Redsand Canyon you enter at your own risk, so don't be surprised

@Glaukos -- Notes to self for trade: Aquene requesting a spar for strategy reasons when it comes to the possibility of running into her ex or father at some point

She had absorbed the Imperator’s words, but ultimately they had done little to soothe her mind. Just because she knew the best route to take did not mean that she was going to be able to execute when the time came, if the time came. She sorely hoped it never did… though she knew if it did not, then she would be looking over her shoulder for the rest of her life. She stood in the middle of the sparring arena, pushing herself for another spar a third day in a row, but ever since opening up to Kallik, the very real fear of either her father or Dimitri finding her had been present.
 
It had started to affect her sleep, and training to take them by surprise was the only thing she could do to prepare herself for the day that she hoped would never come. She raised her maw, calling for Glaukos. Standing in the familiar sand pit as she took note of her surroundings. There was no high ground here as Germanicus had requested, so she would need to rely on the speed of her paws to handle the large mass of the opposing man… she could do this, right?

He was content in his day-to-day activities, being left to his own devices for the most part but with small goals in mind, that whenever he was called away from work he grew irritable. Granted he was naturally standoffish at the best of times; in this moment as a voice called for him, Glaukos was tempted to ignore it.

Most of the other women were civilians. He thought of Tamar without meaning to, and out of some vague curiosity decided to heed the summons. Maybe it was her? No, she wouldn't be out so far from the heart of the canyon — maybe it was Towhee? That slowed his prowl.

As Glaukos came over a ridge and descended to a lower section of the red-dusted expanse, he saw no wolves immediately surrounding him. He knew there were some hideaways here, though. Lookout points that he would struggle to reach, being connected by narrow bands of earth that would not support the likes of him.

Annoyed now, he barked to alert whoever had called him that he'd come, and glared at the canyon walls in great sweeps of his head. Alert and impatient, as always.

The man had given her escort out of the canyon once before. She knew his sullen disposition already. She'd gathered that he was not quite fond of her... He was there to do a job, he was just hoping agreeing to spar with her would fit into the realm of his job description… Germanicus had asked her to spar with the auxiliary, and the auxiliary were supposed to be training so perhaps they could count this as mutually beneficial. She was hoping to get the spar without having to explain her motive too much. She did not particularly fancy trauma-dumping on another soldier.
 
He barked and she made her way over, a fierce look of determination in her eyes as she took a deep breath to settle her nerves. She got the impression that he was not terribly fond of her. “I need a spar. I would ask someone else, anyone else, but you’re the only one who’s size matches the opponent I had in mind.” She explained, keeping it short and to the point. He was alert and impatient, so she cut straight to the point. There was no need to try and flower in language. She levelled her gaze. She would not grovel for it, and she just had to hope he respected this kind of transaction.

The woman that approached was not either of the ones on his mind.

He didn't know her name, but he did recognize her from their trip outside of Mereo; details like that didn't feel necessary in the short-term. Glaukos stood there while she outlined what she needed from him. The very idea of a spar between his bulky self and this puny lady made him frown.

It only lasted a moment though. There was also curiosity - who exactly did she hope to defeat in combat? The only other wolf around his size was Germanicus; the idea that this herbalist was gunning for the general was laughable.

You think fighting me will help your skills? She had said as much. The surprise lanced from within his voice, which otherwise would have sounded grim. It felt like a big joke to Glaukos; but after some thought, he began to prowl around where she stood and slowly lowered his posture in to something defensive.

I won't be going easy on you. He warned with some finality.

She heard his surprise, but kept her ground. She kept her gaze leveled and her shoulders back. “Yes. I’ve been training in tactics with the Imperator.” She might not be an auxilia, but Germanicus had stated that it was because there was no room in the structure for a way to shift a medic into military ranks while maintaining her role, and someone still needed to patch up the soldier's asses in the event of a real fight. It had felt like all relevant parties had agreed it was best for her to maintain her Plebian rank for the moment.
 
