Redhawk Caldera Take me on

one spar thread @Tempest anyone else can join in too!

FitzDutiful had thought long and hard about what he needed to do to gain his warden trade. He had patrolled the borders, learnt from Fox, but he knew that there was more to it then that. One very inportant aspect was actually being able to defend. In order. To do this he had decided to spar against pack mates - what better way to learn. There was just one problem... How exactly did one go about finding pack wolves to fight?

With only a moments hesitation, the evening of this cold January day brought him to a clearing in the caldera lands where his threw his head back and howled a challenge to any wolves nearby "come and spar with me, try to break past my defences!" He didn't know who would come, if anyone would come, but it was worthwhile asking. He had no doubt that someone would easily beat him but the challenge may encourage contenders.

I'm not Tempest, but I thought this looked a little lonely and Elwood is working on his warrior trade. :) I recently learned how to use the dice for a spar, so if you want to try that out we certainly can!

A howl pierced the air, shattering the wintry silence and drawing Elwood's attention. He looked to the sky, ears orbiting on his skull as he listened to and interpreted the message. The call belonged to FitzDutiful, and he was requesting a sparring partner. Having practiced recently with Fox, he was eager to continue to hone his skills -- he wanted to add warrior to his list of trades.

So he loped towards his packmate, using his senses to guide him to where FitzDutiful was waiting. When he could see the pale wolf, he slowed his paced and approached at a trot, a grin on his face as his paws crunched through the snow. "Hey, Fitz!" he said, pausing a few feet from the Delta and dropping into a play-bow position. "You rang?" he asked, his tail snapping to and fro behind him.

Yes please! It looks so fun

"Hi Elwood!" FitzDutiful had felt a moment of fear and concern when his beta answered the call for a spar partner. Was he supposed to go a little easy considering he was up against leadership? Could he get kicked out if for some reason he did fight a leader? These concerns whizzed through his head, lasting a matter of milliseconds before flying straight back out and no longer being a concern.

"Yes, I was looking for someone to spar with. I'm training to be a Warden!" With those words, he adopted a mock-sparring pose and began to jump from one side to another as if in warm up for some vigorous sporting activity. He was ready for anything now. Elwood could start the spar straight away if he wished and Fitz would be on the tips of his toes, literally. A bouncing ninja.

I'll start us a thread in the Sparring Pits and edit the link in here! We can just go back and forth there until the spar is finished, and then come back here and write a few narratives to get us to 10 posts. Does that make sense? :)

Edit: Spar thread is here: http://wolf-rpg.com/showthread.php?tid=6887

Had FitzDutiful voiced his thoughts, Elwood would have burst out laughing. They were valid concerns, but rank was the furthest thing from the grey male's mind at the moment -- and besides, he didn't consider himself to be skilled by any means. Fox had given him a sound beating (I'm assuming -- that thread isn't done yet!) despite her small size, but he had learned a lot from her. He and Fitz would likely be evenly matched.

"That's great!" he replied as FitzDutiful proclaimed that he was working towards his warden trade. Fox and Peregrine would be happy to have more wolves trained in defending their land. "I'm working on warrior, so let's do this," he said, grinning as he watched the Delta prepare himself for battle.

From his bowing position, Elwood sprang forward quickly and without warning, hoping to catch FitzDutiful off balance and knock him over with the force of his momentum.

Not quite sure how far to take each of these posts ^_^

Elwood had launching himself at Fitz and, almost caught off guard, FitzDutiful attempted to stand his ground. It was a strange sensation, having another wolf fall into you and doing your best not to fall over. He rocked quite precariously and felt the impact, he didn't think there'd be a bruise the next morning though. His instinct had done the job.

Unwilling to let Elwood recover from that attack, Fitz did his best to nip at Elwood's flank. His nip certainly felt successful and he wondered whether he'd been too rough. He thought for a moment, he didn't taste any blood on his tongue so he can't have pierced the skin. His lack of concentration, however, could be something for Elwood to seize upon.

Remedy and I just kind of summed it up in one post, instead of trying to rehash every roll. So I'll write a broad post, then you can say that Fitz wins in your next post -- and celebrates his victory however he wants! :) Then we can just have a couple more posts to get this thread to 10!

