Of War and Warriors

After a few attempts at setting her stance, Tamsyn was certain that she at least could remember what this felt like so she could continue to practice later. It still wasn’t a natural stance for her, but she knew how to do it and for now that’s what was important. It earned her a small, simple praise from her teacher which pulled a smile to her muzzle. She decided that focusing on small accomplishments was going to be the only way she was going to be able to look at the daunting task of learning how to fight and not get overwhelmed. The fact that even just learning how to stand was a thing she had to practice told her that much. She was determined though and refused to let herself give up.

His next task for her made her more uncertain than the last, but did her best to not think about it too much or second guess herself. She figured that the more she over analyzed what she was going to do the worse it was going to be. The more her nerves got in the way the more hesitant her moves were going to be. Instead, she tried to do as he said and just test her instincts. Using the grip her paws had on the sand underfoot, she made her lunge toward him. She darted off to his right side a bit, keeping her body mostly out of reach while she kept low to the ground in an attempt to keep her balance as she moved quickly across the soft surface. She went to bite at his ankle as he suggested, stopping as soon as her teeth grazed his skin so she wouldn’t actually bite him before taking a quick step back away from him. She was a bit clumsy falling back into that defensive stance, but she settled into it eventually. She didn’t feel nearly as steady or graceful as she had seen some fighters be, but she didn’t feel like she had done horribly either so it didn’t feel like the worst first “attack” she had ever done.