Shadewood it's all done but the deed

@Wren

Winter wasted no time ushering itself in Autumn’s place. The Winter Solace hastened the young male’s excursion since venturing far away from the Appalachians until entering what was unknown to him in name as the Teekon Wilds. Frankly, anywhere he came across in his ventures looked similar to the other. A creek cutting through a forest. A mountain one had to do an arduous climb over. A plain that went on forever as far as the eye could see. He couldn’t recall the last time he chanced upon another wolf in his journey.

The elms towered high in this area along with the mighty oaks that extended their branches in heavy canopy cover to the skies, even in Winter. Unlike most wolves who ventured and lurked during the midnight hours, Haiku preferred wandering in the daytime light. The sun (for the sparse rays that penetrated this forest’s canopy) offered slivers of warm light against his pelt when he passed through the sunlit areas of the wood. The shade dominated this forest though and made it feel much colder than it was. He was at a steady trot, simply strolling through with ears perked, hearing distance tunes of birds tweeting in the branches above.

She was doing nothing in particular; that was sad in itself. Feeling antsy again, she hoped to find a suitable wolf to spar with. Her eyes roamed over the grey shape of one male and Wren approached. Not so quick to startle him, but enough to know she was there. Last thing she wanted was to scare him away.

"Hey" the brunette calls to him, lifting her head as she nears. She typically roamed with her skull toward the earth anyway. "I know this is a bit... sudden. Sorta stupid, actually" she stops near the man, chuckling "but you wouldn't happen to want to, y'know... have a friendly spar?"

At the thought of not recalling the last time he encountered another wolf, it was as if the universe heard his silent sentiment. Stopping abruptly in his tracks, out of nowhere a female appears. Dressed in lovely agouti hues, her brown pelage matches her oceanic eyes fittingly. What really caught the Thawdrift’s attention was the fragrant smell of pumpkin spice his nose caught from a distance.
 
”Hey,” Haiku says enthusiastically, his tangerine gaze lighting up at the presence of someone for what felt like miles of being alone. Just as abruptly as she appeared, she also asked a sudden request of a spar. Haiku blinked at first, glancing around the surrounding area of the forest. Seeing as how this wasn’t a trick and didn’t look like he was about to get ambushed (he hoped), he didn’t see the harm in it. ”… seems like a nice day to do so.” His signature coquettish grin appeared on his muzzle as his tail swayed behind him.

"Yeah, it does" she agrees with a wag of her tail. Oh good, someone was actually friendly and wanting to exercise a bit. Wren closes the distance a bit more, keeping a respectful step or two away from the man. If they were going to have a friendly bout, she might as well keep her endurance from exhausting itself too early. A running leap wouldn't help her.

"I'm Wren" a nod was given to the male "you can go first" she adds considerately, flattening her ears and tucking her tail. Her eyes would narrow to protect from any hurt but she doubted the friendly man would flip a switch so easily. This was friendly with hardly any blood - more bruise than anything. "ready!" she barks to him.

Sparring with a stranger seconds after encountering them may have been out of the ordinary for some but after being on his own for so long, Haiku felt nostalgic for connection. She introduced herself as Wren and he wouldn’t forget her name since she was the first wolf he would meet with wandering in the Wilds. ”Haiku from the Gros Morne.” He returned with his own introduction, his roguish grin still on his muzzle and a sparkle in his tangerine gaze. Wren most likely wouldn’t know where that was since it was a faraway place from the Wilds but he always proudly stated where he originated from.
 
Wren gave him the green to go first. Giving a few lashing wags of his wispy tail behind him, he did a couple of stretches of his hind legs and his paws dragged along the ground as if he was preparing for a full launching start at her. ”If you say so.” The Thawdrift said before dashing in a break toward her. He would attempt to snag her by the scruff first, careful to not sink his teeth in too much but to attempt to gain the upper paw from the get-go.

His attack was welcomed for someone needing to practice sparring. Friendly bouts didn't last forever. Maybe soon she'd have to be forced to fight for her pack, her life... His teeth grabbed her scruff and she had a fleeting thought of why everyone did that to her eventually. It was half amusement, half exhaustion.

She twisted in his grasp, trying to grab hold of muscle underneath his fur. Haiku's bite was more powerful than her's, wherein she was trying to test his strength. Maybe she shouldn't have done that at first. Maybe she was trying to spare him a brutal match. But the weak bite was lacking strength. She more or less nipped.

Damn, trying to make him go easy but the dice won't let him!

Feeling her twist around underneath, her snaps at his shoulder were bearable. He felt her bites but of course didn’t faze him (and even if it truly did, he would most likely hide visible pain being shown by him anyway) Wren really meant it when she said she wanted a friendly spar. Haiku wasn’t one to judge though. Friendly spars were the best to really hone in on practicing certain techniques.
 
A sportive growl rumbled in his throat as his next move was now to attempt swiping at her foreleg so he could make her lose her footing and stumble forward. It was a brazen move of his to do so soon but it was in Haiku’s intention to throw a curveball her way early to see how well she would act (or react).

She chalked this whole mess up as being too impulsive. Having more or less asking for spars a bit nonstop, she suspected her body would fall to exhaustion eventually. She didn't blame Haiku though. Not one bit. He was holding his own, and her body stumbled under his tactic. Her chin momentarily hit the ground.

She didn't taste blood though. Wren centers herself, throwing her snout in his direction. She tries to bite down on anything she can, her jaw becoming adjusted to the flow of battle but also getting weary. His blows were effective, and she didn't know how long she'd last for in this bout. But the important thing was she got practice.

