The fight lost to Sirius played over and over in her mind. At least for now, it had replaced the other racing thoughts that plagued her mind. Hazel thought about her overcorrection on her weaker side, about the way she'd lost her footing beneath herself. It was enough to bother her, but more than that. It was enough to drag her from the warmth of her bed in the early morning hours. Though she wasn't scheduled to patrol until the afternoon, the girl found herself climbing down from the treehouse she shared with Bas at first light. No more sleep would come to her. She needed to think.

In the soft sand, she retraced each step she'd taken in the spar as it lived on in her mind. Every step, every potential misstep. Hazel cursed the weakness of her right side, and how instead of correcting, she'd overcorrected herself. She was trying too hard-- maybe that was an allegory for her entire existence, at this point. This didn't come as easily to her as many of the other things in life. Learning to fight had been work. It was still work. She wouldn't stop working for it.

Hazel pushed herself through it, making small shifts and changes. Changing the to the way she should have been able to dodge on her stiff side, the reaction timing she should have had in the moments of the fight that would have kept her on her feet. Her thoughts raced and her head spun, though Hazel was in her own world.

"Speech"

Now that Tethys was getting older, it was time to branch out beyond her immediate family, both in terms of meeting the rest of the wolves in the Armada as well as testing her own limits in general. She hadn't yet gone beyond the pack borders by herself, though not for lack of capability. She was both allowed and able to, but the world beyond the Armada simply didn't interest her very much. And why should it, when she had everything she needed right here? Still, she wasn't naive enough to think there wasn't more out there in the world, and she intended to get to know just what that more might be. Starting with her home. She'd woken early and snuck off hopefully without anyone noticing, making her way to the cove to the western edge of their packlands. While she intended on just exploring, once she got closer to the shoreline she spotted someone there, a packmate who was… doing some sort of strange dance. It was hard to say what she was doing. Head cocked to the side as she drew closer, trying to analyze and figure out exactly what she was doing, but Tethys came up short. "Whatcha doin'?" The galaxy-colored girl asked as she got within earshot, wondering if there was anything she could learn from this woman and what she was doing. It didn't hurt to ask.

She wouldn't be alone out here forever. Hazel knew that much. Really, no matter who the company was, she would probably be grateful for it. Being alone with her thoughts like this was dangerous for Hazel. The self doubt... she was still doing everything she could to push the self doubt down. To hold it back. Second guessing could be deadly, and she'd damn near lost her life in a fight once. If she wasn't confident she wouldn't survive the next one. If she wasn't confident, she didn't deserve to reach her goals. It was a dangerous game, one that Hazel couldn't afford to play.

The voice of a child. A puppy-puppy, not one of the yearling-puppies from the Warlord's litter. This was one of Aris's brood, Hazel realized, as her gaze set upon the girl. The question was a valid one, yeah. "Thinking about my last fight, and what I could have done better." Hazel shook some of the sand from her paws before beckoning the pup closer. She didn't want to shatter the quiet of the morning with her own voice, it was too early for that yet. "And then practicing the steps so I know what better feels like." Hazel explained, then demonstrated by taking a large, fluid step to the side and dodging an invisible swing to the left.

"What're you doing?" It seemed early for the pup to be up, but Hazel wouldn't fault her for that. She was more curious than anything else, and that reflected in her tone as she spoke to the girl.
"Speech"

Tethys tilted her head to the side quizzically as she looked on, taking in the scene as much as she could. At first the strange dance Hazel was doing didn't make sense to her, though when she explained she was thinking about her last fight and what she could've done better, it made a little more sense. The concept of doing something over and over to get better at it made complete sense, even to a pup, but it made less sense to practice fighting without an opponent. Oh well. There were all sorts of things she didn't get, this was likely just one of those things. "Oh," she said simply. Fighting was one of those things she wanted to start learning and get better at. Being the best fighter in all of the Armada… that thought was appealing to her, and her eyes brightened with interest as Hazel summoned her closer, shuffling forward toward the older female. "You know how to fight? Could you teach me somethin' then?" Sunset orange eyes widened a bit more at the prospect of a lesson, if she could convince Hazel to give her one. The thought of a secret lesson, one her siblings wouldn't be part of, appealed to her. Her question earned a little shrug. "Just woke up early. I wanted to come explore a little." Tethys was excited to begin exercising some more freedom, given that she was getting old enough to go off on her own more and more these days. "I'm Tethys, by the way," she added after a moment, unsure if the adult knew her name or not.