Do you remember when rain used to fall from these skies?

Lightly stretching Valdís peered out across the flattened area she'd managed to find climbing a bit lower than her den site.  She'd be relishing in her new found packhood.  Meals came easier and there was a certain sense of security in knowing she had a group of wolves that would back her up should she run into any trouble.  However, now it was time to get to work.  Work beyond the simply act of patrolling for the young woman had been bitten by ambition and it was spreading rapidly through her being.  She had lofty goals, goals to become one of the best fighters in the pack and she'd fixed her sight on the rank of Warlord.  Warlord Valdís.  It had a ring to it.  First though she needed to start getting some practice in.  Tipping back her head Valdís called for her pack mates.  She wanted to spar with someone and she really didn't care who it was at this point as long as they could fight.  One on one or melee she was down for anything to get her warmed up and ready for the day.

Stretching as he came out of his den, Chaos was startled to see his owl friends had resumed their perch in the tree outside. He'd been starting to wonder if they'd gotten tired of following a wolf around and found something else to do, yet here they were. "Where have you two been hiding?" he asked chidingly. Heecha swiveled his head around to stare at Chaos in that disconcerting manner owls had, but Sgili just clacked her beak at him lazily as though to say 'none of your business, chick'. Chaos stuck his tongue out at her playfully before trotting off down the mountain path. The owls went back to sleep.

He tilted his head to the side in interest as a voice called challenging over the pack lands. Aw, little Valdis, showing the older wolves what's what. Well, he was actually the pack's only other dedicated fighter in addition to being the alpha, so maybe he ought to go put the effort into seeing where her skill levels lay. As much as he enjoyed fighting, Chaos was surprisingly reticent about sparring with wolves he knew and liked, generally. His teeth did a lot more damage than an ordinary wolf's, so he had to hold back to keep from seriously injuring his opponent. It just wasn't as much fun to fight if you couldn't really sink your teeth into it. But Valdis needed someone to test her and challenge her to see if she was ready for a higher rank, and he was the wolf to do it. He would just keep his fangs to himself.

Trotting into view of the flat little area, Chaos grinned at the smaller, younger female. "Hey Val," he greeted with a flick of his tail. "I heard you calling. You looking for a training session, or just a tussle?" She was her own best judge of her readiness right now, after all, since he'd never even seen her fight.

Do you remember when rain used to fall from these skies?

Valdís stretched lightly as she waited for someone to answer her call. As far as she knew everyone in the pack could fight so she would've been happy with anyone though she felt a bit of pride when it was the alpha himself who answered her call. There was also a twinge of nervousness as her emerald gaze rested on his over-sized canines. Getting bit with those would really suck not to mention there was the added nerves of wanting to prove herself and her skills to this man in particular.

"Hello Chaos! Both actually. I was hoping for a lesson as well as a fight. I may be young but I'm fairly well-trained. I have my basics down but I'm ready to advance."

A grin at her enthusiasm passed over his features before they settled into thoughtfulness. "Hmmm, a lesson and a spar... Well after you know the basics it's mostly a matter of practice but I'll see what I can do." His muzzle and face contorted in comical grimaces of pretend thought, but he really was thinking fast behind all the joking. He'd never taught anyone before, and he was actually rather at a loss as to what he should teach someone who was already past the basics. His gaze wandered to the rocky ground surrounding them, and he grinned suddenly. "How about learning to use the terrain to help you in a fight?"

Valdís nodded as he stated that it was mostly a matter of practice after getting down the basics.  She supposed he had a point.  She did hope to practice more creative combos but that was really just down to practice and finding the limits of her own body in various situations.  As he stated that she could learn to use the terrain to help her fight she nodded eagerly, her tail wagging. "Oh yes!  That sounds excellent.  I want to be able to fight on all kind of terrain.  I wouldn't want to miss out on any raiding."  Valdís winked at Chaos, not knowing if that was really something that would come into play within Crew but it did bring another thought to her mind. "It also might be helpful if I get in trouble while trying to… what was it, count coup?  Say Chaos why do you want us to count coup anyway?  Seems like it might stir up an awful lot of trouble for us encroaching on other packs territories and we're still so small." "Talk" "You" Think

> Pausing in the act of prowling around the small clearing and arranging rocks and logs, Chaos glanced back at the young pack member thoughtfully. He didn't get serious very often anymore, falling back to his mother's time-honored tradition of joking and sarcasm rather than open up enough to be serious, but the kid had been one of the first to join up with his Crew. If anyone deserved his serious, it was the Crew who supported him. "Well, the short answer, the one that I'd tell other packs, is that it's fun, and the other packs need their noses tweaked. But the long answer, and the one you deserve to hear because you're one of the poor idiots who chose to put up with me, is this. Whether or not we are small, or not close knit yet, or any of that, I'll see us start the way I mean to go on as we do grow. You're a bit young to remember him, but my dad was an alpha way back, and there's no pack here now that comes even close to what Imperium was, and no alpha here who could ever hope to be his equal. Not even me - that's why I'm not even going to try to be like my dad. I have to do things my own way. But one thing I saw when he was alpha was the way other packs treated Imperium. They knew from the start just by hearing the name that we shouldn't be messed with, because Imperium had a reputation. If you don't have that, that reputation, you're just a target, because the other alphas, they'll cling to you and they'll use you until you're all used up. You let them get close, you say ok we're allies right, and they'll lick your paws and fawn over you and next thing you know you're doing all the hard work for them, hunting or fighting, because they don't have the balls to do it themselves and you let yourself play nice long enough for your own balls to shrivel up and fall off. You gotta set a hard boundary from the start and stick the line." Grunting a little, he used his hind legs to shove a big log into the space, surveyed it, then continued. "If we act big from the start, show our teeth a little and strut and piss on their borders, they're going to assume that we can back it up. Which," he added, leveling a look at her, "I have no doubts that we can, small or not. A wolf walks into your territory bold as brass and pees on a tree in the middle of your land, you might call their bluff if you're confident enough yourself and have the balls to chase them out. But if you're a clinger, a user, you might be cautious dealing with them. You might keep your distance from a pack with wolves ballsy enough to do shit like that, and by the time they realize how few of us there are and might think they can get away with bullshit, we won't be small anymore. So we show 'em, Valdis, we show 'em we're top dog here now and we don't take shit from anyone." ""

