Moonspear the very best, that no one ever was

@Alya

 

Hydra had already found @Lyra, and had no doubt as to where she would find Alya. They spent all their time together, and when they were given moments of solitude there was never a question as to where to find any of them. Hydra could be found prowling near the borders or combatting the trees, Lyra could be found near the water or the growing plantlife, and Alya could be found in any given place upon the mountain... likely practicing her scouting skills as Hydra practiced her ability to become a guardian, and a mercenary. The girls had different aspirations, but nothing had changed in their relationship to one another. 

Leading the way, Hydra found her sisters scent trail and followed it, plume waving behind her. Her twintuition told her she was heading the right way, and she was certain Alya would know she was being sought just as Lyra had seemed to know.

She had been examining the plants around the base of their mountain when Hydra came upon her. As they grew older, they seemed to drift both closer and further apart simultaneously. Their interests were not at all similar — where Hydra enjoyed fighting, Lyra was more at peace remaining quiet in the background — yet the three sisters were closer than ever. So when the most boisterous of the Cerberus came upon Lyra, the girl greeted her sister with a nuzzle and wave of her tail before joining her on their search for Alya. Surely she wouldn't be too far away.

Moving with Lyra, Hydra moved to nip her roughly. There was never a need to exert herself over Lyra, though Hydra paused midhunt for Alya to dip into a playbow and growl invitingly, to entice her sister into a quick spar. Her tail swayed over her hindquarters and she waited for Lyra to respond in kind before she made another move—though perhaps Lyra would be the first one to begin their play. She was watchful, calculating the movements of her sister. It would never do to underestimate any of the triplets, and Hydra would never make such a foolish error.

She felt the rough teeth of Hydra graze her shoulder, and Lyra scampered forward a few steps with a playful growl, spinning to face her sister, only to find her lowered into a play bow. The girl mimicked her pose with a grin, tail waving as she did so. It wasn't a rare sight to see them play fighting; a normal thing for young wolves to do. Hydra, however, had much more of an advantage both temperament and experience-wise due to her training with their father. While she knew she couldn't beat her sister, she did enjoy their spars. With a click of her teeth, Lyra allowed Hydra to make the first move, ready to counter it however she could (most likely failing miserably).

The very moment Lyra swept into a playbow, Hydra rose and lunged for her outstretched foreleg, moving only to nip it and distract her sister into movement so Hydra could follow after her. When bowed, Hydra did not want to overtake Lyra—so she attempted to get her moving by jumping toward her again and nipping at the air beside Lyra's rump. Once they were really moving they could begin, she decided.

As quickly as she had initiated play, Hydra was off again, dashing past after landing a solid nip upon Lyra's leg. The girl let out a growl of surprise, swinging her head around to see where her cheeky sister was before hearing the click of teeth somewhere from behind. She lunged forward — Hydra achieving her mission of getting the other girl to move — and took off down the mountain path, tail waving in circles as she glanced behind her, a look to induce chase.

Hydra's nip incited Lyra to another game, which hadn't been her intent but drove Hydra onward anyway. Lyra was no stranger to Hydra's aggressive play when it came to tag, but what she really wanted to do was practice knocking others off their feet. And she didn't want it to be easy, else she'd have simply attempted to goad Korei into it. Lyra was, although not as talented as she when it came to fighting, quick. If she could manage the move on someone fast, surely she could on someone slow and large... though, she knew there were other factors to account for. 

When her sister moved, Hydra followed suit. She gave her a three-second headstart before careening down the path, ears cupped forward as she gained upon her.

Lyra hadn't been aware of her sister's intent, instead simply delighted just to play a game. Chase was one of her favourites, she being more fleet of foot than her combat-focused sisters. She knew Hydra was in training to become a guardian — part of her couldn't help but worry, even though she knew her sibling was more than capable of handling herself — though she wasn't fond of being on the receiving end of her hits.

So, taking advantage of her head start, Lyra sped down the trail as quick as her legs could carry her, glancing every now and then at her shadow of a sister who was quickly gaining on her. With a carefree laugh, the girl sought to trick Hydra, making a sudden feint to the left before darting into the trees to the right to throw her off track.

Combat oriented indeed. But her mother was teaching her how important it was to be as swift as she was, well, aggressive... and even her father was trying to impress this upon her. These exercises with Lyra would help her, as at present Lyra was, in fact, the swiftest of them. Alya took hits gracefully; Lyra fled them when she could, and she did so better than any other in Hydra's life. Hydra would become them all—a fierce, aggressive savage who could take a hit, dole one out, and avoid blows when necessary. She wanted to be quick enough to deliver them to those of her physique, which meant learning with Lyra. Of course Hydra would never really hurt her, but she did want to catch her. 

The laugh was one Hydra understood meant something was up. As Alya and Lyra would know the darkening of her features meant an imminent strike, Hydra would know when her sisters were playing at something, anything—they were of the same cloth, and she had memorized the patterns as no one else (bar themselves) would ever be able to do. Her sisters feint was more than humored—that was something new for her sister, likely learned from their parents or even her own self when practicing... but Hydra would regain the ground lost! 

Hydra bounded after Lyra, weaving through the trees and leaping over any debris in her path. She practiced parkour used a tree to bounce off the side of once her sister was in sight again, and Hydra stretched out her legs to lengthen her stride.

