Moonspear 'Spar'Spearians

Korei hadn't practiced in a bit, since Hydra had given her combat tips. She wanted to spar again, just to practice more. She couldn't think of anyone who might be better to do so, though, except @Terance. He was always kind to her, and she thought that if she asked him, he would help her.

She viewed Terance as a valuable friend, and headed out to find Terance's den. Korei was a bit nervous to ask however, when she got there, quietly asking for him around outside. "T-Terance? Terance, a-are you about?"

terance usually preferred to sleep outside. he hadn't claimed any place as his own-- and certainly didn't dig himself a proper den. but, as it always did, winter proved to be cruel, and he preferred not to be buried in snow as he slept, so the redlead-disarrino boy took shelter in a rather large crevice in one of the cliffs closer to the center of the territory-- he assumed it was long abandoned, since no scents were there.

it didn't help his state of mind, either. it was so cold outside, and the den was so warm and dark. he could quite literally lay in the den all day undisturbed, letting his thoughts consume him-- and no responsibilities could harm him.

except one, perhaps, as it called to him from outside.

he raised himself from where he laid, slowly, letting out a soft boof to tell korei that 'yeah, i'm here'. he then poked himself out of the crevice and into the cruel, cold world, eyeing korei curiously. he never had a problem with her, but he'd never sought her out-- or vis versa-- he wondered what she wanted. he asked, "what's up?" as he was waiting for a response, terance bowed into a stretch, trying to loosen himself up.

Korei watched as he came out, and she backed up a bit to give him room to come out. "I was...well, Hydra had been teaching how to fight. And, you've been a good friend so far, so I thought..." she seemed to stumble over her words, she didn't like fighting very much. "Could you teach me a bit? Could we...spar?" she finally asked, trying to recall the word for it.

as korei bumbled on, terance stretched out his hind legs, eyeing her curiously as she finally made it to a point. korei, fighting? with him? woof, that would be interesting. he gave his coat a good shake before saying, "yeah, if you wanna." truth be told, he could use the practice, and though dainty little korei julia was hardly an opponent, it wouldn't hurt to at least brush up on some tactics. that being said, terance was not sure he'd be a good teacher, he was better at learning/teaching like he did with hydra-- which was just going at each other until something clicked. 'oh ya, maybe don't leave your stomach exposed!' or something of the other.

"right now?" he asked in clarification, ears cupping forward. he wanted to go back to bed, but... well, maybe he shouldn't go back to bed.

Korei nodded, not taking notice that Terance had just woken up, so he would still be rather tired. When he asked if she wanted to spar right now, she nodded enthusiastically. "I mean, if you can anytime today" she replied. Korei remained standing, facing Terance as she waited for a response for him. "So...that do we do to start?"

oh she meant right now. oof. terance nodded slowly as she offered up today-- they might as well do it now, since they were already here. so he nodded, ears pricking as she asked how they started. was there like, a method of starting a spar? just some playbows and... then they just went at it, he'd never had to explain that out loud before. he squinted, thinking.

instead of telling her, he let out a breath before bouncing past her, turning and falling into a bow, tail in the air. "you brace yourself!" he exclaimed, waiting for her to copy his own actions, a light growl rumbling in his throat.

Korei waited for a response, and almost jumped back when he went bounding past her, then going into a playbow. Her eyes followed him, then she followed his movements and got into a play bow, like she had with Hydra. She managed a smile toward Terance. She was glad that he had accepted. She thought this would be plenty fun, as she thought that Terance would be gentle in this spar.

Then, she got ahead of herself and made a pounce towards him, trying to knock him over like she had been taught to do.

sure, terance wasn't gonna totally wreck the girl-- but in comparison he was giant. when sparring with hydra he never even considered squishing her to death, she was well trained in the mercenary skill and could handle herself. but here, terance was beginning to wonder if he'd end up hurting her just by looking at her too roughly. 

he only had a split second to think about this, though, because here she came! surprised that korei had actually taken the first move (without any real initiative) terance was caught completely off guard. she collided with him, though he didn't fall completely, since korei really didn't have that much force and he was built like a rock. still, terance stumbled backwards a bit, surprised, but took the moment to nip at her muzzle, which was closest to his own jaws.

Korei tried to pull her head back when he nipped at her muzzle, but when she had slammed into Terance she had thrown herself off. She cried out a bit, stumbling back a bit and then falling onto her butt. Leaving herself open. She shook her head a bit, thinking that her move may not have been the best.

terance had nipped at her, but truthfully he didn't even need to counter. she'd managed to trip herself up, and when she retreated from her offensive she fell right onto her rump. had this been hydra, he would've never let her live it down-- there was absolutely no grace in her movements. but this wasn't hydra, it was korei, and terance was positive this was one of the few times she'd ever sparred.

but still, she had to learn sometime.

terance took this opportunity to leap forward, her stomach completely exposed, and tackle her. unless she managed to wiggle out of the way in time, terance would be over top her, pressing his nose beneath her jaw in a triumphant way. he wasn't going to use his teeth with korei-- not right now, that felt a little too vicious for what she was used to, and this was just a friendly spar, after all.

Korei was too stunned to see him coming at her, not till the last second. By then, it was just too late to move out of the way. She did lean one way, starting to push her paws off the ground, but Terance connected with her stomach. And being the sensitive little wolf, it hurt a bit. 

