Haunted Wood that ending wasn’t worth the wait

There was focus on the boy's face and Valour wanted to smile. Teaching him was different from the matches between Seagull. Guardian heeded every word he said, seeming to take them in and actually put them into action on top of being fairly good company for a child much younger than himself. It felt good in a way that Valour associated being close to "fun"...something he remembered from playing with Clay. It was fun to mentor the impressive boy. Until the boy struck, fangs sinking to grip the pink healed wounds from the lynx. The pain was like fire on every inch of his chest and he sucked in a sharp breath tensing up his lips curling up over his fangs though instead of retaliating he simply screamed "FUCK!" and nudged at the boy with his head roughly "You're the winner this time" his voice was strained as he could feel the blood starting to drip from the wounds though once again there wasn't any anger, just pain and then a shaky smile "I knew you'd be impressive but you're doing really good" even as a chubby baby belching and trying not to vomit he'd been quick and a fast learner, the praise was nicest thing he had probably said to anyone and Valour meant all of it. He was looking forward to trying to engage him in another sparring session, someday when he was bigger and would be more of a match. It was rather cute how fast Guardian let go and he was quick to reassure the child that he was not actually in pain despite intending to head to serem's den immediately. Giving him a playful bump to send him moving in whatever direction he recommended he go tell Vanity his accomplishment before limping off toward Serem's den to snag whatever he could find to use.