Emberflame Ridge no storms but all the friction
I hear the drums echoing tonight
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Ooc — Koffey
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#1
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Combat for some Merc. progression :) @Grezig

     If ever there could be a more apposite site for the coming compilation of events, Emberflame Ridge would undoubtedly arise the unanimous candidate.

     The Ridge, heavily maned in thriving pines and evergreens, slopes generously to the undulating expanse of the Taiga adjacant. Nestled within this magnificent cloak of conifers, various blotches dot the field - clearings garnered from the fury of the nieghboring Thunder Dome volcano. 

     Embry knew when he entered the Sunspire Mountains that something important would take place here. Upon his journey southward, he had been careful in selecting locations apt in satiating an explorer's appetite. Indeed, this particular panoramic was more than satisfying:

     The golden-blonde male had selected for himself one of the Ridge's many charred splotches; a clearing fallen victim to the wrath of volcanic ash and spew. Granted, it was a small area in which many of the trees still struggled to recover. It appeared to have been of the more recent locations affected, as compared to the few he'd passed before. However, what had truly caught his eye was the gap in trees that left him in a position he'd always thought himself too clever to allow: distracted.

     The boy's sea-green orbs laced the horizon with the naivety of a child; oblivious to the approaching encounter.
ϟ
​I stopped an old man along the way,
hoping to find some long forgotten words or ancient melodies.
He turned to me as if to say,
"Hurry boy, it's waiting there for you".
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Ooc — Fira
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#2
Figured she wouldn't go straight into "I don't know you, let's spar."

Grezig had traveled about as far away from Emberwood as she dared. Her group-mates were still there and she hesitated to move so far from them in case they needed her. But there were a lot of them now and she was confident that, should something happen, they would be able to handle it. She’d still hate herself if she came and found them in distress, however, and planned to return very soon. She pulled herself out of her thoughts when she saw a male wolf up ahead, seeming to stare into space, as if distracted. “Hey,” she called out, stopping where she was and waiting for a response before getting closer.
I hear the drums echoing tonight
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#3
That's probably a good idea XD

     Embry started. His flaxen coat shimmered in retaliation; thick pelt swaying at the sudden flurry of motion. Sea-green eyes, dancing anxiously beneath a furrowed brow, peered apprehensively across the clearing. Oh.

     For a few moments he stood in stunned silence. Then character set in and his brow softened; ears perked. His tail, which formerly remained stiff at alert, was released into a slow, pendulous sway. His body read negotiation but his eyes read premonition

     "Hello, there." He cleared his throat; straightening his stance into a more direct posture. "Pardon me if I've intruded. I was, er... Preoccupied by this magnificent view."
ϟ
​I stopped an old man along the way,
hoping to find some long forgotten words or ancient melodies.
He turned to me as if to say,
"Hurry boy, it's waiting there for you".
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Ooc — Fira
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#4
Grezig shook her head at the male’s words. “You were not intruding. These are unclaimed lands.” She looked around at the magnificent view that the male spoke of, shrugging. Grezig was not one to really notice or care about the beauty of nature. She was a wolf. She was constantly surrounded by nature—trees and rivers and hills and rocks. It had been a long time since she had seen something in nature that had truly astounded her, and she doubted she was ever see such a thing again. 

Wanting to keep the conversation going, she said, “I am Grezig. Who are you?”
I hear the drums echoing tonight
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#5
     Embry dipped his head politely; feeling compelled to show a certain respect to their majestic surroundings. 

     "It's a pleasure to meet you, Grezig.He tilted his head quizzically. 
"That's an interesting name. Myself, I am Embry."

     He gestured to the charred remnants of the clearing.

     "What brings you to this lonely copse?"
After which he mumbled more to himself than to anyone in general, "What the hell do y'think happened here?"
ϟ
​I stopped an old man along the way,
hoping to find some long forgotten words or ancient melodies.
He turned to me as if to say,
"Hurry boy, it's waiting there for you".
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Ooc — Fira
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#6
Grezig grunted, having nothing much to say. She never had anything to respond with when people said it was nice to meet her. They didn’t even know her. And, what was this? Her name was… interesting? She’d never heard anyone say that before and wasn’t sure how to react to it. Was that supposed to be an insult, or was her name genuinely interesting? Well. It didn’t matter because he was already moving on from that.

’What brings you to this lonely copse?’ Embry asked.

Grezig opened her mouth to reply, but was immediately interrupted.

’What the hell do y'think happened here?’

Her mouth closed. She looked around at the area they were in, really taking in her surroundings for the first time. Dotted here and there were trees that looked as if they, alone, had caught fire, like the world’s smallest wildfire. Except there were multiple trees like that. Furrowing her brows, she turned her head, swiveling here and there as she took in one, two, three, four… she lost count of them all. She tried to think about this logically.

