The darkness of night made the training grounds have a different sort of air to them. There was something about being out this late at night that made everything feel that much more quiet and just a bit spooky. The way the shadows stretched out from the mannequins that dotted the sandy training area and how dark the area around the barracks was made her regret coming out here so late. The only reason she had even considered it was because she felt like she might be able to come out here and put in some time training without worrying about having anyone watch her try and fail. She had the general premise down now, but she just needed to get used to the motions of it all... At least that's what Tamsyn had told her. Repetition and practice - that's what she needed. She situated herself in front of one of the mannequins and for a little while she just practiced quickly falling into that defensive stance Sirius had taught her before eventually moving on to trying to launch a few of her own attacks at her stationary target. That was the part she was having the most trouble with. Nothing about it felt natural or easy or like she was doing anything right, but she was trying. She tried again and again, landing bites and swipes at the fake wolf's neck and legs until the feeling of her teeth catching onto something began to feel a little less strange. She had hardly been allowed to hunt, much less fight, so actively attacking anything felt so unusual and not entirely pleasant. Repetition, that's all she needed. Again, again, again. It was a silent mantra she continued to tell herself as she practiced and studied on her own in the light of the moon. "Speech"

Naiche had planned for some night practice himself and had wandered towards the beach and sparring ring, but had stopped before he could clearly see the wolf who was practicing.  He could hear the soft sounds of her biting the targets in between the soft hush of the waves.  This was a dark night and so it was more a silhouette than the form of a wolf he watched moving.  It was probably larger than him, but definitly not one of the giants.  He had to get closer for her scent as salt in the water always seemed to hide other scents.  Once he caught the scent of her though he felt somehow both like groaning and excited all at once.  This was a thing he needed to do more than desired to do. Naiche walked up silently, watching her movements both when attacking and when resetting herself and her focus.  It was still hard to catch all the details well but closer in the more things became obvious.  After one of her attacks, he strode closer and with less deceptive hiding, "You're improving. It is harder to get a natural feel for things on those lifeless targets." Naiche kept his tone casual, trying to get into a brighter part of  the fighting ring, at least where the shadows weren't playing so many tricks as to what was real. "What do you say? Would you like a real target? A light spar?" There was still a faint scent of blood from his right shoulder.  The golden wolf had bathed to get the dried blood off but it had oozed a bit more afterwards.  Naiche was fairly certain it was fully closed by now.  He would wait a few more days before asking Sirius to a fight, but she was a rookie who could hardly fight inatimate objects and he wanted to show Tamsyn he could do better.  Naiche imagined it would really still be his havign to control his own attacks to not play rough.  Somehow it always seemed he was fighting large and aggressive things. Speech:"Live to fight" Think

She really hadn't been paying attention to her surroundings after a while and that was her own fault. She'd been very careful to check and see if anyone was around before she started and had incorrectly assumed that no one would be up and about at this time of night. Between one of her practice attacks a hint of movement out of the corner of her eye caught her attention and made her jump a little from surprise, but once her gaze could dart over to see who it was she relaxed a bit and sighed from exasperation. Naiche. Of all the wolves she didn't want to find her practicing it would certainly be him. She still hadn't fully forgiven him for his judgement and harshness the last time they met, even if he had apologized. She straightened her stance and turned to look at him as he spoke, a little surprised to hear him tell her that she was improving. As much as she didn't want to admit it since it was coming from him, having an outside perspective on the work she was doing was actually helpful since she wasn't sure what she was doing wrong and what she was doing right. She gave him a slightly skeptical look when he offered to spar with her. She couldn't figure out why he would want to spar with a "fearful weakling" like her, but she also couldn't deny that fighting with someone who could fight back would probably be more beneficial than continuing to practice on this mannequin. The smell of blood also didn't get past her, the scent being something she was a bit too familiar with, but in the darkness she couldn't really tell where he was injured or how badly. Whatever kind of wound it was it clearly didn't stop him from wanting to spar so it must not be too bad. "Alright," she agreed after a moment of thoughtful silence. Just like with her practice, she just reminded herself that fighting with someone was just something she had to get used to. Repetition and practice. Again, again, again. She moved over to one of the open practice arenas that wasn't obscured with one of the mannequins so that she could square off against her new opponent. Falling into her now fairly familiar defensive stance, she watched him carefully and waited to see what his first move would be. For once she actually felt ready and really wanted to prove to him that she was more than he made her out to be. Her amber eyes stared him down with a firm intensity that she wasn't used to feeling, but that she couldn't say she disliked either. "Speech"

