Moonspear She's got eyes of the bluest skies

@Terance - brother/sister bonding time! I have mentioned here and there that Terance teaches Wraen self defence and that she is not particularly good about it. If you want that changed - please, say so. :)

Wraen's morning hunt had resulted in few mice and some eaten plant material of unknown origin. The latter did was not very nutritious, but it filled her belly, making the feeling of hunger less pronounced. The other result was a piece of old whitened bone, pieces and parts of it broken away, but once her eyes set on this toy, she was imediately reminded of Terance (God knows, why and how), therefore she picked it up and returned to Moonspear. 

Being the more down-to-earth and dutiful sibling, less likely to wander and frolic around, compared to Wraen, she thought she would find him somewhere along the borders, therefore after a little deliberation, she chose a direction. But right before doing so, she lifted her mouth and howled for him.

can we bump this to current date? (:

when wraen called, terance was out on patrol. he tried his best to patrol as often as he could-- tried his best to do his part. he was just sort of discouraged as of late, for some reason. he couldn't really figure out why, everything just sort of felt dull. he wasn't sad, he had nothing to be sad about. he and hydra were still best bros, he was bros with ran, he and lyra were friends (at least, he'd accepted by now she must not've been into him like that), and it was impossible to have low spirits with wraen around. it just took him a little longer to get moving in the morning, and he spent a little bit more time than usual staring off into space. he usually brushed it aside as nothing.

but even so, he couldn't ignore the sweet voice of his sibling. so with a big of an exaggerated boof, terance heaved himself up a few boulders and on course to find wraen. she wasn't too far off, it seemed she was already headed in his direction. he spotted her with pricked ears, and sent over a light yip and a toothy smile, his tail wagging. it was always nice to see wraen, even though their interests weren't always the same. "look who's by the borders," he purred, padding over to deliver a swift nudge to her shoulder, "what's up?"

ooc: sure!

Wraen was not mistaken - Terance was, where she had expected him to be - and soon not only returned her call but made himself present as well. With the bone occupying her jaws it was difficult to speak, therefore she made up her lack of speech with an extra vigorous wagging of her tail. Then she put the bone down by her feet, put one paw protectively on it (just to make known that this was her property) and gave her brother a happy smile

"Well, here I am to keep boredom away," she said, bumping her hip playfully against his. "And - of course - do my share of self-defence training. Though I still think that in a combat I would be better at running than fighting back."

noticing the possessive touch of the bone, terance raised an eyebrow, smirking with amusement. "what, not here bearing gifts?" he teased, but it was all in good fun, terance didn't feel much like eating today anyway. 

"i think you're right," he added, sort of joking but also completely seriously. wraen wasn't built like dante and him were, she was built much smaller and sweeter, more like a hug-ya-to-death kind of frame-- at least, terance always thought. he also never wanted to see his sister in a fight, the risks were too high, and he'd rather her be called a coward-- safe and in his arms-- than dead somewhere trying to prove herself. the thought sent his stomach into tangles. "i prefer fighting, though," he added for good measure, pushing his thoughts from his mind, his tail waving as he now tried to picture himself sprinting full speed from a fight. it was a funny mental picture, for sure.

"It's not your birthday - so - yes, no gifts for you," Wraen replied and stuck her tongue out to emphasize her point. While listening to, what else Terance had got to say, she picked up the bone, backed up few feet, tossed it in the air, caught it again and then put it to the side. Still hers, though with a hint of showing off. It would be a lot more valuable, if her brother wanted to have it too. 

"Sure you do," she replied with a teasing grin, though somewhere deep inside she wished that her brother would choose her battle tactics instead of his. Fighting was all great and glorious, but it came at a price. His handsome self was already marred with scars, plus, he had been attacked by a bear and had been out of the game for a very long time. 

"But I am here, ready to learn. Therefore, what will it be today, dear brother?"

terance knew what she was doing. the way she flipped and teething so daintily on that bone. it was something he'd seen sarah do more often than wraen, but all the same-- she was trying to make him jealous.

and well, quite frankly, it worked. 

then, terance was thrown into quite the pickle. he'd helped wraen many a time with her self-defense training, but today? man he really didn't want to today. he sniffed, eyeing the bone she'd just scooted over to the side. he'd much rather be gnawing on that bad boy, holed up somewhere-- but that didn't seem to be happening. hm, whatever... what did they go over last time they'd practiced? 

