Where had her glorious winter gone? Morning broke early but already it was far warmer than Dægmar would care for it to be. Left hind leg reached up to scratch at her ruff sending dead hair floating into the air. Emerald eyes slowly gazed downward to stare at the pups that lay by her side, they were growing well… so well in fact….

Dægmar got to her feet suddenly, not caring if she sent puppies scattering in her wake. "ALRIGHT BRATS! WAKE UP! Come on, it's time for training, lets go, on the double!" She slipped out of the den, shaking out her coat before sticking her head back in to bark more orders at her whelps. She'd turn them into soldiers if it killed her!

"Speech"

Locked in sleep among his siblings the boy Sabre twitched restlessly amid formless dreams, only to be awoken harshly as he was rolled away by his mother's sudden lunge for the entrance to the door. He shook himself, disgruntled, but his mother's words held an undeniable interest. Let's go... where? Outside? He held himself absolutely still for a moment, but it was not indecision that kept him there so much as a conflict between the habit of absolutely not being allowed outside, and the habit of absolute obedience to the woman who'd birthed him. This frozen state lasted only a heartbeat, before he broke free and followed Daegmar's example to emerge into sunlight... something he'd only seen from a distance and something his dual-hued eyes had never had to cope with before. He sat stiffly before his mother, refusing to flinch and squint though the light hurt him, but the more he ignored it the better it got as his eyes adjusted on their own. ""

Momma stood upright and sent Falx's fat little body rolling across the den floor. She let out a surprised squeak, finally coming to a sharp stop when she collided with the earthen wall. "Whoa," she coughed out, trying to orient herself. The little girl sprang upwards, ears perked and eyes bright. "Again Momma, do it again!" She raced forwards, wanting to collide with Daegmar's limbs in the hopes that she might get rolled again. That was fun, the whole world had gone topsy-turvey! But then she said training and Falx stood up as straight as she could because she was ready and she had to show Momma how ready she was. Falx looked side to side, trying to see if her brother and sister were getting up too, but then Daegmar was out of the den and her smallest daughter was charging forward along with her. "Talk" Think "You"

Karabela let out a shriek as she was rudely awakened from her dreams and cast onto the den floor in a tangle of lanky, puppy limbs. Glaring up at her mother with wide, golden eyes she scowled. However, Raba knew better than to talk back to her mother and so she kept her mouth shut and carefully untangled herself. The girl got to her feet, shook out her coat and stretched before following her siblings out of the den for morning training. Not that she minded the training part, even when she got hurt. She was going to be a great warrior someday! She was going to make her momma proud! But why did training always have to be so early? Karabela moved into formation so the three of them were standing in a line at attention. The cold bite of morning air served to help wake her and send jolts of excitement dthrough her limbs. What were they going to learn today? They'd already gone over defenses a LOT, she was ready for something new. "What's on the list for training today, m'am?"

ooc:  I hate writing lecture posts, hope this is alright  xD

Time and persistence and perhaps the virtues of their own genetics were quickly molding the pups into warriors and it simply thrilled Dægmar.  How quickly they'd jump to her commands.  Like her own personal army of munchkins.  She grinned at her son, her darling Sabre who moved without a word and sat rigidly at attention, awaiting her orders.  Falx was a bit of a different story but Dægmar would not fault her enthusiasm.  She'd take that over complaining any day.  She collided with Dægmar's front legs and the woman moved to do precisely as her daughter had asked, attempting to shove the girl roughly and send her rolling. "Hush now, Falx.  Get in line!"  Karabela was the last out of the den… again.  Dægmar glared at the girl but didn't say anything as she fell into line and addressed Dægmar as m'am.  Good, good.  She could handle that at least even if she was slow to rise.  Respect was a far more difficult thing to instill than waking early. Dægmar began to pace in front of her soldiers.  "We've spent the last month drilling defenses and maintaining balance.  Now it's time to review attacking and offense.  Your greatest weapon is your jaws.  It is from your fangs you will deal the most damage.  In most cases you'll want to go for a grip, not glancing blows.  Should you succeed in grasping onto your opponent you can then thrash your head and rip their body to shreds."  Dægmar glanced at them, pausing mid-stride in her lecture to make sure they were paying attention. "In addition to your jaws you have other means with which to attack but most of these are far less efficient.  Your claws can not deal out worthy damage unless you go for an eye or the nose and even then you have to reach up and risk your balance.  Slamming your paw on an opponents toes to sprain them is a reasonable attack.  Throwing your shoulder or your chest into an opponent, another option but you will likely take some damage in return.  I could go on and on about the intricacies of attacking, how starting distance factors in, etc, etc.  But let's move on to targets." Dægmar paused in the center of the line, turning to face them.  To see if she still had their attention.  She could lecture forever on the subject of attack but aimed to keep her first lesson fairly succinct so she could get them sparring.  "Targets… the throat, eyes, and belly are particularly desirable.  As are important tendons and ligaments like the achilles tendon in the backlegs just above the hock."  Dægmar gestured to her own limbs, pointing out the sinew that held her frame together.  "If you cripple your opponent you are half way to victory.  Remember what you were instructed to defend in defenses training?  Well these are the targets you'll want to go for.  Force your opponent to open up a vital spot then hit it.  Ok, I will not bore you further with instruction.  I believe in learning as you go.  So here's what we're going to do, you three are going to spar each other and we'll see what your instincts are when it comes to attacks.  I WANT YOUR DEFENSES UP AT ALL TIMES!  We've gone over that enough I don't want to see slacking.  We'll work on that for this week, next week we'll go over attack combinations and then over precision.  BEGIN!" "Speech"