There was a fleeting moment of concern in Haiku with the way Wren hit the ground, but it seemed like she composed quickly. He felt her teeth connect with the scruff of his chest, feeling her pull. Her teeth didn’t impale him, but she felt like she anchored onto him more with her jaw’s connection to him than her initial snaps at his shoulder. Her pull on his chest certainly felt strong though. ”There it is!” He commended with a breathy laugh. Perhaps it just took her a round or two for her to channel her potential.
 
All the while his tail was swishing behind in a wag. This was actually a great temporary distraction from the rough endeavors from his travels and a good means to release some extra pent up energy. His next move was to attempt to pin down one of Wren’s forelegs to prevent her from getting back up. His jaws lightly attempted to clamp onto one of her flailing forelegs, positioning himself above her but being careful not to apply his full weight on her.

She barely hears him, her heart is beating too loudly. Too strongly. Blood rushes from her body to her head, tampering with her vision. She snarls out of instinct, crunching down on his scruff. Enough to draw a small amount of blood. It is certainly a desperate attempt to win.

But it doesn't do shit in the grand scheme of things. Though strong, her bite isn't enough. She lets go just as he pins her. The woman is breathing heavily, but she is not bloody. She stares at the bite on his neck with guilt. "Okay, enough" she breathes to Haiku. Her ears are pinned against her head but -

She isn't scared. She just wonders if he'll stop at her command.

Instinct had kicked in for Wren and suddenly her firm grasp began sinking in past his downy fur to pierce the skin. It was a strong bite at that and her real potential was beginning to show. This momentarily caught Haiku off-guard himself, considering the original premise was to keep it to a friendly spar, but sometimes these things just happened. His otherwise amiable tangerine gaze flashed with a fleeting glimpse of wrath as his own adrenaline instinct activated at the hard bite. The Thawdrift was quick to extinguish his inner inferno though, hearing Wren call the spar’s conclusion.

Haiku could have attempted to taunt and push her further with the spar but that simply wasn’t in his nature to do. He backed off hovering over her, giving her some space to breathe. ”You alright?” Haiku inquired ironically. Craning his neck by attempting to look down at where she bit him, he could only see the red beginning to stain his fur and the sting of pierced skin. ”Not going to lie, that was a good one.” Haiku chuckled, brushing it off as no bother. He was about to inquire why she didn’t keep going when she got in her groove but his mother taught him better manners than that to respect a female when she proclaimed enough was enough with anything.

"Yeah, I'm okay" she replies, sucking in breath. Her head slowly shook to the side. "I bit off more than I could chew - that's all" a pause before she glances up at Haiku "you won, fair and square." If she pushed herself more, she wasn't sure if she could walk away gracefully in the end.

He had the upper hand from the start. She wasn't so proud to not see that. Her instinct came in too late - she had much more to learn. "Are you okay? Sorry... I dunno what happened" Wren sounded regretful, guilty even as she stared at the blood stain. "you should clean that up."

Because it might get infected or some bullshit to do with healing.

Relieved to hear Wren was okay, Haiku nodded his head to this. His smirk was apparent on his carob-hued muzzle with her saying she bit off more than she could chew. ”If you had a mouthful of my fur, then maybe we would have had a problem.” He jested as he took matters of his fur upkeep pretty seriously. At her mention of him winning the spar, he shook his head good-naturedly. ”You’re good. The title is useless to me.” Haiku said, shrugging. ”Did you learn anything new at least?” It was a very quick spar but Haiku was curious if she sought what she was looking or learning for in the spar.
 
The drawn blood was a relatively minor thing to him. Haiku could tell in Wren’s voice she felt guilty for such a thing, but his tail swayed behind him and shook his head once more to reassure her. ”I’ll live. It’ll come out easy in the next stream I come across.” Suddenly self-realization lit up in his tangerine eyes at a thought. ”Speaking of which, what’s around these parts?” Hopefully she could provide some general direction or notable landmarks of the area.

She snickers, raising herself back into a sitting position. Her brief submission during her request to stop was in the past. No longer did she flinch. "I took on two other wolves before you" Wren replied, glancing around them "and both of them were in this pack called the Saints" she pauses, pointing in the direction where they had come from. "they're around here, but they're a bit... extreme. I think."

And the leader of the pack, Kynareth... he was a flirty little asshole. She didn't like him one bit, the way he had belittled her indirectly. But Wren also took offense to most confident men anyway. "There's another pack called Kingslend; I'm part of that one" but for how long? Such events would surely tear her away, time would tell. Her blue eyes looked to Haiku. "as for learning, I learned I gotta rest between asking people to fight." those sapphires sparkled with amusement.

"So, I'm going to go back to Kingslend and rest before I fall on my chin again" Wren chuckles, rising to all fours. She made to leave, flicking her tail in good luck to Haiku. Yeah, she'd be bruised in the morning. "see ya around."

Listening to her previous spar bouts, she mentioned two individuals from a pack called the Saints and she hailed from Kingslend. ”I’ll be traveling East the rest of the way, but good to know on those.” Haiku nodded, storing away the two pack names for the future. When someone described a pack as ‘extreme’, the Thawdrift was careful to avoid crossing paths with those individuals. He would only venture south in Great Bear Wilderness in the coming future.
 
Wren mentioned resting in between spars as to not get burnt out, which was certainly important to getting better overall. Mentioning getting some much-needed rest, Haiku understood. ”Alright. Going to continue on before someone decides they want to go total vampire mode on me.” Haiku teased about his wound, he was just kidding of course but his sarcastic nature never failed to shine through. ”See you around, Wren.” Haiku said. With that he continued on with his travels, wondering if he would ever encounter her again in the future.