She kicked around, until she just stopped when Terance got his muzzle under her jaw, showing he had won. She let her legs go limp, tail thumping every now and then. "Um...so did you win?"

she flailed a bit, but terance held his ground. she stilled submissively, and as she asked if he'd won terance gave a quick nose snort of a laugh and raised his head to look at her, amused. "yeah, i won," he replied, tail wagging. it'd be a weird day when the wolf with their throat at the jaws of another wolf was considered victorious. 

still standing over her, he inquired, "do you know what you did wrong?" then, after a quick pause, added, "besides pick on someone twice your size?"

Korei couldn't help but feel something flutter inside, she couldn't tell if it was from being uncomfortable under Terance, or something else. When he laughed, she paused and just looked up at him, staring. Then she shook her head to clear it, when he posed a question, missing what he said before. 

"Uh....I-I went to try and knock y-you over?" she asked, flustering over her words a bit.

korei stumbled over her own words, confusing terance a bit. he didn't mean to come off as intimidating-- or mean, he hoped he hadn't. he stepped off of her, giving his coat a little shake. "kind of," he responded, gaze falling on her as he thought out his own response. she wasn't wrong in trying to take him down-- though he was a massive and far more skilled opponent in comparison, so it was sort of a rookie mistake-- but that wasn't all. "what did you think before you attacked?" he asked her, ears cupped forward.

Terance stepped away, and Korei rolled over onto her side when she was given room, but she kept her eyes on Terance as he posed another question. "That...that I could knock you over...And that you might go easy" she mumbled the second part.

terance grinned. "go easy??" he repeated, chuckling at the thought of that, "you don't learn if you're just handed freebies." which was true, dante never went easy on him... he was softer, but dante never let terance think that fighting would be simple. and it wasn't, it was dangerous and risky-- but it was necessary to protect, and terance had a lot he needed to protect.

"but yeah, see. first of all, i'm much bigger than you, and a lot better at fighting," he started, settling himself down to explain, "so attacking me is fine, but you can't just ram into me, cause i'm not gonna go down. and in situations with slow starts-- usually like spars, but sometimes you get little windows in battle to assess your opponent-- you gotta find their weak spot, and gotta go for that." he himself had a weak spot, a pretty obvious one too-- of course, he wouldn't just go blabbing that to the world... he didn't really want to have to say that korei julia, of all wolves, beat him in a fight. zues, he didn't think hydra would ever let him live it down.

"does that make sense?"

Korei shyly nodded. She did that quite a lot, depending on others to teach her. And she knew that others did not like that about her, sometimes. Terance went on to start explaining what she did wrong, what she could do, she just nodded. She never pictured him as quite the fighter...yet still so kind. 

When asked if that made sense, she nodded a bit slower. There was a rather long pause as she just stared, lost staring again before she gave her eyes a quick blink. "Thank you, Terry!" she thanked him enthusiastically, going up to him to pull him into a wolfish hug. One that may have lasted a bit long, but that was how Korei was.

she nodded, and terance hoped that meant that she was taking mental notes-- because he really couldn't tell if it was all going through to her or not. surprisingly, the next moment she was on her feet to embrace him, exclaiming some thanks as she wrapped herself around him in a wolfish hug.

wait. did she say terry? 

terance couldn't recall ever being called that before-- and it felt real foreign. it was like a weird pet name, but like, a weird pet name. he was big and strong and manly-- don't forget manly-- and terry just seemed like some old guy name... or... something. he preferred something cooler, like a simple and minimalist t, but he supposed it was sort of rude to just tell people their creative nicknames were garbage. sigh, oh well. 

he gave her a few taps with his paw, the hug lasting a hot moment longer than he had thought it would, but when she released he gave her a smile. "yeah sure, it's really no big deal... i just hope i'm being helpful."

Korei enjoyed the friendly hug, while it lasted then quickly hopped back when she felt the taps from his paw. She flet her face heat up a bit, and she looked away shyly. "Uh, yeah...but thanks, you're a great friend" she said, a huge smile across her muzzle and her tail wagging. Her face still felt warm under her fur.

"Do you...I don't know, maybe want to...spar again sometime?"

terance shrugged, like he didn't really believe her. he didn't, really, it didn't feel like anything crazy to him-- and especially with how weird he'd felt the past few weeks, everything she said sort of felt like a passing comment... for some reason. 

but he nodded to her next question. "yeah, if you want," he replied, giving her a soft smile, "maybe one of these days you'll be good enough o fight hydra properly." that wasn't true, he didn't think, but it was fun to suggest anyway.

Korei nodded, the thought of beating Hydra brought some sort of excitement, that and she would be able to show her worth. "Thanks" she said for the third time. She started to turn, but then quickly turned back and gave a quick lick on his cheek as thanks, before going to head off. "I'll see you again! Bye Terry!" she called back without turning around.

terance gave a quick nod to her thanks, standing again to head back into his den. she turned quickly and gave his cheek a quick lick before bolting off-- something terance didn't think twice on. whatever feelings korei was having, terance wasn't aware of, and wasn't really reciprocating. he watched her go, ears pricked, before letting loose a wide yawn and bumbling back into his make-shift den, away from the snowy outside.

he'd been plenty productive today, he decided, might as well sleep the rest of the day away. korei julia already far from mind.