“Let me see,” she mused aloud, and then sat down to ruminate. “These burnt trees could not have been caused by a wildfire, or there would be a huge swath of the area that was completely burnt to the ground. But here, only individual trees are destroyed. What causes fire, but only in isolated…” She stopped, as an image came to her mind, of being a pup hiding out in a cave to stay away from a thunderstorm. A bright flash had come down from the sky and destroyed a tree some distance away. “Lightning strikes?” That would make the most sense, but... "But why are there so many?"
I hear the drums echoing tonight
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#7
     Embry smiled at the sight: this new stranger now docile and sitting; contemplating the source of the crisped aspen. It stirred Embry to take a seat himself, though still far across the clearing, in which he listened to her commentary of thoughts.

     Nodding, he shrugged; golden coat shuddering at the movement. His thick fur gave off the impression of a juvenile bear.

     Lightning strikes? He raised his eyebrow. It was a good guess, but his own summonings had gathered that, indeed, no spot could be so holy as to be struck multiple times within such a brief period as this. After a few more moments of quiet speculation, he gazed back out across the breathtaking landscape. 

     "The thunder dome..." His oceanic orbs flashed upon contact with the large, incriminating volcano. "Of course! It's from a volcanic eruption." 

     And then, realizing how nerdy he sounded, he turned back to face the female with a haughty shake of his thick, aureate mane. "Finely deduced. We make a good team, eh?"
ϟ
​I stopped an old man along the way,
hoping to find some long forgotten words or ancient melodies.
He turned to me as if to say,
"Hurry boy, it's waiting there for you".
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Ooc — Fira
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#8
Grezig blinked, then her brows furrowed. “What do you mean it’s from a volcanic eruption?” she asked, ignoring his other words about how they made a good team. She was imagining chunks of heated rock flying off from the volcano and, what? hitting individual trees, and somehow not starting a huge fire? “How could a volcanic eruption cause the destruction of only individual trees? Lightning strikes make much more sense.” The tone of her voice suggested that she was not going to argue this point. She knew she was right and that was that. The last time she had ignored a gut instinct, it had meant recruiting an idiot into their group, and she had been regretting that decision ever since. No. These trees had been burned by lightning strikes, and that was the end of it.
I hear the drums echoing tonight
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#9
     Embry frowned, but his enthusiasm wasn't swayed. Whatever had been the source of the strange, crispy-fried trees were of no concern to him. Her curt reaction did, however, find traction in ruffling his feathers a bit. With a hearty toss of his honey-golden pelage, the boy decided to revert to the only tactic he'd ever found useful in such awkward situations as these:

     "Would you like to duel on it?" He leapt to his paws and assumed, in as agile a movement as his juvenile joints could muster, a bowing position. The playful intuition in his tone was emphasized in the eager motion of his fluffy, golden tail. The sight was emanent of his goldenmute heritage; though the wolfish grin brought out his mother's wild nature. He clearly enjoyed her company regardless of whether it was a mutual bondage, and his keeness to test her skills was implicit.

      "Because as far as I know, this was definitely a victim of that there Thunder Dome."
ϟ
​I stopped an old man along the way,
hoping to find some long forgotten words or ancient melodies.
He turned to me as if to say,
"Hurry boy, it's waiting there for you".
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Ooc — Fira
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#10
Grezig took in the toss of Embry’s head. He leapt to his paws, then, asking if she wanted to duel on it—on how the trees had been destroyed. She almost said no. It did not really matter how the trees had been burned. She’d been stubborn about it only in that she thought she was right and he was wrong. But it was nothing to fight over. But, studying his body language, she could see that he only wanted a friendly fight. A spar. He was smiling, even. She sighed. Was this worth her time? Maybe. Maybe a practice fight would be good for her. She hadn’t had a fight of any kind in some time. 

She stood. “Fine. But— this will be a friendly spar only. No eye shots, no drawing blood. Understand?”

Waiting to make sure that he did, in fact, understand, she took a running charge at him, attempting to lunge and bite at his shoulder—not hard, obviously. She would follow her own rules, of course.
As per the Tabletop post:
Attack: 6 - miss
Health: 6/6
I hear the drums echoing tonight
238 Posts
Ooc — Koffey
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#11
     Embry's tail obeyed his labrador lineage; wagging upon first glimpse of sway in the female's unwavering composition. When she stood, he deepened his bow with a roguish dip of his haunches. Her conditions were fair enough, if not already implied. Every essence of his attitude relayed the latent message: You're on. 