Naiche moved to a suitable distance away, easily moving into a defensive posture.  Trial and error certainly did help him learn what was best for him.  He felt his shoulder muscles pushing into the ground like a springboard, ready to be released.  His tail was out for balance in tight turns, ears flat and neck curved so his head was a bit lower to protect the neck. She wasn’t thrilled by her company, that was fine.  Maybe fighting someone she disliked would help stoke that inner fire.  “I’ll let you start, lets see you attack the moving target.” Naiche wanted to attack, he wanted to fight hard with all his ferocity.  He had fought so many large predators and monster-sized wolves, that was when the rush came over him the best. Not this time.  Naiche would control himself.  He couldn’t be over intense or try to hard to destroy the wolf when it was a rookie.  Hopefully, she was better than he expected so he could fight harder.   Speech:"Live to fight" Think

Rhona was certainly more comfortable with being on the defensive side of things, but that clearly wasn't going to be the case for the first round of this fight. He invited her to make the first move to see her hit a moving target and her ears flicked uncertainly before they settled back down against her head. She refocused herself quickly which her head tucked down over her throat, balance set with her paws evenly spaced, and muscles coiled and ready to spring. The only thing that comforted her was that she was certain his opinion of her couldn't go any lower than it already was so it wasn't like she could really make a fool of herself. The only thing she could do was reaffirm what he already thought or prove him wrong... she really wanted it to be the second option. She made herself finally release the energy built up in her legs as she sprang forward toward him, using long strides to close the distance between them as quickly as possible. The moon cast enough light on them for her to make out his form and she could easily see any movements he might make, but it was still more difficult to make out smaller details until she was closer to him. It made her grateful that at least it was a clear night out so what little light they did have didn't have a chance to be obscured. It wasn't really a fact that she had realized until she was nearly on top of him, but she was in fact a bit taller than him and her build was a tad more filled out than his own. Somehow this realization shocked her since he had seemed so imposing before that she hadn't even bothered to notice their difference in stature. Rhona attempted to connect her shoulder with his chest as she got within close range of him, deciding to try and take advantage of her slight difference in hight as she went to reach over and around his neck to attempt a bite at his scruff. She tried to move fast before he was able to dodge, but she was also fully committed to the movement so one way or another her teeth were going to either close around the thicker fur and skin there or they were going to snap closed onto nothing. non-judged spar, round 1/2? "Speech"

Naiche had been focusing on learning how to use his speed in fights instead of attacking as of he had the strength of the more muscled or larger wolves.  When Rhona came to attack he had already been readying himself to dodge.  He pivoted and jumped backwards to avoid her attack.  The first dodge tended to be the easiest as most wolves still seemed to expect a matching attack.  Dodging was easier at night than attacking as well, only needing to avoid something versus a precise mark when lunging in. The counter attacks were always the trickier ones.  He thought of running past and going for the back leg, it was a new favorite tactic but instead he would give her an easier attack to respond too.  This was about winning but also about making her better which meant building her up both in thinking up strategies and confidence.   Naiche lunged in to bite at her front leg and aimed to lunge back out. Fortunately the front leg was directly below the white part of her chest to make it easier to spot its location in the night.  He would give her a closer target with his head near hers, but only for a moment.  That was the plan, but to be honest she got an extra heartbeat of time in there as his front shoulder complained about the fast pivots and dodging being pushed into it.  Would she dodge in time? The attack was fast enough but maybe she could read it? Would she attack back in time? He wasn’t slow but certainly not at his top speed now.  Damnit. Non-judged spar: 1/2 Speech:"Live to fight" Think

Rho's teeth snapped closed onto thin air as Naiche jumped back out of the way of her attack and she was quick to land back into her starting stance as her eyes tracked him to see where he went next. It was a little harder to make out the fine details of his attacks in the low light of the moon, but she could at least see his form well enough to see when he got close to put in his counter attack. Her heart was pounding in her chest and she felt hyper focused, but she was almost glad that was the case. It made her a little jumpy, but at least she was able to react quickly as soon as she saw him doing anything. Even though she was paying close attention and she was fast, he was still faster. She tried to hop back out of the way the same way he had done, but her back paws slipped a bit on the shifting texture of the sand and it made her stumble a bit in the process and left her leg within his striking distance. Her stumble distracted her from the task at hand for a split moment and with her gaze shifted away from him and turned toward the ground to catch herself, she felt his teeth connect with her skin and it send a momentary, instinctual panic punching into her system. The feeling made her muscles tense and her teeth grit together as her eyes darted back to him and she immediately lashed out without fully thinking through her attack. She brought her opposite leg up toward his shoulder, unknowingly the injured one since she couldn't see the details of his form in the dark, and aimed to shove against him with a small hop to put her weight into the motion. That blind panic sent her adrenaline into over drive and she didn't really even think about it as a counter attack as much as just wanting to get him away from her as quickly as possible. Whether she was successful in her shove or not, she quickly stumbled back from him and fell into her protective, defensive stance as she panted lightly and watched him with wide eyes for a moment before blinking and realizing what had happened. The realization made her look away from him to stare at the ground, her ears folding back and jaw tensed. Damn it. Non-judged fight: 2/2 "Speech"

