With the world outside still going crazy and spooky, and Auster still clutched in the midst of its unusually cold and snowy winter, many of the Hallows' residents were keeping their work indoors. Which was fine and all for the ones who were crafters or healers, but for the fighters, like Ember, she was starting to go a bit stir crazy. It had been waaaaay too long since she'd gotten to do any of her training or exercises outside. But instead of letting cabin fever get to her, the Carpathian princess decided to put her whirlwind energy to good use and bring the rest of the Hallows' fighters along with her. What better way to do that than with a group lesson?

Heading down to the dojo in the east wing of the castle, Ember grabbed a bunch of wooden sparring swords and cleared the arena of damaged training dummies and debris. No need for them today; this was going to be a practical lesson! With her classroom set up, Em lifted her muzzle and gave a summoning call to anyone who wanted to let off some steam and participate in some fighting training. Hopefully some of the Hallows' newest members and her own younger siblings would be interested in taking part too!

"Ember Carpathius" | "Carpathian"

There's a process, in picking himself up off the pavement. In being part of a pack that... that runs differently than how he's used to. Things are different here. Far different, though he's catching the learning curve okay. Spending some nights curled up on the floor of the infirmary (by choice, it's not like they didn't offer him a bed, though he swore he didn't need it), some nights curled up in Ember's room. Honestly, he'd been doing a lot of worrying and less training than he should.

But she'd been talking about a round of trainings, and she sounded excited. Like she had something up her sleeve, and Erik took it upon himself to be there for her. Heading out to her call, and arriving with an easy grin on his face. Slipping in before the others, he places a gentle kiss on Ember's cheek before finding a seat.

"Erik"

Little soldier boy Titus was once again reading when the call from his cousin was launched. Fight training huh? Sounded like they needed their future vanguard member in the dojo then. He was already a proven fighter and was in his head ahead of the class on fight training. No he had real world experience instead of theoretical lessons. Ear marking his book after finishing a page he stood and whistled at Nikolai who had his own thing he was doing. Nikolai had been practicing his "game" face in the mirror in their mother's room. No need for children's toys for Titus or Nikolai. A glance to his sleeping Raven and a bark had the bird jumping and fluffing up. Such a coward Andrei was. A small laugh at the bird being startled from him and he was off, Andrei glaring but following and Nikolai having a huge grin. When they came into the dojo there was Ember and that dark guy from before. He caught them as the guy moved from Ember's side and his hair bristled, protective fibers of his core eyeballing the still new to him man. He seemed to be the only youngling there for now, so with sheathed claws he moved to take a seat where he was front and center. "We training with swords today Ember? Or discussing some theoretical thing?" Like what if they had a wolf coming from their left and aiming for their scruff, what to do then sort of thing. He had no qualms with the theoretical but he did much prefer learning by doing. A good spar to end a theoretical lesson would be much preferred. If his brothers showed up he wouldn't mind showing off how cool he was compared to them. But if sprig did He would be declining any spar with her, afraid he would break his tiny sister or a mushroom off her side. Then he would have a whole new plethora of problems. Mom would be mad, Sprig would be crying and well shit just wouldn't go well. He sat and curled his tail over his hand paws to hide them as he was apt to do, ears perked and fiery gaze on Ember's blues. Walk, "Talk", Think Come marching home

Spriggan was tending to her moss garden upon her back when she heard her elder cousin’s call for training. With the darkness of the sun she was worried that her plants would begin to wilt. So she had been spending even more time out in the sun just so they had that extra advantage. Thankfully most of what grew upon her pelt was low light loving plants. Her moss, the ferns, the grasses and flowers. Being out in the training dojo wouldn’t be much different from the greenhouse so the tiny girl picked her way towards the lesson site.

Her delicate paws padded up to where her brother Titus was already sitting and she lowered herself to her haunches beside him. Prose fluttered down to land beside her. The raven didn’t often leave her side, having once served her father, who she would never know. He had been a fighter too, and despite her size, Spriggan was eager to follow in his paw steps. Her brilliant blue and lavender eyes looked up to their teacher, eager for a lesson considering the dangerous times they were living in.

