Relm had seemed to get over the larger hurdle of her tension between herself and Alastor, she couldn't say much the same for Manea. Though really Manea was being treated more like the rest of her pack mates. Not really treated, Relm had just grown to become awkward and secluded though no one would have known about the change in her personality unless they had known her before. Talking to others was hard, she didn't like to draw attention to herself. She preferred to be in the shadows.

But now that she wasn't so worried about wandering around the pack avoiding Alastor's eyes on her, she had gotten down to thinking. Manea may not have known, but caring for the pack had become very important to her. She had found her place if only behind the scenes to do her part. She had never been apart of such a large group before and even without knowing each and every wolf here she would have protected all of them. And maybe in some part of her she wanted to impress Alastor, and maybe even Manea too. She didn't want any ill feelings between her and her alpha.

In the meeting area of the island, Relm let out a gentle call for Manea and waited at a relaxed stand for her to show.

"Relm"

Manea worked through a stock pile of dried meats and some other supplies that she was building into a pantry of sorts in one of the smaller caves. She had been working on building a door that they could roll in front of the entrance to keep other predators out of their supplies so with that in place she had started moving and organizing their supplies into the space. That's where she was when she heard Relm's call for her and for a moment she thought perhaps she had misheard the pink and black woman. After how their last conversation had gone she had resigned herself to the thought that she may never be able to get through to the younger woman and she'd have to delegate anything related to Relm to Alastor from here on out, but it seemed like maybe that might not be the case.

Curious to see what Relm could want, Manea stepped out of the storage area and rolled the door closed behind her before moving down off the rocky cliffs to go meet her where she was waiting in the meeting area near the lake. She approached Relm with a bit of trepidation, but attempted to keep an open mind about the situation. She knew they had started off on the wrong foot with how they had been in their first real encounter together besides small, casual greetings so it felt like an uphill battle, but she knew that Alastor for some reason had a soft spot for this young woman so she wanted to make this work for him. "Relm," she greeted with a nod of her head, sitting down on her haunches across from Relm while looking at her expectantly. "What can I do for you?"

Manea | Temno | Ciemny

When Manea came to her call, her eyes kind of flicked nervously along the grounds until Manea was sitting in front of her. She could finally take a breath and put herself in the right mindset to talk to her, or at least for the reason she had called her. She almost wondered if she knew about her and Alastor, but she wouldn't have openly spoken about it. She had surrounded herself in a hidden guilt, and unknowingly she had been avoiding Alastor yet again. But there was still this front of her that wanted to do better, to make him proud of her. To find some sort of common ground with her and Manea. She couldn't describe how badly she wanted just that normal life, and not be be this weird pent up anxiety all the time.

It was like something clicked together after she looked back to Manea, she became collected and was actually able to look at her without fault. She still didn't sit along with her, all four of her paws stayed straight but she didn't go to prepare for any sort of fight. "I hope my efforts haven't gone unnoticed." The corner of her maw pulled back because she knew it was probably hard to see how hard she was trying to find her place in this pack, "I'd like to challenge for Praelias."

"Relm"

Relm seemed oddly nervous until she was sitting across from her and only then was the pink-marked young woman able to actually look her in the eye and speak to her in any kind of calm manner. Relm didn't sit, remaining standing as if she was at the ready for something. When she spoke, mentioning how she hoped her efforts hadn't gone unnoticed, Manea didn't have much of a response to give. She didn't see much of the woman usually, but she typically caught her scent around the border when she went to do her own patrols—a sign that Relm had been active in her patrols as well. She couldn't say that Relm wasn't putting in work even if she didn't often witness it first hand. What she asked of her next did surprise her, especially with how little she had to say in the way of her aspirations and desires the last time they spoke.

Manea raised a quizzical brow, trying to decide where this request had come from. "Challenge for Praelias?" she questioned with a bit of disbelief. It felt like such a dramatic turn from what little she had been able to gather about the woman before that it almost felt out of character. She really hadn't made any restrictions on the upper tier of fighters other than proof of skill so she had no reason to deny her request, but she did feel like there was grounds to question her motives. "I need my Praelias to be loyal, be willing to guard and protect this pack, and willing to follow orders," she told her with a bit of a pointed inflection to the last portion of her requirements. "Can you fulfill that, Relm?"

