All Outta Bubblegum (pup training)

Caelia snuck in as Gwen was speaking, but she didn't break off to scold her. She'd made it and that was the important thing. She wasn't going to make them think that being late just meant them getting in trouble - she'd rather them late than not be there at all. Caelia hadn't really missed anything major, anyway, and she was quick to pipe up with her answer, as were the other four.

Gwen tilted her head at Artur's question. "All animals have the same parts," she told them all. "Some in slightly different forms than others, but it can give you a decent idea of where to hit in a fight if you also know how to hunt, and visa versa. Keep that in mind as we're learning here, because even if you never do need to defend yourself, we all need to know how to feed ourselves." She tactfully didn't answer the question fully - the last thing she needed was to give the kids nightmares of their insides falling out.

"Ears are a good example," she continued, nodding towards her older daughter with a smile. "It's not going to kill someone to get bitten in the ear, but they're sensitive and easy to grab and hold. It takes a lot of willpower to pull away when someone's got a grip on one - you know it's going to hurt when it tears. It gives you a measure of control over their head as long as they aren't willing to risk that pain. That's why when you fight, you should always keep your ears pinned back against your head." She demonstrated, pinning her flame-tipped ears to her skull. "They could still grab them if they try hard enough but it makes it much, much harder and they're less likely to try when there's such a low chance of success for them. You've only got so much time and energy to spare in a fight - most wolves won't want to waste it if there's too much of a chance for failure."

"You've learned your first defense - this is one of the things that you will do in every fight, no matter the circumstances of it. In practice, especially if you're going to want to be a warrior, you're going to do it over and over again until it's second nature and you don't have to think about it. You don't want to have to think about most of your defenses, you want to do them automatically so you can think about other things, like the terrain or your opponent's movements. The seconds it takes to remember your defenses are seconds your attacker is going to take advantage of to hurt you."

She paused and glanced around, brows raised. "Questions so far?"