Ballad had been on a stroll around the plains when he had heard the call of the carpathian princess. He was slightly interested, but hadn’t planned on attending until he noticed a couple of his siblings in the area. Quietly he joined the group, gently glancing between his brother and sister before giving his full attention to Ember. He was very visibly shy, just a little pulled into himself and not looking at the others head on. But he was willing to learn. It was a good opportunity to do so with his family, which was much bigger than he could really anticipate at this point in his life. He knew he’d want to protect them all.

Kolt perked his ears at the sound of Ember's summoning call echoing across the castle grounds. A fighting lesson? That sounded like just the thing to shake off the restless energy that had been building in his muscles during these cold, cooped-up days. Kolt eagerly trotted towards the dojo- entering the training space just after the rest of his siblings had already gathered with his cousin Ember at the front … and another brute he didn’t recognize.

Kolt's ice blue eyes darted curiously between Ember and the unfamiliar dark male wolf at her side as he entered the dojo. The stranger carried himself with an easy confidence that immediately piqued Kolt's interest. Who was this wolf? And what was his connection to Ember? Questions for later, Kolt decided as he took a seat on the outskirts of the assembled group, studying the training space with a practiced eye.

"Kolt Carpathius"

It wasn’t long after her call that Ember heard the footfalls of her first student coming to join her lesson, and to no surprise, she turned to spy her handsome viking striding in with his usual calm confidence. Em greeted him with a sweet smile, humming happily when his lips brushed her cheek with a gentle kiss. "Thanks for coming. I promise to go easy on you," she teased him. She truly was grateful for Erik’s assistance with her lesson. He was always willing to volunteer for whatever she needed. She just hoped that by the end of this lesson, he wouldn’t regret jumping in head first.

Afterwards came the quartet of her cousins from Aunt Bowen—Titus, Spriggan, Ballad, and Kolt. All four of the pups looked at Erik with wariness and suspicion, which she understood. Erik was still very new to the Hallows and had been kept busy with tending to his ailing father and likely hadn’t had a chance to socialize much—not that he was much of a talker anyway. Well that was fine; Ember could do the talking for the both of them today. Titus asked if they’d be getting to train with swords today or if it was a theoretical lesson. Ember simply shot the lad a mischievous smirk. "No theoreticals with me, Titus. We’re getting paws on today!" While Ember had learned under the tutelage of her father and his lessons were always half theoretical, half practical, Em preferred to learn and teach by doing.

Once she was sure no one else was coming, Ember addressed the group as a whole. "Today, we’re going to be going over a valuable lesson from two different directions—how to handle a larger and stronger opponent, and how to take on multiple opponents at once." Fixing her cool-toned gaze on her younger cousins, Ember posed them a challenge, "Everyone take a look at Erik. Let's say you're defending the Hallows and you encounter an opponent like Erik. How would you go about taking on someone with a size and strength advantage? What ways can you four work together to take down a bigger foe?" Then her attention turned to Erik with a mischievous grin. "And you, you have the size advantage, but you're outnumbered four to one. How would you leverage your skills to defeat your enemies?" Ember wanted to hear the ideas each side came up with before she pitted them against one another to put their plans into practice.

"Ember Carpathius" | "Carpathian"

Spriggan’s blue and lavender eyes shifted to her two other brothers as they appeared in time for the lesson as well. Each given a little smile as her attention was shifted back to her elder cousin and the lesson she had planned for all of them. The pups were all six months old now, far old enough to be training their fighting prowess. Even little Spriggan.

Speaking of being little, Ember told them that they would be learning how to handle a larger opponent. Something that Sprig would be dealing with for the rest of her life. She had already stopped growing taller, being left far behind by her brothers already. The little moss covered girl smirked as she lifted herself from her haunches.

”I’d use my superior agility!” She answered quickly, racing around her three brothers for emphasis. ”I’d let them distract him while I snuck in for an attack from behind.”