Square Up [Fight Training]

His good mood lasted about to when Vereux, and then pups started showing up to the meeting, and he felt his nose wrinkle in irritation. They weren't babies anymore, so he probably should have expected them to show up to start their training... but at the same time he was a bit resentful of that very fact. He was almost two years old and just now getting the training he needed - these pups were getting the advantage that should have been his and his brothers'. At a guess only one of the pups that had come was actually Avalon's, since the other two were crowded around that odd yellowish male and shared coloring with him.

Speaking of his brothers, Kharnage and Dragon had both showed up to lurk at the outskirts while he'd been distracted - well, Kharnage was lurking anyway, with what seemed like a dark cloud around him, but Dragon was being his usual self and looked like he was trying to pester Khar out of his black mood. It didn't take long for Lykos to appear, either, and unlike Kharnage and Dragon he flopped down next to Gryphon instead of joining their brothers. Gryphon's brow drew together in faint concern, though he made the effort to return Lykos' greeting with a quick smile. "It was just a stupid cold, it wasn't bad," he told Lykos, feeling the stirrings of guilt Instead of moping around being sick, clearly he should have been keeping an eye on his brothers, because something had definitely changed between them.

Had they always had a gulf between them? It made him more than a little wary to think that they might be choosing sides in some sort of... war, that he didn't understand. They were brothers after all, and while he didn't always care for the way his brothers did things he certainly didn't want to be considered to be giving preference to one more than another.

He made himself pay attention to the lesson in defenses that his mother had begun laying out as soon as it was clear no one else was joining them. Potential family trouble or not, this training really was important to him, and mending problems could wait until after the training. Sure, he was going to be primarily a hunter because that's what his family needed him as most, but he did want to be able to protect them if it came down to it and that meant paying close attention to these belated lessons.

As his mother wrapped up the lesson itself, she began assigning spar partners. Gryphon tucked the last of the information away in his memory, knowing he was unlikely to forget but also knowing that knowing what he was supposed to do didn't actually mean he would yet be capable of doing it. As she named him and his partner, his gaze followed hers to put the name to a face - Liar, the spotted yellowish male. Lykos had been assigned to the pup hiding behind Avalon, and Gryphon couldn't help but grin. "Good luck, Lykos," he quipped to his largest brother, standing and stretching before trotting off to the side to wait for his own partner, though he called back over his shoulder, "Looks like you're going to need it!"

-partial exit-