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 Posted: Sat Mar 09, 2019 9:54 am
His den was small and out of the way, the perfect place for a bachelor who planned to come and go somewhat regularly. When he married, he would consider moving but for now, this was fine. It was, in fact, perfect for what they needed. Private, quiet and not someone their mother tended to visit.
"OK," he said, standing a few feet opposite Ylva, "You wanted to learn, you start us off. What do you already know?"
She was at a major disadvantage, having an opponent standing ready to react.. she would hopefully have the element of surprise in the future. But then again, he didn't actually want to get hurt if she did turn out to be a weird combat savant, so..
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Posted: Sat Mar 09, 2019 12:27 pm
To say that his den was small felt like an understatement. Her family had always been riding right along the middle of the line, so the had decent comforts that were slowly growing as their mother bargained for better things, and their father was finally beginning his career. But damn, it was tiny. She had laughed a bit, called it cozy, and for the moment they were about ready to begin her first lesson. If he didn't whip her in this skirmish too soundly, she'd help clean up his den and give it a little makeover.
She didn't want to be the only one of her siblings getting married, eventually.
"Um...don't trip?" she said with a laugh, then tried to straighten herself out and take this seriously. "It has to be something similar to the political spectrum. I just have to move physically than with words or subtle actions." Everything was a game, this one was just more apparently deadly than the slow, torturous exile of humiliation.
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Ecavi rolled 5 4-sided dice:
2, 1, 4, 4, 4
Total: 15 (5-20)
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Posted: Sat Mar 09, 2019 1:20 pm
(How hard is Haldor going to make this on poor Ylva, dice gods?)
(wow, OK)
Haldor stared at Ylva thoughtfully when she compared it to politics. It probably would help her understand it but it didn't do much for him because he simply didn't get involved much. Not enough to be any good at it. If he needed to do something, he'd just get his mother to handle it.
Until he got a wife. Then she could handle it.
"Alright," he said, leaning down a bit before lunging forward, "Then move!"
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Safaia rolled 5 4-sided dice:
1, 2, 3, 4, 1
Total: 11 (5-20)
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Posted: Sat Mar 09, 2019 1:26 pm
Ylva was a little nervous now that they were to begin, but she threw herself into it whole-heartedly. It was the only way she was going to learn, and she did come from good, strong blood. She had enough faith in herself that she would learn through trial by fire.
"Let's get this started," she said with a smirk, attempting to rush her brother to get a blow on him. She wasn't going to hold herself back against a brother with far more experience, but she also was hoping that he wasn't going to go soft on her. She needed to learn and coddling wasn't how they were raised.
And as soon as she took more than a few steps, she quickly realized that Haldor could probably read every intention she had on her face, because she missed, horribly.
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Posted: Sat Mar 09, 2019 1:51 pm
Haldor was already on the move when Ylva tried to reach out and strike him. It wasn't the most cunning or graceful move but it got much closer than it probably should have- she did better than he was expecting, even when she failed. So it seemed he did have something to work with. He reached out to swat at her face, brushing against her nose only hard enough to make a point that she was too close and not moving fast enough.
"Watch your step," he said, "If you tell me what you're going to do, it won't work."
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Posted: Sat Mar 09, 2019 1:55 pm
Ylva laughed. "I will get my mask to work in fighting, just give me a moment of time." She knew that moment wouldn't come in this fight, but she didn't intend to only have one lesson in her life. She knew she would have many, but this would be the groundwork that she would build herself on. Her family was her's, and no rumblings within the pride were going to change that for her.
She felt herself flinch instinctively when he made contact with her. She felt herself throw her foreleg out without thinking about it, and was rather surprised when she felt contact with him. It was only his shoulder, but she would take what little victories she had to claw her way to success. Ylva was Creid's daughter, and no amount of anything in this world would change how little the apple had fallen from the tree.
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Posted: Sat Mar 09, 2019 2:17 pm
She hit his shoulder and he was pleasantly surprised, he even stumbled a bit. So.. they had established that he would hit her and that she could hit him.. that meant they could actually do this, then. It was easy to stay in teaching mode, even though he felt out his element here. He didn't want to hurt Ylva and he didn't know how to teach her except to fight.. so they would have to fight.
"OK," he said, backing up and starting to circle her, "You have to figure out what I'm going to do next while trying to figure out what you can do next. You're smart and most of us are pretty dumb, especially when worked up.. it can be dangerous but making your opponent too angry to pay attention can make a huge difference."
It might be what Ylva needed to do to get the advantage.. but that depended on if she was actually worried about fighting males.
"It won't work on me now, but I am distracted by trying to teach you things."
He couldn't show her some things. He had to talk. It probably wouldn't help him.
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Posted: Sat Mar 09, 2019 6:03 pm
She nodded to him, feeling a little too exhilarated at making contact. She took a deep breath as she listened to Haldor's advice, resetting her mind to focus back on reality. This was just a training test, but she knew that he wouldn't pull his hits much. She had to keep herself in the right mind set to learn.
