As promised, she came back out to where she had seen Coran earlier in the day now that it was later in the evening and the sun had set. It was very dark out, but luckily the plains was fairly open and it allowed for the light from the nearly full moon and the speckling of stars that dotted the sky to provide a decent amount of light. It was still pretty shadowy wherever there was trees that would block their only light sources, but she found a fairly large clearing that was bathed in that subtle, cool toned moon light that would be perfect for a little late night training session. She settled on her haunches in their chosen battle ground for the evening and waited for her little cousin to arrive. She tipped her head back to look at the stars above her, smiling a little as she watched them glitter and sparkle all across the dark blanket of the night sky. A grin pulled across her muzzle when a lone meteor cut across the sky and left a little trail of light in its wake. She really liked being out at night even though she generally kept most of her activities to the day time. Generally, it was easier to spar and find herbs when there was light to see by, but she kind of liked this secret, night time training she and Coran were going to do. It added an extra level of mystery to the whole thing and a little bit of added challenge that she certainly appreciated. The sound of movement pulled her two-toned eyes back down to the ground and she spotted the brindled pup coming her way. She gave him a grin her tail wagged gently behind her. "There you are! Glad you made it, cousin!" She turned to face him and added, "So how much training have you done so far, Coran? Is there anything in particular you wanted to work on?" WC: 331/1500 "Talk" "You" Think

Coran had taken an early nap to try and not be to tired when it was time to spar at night.  He had managed to keep himself pretty busy between lessons, helping Elba, frog chasing and other important duties but it was amazingly hard to sleep.  Coran could normally sleep deeply but he hadn’t sparred at night before and not against Elba and that made this spar exciting.  Coran got a little sleep but woke up with a mighty jaw-cracking puppy yawn. He’d already let his parents know he’d be out with Elba and despite being tired the moment he left the den his excitement of trying something new gave him some temporary energy. So it was he ran to where Elba waited for him, that tail up high and flagging in greeting to her. It was dark out, but the moon had the place relatively well lit.  He passed where he had found the frog and on spotting Elba ran straight to her, bouncing as much as running.  Tired? Cheery Coran had already forgotten fear.  Now he was going to both play and learn something important at the same time. “Hi Elba, its so bright out!” Exploring at night sounded like fun also but that wasn’t what he was here for and he’d of had to ask Elba to go with him for that also.  Maybe another time they would do that!  Though night still seemed to be a good time for sleeping in general.  “Well, mom and dad give us lessons and there’s Ardyn and my sisters.  I try to get points from others when I can.  So you know, a pretty good amount!”  Of course that was a good amount by puppy logic with only so much life experience to base it off of. What to work on? “Um, anything you’re especially good at? Maybe right now defense would be best to practice at?” Attacking was important but the size was pretty different so attacking her would be different than attacking someone closer to his own size.  “But attacking is always good too, or if you know any real cool type moves?  I never fought at night before, the moons so bright!” . Walk ---- "Speak" ---- "Labhair an Sean-Teanga." ---- "Hear" ---- Think

She nodded with understanding as she listened to the type of training that Coran had done so far with his family. She wasn't all that surprised, it sounded to be exactly what she would have expected so far. After all, she would fully expect someone like Aurielle to make sure her children were well trained and ready to take on the world. She nodded again when he mentioned working on defenses or maybe some kind of cool moves - the last bit made her grin with amusement. She wasn't sure what he would define as a "cool move" but she could probably think of something. Elba glanced around at their surroundings and had to agree that the moon definitely was very bright tonight. "It's not always this bright! We just got incredibly lucky," she commented giving him a small grin. "Of course, if a cloud drifts across the moon or something then there goes all our light! It's not like the sun where there will still be enough light to see well by even if it's cloudy. The moon's light is much more direct and easy to loose." She hadn't fought in the dark before, but they had traveled by night a good bit during the summers to avoid being out in the worst of the heat so she had gotten pretty familiar with being out and about during the night time. "Well, lets start with your defenses then!" she said, bringing their focus back to the task at hand. She got down into her defenses as well so that he would have something to emulate if he liked. She placed her paws evenly beneath her and bent her knees just enough to give her a bit more freedom of movement. Leveling her head with her spine followed along with tucking her head down over her throat and folding her ears back against her head while her tail laid even with her spine to give her better balance. Once all that was set she watched for Coran to do the same. Right about that time she noticed a shadow beginning to move over them and taking away the bright, white light of the moon with it. She grinned a little as she saw an opportunity for a bit of learning and fun and decided to take it. "Think fast!" she called as she leapt toward him right as she shadow of the cloud crossed over them and blocked their view. She moved based off of where she remembered him being as well as smell and the little bit she could see as her eyes adapted to the darkness. She went to bump his shoulder with the top of her head, not really wanting to hurt him, but just showing where she might have attacked him if she had really been intending to and maybe knock him a bit off balance. WC: 1176 / 1500 "Talk" "You" Think

