Learning everything bit by bit

It was hard to keep the amused grin off of her features as Thorn struggled to put into words what he was thinking of needing to learn. He was obviously picking up a lot already from his lessons if he could identify the need to protect himself during the heat of of a fight and knowing that landing a well placed blow was important, but it just showed how much of a puppy he still was with how he struggled to put his thoughts together into coherent sentences. She gave a little shake of her head when he questioned whether she had something better, giving him a grin. "No, I think that's a good place to start. You're definitely right that a miss could give your opponent an opportunity to strike, but only if you let them." She began to get in a simple defensive stance as she continued to explain, ready to demonstrate what she was teaching along the way.

"You always want to be on the defensive—even when you're attacking. During an attack is actually when you're most vulnerable because your attention is on landing that bite or slash instead of watching what your opponent is doing and making sure your defenses are in place. That's why it's extra important to make your defenses your top priority until they're second nature so that you do them all the time without even thinking about them." She motioned with her paw for him to come toward her, adding, "Lets practice. You come and try to attack my leg. I'll pull out of the way and try to attack you instead and you show me how you'd dodge it or block me, okay?"

"Briar Carpathius"