She wandered through the woods, thinking over the last few days. Hunting with strangers, hunting with her pack. It was glorious. She loved it.
But there were always skills she should work on.

She sought Alison, hoping for a spar. She needed to practice and who better than the General? There were few ranks higher than her now, and Serem only got there because Vengeance wanted her to be, not because she proved a skill...well there was probably one particular skill she clearly did better.

Anyway, she wanted to spar. she had to get better to fight, to defend, to carry out her tasks as well as jobs; if any ever came. They should really promote more. Once the winter was over, she would.

As the days went by his failure ate at him, turned him bitter inside and had him distracted. He wandered constantly, grumbling and even poor Clay couldn't escape his bad mood for that long. He had just snuck away for a moment of privacy when he caught wind of Vanity. A good enough distraction and a wolf he had yet to really interact with, so he headed her way calling out a greeting as she came into sight. She seemed preoccupied so he slowed his pace and tried to think of a good reason he was bothering her. "Hey. Um...do you know how to fight?" it was all that popped into his head and he figured it made sense and actually wondered at the answer as he looked to her. 

A small voice resonated near her. Valour.
Her gaze turned to him, almost looking confused. "Of course I can. What about you?" 
Some learned young, and if Venny was doing anything right this kid would be able to know how to kill by now.

She turned to face him fully, her tongue sweeping out to lick her lips.
It seemed this one wanted to learn anyway. Perhaps proposed to her by Venny himself; her head tilted, studying the growing boy. He was growing pretty quickly it seemed, and looked to be big, but not as big as Venny by a long shot.
She smiled.

"What do you wanna know?"

She admired his truthfulness. Most proud pups would act like they never lost a fight, even if they bore the scars to prove otherwise. But she liked that he could admit he had lost, and knew he still had to learn.
She doubted Hela would think the same.

"Well, Venny clearly thinks you have some talent." Which must be some sort of mark on his CV, since Venny looked down on everyone. She smirked. 
"Well, I'll take you on your offer. What skills would you like to work on?" If he wanted to work on being a guardian, she'd be more forward or vice versa. She suspected he'd want to specialize in warrior; most pups did. Most wolves here she suspected did. 
But what he said made her want to teach him right there.
"But you must realize you cannot be taught to get out of everything. Everyone is trained differently." You had to learn from fighting, and to do so you'd have to fight everyone. And that was just wolves. Other animals would pose completely different problems: bears, lynx, cougars. All could kill. Only survivors knew how to really defeat them.

Pride seemed to sweep over him, to then be snatched away with a glare. Children were so temperamental. 
The thought through what he wanted to learn. Of course, she didn't know much herself about fighting someone faster than herself, for she was always fastest. Sometimes the speed of others took her by surprise.
So she had to think about how she'd been defeated.

"To fight someone faster, you keep moving, and you try to corner them or use your weight against them. You let them attack, so they are close enough, and you keep them there." Most fast wolves were like vipers, attacking then darting away, but if he could snatch them in the short space of time by anticipating when they would attack.
"Anticipate, but don't commit until they have." If they decide to feint, you may miss a target completely. You could die because of a mistake like that.

And as for protecting the face and neck, that was easy enough.
"Your face will often be caught, but always try to put your teeth there without exposing your neck. Chin down, ears folded." Chin down protected the neck and putting your teeth in the way of an attack protected the sides and face. Ears were already protected.
 She loked at him, wondering at how they were nearly the same height already. Why was she so small?

Good question. But anyone who knew how to fight well knew the answer.
"Yes, because if you don't you will fuck up and die."
There was no blunter way to put it really, so yeah. It was what happened. Look at all the creatures Venny dragged and ate under the canopy.

She waited a moment for another question, but it wasn't in words.
He lept at her and she swung herself to the side, chin tucking close and presented her teeth to his attack, just like she'd taught. She felt his teeth clatter hers and nick across her lip and cheek, causing her to move further out of the way, and around him, swinging her rear around to make herself a slim target and the most presentable feature was her face and shoulders.
Blood trickled into her mouth, a good shot for sure. But they were both nimble and could provide a good lesson for the pair of them.

"If you larn, you can predict moves, if you watch and think, you will know how to counter them." And now, she could see the twitch of the tail, and the ears slicking back a breath before the attack. He watched his target even if his body told a different story, and she swung her body out of his way, again putting teeth to teeth.

Then, she pushed forward, pressing him backwards and using her size to overwhelm him. Though, if he didn't panic or give up, he should realise she was matched in power. Her small and lithe form didn't lend much to strength in battles but certainly in speed. And when speed can be used to attack, that was where she was the assassin.

Controlled aggression. The deadliest weapon a wolf can behold.
And he clearly had the potential.
Vanity made a note there and then to oversee Vengeance trains the child properly. If not, she'd do it herself. Though Vengeance knows how to fight for himself and Valour would grow to be the same. Vanity had a different fighting style. Like a T-rex versus a Velociraptor. 

He beheld her and countered with a headbutt to push her backward. Protecting his neck and using considerable force. She took a stumbling step back, then another controlled one with a chuckle. "I see Venny has trained you his signature move." She smirked, wondering what he'd make of it. "Headbutting can cause confusion and sometimes more damage to you than your opponent." She found that out.
And he'd paused at her retreat.

She moved forward, snapping her teeth at him, wondering how he'd retaliate.

She snorted, wondering how he didn't know how Vengeance's small mind operated. But his joy was apparent, and she smirked. He had such a strong head with a big heart; she wondered if he is what Venny was like when he was young. Maybe that's why he was brought in. 

He moved towards her, not with much aggression though. There was no real power behind the move. The muscles in her neck locked, stopping her attack short, but instead swept a paw out to bowl him over with the same sort of power his headbutt held.
She couldn't do that with Venny, but hopefully, Valour wouldn't turn out like that.

She chuckled softly; the sound matching an autumn leaf on the wind.
He expected to be called a failure.
"You already are," she mused. "You're better than Hela, you have controlled anger. She is fire-screamer. You just need to learn more."

He was good. Not the best, that wasn't what he'd asked. But he could hold his own in a fight and he could defeat Hela is she wasn't so overwhelming. He needed to work on not being affected by another's technique but rather work on his own. Counter, not copy.
"Keep training." She grinned, moving away to continue her other tasks. Her day seemed much brighter now, for some reason.