"do you wanna work on some opponent analysis?" he asked, deciding that might be sort of low energy-- or maybe not, nothing with wraen was ever low energy, "or some defensive tactics?" 

"Opponent analysis... hmm..." Wraen thought and for a moment she had the nagging sense to ask her brother, if he even knew, what "analysis" really meant. Because - while not entirely a foreign word, still, when used, sounded rather posh. 

"Wait a sec' - are you feeling lazy today?" she asked suspiciously, because usually their training sessions were rather vigorous and action-filled. With all her fantastic memory about history and stories, she was very bad at memorizing tactics and doing "analysis". And the best way to lure her to sleep, was discussing stuff like that. Useful stuff - no doubt - but... meh.

"Come on, Ter - don't disappoint your little sister. I came here for a massive brawl - and telling me tactics is all you are going to do today?" she pleaded. "I may consider lending you my bone, if you do your bargain of the deal well?"

oooo she got him. he rolled his eyes playfully at her lazy accusation, merely tacking on a "come on wraen, you know how important it is to be able to find your opponents weak spots and..." he trailed off as she began to cut him off, but only when there was mention of that bone. an interesting proposition.

"well the brawl won't be that massive, if it's just you and me," he began rather haughtily, tail wagging, "but who am i to deny you the full learning experience?" he dropped down into a play bow right away, and though that strange cloudy sensation still hovered over the back of his mind, the addition of food to the situation greatly improved his own interest. "ladies first."

"Yeah, yeah and - do you expect them to stand and wait, until I remember all of the weak spots? I will be dead or seriously wounded by then," Wraen countered, keeping the view that learning by doing was the best way. Listening and reading could come after that. When there were questions!

"Never took you for someone, who undermines his own strength," she returned and retreated few steps. "You are many things - Ter - but humble you are not," and with that she grabbed her bone, looked pointedly at her brother, as if saying "come and get it!" and then danced several steps away.

that wasn't what he meant, of course. it wasn't a formula, wasn't a one size fits all type of deal. every opponent was different-- size, strength, weaknesses. some wolves were more agile, better at offense, some were bulkier, built for defense. there were indicators of everything, usually, and if you could pinpoint one of those you could give yourself the upper hand in battle. but wraen clearly didn't want to be bored by that... so he just dropped it. one day, maybe. 

he grinned at her comment, little snake she was, but his tail was wagging. he was sort of humble... sort of. 

then, as she danced away, bone in her mouth, terance gave his own few hops forward. his own strengths lied in the defensive, but if she had the bone-- he was coming for it! letting a playful growl rumble in his chest, terance gave one good leap towards her, aiming to grab that bone from her pretty little jaws!!

Terance was quick to fall into Wraen's trap or the game she liked to call "I can catch you, but you can't catch me". She was not built for combat, never would, but her lithe and agile form was perfect for running, for chasing, for "cat and mouse" kind of activity.

Therefore she avoided her brother's well-aimed attack (though not without almost losing her precious bone from her grasp) and ran two, very fast loops around him, 'till stopping again - within the distance of being caught. 

Want to try again?

aaarrrchchchhhggghh he could almost taste it!!! but she was too fast. he teeth mashed down on nothing but air (actually, ow) and he collided with nothing. he was so close though. wraen was pretty awful at battle-- he knew for a fact if he could get her he'd have her beat in a heartbeat. but she was a speedy lil' bugger, and the problem now lied in the 'if' he could catch her. hmpf. 

she danced around him and off to the side, again taunting him with the prize. he gave her a grin and a playful-- though agitated in her showboating-- growl and again made preparations to lunge, this time with a fun little zig-zag leap, hopefully catching her off guard. left right left right left BONE!