Manea | Temno | Ciemny

Relm was not surprised but she felt... strange. Definitely strange. Maybe it was some form of hurt, but she couldn’t blame Manea. Her alpha would probably never know just how willing she was to bend and contort to what she needed. All of Relm’s relationships were not normal. Not with Alastor, not with Kichi, and certainly not with Manea. "I guess I hoped you had seen me as all the traits listed." Relm had never disobeyed Manea at least. She just wasn’t very open about her feelings which was still true to extent.

Relm had already suggested prior that the pack life was difficult for her to intergrade to. But things change. And things certainly had. "I don’t feel I belong anywhere, Manea." her tones were in flat confessions, almost a whole different scale than her previous anxiety. "I want to belong here. I’ve never known anything else, only to survive on my own." she was not looking for any type of sympathy from Manea, but hopefully trying to just open up a little to her. Most things were easy for her to let out, but the things that made her nervous around Manea were on that slim holding list.

"Relm"

Manea listened to Relm's hope that she had already seen those traits she listed in her and failed at keeping the slight frown off of her lips. "It's hard to see what you don't show me," she replied honestly. Perhaps she could reason some kind of loyalty from the pink-marked woman from the fact that she had stayed with their band after Alastor's attack and had continued her work around the pack despite the tension between them, but anything else was difficult to find examples of. She knew so little about this woman, where she came from, and what she wanted that it was becoming difficult to give her the benefit of the doubt. Eventually though, Relm went on to say that she wanted to belong here even though she felt like she didn't belong anywhere and that made Manea pause long enough to give her another long look and more consideration.

She let out a slow sigh and got to her paws, giving Relm a nod. "Lets see what you can do then," she told her as she took a couple of steps back to give them a bit more space to work with before she began to get into a fighting position. She had no reason to believe that Relm didn't at least have the skill to backup her claim to the higher rank and at the end of the day Manea knew she needed skilled fighters. She needed anyone that would actually have the interest and ambition to go for these important roles. Whether they ever fully saw eye to eye or not was still to be determined, but maybe they could at least figure out a working relationship if Relm could indeed backup her claim. Manea left the floor open for her to start the fight, her aqua gaze watching her closely to see what she decided to do.

Manea | Temno | Ciemny

Again, Relm couldn't blame Manea for the way she felt and wouldn't have taken full offense to it. She was more understanding than shown on the surface, and more so was actually relatively easy to walk over. Being alone and losing friends through her short life had made her allow the way others saw her to be not so bothersome to herself. She felt like maybe as long as she was obedient, it would own her place in the pack or among new friends. It was at least the way she felt in Kefka's care, to be obedient. She had nothing more to say to Manea.

Relm dipped her head slightly as Manea took a couple steps back and she did as well. Relm had already put herself in this controlled kind of mindset so she didn't have to prepare mentally for her spar with Manea. She let Manea square up real quick before starting.

Relm moved forward in a sprint, facing Manea more head on which was practical given that their sizes were similar. Before she made collision though, her paws left the ground in almost a prance while she had aimed all four of her paws to land just in front of Manea and thrust forward with the intent to spring off the ground with her weight and power of her legs and attempt to bust Manaea chest to chest and push her backwards. Her front paws had reached up as well but only aiming to wrap around the higher parts of her forelegs rather than around her chest or shoulders.

"Relm"

Relm vs Manea for Spar
Round 1/x
Age: Over 1 Year
Size: Extra Large
Build: Medium
Offensive Battle Accessory: Oxen horns
Defensive Battle Accessory: Spiked Christmas lights collar
Companion 1: Spotted lynx, Male - Battle - Boosted
Disability: Partial Blindness - Moderate
Skills: Expert Fighter & Master Intellectual
Specialty: Tactician

As Relm squared off with her, she braced herself for the younger woman's first attack and watched her movements closely as she bounded forward at first, but then instead moved into a leap of sorts as she aimed their chests toward one another. Manea quickly shifted her stance a bit to keep her hind legs slightly widened and firmly planted on the ground to prepare herself for that impact, her tiger-like claws biting into the earth to keep herself from being pushed back too badly. Relm's chest slammed into hers, knocking the breath out of her a bit with a grunt as she gritted her teeth with a snarl. She couldn't avoid Relm's forelegs trying to wrap around the upper portions of her own, but she could take advantage of the less stable stance that move put the pink-marked woman in since she only had two of her legs on the ground. Manea attempted to reach for her opponent's scruff, using the four inches of height she had on the young woman to reach around behind her neck to try and get a good grip on the loose skin there. She attempted to pull Relm toward the woman's right from that point, hoping to topple her and throw her down to the ground.