She grinned when he mentioned cool move, did that mean she knew something? Coran would love to go show everyone that he learned some new amazing advanced style move.  He did his best to imitate Elba’s position.  Coran knew how he was supposed to stand basically but it was still a lot easier to do when someone was there showing him, so he did a pretty good job at squaring up, but he had forgotten to pull his ears back until Elba did so. He liked doing this in the cooler temperature of night and the light of the moon was a fun change of pace.  Ah, focus level of a pup, it was such a harder thing to do.  As the cloud started to darken things Coran was so tempted to look up just for a moment.  His parent's warnings had been clear on not looking away during a fight. So he watched Elba but then the cloud darkened the landscape and there was Elba knocking her head into his shoulder.  The young pup leaped up straight in surprise as if he’d been wearing springs below him.  Landing he squatted back down again.  He started to counter-attack but paused thinking of how they had said defense versus just a spar. “It’s dark!” glancing up at the sky and how there was now a dark circle hidden behind a cloud then back at the silhouette that was Elba, “I won’t mess up this time.” That said retaking the proper position.  “Do it again!” WC 1428/1500 . Walk ---- "Speak" ---- "Labhair an Sean-Teanga." ---- "Hear" ---- Think

Elba grinned when she watched Coran nearly jump out of his fur at her surprise attack, glad to see that her trickery had paid off. It was always fun getting to teach others about little tips and tricks she had picked up from her random experiences - especially when her student was a pup. She'd never met a pup that wasn't super curious about the world and it just made it all that much more fun to teach them things. She laughed a little at the exclamation about it being dark and she nodded before realizing he might not really be able to see her silent agreement. "It is! The clouds will block the moon a lot so you have to be ready just in case so you don't get caught by a sneak attack!" At his insistence that he wouldn't mess it up the next time and demanded that she do it again, she grinned widely and replied, "Alright! If you insist! She went back to where she had been standing before, turning to face him and squaring off into her defenses again. She could make out his silhouette fairly easily in the little bit of light that they had due to his pale, brindled coat now that her eyes had adjusted to the darkness, but it was still much harder to see him now than it had been when they first started. She gave him a moment to set his defenses as well before leaping into action, this time ducking to the opposite side than she had before just to switch it up on him a bit. She went to head butt his shoulder again, curious to see how he would respond this time now that he had a better idea of what was coming. WC: 1725 / 1500 "Talk" "You" Think

Yah, commenting on it being dark probably wasn’t needed and excuses weren’t worth much.  The pup wanted to be mature but he couldn’t help all the immaturity that came so naturally to puppyhood.  There was so much new and so much wonder to be had along with surprises everywhere.  “You won’t get me like that again.  I’m ready now.” Coran carefully got back into a defensive stance, between reminding what he had been taught in the past and then copying her for any details he had forgotten.  This time he watched for her shape instead of worrying about her details.  Her movement gave away her presence once he focused on it.  This time when she charged he backed up and turned sideways.  The motion wasn’t as swift as it would be with practice but with her gentle attack it was enough, swiping a paw at her to try and connect as she went by, but the counterattack was also slow as his mind still thought through the attack instead of instinctive reaction. WC: 1888 /1500 Walk ---- "Speak" ---- "Labhair an Sean-Teanga." ---- "Hear" ---- Think