The bite connected! Winning always excited Naiche even in a fight he expected to be easy.  It was a pure addiction that he loved. However even as he was letting go Naiche got a surprise that caused him to stumble back.  The pounding in his shoulder made it guarantee of what had connected.  Well, damn it.  Naiche gritted his teeth and noticed she didn’t try for another attack but simply went for defense.   Naiche went with a different type of attack this round.  The young wolf had mostly stopped doing frontal charges once he figured out that going for the legs and moving fast was better for him.  However this time he came charging at her, lunging up and aiming to bite at the neck.  While he moved fast, if he connected the bite to Rhona she’d find hardly any pressure would be put on.  This was a spar with a nervous novice. Once the attack was over, whatever happened he would back off, step a few paces away and sit down.  It was a short fast little spar for both of them to see how she was doing in learning to fight.  Naiche shifted his weight a bit so that the weight on his front end was primarily on the opposing shouler to the injured one.  “If a fight is still going on, you really don’t want to choose that as a time to look away.”  He kept the tone suggesting this time, instead of the insulting he would of likely used on their last conversation.   Speech:"Live to fight" Think

In the moment when she had looked away from him in her own embarrassment and shame, she barely noticed his form darting toward hers again and only saw the moment out of the corner of her eye at the last second. She instinctively ducked down out of the way, feeling his teeth brush her fur, but they at least didn’t fully connect this time. This wasn’t how she had wanted it to go. She thought she was ready, especially since her spar with Aslatiel hadn’t made her react this way, but he had pulled a completely different reaction from her - one she hadn’t been prepared for. She watched as he shifted away and settled on his haunches and she followed suit, leaving a decent bit of space between them for her own peace of mind. Her eyes were fixed on the ground when he spoke, unable to shake the frustration and fear she felt. It wasn’t even directed toward him - it was all internalized toward herself. Her own instincts and reactions had gotten the best of her… All of the unaddressed trauma and doubt came blazing to the surface before she could do anything about it. "I know,” she replied in a short, aggravated comment before hearing the frustration in her own voice and sighing, her ears folding back. She still couldn’t look at him, but she at least appreciate that his comments felt more like feedback and less like an attack and she didn’t want him to feel like she didn’t notice. ”I'm sorry, it’s not you, I just…” She hesitated uncertainly, wondering if Naiche was really the right outlet for her to express her fears to. He was the only one around so she wasn’t sure if she had much of a choice, but she decided to just get it out in the open while it was still fresh on her mind instead of letting herself bury it down under her emotions again. ”The feeling of your bite reminded me too much of when my former mate would attack me,” she explained softly, her claws digging into the sand under her feet. ”It just put me back in that place and I… I just shut down, so… I’m sorry.” "Speech"

Naiche listened and struggled with keeping professional versus telling her how he felt about it.  She should grow up and get over herself.  She was trying and yes that was worth something but this pointless fear needed to get done and over with. It sounded like the right thing to him but was aware that wouldn’t get the reaction Tam wanted him to work for.  So what was the right answer?  The good news was trying to puzzle that out was helping to keep agitation away from his face replaced something more of focused concentration towards his thoughts. “Ok, well you still managed to dodge the last blow, and you did strike out when scared which is better than freezing.” There, he found some good compliments to say! They were true also versus mindless sympathetic dribble.  “If the fear is what is holding you back the two of us need to decide the best way of working on that specific detail.  If the best way is a straight up fight or focusing solely on your defense or your offense.  The defense could help you have to face it more until you are accustomed to it.  But offense could help raise your confidence so you don’t need to fear it as much?  I’m new to the whole teaching thing, so do you have a preference for how we move forward?” Naiche wasn’t sure if that was the best route or not but at least he was again not getting angry at her, admitting he wasn’t sure, giving her an opinion and probably freaking her out.  Tam had said to both help her improve and get to know her right? This should help in building trust right? If she broke down over something he said in there Naiche would be at a loss as of what to do. Speech:"Live to fight" Think