The two males seemed to be pretty evenly matched, so this would be a much different fight than the one with Fox. FitzDutiful's size and strength were both comparable to Elwood's, meaning that it would likely come down to the wire.

Elwood did his best to deflect FitzDutiful's attack, and his pale-coated counterpart did the same. There were a series of nips and headbutts, and they left a pattern of pawprints across the snow as they veritably danced back and forth. The Beta's last maneuver was to headbutt FitzDutiful; he was feeling fatigued, but wasn't quite sure who would be the victor...

The fight became a dance, a very fast paced but well considered dance. They were darting in and out in an attempt to hit but avoid being hit. With a dart in here, and a dodge over there, Fitz was starting to lose energy. As the spar raged on, he let Elwood get a few easy swats - at least FitzDutiful knew those moves either needed practice or skipping altogether.

They were both tiring now and Elwood attempted a headbutt and Fitz attempted to dodge this time instead of deflecting. With renewed vigour, a paw was lifted to swipe his opponent, the would be attacker. VICTORY WAS HIS!

"Leave now, would-be attacker!" he exclaimed carrying on the role play of the warrior and the warden roles they were both training for. Although Fitz had won this time it had been too close for comfort. He wanted to prance around in a happy dance circle but, in truth, he was too tired to try. Instead he flopped on to the floor and panted a while, "Good fight, Elwood."

The play was over.

Elwood lunged forward in his attempt to headbutt Fitz, but his fatigue caused his aim to be poor. On top of that, his opponent used his paw to push him away, and even just that swatting motion was enough to send Elwood to the ground. Had this been a real spar, he likely would have put up more of a fight, but this was all in fun.

He landed on his side and promptly rolled over onto his back, his tongue lolling from his mouth as he looked up at FitzDutiful. He was all but waving the white flag with his belly exposed, and he grinned as FitzDutiful, too, collapsed to the floor. Technically, this now made two spars that he had lost -- but he wasn't keeping count. Now, if this became a trend...he would perhaps start to reconsider if he was cut out to be a warrior.

"The caldera will be totally safe with you guarding it," he said, glad to know that another packmate could soon officially earn the title of warden. "I challenge you to a rematch...on another day, when we've had time to recover," he joked.

His beta remarked that he felt the Redhawk Caldera would be safe with FitzDutiful guarding it and he smiled with his tongue lolling out of his mouth as he gasped for breath. He had been practising hard with every chance he had and it was good to see all that training had paid off.

Elwood issued a rematch and Fitz nodded eagerly. "Gladly," he responded, "I've still got a lot to learn - it was only luck that caused me to win. You nearly had me a good few times!" He wasn't be flattering, trying to make the beta feel better, he thoroughly meant it. More than once he had suffered a fluster that had caused his reflexes to get him out of the situation. It was good to have reflexes but it wasn't good to have to rely solely on them. They weren't reliable enough.

As he lay on the ground, FitzDutiful felt his eyes grow heavy. He needed a nap now. "I think... I think I'm just going to lie here for a while..." he said, trying his best not to drift off until Elwood was either relaxing alongside or going elsewhere.

Last post for me! Thanks for the thread and the spar! :)

This was only the second spar that Elwood had participated in, but he felt good about his own skills as well as FitzDutiful's. It really could have been anyone's fight, and they had both proved that they were able to deliver and avoid a myriad of different attacks. He was sure that they would both only continue to improve, and he was looking forward to their potential rematch.

"I'll leave you to your nap," he quipped with a wink, rolling onto his stomach and then pushing himself up into a standing position. He braced himself with all four legs and then gave himself a vigorous shake. "Let me know when you're ready for that rematch," he teased, then tapped FitzDutiful amiably on the shoulder with his paw as a farewell gesture. With a chuff, the Beta then turned and meandered away, his muscles already starting to ache.

Elwood pushed off, shaking before heading off to wherever and whatever he was going to do. Meanwhile, FitzDutiful let sleep overtake him. As he did, he recapped their spar, trying to determine exactly where he could improve. He had found, when he was very young, that this was his best way of learning. By going over everything he had accomplished his unconscious mind found ways to improve.

A short while later, FitzDutiful awoke. Fresh from his nap, his mind having filed away his learning experience, he pushed himself up and set out to find Raissa and tell her about his first spar experience.