It amused her and worried her how much some of their children were taking after their father. Even from this very young age their sense of adventure was unmatched and their strong desire to poke their noses into things they shouldn't was unparalleled. It honestly reminded her very much of her memories of Artorias in their youngest days and it made her chuckle as she watched them explore their world. She and Artorias both had been sure to instill a strong focus on learning into all of them from day one, but with so much happening around the castle so soon after their birth she hadn't had much of a chance for one on one lessons with them. Today she carved out the time among the chaos to spend some time with Thorn, curious to see what what fun they could get into together.

She brought her boy out to the training grounds that stood just outside the castle courtyard, giving him a bit of a grin as they walked. "I have some ideas for what we can work on, but is there anything in particular that you've been wanting to try?" She knew that Thorn in particular had taken quite a liking to the idea of having a sword like his father and she wasn't exactly the best one to be teaching him anything in that skillset, but she was still a capable fighter just like Artorias so she could cover just about any other topic the boy might be curious about—even if she tended to find more interest in more intellectual pursuits usually. She didn't think that a pup as young as him would find strategy and diplomacy all that interesting just yet, but maybe he'd surprise her!

"Briar Carpathius"

Thorn was excited to get some personal time with his mom.  His parents were the leaders of the pack and really important so he understood they were busy.  Still, understanding it wasn’t the same as not wishing for more time with his mom.  Thorn kept stride for stride with mom, energy ready to burn.

Thorn hadn’t considered coming up with any specific plan of what to train on.  Well, if this was with dad it would have obviously been about swords in Thorn's mind but mom wasn’t a sword wielder.  “Well, what were you thinking of?” What if he said he wanted to do something and mom had something even better in mind?  “I,” Thorn paused pondering how to phrase the next part, “I don’t know what the most important part to learn is. I need to learn how to ..” an idea occurred before he could finish, causing the tail to thrash in the air a moment, “I want to make sure I bite or cut right where I want to.” That had to be important, right? “If I miss and just bite or slash the air then that gives the other opponent a chance to hurt me first, right?” Opponents moved, every pup that ever tussled knew that much.

It sounded good! Still, “unless you got something better?” Thorn stood facing his mom, looking up at her, hoping she liked his idea whether or not she knew a better plan.  The boy wanted to become a great fighter as fast s he could.  Then he could fight with mom and dad if an enemy came.  He also just imagined looking cool with a sword strapped to his back to walk along with.  How neat it would be to go on adventures and be able to beat anyone who challenged him.  His imagination was filled with all sorts of wonderful things.  None of which at this point included the grim realities that could come in fights.  

"Thorn Carpathius"

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"

It was great to hear mom confirm his idea had been a good one.  He knew it was important to attack the enemy and win but the most important parts to focus on right now had been a less certain matter.  Bright-eyed he watched mom get into her defensive stance.

Bobbing his head as mom speaks Thorn stays a rapt listener, trying to soak in all the information.  What he hadn’t expected was a lesson not missing the target to become about avoiding attacks and yet somehow making sense.  He had to focus on defending while attacking which would make attacking that much harder.  In his mind, the logic spun in circles.  Aim to bite so pay attention to defense while attacking and yet avoid the incoming attack.  When he sparred with friends and siblings it was just all about who pinned who or got the best bite in and such but it seemed there was a lot more strategy in it.

When mom wanted him to actually attack Thorn’s tail swished back and forth twice quickly.  “OK, no problem!” Hearing it all was good but all the better to practice!  Practice was also more fun.  Thorn bobbed a nod, determined not to miss, then charged in a few puppy strides, to come at mom from her ride side, biting at the back part of her lower leg.  Even as he attacked part of his mind was trying to decide if he was going to dodge or block whatever attack she made to be prepared.

"Thorn Carpathius"

Briar grinned at her son's enthusiasm and she prepared herself for his attack—though not too seriously. He was still a pup and still very much learning not only how to fight but also how to fine tune his movements. She didn't want to discourage anything he tried and didn't want him to feel like he didn't have a chance to hit her. She got into a defensive stance for him though as if this was a real fight and watched as he bounded forward, holding still until the very last second. As he reached for her leg, she pulled it out of his reach as she reared back a bit, feeling his sharp puppy teeth lightly graze her silky fur. As she came back down, she aimed to land with her front paws on either side of his smaller frame and reached down to try and grab his scruff between her teeth. She made sure to leave him a gap where he could escape around her legs and she didn't rush as quickly as she might have in a real fight, giving him a beat to think about what was going on and try out some ways of how he might want to handle the situation.

"Briar Carpathius"

Thorn’s bite missed to no one’s surprise since she had already said that was the plan.  His eyes watched as mom’s boy got out of the way and how she was coming back towards him.  Block or dodge?  Could he really block mom?  She was bigger and heavier than she was.  Thorn was fast, at lest for a pup, and with the idea, he almost went with the obvious answer of dodging.  This was practice though!  

Thorn suddenly remembered pinning your ears back was a thing so he flattened them and hopped up on his hind paws trying to snap his teeth at mom’s muzzle as it came down.  It was surely safer to just get out of the way but this was the best time to try something riskier.  Thorn bet this would work even better with a sword in his mouth.

"Thorn Carpathius"