The pups were old enough to go outside now! Avantika was thrilled beyond belief. She could meet them, talk to them, and especially -- though there was no pressure to learn everything instantly -- teach them everything she knew. While she would love all of the kiddos unconditionally, she did hope that at least a few of the litter would want to follow in her path of fighting and physically defending the pack against threats. It was always a necessary task; though Avantika wasn't ever going anywhere, anything could happen whether she wanted it to or not. There could be another raid and she could be away and... and...

Avantika was not going to let her thoughts go down that path today. It was sunny and nice and she was in the courtyard, waiting to see if any of the pups wanted to play a little training game with her. Maybe she could even have them spar if they wanted and were ready to. But if they didn't, that was alright, too. Avantika didn't want to push them too much since they were basically only babies still. There would be plenty of time for hard training later if one showed special interest in it and agreed to the work.

"Speech"

Thorn was meeting new wolves every day in the pack, and roaming about to learn the castle itself as much as possible.  It wasn’t just wanting to run all over and find fun now.  Thorn had it in his head to make another map, a better one than the first he had done with Ash.

As he made his way to the courtyard the blue pup did his best to keep his steps even, counting them as he went.  He had the idea to measure how long it would take to get from point A to point B.  A problem was coming to his mind already that it was hard to keep up with remembering the number of steps from one spot to another when he moved on to something else.  How many steps had it been from the stairs to their bedroom door again?  How many steps were there?  

Finally, he got to where Tika was, wagging a tail in greeting her. “Hi!”  She was another one of his older siblings, he knew that much.  Other than that he hadn’t really ‘met’ her to know her well.  “Whatcha doin?”  Thorn's tail swept back and forth in pleasure, so far everyone he spent time with was friendly and fun so of course the same would be true for his sister.

"Carpathius Family"

It didn't take long for one of the pups to happen by. A blue little boy with dark patches and light stripes over his back -- Thorn, then. Avantika didn't know any of the kids very well yet, but she knew their names and appearances at least. That was fine for now, she figured. She had plenty of time to learn every one of their personalities and ambitions as they grew up.

"Hey," she greeted him with a smile and a soft sway of her tail in return. She gestured with one paw to a square ring she'd made, the corners marked with paw-sized rocks. "I've just set up a training game. Do you want to play?"

"Speech"

Thorn’s head turned to curiously look at the stones set up in a square to mark boundaries for some apparent game.  Training game?  It sounded promising.  Training and a square with boundaries made Thorn think of fighting but he wasn’t completely sure.  Hey, it was a game either way though, right?

Thorn jogged into the square, “ok!  How do I play?  I can win at whatever game you got!” Well, that might be a bit bold when he didn’t know what the game was but who played a game if they didn’t intend to win?

Oh, shoot.  Thorn realized he had completely forgotten the number of steps he’d taken to get here.  Oh well, he’d just have to recount steps after he beat the game.  There were two favorite activities Thorn had at the moment; map-making and fighting.  Hopefully, this training was some sort of fighting game.  Shifting in place, energetically he waited for this game to start.

"Thorn Carpathius"

Avantika smiled indulgently when the pup declared that he could win any game she had for him, even before he knew what the game was. It was good to be confident, and a little arrogance even could be encouraged in one so young. It was much better than fear. No child should have to fear their own family. Avantika mentally shook off that train of thought, not letting her friendly grin and gently sweeping tail falter.

When Avantika had worked out the idea of the game thinking last night, she'd tried to think about what she had needed to learn most when she was a beginner at fighting. It had been a long time since then, but she decided that guarding one's vulnerable areas was one of the most important parts to learn first. You had to know what to defend to be able to attack properly; plus, defending and attacking at the same time was a more advanced skill, and defending was probably safer to learn first if -- spirits forbid -- Thorn actually had to use anything he'd learned any time soon. Although, attacking was more fun. "Alright, so -- " she walked over to one of the stones, the darkest one, and tapped it lightly with one paw. " -- this game primarily helps you work on defending yourself, but you'll also get to work on attacking strategies. When you're standing at this stone, you can't move more than a pivot in any direction. I can go anywhere inside of the square and will be trying to touch one of the most vulnerable areas on your body, the underside of your throat, with my nose. Your job is to, well, keep me from touching you there. If you are able to touch my throat with your nose, we'll switch spots and I'll have to stand still at the black stone." She'd probably go easy on him to start, just to let him learn. She had purposely not even explained the proper fighting stance yet, with the thought process that it was better to learn by doing things yourself. "We're not going to use any teeth at all during this, for now, to keep it safer and also work on being more creative in our moves. Any week-old pup can bite someone, y'know?"

"And once we play a couple rounds, we can decide if you want to actually spar me!"

"Speech"

Thorn was confident without a doubt.  He didn’t know the real odds but the blue pup did know they weren’t in his favor.  The first thought he had came out, “I can’t reach out as far as you, so can I at least take one step away so I can reach your throat?  Unless you are really coming in that close!”  If he couldn’t move then he’d have to let her get close enough to touch him and yet still touch her first!  How the heck would he manage that??  