She knew better than thinking a simple trick like that would throw Hydra completely off track, though it did gain her a little more ground. She sought to put a larger distance between them both, ducking and weaving through the trees and using rocks as launch pads to propel herself further along the trail. The ground was rocky and strewn with debris and, their entire chase being on the slopes of Moonspear, meant the trail was at an odd angle. However, the girls were raised mountain wolves and traversed the uneven landscape with ease.

That was until Lyra hit a rogue root that twisted up from the ground. She let out a yelp as she stumbled, not enough to completely trip but causing her to come to an ungainly halt. She whipped her head around just in time to see Hydra come barrelling towards her after leaping off a tree like some sort of trained assassin. Her eyes widened in fear but she knew she wouldn't be able to make up for lost ground now, so instead the girl braced herself for her sister's onslaught.

The mountainous terrain was something those born of Mo onspear could navigate without issue. For her own part, Hydras did not stumble; she was incredibly observant and did not wish to misstep and thus destroy her own mission of capturing Lyra. And Lyra navigated the descent-then-brief-ascent with ease herself. None were more superior to the other, but Lyra was still the swiftest of them. Hydra would never have given up, but Lyra might simply never be caught. Hydra was not yet to her level, there—she could only hope for an advantage. 

When one was given, Hydra ran toward Lyra and nipped at her. While normally Hydra would have tackled her, or bowled her over with the assistance of the descent, Hydra moved around her—she assumed her sister might be hurt, and did not want to actually hurt her. Her tail flagged over her back with her triumph, but her blue eyes were sharp with worry. You hurt?

They were the perfect trifecta, really; Hydra with her strength and skill, Alya with her keen sense of direction and stamina, and then finally Lyra who was simply quick on her feet. They all had their seperate strengths but, together, they were a force to be reckoned with. Pitted against one another, however, was a different story. The sheer force of Hydra would always overpower Lyra no matter how fleet she was. Especially now that her escape had been interrupted.

When the impact that she was expecting was replaced with a gentle nip, the girl peeked open one eye — having closed them as she braced herself — and stared pointedly at her sister. Oh. She offered her a small, grateful grin at her question. "I'm fine," she said softly with a nod, though a hint of mischief flashed in her eyes. Like a snake, she quickly struck with her teeth to give her sister a playful nip on her shoulder, leaping away just as fast with her tail waving over her back. "You're it!" This time, however, she did not run, instead inviting her warrior sister to a sort of spar where she was determined to learn how to dodge incoming attacks.

The glint in her sisters eyes normally would have caused Hydra to move, but she stood still in anticipation. She let out a low growl and rolled her eyes at her sister when she (wisely) leaped out of reach from fangs that would surely retaliate: I've been it this whole time, Lyra! Before she bounded in her sisters direction but, unlike Lyra had hoped, she did not yet strike. You won't catch me twice, she taunted, forcing their circle to become looser as she created a greater distance between them. Hydra, too, wanted to learn how to avoid blows from the fleet-footed Lyra—she was adept at avoiding blows from larger wolevs, now. Perhaps the only wolves who would ever truly be her match would be her sisters, though Hydra's ever-increasing experience certainly would keep her above them in that field.

Her taunts and the roll of her eyes were noted by Lyra, but she restrained from comment, trying to take this as seriously as she could. The recent encounter with both a coyote and then a feral loner proved that this sort of training was invaluable. She needed to learn how to dodge, when to strike, when to take a hit. Hydra was already adept at these sorts of things; Lyra was only just beginning to learn the ropes. She hoped her sister could teach her what she knew.

The two sisters circled each other, becoming near mirror images of themselves as they did so. In her inexperience, the girl did not know what to look for, her gaze leaping from Hydra's face to legs, to shoulders, then back to her eyes, her uncertainty clear. So, instead, with a painfully obvious decision, she struck. She leapt, closing the distance between the two, and aimed her jaws at the Hydra's soft scruff (with no intention of actually biting down, of course).

The attack was painfully obvious, and Hydra avoided it easily. Her tail lashed behind her. Don't look where you are going to strike, she advised. For she wanted Lyra to be a good fighter, too—to be able to hold her own when Hydra or Alya could not get there as swiftly as they normally could. Lyra need not worry about ever being truly alone, as the three girls were rarely ever far enough apart to be considered alone to start with. Hydra then rushed toward Lyra, looking as though she were going for a foreleg before actually attempting to nip Lyra's hindquarter instead, attempting to make a clean getaway immediately thereafter.

As expected, she missed her mark completely, jaws closing around empty space as Hydra easily moved out of the way. She looked up as her sister gave her some direction, advice Lyra noted with a firm nod of understanding. Hydra then demonstrated this knowledge by feinting an attack on her foreleg. Lyra stumbled back awkwardly, lifting her leg to her chest before she realising she had been fooled.

With a friendly growl, she reached around to nip back at her sister but she had already moved from her spot. Lyra may have been fast, but she hadn't the speed Hydra had while in the middle of an altercation. Clearly flustered, the girl trailed her more experienced sister's moves, diving after her again with parted jaws — this time keeping her gaze focused on the ground instead of her target.

Together, the duo sparred well into the evening. Lyra did certainly improve as she practiced, and Hydra kept drilling her with advice to keep in mind. Lyra seemed more inclined to defend than to attack, which Hydra, more offensive, worked with as best she could... but Hydra found herself learning from Lyra, too, and her defenses. The day was undoubtedly a productive one and when the girls were spent they sought out Alya to hunt with.