As his eyes adjusted to the unaccustomed light his sisters tumbled out of the den to join them, Falx throwing herself enthusiastically at their mother, and Raba moving to sit at attention beside him. He watched with the utmost of care as his mother paced before them, his oversized ears focused entirely upon her to catch every nuance. He concentrated as hard as he could on committing each suggestion to memory to use later, but as soon as she said she wanted their defenses up at all times he had to add dredging up the defenses that were slowly becoming - but weren't quite yet - second nature to the pup to the mental exercise of memorization. He was, after all, only a month old, however maturely he might hold himself. BEGIN! His mother's barked word drew an instant response from the boy and without hesitation he threw himself towards Karabela. He knew his observant, larger sister was the biggest threat to him right now so he coldly sought to remove her from the equation first. He would prove he was the best of all of them, which meant he'd be the best out of everyone ever because his family was already better than everyone else's. Leaping to his feet and spinning to his right (OOC: Lunar said Raba was on whatever side made me happy, apparently that's the side that made me happy) in an attempt to face Raba, his ears pressed down hard against his head, and his cold mismatched eyes narrowed to sharp gem-like slits, and his auburn-fleck hackles rose in a threatening shroud along his back and up his neck. His head and tail dropped to be level with his spine, and his chin tilted down to cover his neck. His puppy paws spread further apart than his hips and shoulders and his joints bent to lower him into a crouch. His balance was a bit wobbly but for the most part evenly distributed to all his legs, until he rocked his weight back onto his hindquarters to spring forward in an attempt to tackle his sister, the front of his chest aimed for the side of her shoulder with the intention of knocking her over onto the ground. As he did he attempted to wrap his forepaws around her neck, his left paw aiming to hook around under her neck and his right paw seeking to drape over her shoulders to try to clasp her neck to him to try to keep her from squirming away, and his sharp little baby teeth were aimed for the left side of her neck right at the jawline, his lower jaw attempting to hook on the muscle below her jaw and his upper fangs seeking to hit right under her left ear with the intention of getting a grip there. He expected Falx to pile in at any moment, and couldn't help but tense in anticipation, his body tensing. It was his first real fight, and he couldn't help but wonder how it would feel for teeth to prick his flesh like he sought to do to Raba... Of course he'd handle it just fine, it was him after all - but his skin still prickled in discomfort. Sabre vs Karabella vs Falx Round 1/? OOC: didn't know if you wanted this as an official fight but just in case. :3

Karabela listened intently as her mother spoke, drinking in the woman's words like life-giving water.  All too soon the lecture would end and the sparring would begin.  True to her observant nature she caught movement from the corner of her eye an quickly twisted to her left turning to face Sabre.  Fine, he'd be her first victim!  Her own defenses fell in place, running through her head like a mantra, drilled into her by their mother.  She sought to get the majority of them, even if she couldn't remember all of them.  It was a lot harder to get them set when another wolf was charging at you but she knew that was why Dægmar drilled them over and over.  It would be second nature in time.  Snow-tipped hackles rose as her ears pinned tightly to her head.  Slender shoulders rolled forward, neck scrunching back to protect her throat, the one place she sought to defend against all others.  Her legs coiled, weight distributing evenly to each of her legs as her claws dug into the dirt, bracing for impact.

Sabre collided into her, the center of his chest chest colliding with the upper face of her own chest as he rose causing moderate bruising and knocking the air from her lungs.  Stunned she was unable to get away as his forelimbs wrapped around her, the left forepaw around the base of her neck just in front of the shoulders, his right forepaw resting across her shoulders.  Held close she couldn't dodge as teeth pierced her flesh, Sabre biting into the upper left portion of her neck, near the corner of her jaw. The rolls of fur and puppy fat helped against the severity of the blow but it would still send a shock of pain through her head, the moderate punctures leaving her bleeding.  She yelped at the pain but quickly stifled it.  It wasn't that bad, she chanted in her head, and she'd get the first cool scar!

Raba's back legs coiled as she shifted her weight to them before attempting to launch herself forward and up with the intent of pushing the upper portion of her chest into the center of Sabre's chest with the hopes of toppling her brother onto his backside.  As she did so she attempted to lift both her front limbs with the aim of wrapping both of them around the base of her brothers neck, right in front of the shoulders so she could further push her weight into him and get him on the ground.  With his jaws on her upper neck there wasn't much she could do to bite back and rested her hopes on her shoving, hoping her sudden forward momentum might also loosen his jaws if not break his grip entirely.

Karabela vs Sabre vs Falx (if fox has time)
Rd. 1 of 2
ooc:  yea, lets make it official, should be a quick little judging for someone

"Speech"