Thorn’s brow furrowed s he approached the stone.  He wasn’t frustrated or upset by the rules instead the small pup was trying to figure out how he could touch her before she touched him even with her greater reach.  Speed would sure be important!  He’d have to surprise her somehow too!  These were easy enough things to think but she had a whole lot more experience!

“Actually, it's ok.  I can make it work,” he decided a second later.  Thorn still didn’t have a plan but think how much cooler it would be if he could figure out how to make it happen!  Uh, and how did he keep her from touching his neck?  Thorn ducked his head down so it was in front of his neck!  Hah!  How would she touch it now?

"Thorn Carpathius"

Thorn expressed some confusion about how he was supposed to touch her without her touching him. She merely smiled. While it would be difficult for him since she was of course bigger and had a larger range, he still definitely had a chance if he kept up his defense and was quick. In a normal fight, Avantika would no doubt win, sure, but she'd have to go for his ears or eyes to make him startle and move his head out of the way or she would turn to attack the side of his neck. She could do neither of those here and honestly if he was able to get himself below her head, his small size actually would yield him the advantage.

He was figuring it out, she could tell. And once he made it to the stone, he told her that he would make it work. A second or two later, he dropped his head like she was hoping for. She nodded her approval and proceeded to do similarly, her dip of her head a bit deeper and her whole body in her typical fighting crouch as well. It was just instinct at this point; and even though she knew that she didn't need to pin back her ears back or probably stick out her tail for balance, she thought it was a good idea to provide a good model.

"Great! Let's get started." She didn't wait more than a second after saying that, but lunged forward, before slowing down to push her muzzle down and forward. She wasn't going as fast as she could; at this stage, all she was doing was testing his form. She was also very careful not to open her mouth. Her own target was covered, so she had no reason not to take a bit of a risk and go easy on her little nephew.

"Speech"

Thorn copied Tika’s ears going back but not for the same reason.  He was trying hard to focus, and the sense of determination, the tension building up as he waited for the moment he could make a move, seemed to demand those ears going back.  His tail was also out and even with his body but it also curved up and swayed back and forth with excitement.  

She lunged in towards him fast, at least it seemed fast for Thorn as his mind tried to still work out a solution for the problem of how to get to her throat when her neck was so much longer.  Thorn hadn’t figured out how to get to her nose first but the blue pup knew he needed to not let her touch his throat! For all it was a fun game to him, Thorn also desperately wanted to find a way to win.

Without thought other than ‘not the throat!’ Thorn kept his head tucked down to his chest and pivoted, avoiding the nose touch for now.  Thorn had spent several days running through the shallow surf, it only went up slightly above his feet but it added a bit more resistance when he ran, building up a bit more muscle and speed.  It had saved him from the first round but if he couldn’t figure out how to get to her neck it wouldn’t help him very long!  The boy kept his head tucked, for the moment keeping to defense.

"Thorn Carpathius"

Avantika found that Thorn had kept his neck covered with his head fairly well, and he also pivoted away quickly to further avoid her planned nose touch. He was a fast kid. But Avantika kept up with him, not being so old herself, and pushed her nose forward again as far as she could without untucking her neck. She'd stay there for a moment, gently nudging at Thorn's cheeks or shoulders on both sides to check that he was fully covering his neck, using various speeds but never trying to actually overwhelm the boy.

After that, she would intentionally give him an opportunity to win by reaching farther forward than she should have, inevitably untucking her head a bit. It was up to him if he'd see it and go for it in time, as she would pull herself back in about a second or maybe even two. She fully expected him to. He seemed the clever sort. He was mostly correct before when he said earlier that it would be difficult for him to touch her neck given the restrictions of the game and their different sizes, and so she would almost definitely need to give him a chance to win, regardless of his drive and skill.

"Speech"

Thorn rolled his shoulder’s forward, head tucked.  It was harder to move quickly with his shoulders rolled so far forward! Still, it made sure she couldn’t get to his neck for the point of the contest.  As her head was so close an idea struck him.  Her nose was right there and he was a friendly pup with family.  

With her neck stretched out and her nose right there it was time to be creative!  Thorn gave a lick to her muzzle, right next to her nose hoping it might stall her for even half a second.  He couldn’t wait to see if it worked though.  Expecting to find he lost at any moment Thorn squatted down then stretched out with his front half, back legs stretching as Thorn made the gamble to touch Tika’s throat instead.  While this wasn’t a real fight with teeth he still felt his heart pumping with excitement.  

"Thorn Carpathius"

Instead of going straight for her throat, Thorn suddenly licked her. Avantika startled back a bit, raising her head a bit more than she probably should have in sheer surprise. That was a move she hadn't seen before! He took advantage of the opportunity and managed to get his nose in, touching the target. She pulled back, grinning. "Good work! Your creativity really caught me off guard."

Now what should they do? She had said that they would switch spots if he won, but honestly, the game wasn't all that complicated and she thought that Thorn pretty much got it. "Would you like to switch spots and keep playing, or jump into a real spar?" she asked, figuring it would be easier and more fun for both of them if the kid could decide what he wanted to do.

"Speech"