Valdís watched with interest as Chaos started arranging rocks and limbs in the small clearing. Already she was trying to imagine how she might use them in battle but it was still difficult. She was such a reactionary fighter, relying so much on muscle memory and instinct but she had a strong desire to improve in strategy and planning. She listened with interest as he explained the purpose of counting coup. The name Imperium meant little to her but she listened anyway. To her it sounded like Chaos had a lot of baggage that he was carrying around but she didn't question it, it wasn't her place and she'd take his word over that of the others. He was Crew after all, and her Boss. She continued to listen and then quickly nodded. It was starting to make more sense now but she wondered if she could really be intimidating enough to make other packs think twice about messing with Crew. There was also the fear of being alone on a pack border. She could not defeat an entire pack if they decided to attack her though she was sure she could take pieces of them with her. "Ok, I think I understand. I'm not sure if I'm strong enough if I get attacked but I'm pretty fast and pretty smart. I could probably run if I really had to…. though I can't say it's quite my style." She grinned. "So what do I need to know about fighting in strange territories? How do I make the land work for me?" "Talk" "You" Think

The previously clear little valley was littered with enough debris now to satisfy him for this bout, so Chaos settled himself down in front of Valdis a moment. It had somehow become very important to him in this moment to open up to the yearling, to help her understand him in some way. He'd never really felt the need to before. Before the only wolves who'd mattered to him had been his family, and they'd understood him from the start. He'd never had this need to explain himself to Rhys because she and he had always been around each other, and knew each other's foibles and abilities through long experience. But Crew had become almost as important to him as her, and they were coming into it pretty late in the game all things considered. As much as he was content to present a front to the rest of the world, to show them just the shallow, self-centered, fun-loving, impulsive dick, the wolves who had chosen to actually give him their loyalty and follow him deserved more than that. Well, he was all that, but he wasn't just all that.

"Yeah I don't want to get any one of you killed because you think you need to face down a pack of dire wolves in their own den all alone just to impress me, Valdis," he told her in complete seriousness. "I'd rather you run if you get in over your head, and I'd rather you take a partner or two with you if you're going to beard the dragon in his cave, you know? So that no matter what you still have backup." He smiled crookedly at her. "There's nothing wrong with retreat, not at all, and it doesn't take away from your prestige. There's always going to be someone who'll call your bluff eventually. The trick is to show them the retreat is your choice, and you aren't running with your tail tucked just because they said so. If you don't let them see that you're afraid, it won't matter if you are."

He tilted his head to the side to consider her question, though. "Now, unless they're really, really incompetent - and there are a lot of them that are, mind you, but it's better to assume they aren't even if you tell them they are - a pack wolf is going to know its territory better than you do. Our mountains, for instance, or Abaven's plains with all those damn snakes. We know the safe paths and how to move through them safely, and they know where the snakes are more likely to be and which ones are safe and which aren't. Defending is always going to be easier than trespassing. The trick is to turn that against them. They drive you into a dead end canyon, you kick off that wall and use that extra height to land on them, or over them, and you get your tail out of there. Improvisation and innovation when your terrain isn't in your favor, that's the trick. Your paws are sliding on pebbles, you kick that shit into their eyes as a distraction so you can move off them. Boulder? Hop up there and grab the high ground from them for an attack. You know?"

Valdís picked up quickly on the tone shift in Chaos voice as he spoke seriously to her, stating that he didn't want any of them getting killed for glory. She nodded, feeling a bit of a weight lift off her shoulders. She was a fighter and if she felt it was in the best interest of her pack then she sure as hell would face down an entire pack of dire wolves but only if it was for something that mattered. Showing off just wasn't it and she wasn't super heavy in build so may as well use her speed to her advantage anyway right? Backup made sense though part of her felt she'd just have to do the first one solo. Partly to prove to herself that she could do this unaided and as a way to get the initial shock over. Plus there was advantage in that it gave her more control of the situation if she didn't have to worry about looking after anyone else. She nodded and smiled. "Ok, got it. Retreat is my choice and they'll have to be pretty impressive to catch me anyway!" She listened intently, nodding occasionally, and fixed Chaos' words into her mind. Defending is easier than trespassing. mprovisation and innovation when your terrain isn't in your favor, that's the trick. She took it all in, note after note and finally nodded. "I see what you're getting at though I have a feeling this is something that will take practice. All that adrenaline in your head… sometimes makes it hard." In her battle training much of that had been muscle memory. Reacting instinctively, quickly, there was no time for thinking. She needed to figure out how to apply that same principle to the terrain around her. But how? Unless, Chaos had another way of approaching the issue? "Talk" "You" Think