"Thanks for agreeing to train me," she said to Mercury as she walked with him out to the pack's training grounds, tossing him a grin. Her older memories of home were getting to be more clear and easy to recall, at least enough so that she could easily remember the tasks she tended to do back home or the jobs she was usually given. Protecting and fighting were not usually in her day to day life back then, but it appeared that was a more common thing around here or at least something that it felt like most wolves should be able to have at the ready. She wanted to be helpful to these wolves that had taken her in so readily so if this was a skill she could sharpen to be able to do a wider variety of tasks then she was willing to give it a go. They reached a flattened, cleared out area that had been marked off as a sparring ring and she stepped toward the center of it before turning to face Mercury again. "I've never really had any formal training in fighting—just enough to defend myself if any predators ganged up on us during hunting trips," she explained. "So... where should we start?"

"Anthea Dásos"

Mercury looked around the training grounds thoughtfully. He had spent a lot of time here since joining the Hallows. But it was the first time he had brought Anthea here. He had agreed to train the castaway, and had spent some time considering what direction to take her training.

As she stood before him now, he offered her a warm smile. She seemed to be almost fully recovered from her ordeal now. Ready and willing to mould her skills for the Hallows. “Let’s begin with the basics. Do you know all the defensive positions?” He asked, trying to gouge her current knowledge before he began.


"Mercury"

Mercury suggested they start with the basics, asking if she knew all of the defensive positions. "All of them?" she questioned with a cheeky grin. "I don't know about all of them, but surely some of them at least." She knew what he meant, figuring he was probably just trying to see how much she knew or how comfortable she was with her defenses, but she couldn't resist a chance to poke fun at him a bit. To give him a real answer to his question, she shifted into what had been functional defenses for her in her various scuffles with predators out in the forests of her former home–head lowered, ears back, joints bent a bit for mobility, and shoulders rolled forward with her hackles raised.

She was sure that wasn't everything she needed to know, but it had at least been enough for her to avoid the worst of some bear swipes on several occasions so surely she wasn't that far off. "I've never had to fight other wolves," she admitted. "I've only ever needed to defend our kills on hunts from bears, big cats, and such. Is there anything I need to know that's specific to fighting other wolves?" Her family and clan did have a set home they claimed as their own, but they were so removed from other groups that they never really had to worry about them infringing on their space or defending the land they had claimed. Here that didn't seem to be the case considering the size of the packs here and how close they were to one another so she wanted to be prepared.

"Anthea Dásos"

He gave a warm laugh at that. “Okay, ‘some’ of them are good.” He agreed, his voice a happy rumble. He watched as she fell into a stance. Shifting her weight as she lowered her head and flicked back her ears. Shoulders went forward, and hackles up. He walked a pace around her, eyeing her carefully. “Looks good, rock your weight back and forth a little, I want to see your balance” He said as continued to circle.

“Your a light build, so you’ll want to be moving a lot in battle.” He continued. As for her question… “Fighting a wolf can be a lot different from fighting a predator. If you're jumping into a fight, you have to be prepared to draw blood. Otherwise you’ll be easy prey” he said, thinking for a moment of everything he had lost already. He was glad Anthea had wished to learn to fight. It would be good for her to have some training to fall back on.

"Mercury"

Anthea could tell that Mercury was in his element as he began to move around her and examine her defensive stance. He had a seriousness about him, but not in a harsh way. He simply had an air about him that said he was a master at this subject and she respected that about him. She wasn't sure there was anything she was this assured about. As requested, she shifted her weight back and forth from foot to foot. Without him even saying anything she immediately picked out how uneven her stance actually was and she started to adjust it a bit, spreading out her footing more evenly and glancing down at her own paws as she figured it out and listened for any of his input. She nodded with understanding as he mentioned moving around a lot in a fight as something she should do as someone with a lighter build. That made sense and fell in line with how she had tended to approach fighting in the past.

She turned her two-toned gaze back over to Mercury as he answered her question about the difference between fighting other large predators and fighting wolves, listening as he mentioned how she would have to be prepared to draw blood to keep from being prey herself. She was about to quip back about how she had never shied away from it before with all of the bears that had tried to move in on their turf, but she stopped herself as she really thought about what he said. She'd have to be ready to hurt another wolf–someone just like either of them. Somehow that thought felt different than when she was biting the leg of a bear or chasing down a pack of coyotes. "It sounds like you have some experience with that," she commented with a curious glance.

"Anthea Dásos"

“Very good” He said warmly, watching the way she picked up her own weak points and began to shore them. He had a feeling she was a natural, and teaching her was going to be fun. The topic turned pretty serious as he gave her the main difference between wolf and predator. It took her a second, but she seemed to understand what he was getting at. Hurting someone who felt and thought the way you did wasn’t so easy as fending off a mindless predator.

“I’ve had to defend my people before. For all the good it did me.” He said, voice soft for a moment, his tone trailing off. With effort, he shook his head, clearing it, and circled Anthea once more. He couldn’t let them be drawn off track. “Let’s start with the dummy.” He said, heading to a corner of the training room and grabbing one out from the side. He pulled the mock wolf into the centre of the room. “Consider weak points, and easy targets.” He suggested.


"Mercury"