     To his surprise, the she-wolf made her first move almost instantaneously. The lunge forward was brazen, and, fortunately for Embry, easy to counter in his case. His mind audited the minute swivel of her brown orbs, tracking the motion directly to their target upon his shoulder. He took the opportunity to perform a manuever he especially favored in the prelude of a spar. With his hind legs firmly planted into the firm earth beneath, he ducked and rammed his shoulder forwards and up, thus intending to snap her head upwards upon impact and reverse the offront.      

via 

(July 21, 2018, 01:17 AM)Embry Wrote: Attack: 5

Points: 6/6
ϟ
​I stopped an old man along the way,
hoping to find some long forgotten words or ancient melodies.
He turned to me as if to say,
"Hurry boy, it's waiting there for you".
564 Posts
Ooc — Fira
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#12
Grezig let out a grunt when her chin came into contact with Embry’s shoulder. Her head was thrown back a bit and she’d bitten her tongue, though not too hard. They weren’t playing for blood, so his shoulder blow hadn’t been super hard. Quickly shaking her head, she did the first thing that came to mind, which was running straight into him with her body, in the hopes of knocking him over, or just back a little to give her room.
Attack: 3 - hit
HP: 5/6
Link: Here
I hear the drums echoing tonight
238 Posts
Ooc — Koffey
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#13
     Embry, confused by her continuation of the motion, had not expected the female to slam the rest of her body against him. Unable to resist the force of the sudden weight, he toppled sidelong in an awkward flurry of movements, desperately hoping to catch himself before a fullout down. His efforts were, unfortunately, fruitless.

     Hoping to absorb the impact, he aimed the landing for his shoulder and boosted off his hind leg. With a heavy thud, he rolled hard onto the opposite flank.
via 

(July 23, 2018, 07:25 PM)Embry Wrote: Hit/Miss: 6

Points: 5/6
ϟ
​I stopped an old man along the way,
hoping to find some long forgotten words or ancient melodies.
He turned to me as if to say,
"Hurry boy, it's waiting there for you".
564 Posts
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#14
I'm doing short posts cos it's a sparring thread. Hope that's cool. I don't think they'd talk or do much thinking in the middle of a fight, so... XD

Grezig, still tasting a little blood in her mouth from biting her tongue, watched as Embry toppled over completely, landing on his opposite side. While he was down still, she lunged for his exposed back, hoping to nip at him and maybe pin him to the ground. This, however, was not successful.
Link here
Attack: Miss
HP: 5/6
I hear the drums echoing tonight
238 Posts
Ooc — Koffey
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#15
I feel exactly the same way :P

     Embry felt the female dive for his vulnerable spine and moved instinctively to avoid contact. He wormed in strangled heaves to get his footing; latching, finally, into the ground and forcing his muscles to clench ever tighter at the sheer strength needed to support the movement. It appeared that finally the struggle was over - he faced Grezig with a triumphant shake of his aureate pelt.
ϟ
​I stopped an old man along the way,
hoping to find some long forgotten words or ancient melodies.
He turned to me as if to say,
"Hurry boy, it's waiting there for you".
564 Posts
Ooc — Fira
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#16
The Tabletop thread is back!

Embry managed to get back up onto his paws, though the act of doing so seemed to exhaust him somewhat. He was now staring at her triumphantly. She smirked for just a second, impressed with his maneuvering despite herself, and then she lunged for his throat. She was tiring out now and needed to end this quickly, but somehow, he managed to avoid her yet again.
Attack: Miss
HP: 5/6
I hear the drums echoing tonight
238 Posts
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#17
Yay!

     Embry was indefatigable. This spar was lasting much longer than he had anticipated, which beckoned more staminal charisma than he was expecting to invest. After all of the effort he had contributed, he might as well win the damned encounter. 

     When she lunged for his throat, it became evident that the two were locked in a slowly petering pas de deux of vigor. In hopes of breaking the chain, Embry mustered his strength and parried the female's attempt in a smooth break in stride; aiming for her exposed flank with the ramming force of his shoulder.

(August 01, 2018, 04:08 PM)Embry Wrote: Hit/Miss: 1

Points: 5/6
ϟ
​I stopped an old man along the way,
hoping to find some long forgotten words or ancient melodies.
He turned to me as if to say,
"Hurry boy, it's waiting there for you".
564 Posts
Ooc — Fira
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#18
Grezig stumbled back from the force of Embry’s shoulder against her flank. She was tiring out and her thick, muscular build worked against her now. She felt herself fall over onto her side, but quickly attempted to lunge forward and snap at the male’s ankle while she was down, hoping to at least get him to back up away from her, or maybe cause a stumble. Unfortunately, he was too quick for her yet again!
 
Attack: Miss
HP: 4/6
EDITING A CLOSE TO THIS. PPing a bit, let me know if you want it changed. Hit me up if you want a new thread!

But he didn't do anything next. He stopped fighting, and Grezig stood up and looked at him cautiously, expecting him to lunge for her when she least expected it. But... nothing happened. They had come to a draw, it seemed. With a shrug, Grezig thanked the male for the fight, turned, and left.