“I think I need to know how a wolf my size can take on a wolf of your size, and the only way to do that is paws-on experience.” She stated again with that same finality, a raised brow when he said that she would not receive easy treatment. “I know. I expect nothing less.” She reported back, taking up a defensive position, keeping a healthy space between them. Speed. That was what she needed to focus on… still, she waited for him to make the first move.
 
Chances were, should this situation play out in real, she would not be the one attacking first.

They had an accord.

As the woman accepted that the spar had begun, she took on a defensive posture. It was quite obvious by that sight alone, she had been studying the ways of the auxillia. Was she as great as Germanicus, having trained beneath him directly? Glaukos would find out.

He had prowled in an arc along the wall and when he saw her take up position, lunged immediately; his reach was considerable given his size, and would pack a punch if he managed a hit. Unfortunately for the guardian in training, he had misjudged the distance by a decent measure and left Aquene enough room to maneuver away.

It was a strike against Glaukos' own training. He couldn't get the first hit after all.

She felt her heart seize in her chest as he prowled, her eyes never leaving him as she prepared for when he would eventually move. He lunged, and instantly she dove to the side away from him, avoiding his reach as she let out a breath of relief, reacting instantly as she moved for her counterattack. She pushed off the ground where she had landed, lunging for his side in the hopes of slamming into him.
 
However, like Glaukos, she had misjudged the distance between them. She was fast, but that did not mean the man was slow. It just showed her how much she needed this spar. Had this been a real opponent, it would have been a costly mistake.

She was bold; striking back almost immediately after his initial lunge, only to fall short.

Glaukos took full advantage of that moment and pivoted as he came at her again, slamming his shoulder against her, watching as she lost her footing and hit the wall adjacent. He would not give her a chance to get up again if he could help it — the desire to grab hold of her and pin her down was too strong.

The boy was over-zealous in his final advance, thinking he had the spar over and done with already. He moved immediately in to her range of motion without care for what she might do as retaliation, presuming himself the victor already.

I think I understood the spacing/positioning but if not just let me know and I can edit

She fell short, but she did not count herself out yet. She grunted as he slammed into her, knocking her into the adjacent wall. Life would get her nowhere by playing weak, and she had already proven that one too many times in her life. This spar, in that moment, became much more than just training. It became freeing. Similar to her first spar against Germanicus…
 
He was cocky, and she used that to her advantage. She shifted, rolling onto her stomach at the last second, pushing her paws from the ground as she aimed to slam her shoulder up at his jaw, hoping the action had enough force to disorient him and put her back in the game, giving her time to separate herself from him so she might once more be capable of using her speed to a greater advantage.

Glaukos loomed over his target for a second before she retaliated, and even if he had anticipated it, Aquene's strike was fast and hard. She hit him square in the jaw by launching herself up, and the jut of her shoulder knocked his head up and back immediately.

A tooth went flying free, clattering against the earthen floor. Glaukos barely noticed that for all the ringing in his head. It was more than Germanicus had ever done to prove his own superiority - and earned a touch of respect from the auxillia.

It also served to enrage him; the boy thought himself free of the abrasive, abusive tendencies of others. That he had made himself impervious by serving Mereo and working so hard on himself, and yet this puny girl had managed to hurt him.

He grit his teeth and lunged again, trying to strike her down with his forepaws and pin her against the earth.

Aquene did not consider their spar abrasive nor abusive, not compared to the life she had known before. The tooth flying free was a simple consequence. She had tended to much worse in the treatment of women in her birth pack. However, it seemed to strike a nerve. Aquene figured it was because she had not simply gone down. That girl was long behind her. She had skills now, she was learning how to use them.
 
He lunged again at her but she had not put enough distance between him and herself to avoid it completely. In the process of trying to once more lunge out of the way, he caught her midsection and she went tumbling to the ground, her teeth reaching in a last ditch effort to grasp a limb that she might be able to leverage her own freedom but to no avail.
 
