She had to get better. Sparrow needed to get better. How could she ever gain all the experience her siblings had if she didn't practice. With as much attention to detail as she had poured in to learning her herbs, she studied battle. Sparrow stood now, a short distance away from a small bush. She looped around it, imagining it to be another wolf. She didn't have the guts to throw herself into a real spar yet, but... With a smile Sparrow lunged at the bush, grabbing a few leaves before jumping back... but maybe soon she would be ready for a real spar. Whether her father was watching or not, Sparrow knew she needed to be able to fight harder and better than the others around her. She was small. She was a new fighter. She had to be better, faster, stronger. Sparrow jumped around the bush a few times, testing her balance. She practiced keeping one paw in the air- as if there was an injury- and asked herself how that affected her balance. For not it was bushes, soon it would be spars, and then... then she would face a real fight.

It was dry, but Lillianna still made her den in the rocks of the Rustling Thicket. She had spent too much time prepping it, and Farrym adored it when the sun was shining and he could lounge on the rocks. Of course, she loved it too. Right now the sky was partially overcast, so Lillie and Farrym wandered together in a comfortable silence, until a commotion caught Lillianna's attention. What... the hell? Lillianna blinked at the jumping wolf. What on earth was she doing? It was made a few moments clear when Sparrow circled around the bush; she was using it as practice! That was a brilliant idea! Especially if you didn't want to spar, or had no one to spar with. She was still annoyed and grumpy at Sparrow - she didn't like the girl at all, but whatever - but she would push that aside. Maybe an actual conversation would make it better. "Hey, Sparrow," Lillianna murmured casually, dipping her head to the female. "That's a good idea you have," she commented, jerking her muzzle at the bush. "I never thought about that."

As a voice called out to her, Sparrow froze, her ears shooting forward and a heavy blush covering her face. Suddenly, Sparrow was especially thankful for her fur. She turned to see Lillianna and quickly set about looking less frazzled. She wasn't sure why the girl was talking to her, but... whatever. Sparrow lowered her hackles as Lillianna spoke. She... thought it was a good idea? Sparrow looked to the bush then back at Lillianna, realizing she still had leaves in her mouth. She spat them out quickly, "Really? I just... we did it as pups some. I thought it might help without bothering anyone..." she admitted. Her mind raced. Why was Lillianna here talking to her? What did she want? What was her motive? Sparrow licked the side of her maw to collect a few loose blood droplets that had gathered from biting at branches, "How do you usually train when you can't- or don't want to- train with others?"

At first, the words sounded condescending to Lillianna, and irritation rose quickly. She squashed that down, however; not everything the wolf said had to be in such a tone... perhaps... perhaps she was hearing it wrong? She'd try to be civil, though. Besides, she completely startled the female and seemingly embarrassed her. Oops. She shook her head slowly to the words. Nope, never thought of that. The question made her head tilt, and she hummed thoughtfully. "I haven't really combat-trained by myself. But otherwise, I will try to go around other packs, and... get a feel for their borders, really. Try to guess the number of wolves, and whatnot. I underestimated the number of fighting wolves in Hellstrom that one time, messing up there. Instead of sitting and calculating just how many will fight, I just gave the raw numbers - well, of those 14 adults, only like... six fought. There were six pups, too, so I should have figured that there are 3 mothers, and possibly three fathers that would be unwilling to fight and would rather run, since it was... well, Hellstrom. But I didn't. So I try to work on that, now."