"Right," she breathed, letting her paws tap a bit on the ground as she tried to get herself to really feel the earth. It felt stupid, but she was hoping that if she had a better understanding of the tactile grip of the ground, she may give herself a slight advantage against her brother.
The moment he was done speaking, she lunged forward, aiming for the section between shoulder and neck, where his mane naturally acted as protection. It seemed like a difficult but smart place to strike; knock him off balance. She was figuring out quickly, however, that she didn't know where the best place to target was, against either sex. A deep sound escaped from her throat when she felt her claws make contact.
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Posted: Mon Mar 18, 2019 8:27 pm
Ylva surprised him but actually landing a decent hit, and so near to a sensitive area, he even stumbled a couple steps. Muttering something under his breath, he grinned and prepared to really fighting back. He said what he needed to say and now it would come down to practice.
She aimed high so Haldor aimed low, to demonstrate the difference. He moved quickly from the stumble into a heavy swipe at one of her front legs. If he was really fighting, he'd aim for both and hope it knocked her over but just one could show her that.
"Good, good!"
They were awfully close together now, though.
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Posted: Sat Mar 23, 2019 7:26 pm
The movement that Haldor demonstrated was something she never would have anticipated. Sweeping of the paws seemed so foreign to her, so when Haldor smacked her leg, it crumpled under the pressure from his movement. She felt herself bend down, her left leg keeping her from falling face first into the ground. She knew that was only because of Haldor's movements and not her own. It was frustrating, but she wasn't going to give up.
She felt herself grunt as she switched her legs, picking her sore right leg up to hold her while swiping at an attach with her left. She felt herself make contact, but with as green as she was, she didn't know how hard of a hit it really did to her brother. She had known he was strong, but to test it herself had taught her many things about him.
"Rrrgh," she exhaled again, trying very hard to not let herself lose control of her breathing. It was much tougher to balance all these moving parts than the political game her mother taught her. That moved much slower than this situation.
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Posted: Sat Mar 23, 2019 7:43 pm
Haldor watched her stumble, shaking his head a bit at how easy it was to do despite himself. He was trying to teach her and she was trying to learn but it still felt so.. careless. Without knowing exactly what she was preparing for, he was left to assume the worst and so he wouldn't ease up.
He was distracted by his own good hit that he didn't even see Ylva's paw coming right at him- hitting him right in the face. If she had her claws extended or put real muscle behind it, it would have been a good hit. It was still enough to send him stumbling back a couple steps.
It wasn't necessarily a good tactic but it was a good lesson. Haldor regained his balance and reached out to swipe at her legs again. He wanted to know if she learned from his last hit, and to show it wasn't always going to be an unexpected move.
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Posted: Sat Mar 23, 2019 8:07 pm
She was so pleased about her hit, she completely blanked on paying attention. Ylva never thought she would land such a strong clean hit in her first duel, let alone the face. That foolish internal gloating would be her downfall. He swept her again, but this time he caught both of her forelegs and she went down. Hard.
She saw stars, and was not in any shape to attack again. She sloppily flailed a paw at what she thought was Haldor, but it was just a double image.
"Ugh. Ok. I'm done," she moaned, closing her eyes to let them rest. She just hoped she didn't look too much like a mess, or mother was going to be furious. Forget the fact that Ylva was sure any potential husband of her's would probably prefer she knew how to get around in a scuffle.
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Posted: Sat Mar 23, 2019 8:22 pm
It would have been too easy to keep going so Haldor stopped when she called an end to the fight. He hadn't been expecting such a dramatic tumble when he reached out again or he wouldn't have been trying quite so hard..
"OK, take it easy for a little bit," he said, stretching out the remaining tension in his body from the fight and then sitting down across from her, "Unless you're planning to start hanging out on the borders dueling newbies, I would never expect a fair fight. Sometimes the simplest things do the most damage."
He frowned, wondering again why she wanted to know how to do this.
"We can keep practicing," he added gently, "It gets easier."
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Posted: Sat Mar 23, 2019 8:35 pm
She kept herself laying on her back, slowly opening her eyes. She looked up and over at Haldor, and felt her world spinning just a little bit. Well, she could lay here for a bit before trying to get up. With how ridiculous she felt, she laughed.
"Are you kidding? Of course we're going to do this again. I'll tell Mom I'm doing this for myself, for her little pet project. She'll have to shut up then." Ylva took a deep breath, letting herself slowly unwind from the adrenaline rush.
"Just... give me a moment. I'll get myself going soon."
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Posted: Sat Mar 23, 2019 8:46 pm
Haldor considered suggesting that this could be kept a secret but kept his mouth shut. There was no way Ylva could sneak away to meet him and practice fighting for long without being noticed.. he wouldn't say anything and he'd just leave it up to her to figure out how to deal with it. Maybe their mother would come at him for teaching her, but he'd deal with that if he had to.
"Take all the time you need," he said.
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