Manea vs Relm for Spar
Round 1/2
Age: Over 1 Year
Size: Dire wolf
Build: Light
Offensive Battle Accessory: Dagger bracers
Defensive Battle Accessory: Scale armor
Companion 1: Raven, Male - Flying - Boosted
Companion 2: Raven, Female - Flying
Mutation 1: Serrated bone ridges - Offensive
Mutation 2: Tiger claws - Offensive
Skills: Master Fighter & Master Hunter
Specialty: Bulwark

Manea | Temno | Ciemny

The upper hand didn't last long as Manea caught on to the weakness quickly. It was a common attack Relm threw at her, but still met with strength and experience with effort.

Manea reached over Relm's head, grabbing her scruff and pulling her forward. Relm was caught off balance greatly, but kept her paws under her as she planted them back on the ground and was being nearly drug by Manea. With the two of them practically switching positions, Relm went to dip her nose down and forward to push her head through Manea's legs and under her chest and try to get a good portion of her own body under Manea's. With that she would go to use force from her legs and bulk to push upwards into Manea's whole body hoping to knock her off balance and hopefully over to make her point.

"Relm"

Relm vs Manea for Spar
Round 2/2
Age: Over 1 Year
Size: Extra Large
Build: Medium
Offensive Battle Accessory: Oxen horns
Defensive Battle Accessory: Spiked Christmas lights collar
Companion 1: Spotted lynx, Male - Battle - Boosted
Disability: Partial Blindness - Moderate
Skills: Expert Fighter & Master Intellectual
Specialty: Tactician

Manea felt grappled with Relm for balance and impressively enough Relm was able to stand her ground, pushing back into her as the two women shoved back and forth. Relm wormed her way under her while Manea continued to grip onto the pink-marked woman's scruff. While Manea did have the advantage when it came to height, Relm had the advantage in her heavier build so it made sense for her to try and get under her and throw her off of her feet. Manea wasn't all that concerned with winning the fight. This was all for her to see how Relm reacted in a fight and to get a first hand experience for what level Relm's skills were at. If she wanted this rank she was going to have to earn it and for now at least she was making a good showing. As her momentum began to be tipped off balance, she reached to hook her claws into Relm's shoulders while her teeth continued to hold onto her scruff and then used those points of contact to pull Relm down with her, trying to aim their landing in a way that would put Relm under her and would force the younger woman to take the brunt of the impact.

Manea vs Relm for Spar
Round 2/2
Age: Over 1 Year
Size: Dire wolf
Build: Light
Offensive Battle Accessory: Dagger bracers
Defensive Battle Accessory: Scale armor
Companion 1: Raven, Male - Flying - Boosted
Companion 2: Raven, Female - Flying
Mutation 1: Serrated bone ridges - Offensive
Mutation 2: Tiger claws - Offensive
Skills: Master Fighter & Master Hunter
Specialty: Bulwark

Manea | Temno | Ciemny

And the winner is...

MANEA

RELM must give up by submitting, fleeing or passing out. Totals: RELM: Attack Roll: 50 Defense Roll: 49 Agility Roll: 70 Perception Roll: 90 Total: 259 Attack[50] + 35% Bonus[17.50]: 67.50 Defense[49] + 15% Bonus[7.35]: 56.35 Agility[70] + 0% Bonus[0.00]: 70.00 Perception[90] + 55% Bonus[49.50]: 139.50 Total[333.35] + 5% Bonus[16.67]: 350.02 MANEA: Attack Roll: 83 Defense Roll: 88 Agility Roll: 2 Perception Roll: 49 Total: 222 Attack[83] + 60% Bonus[49.80]: 132.80 Defense[88] + 30% Bonus[26.40]: 114.40 Agility[2] + 5% Bonus[0.10]: 2.10 Perception[49] + 30% Bonus[14.70]: 63.70 Total[313.00] + 25% Bonus[78.25]: 391.25