She had been so sure that she had thrown the entire spar away with her own short comings, but when he pointed out that she had dodged the last attack and had at least attacked back in her attempts to get him away from her. She tentatively brought her eyes back up to him, watching him uncertainly for a moment. Everything he said was surprisingly constructive and in a way she kind of appreciated how he forced her to think about a solution rather than trying to console her. Coming from him at least any sort of sympathy would have felt strange and she could just be grateful that his comments weren't as biting as they were last time. For a moment she considered the two options - defense or offense. Defense felt safer and more familiar and most certainly would be easier to continue from what she knew already. If she was just going off of what her protective walls and fears were telling her then that was with out a doubt the route that she would want to go with. However, after that slip up she felt like she had something to prove. She wasn't sure if learning how to fight was really the way to make her get over her trauma, but it was the only tool she had readily available so it was the one she was going to lean on. She wanted that confidence. She didn't want the lingering memories of what Osmond had done to plague her forever. There was a small stretch of silence before she finally spoke and she lifted her head as she did, remembering what he had said the last time they met about how she held herself. "Lets work on offense. I've practiced defense ten times over at this point... It's the attacks that I'm still really unsure about." It wasn't going to be easy, but that's what Aslatiel and Sirius had both told her, wasn't it? All of this was going to be incredibly hard and nothing she could do would really prepare her for just how hard it really was, but she was willing to put in the work. "Speech"

It was dark and some small details could be hard to read, but whether it was that extra bit of moon that showed on her for a moment or just the change in her demeanor that made it so obvious Naiche liked what he saw when she raised her up with her answer.  The way the fight had ended the yellow wolf couldn’t label her confident by any means, but she at least was looking at him now instead of the ground.  A small curve of a smile was put on his face, though no words came forth right away with the smile.   So they would work on her offense?  Was there any way to do that besides just letting her attack him, someone else, or the targets?  Naiche looked up at the night sky for a moment as if to find answers for what was next. After that moment he looked back to Rhona, “Alright, first thing.  The spot in my shoulder where you accidentally kick me? Be sure not to hit that again please during this.  I got injured a bit earlier and the wound just finally closed up.” Which is of course why he had chosen to spar at night. “Before you start attacking let's do some strategizing.  Tell me the key differences between us that matter in a fight, and the best ways to put those to your advantage.  If you aren’t sure, guess.  Better to have a plan of action even if nots the best, otherwise you might hesitate questioning yourself.  Confidence is big in battle, and in planning battles.” Naiche spoke like he’d been doing this for so long of course.  Could a few months count as a lot?  Tam had done this during her training session with all the wolves that one time, asked them to figure things out.  So he'd try it also. Naiche was feeling more confident with this the longer they did it.  Was this the best way? Probably not, but he would learn and get better as surely as he had with fighting.  Removing the belief that she would be worthless and putting in the requirement she had to learn Naiche was having to look at how to solve the puzzle from a different angle.  They would see in time if Tam was right that she could become better.  Either way it was kind of fun trying, imagine if he could make another wolf stronger?  It seemed a pretty great feat in his mind. Speech:"Live to fight" Think

Rhona gave him a bit of a guilty smile when he mentioned that she had somehow managed to hit his injured shoulder during their spar and nodded in agreement that she wouldn't do that again. Then he went on to pose a few questions to her all about strategizing and how she might size him up to look for advantages. She looked at him thoughtfully for a moment and tried to piece together what she might be able to point out. Figuring out what was good information to know for a fight was a little out of her realm of knowledge, but there were some things that seemed pretty obvious. "Well, I'm a little bit taller than you," she noted. There wasn't a huge height difference, but she had definitely noticed those few inches when they were in close quarters together. "So that might be good for trying to get over you to over power you. But you're lighter and faster than me so I'd have to try and keep up with you to do that." A thought crossed her mind and she couldn't help the little smirk that pulled at her lips, the humor surprising even herself. "If I was really trying to find advantages I'd just target that iffy shoulder of yours, but... I'll be nice." She grinned a little and giggled, her tail wagging gently as she gave him a genuine smile for the first time. "Speech"

Naiche was of course suggesting her figure out strategy when he was still learning to think more about strategy as well.  The golden wolf didn’t exactly have years of experience in strategic planning.  Naiche waited with as patient a look as possible while she worked things out.  It is easier to be patient now in both that she was clearly trying and Naiche’s mind was thinking through strategy in teaching and in her fighting at the same time.  That was more than enough to try and think through that he just didn’t have the ability to focus on anything else. “Sounds good to me.  I’m still learning so there might be better strategies I don’t know of, but yes all of those ideas sound good.” Naiche gave a toothy grin adding with a mildly darker tone, “Of course, some attacks can be riskier than others, like attacking areas where a wolf was already injured.” He didn’t say she shouldn’t do it and truly it was good in some areas, but he had to make a comeback to her statement. “During a fight you won’t get many chances to think about it.  After a fight its never just did you win or lose.  Think over it to make sure you learn as much as you can.” Also maybe if she thought enough about fighting with strategizing what happened she would water down whatever memories haunted her that fighting caused.  Was all of this overly obvious? Did any of it really even help or just keep the battling?  He could always ask Rhona further down the line what she found most helpful.  Naiche wasn't used to talking so much! Speech:"Live to fight" Think