Where Wraen excelled in speed and agility, there Terance was best at tactics and generally knowing her very well. Rather than engaging in yet another fruitless chase, he made quit an acrobatic leap (and astonishing for a wolf his size) and took his sister by surprise. The next she knew - his muzzle was next to hers, grasping the bone just as tightly.

Wraen growled, but stood her ground and did not let go and it seemed that Terance would do the same, but what fun would be there if it was the "wait out, who lasts the longest" kind of game?

ooc: photo for reference - and let's imagine that it is a long bone. :D

oh my god thats adorable i love it

that was so much effort, if it hadn't of worked out for him terance might've plopped down and given up right there. it was too much hopping, but his efforts paid off... sort of. his jaws were wrapped around that bone for sure, but he wasn't alone. wraen refused to let go, and was still running. god he was gonna blow her heart out, all this cardio, but he'd come this far, he wasn't about to give up.

he muttered something to her, though through the bone it sounded like a whole lot of nonsense. and after a little bit of running, terance force stopped that train, skidding against the ground-- but he would stop. wraens own momentum caused him to wobble-- almost falling, but not quite. this would not turn into another game of chase! but tug of war? bring it on, wraen.

When Terance muttered something to her, Wraen shot him a nasty look, but did not let go. Playing dirty, huh? Not gonna work this time, though calling names was one way of getting her attention and forget about the more important deed at hand. 

Eventually Terance made an abrupt halt and his sister almost snapped her neck, when her own momentum drew her further. She was spared this unfortunate fate, however, the bone brushed hard against her molars and corners of her mouth, making her wince a little.

But there was no time to quit and lick her wounds - now they were standing almost opposite to each other, holding on to their end of the bone and not letting go. Wraen let out another menacing growl and tugged the toy in her direction, though with it's rather  smooth surface it was harder for her to hold the grip than for Terance, who had got the "marrowier" end.

ooc: leaving up to you, if he gets the bone.:)

oh but terance was such a softie. and while he was sick and tired of running and quite ready to steal this bone from his sister-- he watched her wince as he yanked her into a game of tug-of-war. feeling immediately awful, terance-- despite having the clearly superior grip-- stopped tugging so hard. then, he just kind of let go, letting the bone flop to the ground with wraen (assumedly) along with it.

"wraen, oh i'm sorry," he muttered with his ears splayed, "i took it too far didn't i?" he might not have, but he didn't mean to hurt her-- that was for sure. she might've been fine, but terance didn't want to risk it. if anything, he was being overly sensitive about this (thanks to that pesky current mental state of his) and it gave wraen the perfect opportunity to gloat over her win.

And just as fast as game had begun, it ended, when Terance got in his chivalrous knight mode, having noticed Wraen's moment of weakness and being to sensitive about pain that was almost forgotten, because the excitement of the game was stronger. She would probably have a stiff jaw for a day or two after this, but it was nothing one could not survive. 

"Do you really think that I am such a wimp?" Wraen asked, letting the bone drop to the ground and she sat down as well. "I mean... it has been a while, since I was the weakest of the bunch, the one that needed to be protected, taken care of, looked after and all that... sh... stuff. You do not have to spare me or let me win, because you feel like doing it so. That kind of game I refuse to play," she said earnestly.

terance's ears fell again, head dropping. he'd made a mess-- maybe nothing major, but he still felt guilty all the same. he shook his head, letting wraen get out the last of her words. "no you're right, rey, i didn't mean that-- you're a grown up you... you can handle yourself," he said with a genuine look in his eyes. with a sniff, terance sat before her, ears flicking. "i'm sorry-- i'm just feeling out of it today-- lately. just out of my game," he admitted honestly, hoping wraen wouldn't think of him as some big dumb jerk now. not that she would-- wraen wasn't like that. but she was right, she was old enough to handle herself-- she wans't a kid.

Wraen felt a little ashamed about that she had been so open with Terance, because it upset him more than she had expected. After a little thought, she nudged the bone in her brother's direction and said conciliatory: "I am sorry that I lashed out at you. Take the bone and have a rest."

With that done, she got to her feet, stretched and appeared to be listening intently at something for a while. A summoning howl in the distance - she shot Terance a glance that said "you stay here, I will check out, what it is!" and off she went.