The man towered over her, and in that moment her mind snapped. It was not one of the auxilia standing over her, but something else, something far more menacing than a simple loss of a spar. Flashes of unwanted advances, her chest rising and falling a faster rate. It lasted for only a second before she was able to shake it off by visibly shaking her head and falling relaxed, not seeing a way to get her out of the position that the man had put her in.

Motivated as much by his own trauma-response as his sense of superiority, Glaukos was pleased to watch as she buckled and was placed under his weighted control.

She squirmed and the boy almost laughed at her; she tried to strike at him and free herself but to no avail. Gone were the days of being a punching bag to more vicious children - he felt at once powerful and in control, although the sudden malevolence in his usually tepid gaze was anything but controlled.

It was enough to end the spar there, had they a warden to watch their match. Instead their spar was done out of view of anyone important, and as such Glaukos felt no desire to end it, or to cease the game that made him feel so satisfied in his superiority.

He reached for Aquene, pulling his limbs close around her middle, and himself atop her in an overt show of dominance. At this point he was effectively straddling her smaller figure. Being oblivious to how it might look to an outsider or feel to the woman, only that he felt an instinctive power as he lorded his win over her in this way, Glaukos was not about to relent.

She expected the spar to end. With any other wolf she had sparred with, it would have ended there but with Glaukos it did not. The panic set in, her eyes uncertain. The woman was unwilling to be another man’s toy, and unwanted advances were things that she strove to leave in the past. She reacted as he shifted, her hind legs both coming up to kick him hard in the gonads to give her leave for escape from his clutches, not acting on strategy but on instinct.
 
In a matter of moments, this had become about survival, a fierce and feral but shaken snarl escaping as her own trauma response returned to her in that moment. “Get off of me.” The words escaped with it as eyes narrowed, her entire body rigid. It was in Mereo she thought she was safe. It was in Mereo she was supposed to be safe.

Without further ado, the spar ended.

It happened in an explosion of mind-numbing pain, the kind that burst forth in his groin and then traveled in to his belly, where it would linger. He staggered backwards and nearly tripped himself on one of the woman's limbs as he became this haphazard thing; wanting at once to vomit, and to shout, and yet unable to do either.

The woman's voice was scathing and accusatory, not that he could hear her. The pain brought an abrupt silence to his ears that Glaukos couldn't purge. In the next few moments he was buckled against the ground, curling in to himself at first. When that didn't ease anything he tried to stand tall and stretch his back legs out, thinking it was some kind of cramp - but any slight movement only brought more of the ache to the forefront.

It would eventually ease, of course. It had been a very low blow - one well deserved by anyone else's standards, strong enough to puncture a hole in his own ego. As Glaukos recovered against the earth he glared at the woman, but couldn't say anything yet.

She knew how much it would hurt, physically. She knew nothing about the man, nor his backstory just as he knew nothing of hers… but what she did know? It wasn’t okay. What he had just done was not okay. He curled into himself and she didn’t feel satisfaction, only fear and loathing for the pathetic crumble on the ground, watching as he glared at her. As a healer, it might have been her duty to try and help. But right now, she didn’t care about duty.
 
Instead, she turned and bolted. Her mind autopiloted though where she was going was beyond her. She craved the safety of her herbs, plants had never hurt her, but what was more, she craved the safety that she had felt tucked against @Kallik in that moment of weakness she had shared by telling him about her father and Dimitri in the first place. She didn’t give herself any time to think about it. Her main goal, was to simply put as much distance as she could between herself and the brute before she figured out what her next move was.

They were together for only a few minutes more.

Glaukos didn't think anything of Aquene when she ran. He didn't think her attack was underhanded, and he didn't think she was weak for leaving. If anything the power in her kick proved she was meant to be auxillia. She was a survivor who had defended herself with all the power she could, in whatever way possible.

Fucking hurt like a bitch, but, the boy would get over the initial sting of it eventually.

When he was able to walk somewhat competently, he began the slow climb from the canyon floor, up the winding path to where he could resume his patrol. There was a hitch to his step and some irregular pauses along the way, which he hoped he'd have worked out by the time anyone caught sight of him again.

He would not forget this.