

Cathrine punched her friend lightly in the arm. “Be nice to him, Ari!”

“Oh all right, she moaned. “Spoil sport!”

“Well that just leaves Lucas to face Michelle in the final match,” stated Albert as he wrote the names in the last two spots in the paperboard.

Lucas cracked his neck and cast a casual glance over at a nearby female mink. He said something, but whatever it was went unheard by Cathrine as the grizzly’s voice was drowned out by the crowd as it began to disperse.

“I’d say the lottery was great success,” Aubri stated as he lead Cathrine and Arianna away from the ring. “You should enjoy watching it, Cath. Got some interesting matches out of it.”

“’Specially Ginger and Mal’s,” chirped Arianna. “Love hurts and they’re gonna prove it....OW!”

Cathrine had punched the mongoose’s arm once more, hitting the exact spot she had punched earlier. Arianna grinned broadly in response and laughed.

Cathrine just shook her head and looked around. All around, beings were starting to work out and begin various punching drills and other skill exercises. The koala didn’t openly admit it, but she knew that Airanna’s comment wasn’t far from the truth. Friendships and personal feelings would soon be put to the test and have to be put aside. They had no place in a situation such as this.

The koala sighed. She couldn’t let such thoughts creep into her mind. They were distracting and she knew that although she wasn’t in the tournament itself, her assistance would be required by her friends. She just hoped that she wouldn’t be a hindrance to any of them.


Thomas was waiting by the door, the look he wore stating that he was ready to leave. Quickly, Cathrine said her farewells to Aubri and Arianna, letting them know that she would see them the following day, before joining Thomas at the door.

“Let’s go,” stated the fox. “I’ve got work to do.”

Cathrine smirked. “You mean, ‘We’ve got work to do’, Thomas.” It was a statement she knew she would regret by the end of the week, but she didn’t care. She wanted to help out and she would in any way she was able to.

Thomas smiled softly. “We’ll see, “ he said, exiting.

Cathrine followed taking one last look back at the gym. Briefly she wondered what the next week would hold for her. Smirking, she left. Happy to have followed her father’s advice and for all the good fortune that had come her way, uncaring and not worried about how long it would last. After all, that was the joy of life, wasn’t it?