Excited to Learn (Magispar)

[freckleface130]

Charis fidgeted anxiously, her whole being excited for bettering herself. She was determined to prove to the world that she could make it. Her vibrant yellow wings lay in an awkward position.

Determination was all that was said in her eyes, and when a red butterfly with spots passed by, and fluttered around her practically begging to play, she ignored it. Hopefully she would be able to prove her worth to this pack, to prove that she wasn’t totally worthless. She would be able to fight, to hunt, to run, to jump, everything! Her thoughts were a whirl of excitement, as she imagined how she would be good at everything, and much better than her siblings ever would be. Charis pushed that thought aside, because she knew she wouldn’t ever know for certain she was better than her siblings.

Then a thought occurred to her, and her antenna started twitching worriedly. She took a deep breathe, and prepared herself for whatever was to come.

[magispar]

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[atrb=background,http://i.imm.io/56Mq.jpeg] Magispar grinned as she arrived and saw her new apprentice ready and waiting. "Hey!" she called as she trotted up, tail swishing. She nodded as she drew near and sat down, pleased. The wolf was a Sennyo; many people would say this made for bad fighting skills, considering a Sennyo's lack of strength and stamina, but Magispar admired them for their grace and elegance; often, while they found blow-fighting difficult, her own style was easy for them to master and fight well with. A Sennyo's grace and balance was useful in a hunt, too. Plus, this wolf seemed eager to learn. Magi was looking forward to teaching her. "So," she told her. "You probably want to learn everything, and be good at everything... I'm telling you now, that won't happen. Nobody can know everything, or be good at everything, and we all have to start somewhere." Then Magi's grin widened. "However, nobody said that was anything bad. If you knew everything, you'd miss all the fun of finding out. As to where we'll start, you can choose. You won't get a specialised education from me like you would from a Fighter or Hunter or Sage, but I can teach you battle tactics, and leadership skills, as well as fighting and hunting and basic herbs." The dark wolf stretched lazily, then rose to her feet, alert now and ready for anything. "So, what would you like to learn first?"

[freckleface130]

“Nobody can know everything, or be good at everything, and we all have to start somewhere.” Magispar told the young apprentice.
Charis nodded eagerly, then piped in “I know! I just want to be the best I can be at everything I can learn!”
Nodding as her mentor explained this wasn’t a bad thing. Magispar stretched out lazily, and asked
"So, what would you like to learn first?"
Charis’s ears perked up at the opportunity to choose what she was going to learn first. She wagged her tail happily, she couldn’t wait.
“I want to learn to fight! To defend myself! In this state I couldn’t defeat a mouse!” Charis chirped. She was well aware of how badly she fought, and didn’t have a very big ego. It was tiring being only able to do so much for the pack, and if the time came, Charis wanted to join the fight.
Her wings lay sloppily at her side as she was nearly zooming to go. Determination to prove herself to her pack mates clear in her eyes. Her one worry was pushed clear to the side as it seemed her mentor had made no sign of bringing it up, however Charis did hope she wouldn’t trip over her own two feet during training.

[magispar]

(OOC: Sorry for the slow reply, I don't have much time right now)

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[atrb=background,http://i.imm.io/56Mq.jpeg] Magispar grinned at the young apprentice; her own verve for fighting was equalled only really by her love of tactics and strategy. "OK then." She looked Charis straight in the eye. "Fighting isn't the glorious affair most people think it is, though. It isn't wonderful brave warriors doing honourable battle while other wolves clap and cheer their heroic efforts. And the first thing any fighter needs to learn is how to stand, and that's not particularly glorious. The cool moves and things that cubs fantasize over don't usually exist, or are only taught at high levels." Magispar spread her paws slightly so that she stood square, then bent her knees slightly and lowered her weight. She pulled her ears back and tail held high. Then she returned to normal and looked at her apprentice. "You have to stand like that. You mustn't stand with your paws together, or weight unbalanced. You have to put an equal amount of weight on all your paws, and keep your weight low. Otherwise other wolves can easily sweep your paws from under you, or shove you over. The lower your weight is, the harder that is to do. It's especially important for less heavy wolves," she said significantly. She slid into the position again and motioned for Charis to copy her. "Now, you don't walk like normal in a fight either. If you stick your paw out and take a big step, then the other wolf is just going to clamp their jaws onto your paw or sweep it out from under you. You slide your back paws in first," Magispar said, bunching her spine and bringing her back paws in towards her front paws, sliding them across the ground rather than lifting them up, for ease of balance if she was unexpectedly hit by something. "Then your front paws," Magi finished, pushing out her front paws, sliding them across the ground and keeping them in to her chest so as not to expose any of herself for the imaginary enemy to bite. "Then, when you attack, keep your weight low and balance central and spread. A lot of wolves attack with their claws, but I prefer keeping all four paws on the ground. For a primary attack, teeth tend to be useful things. Keep your ears back so the enemy can't tear them off." She whipped around and faced the Sennyo with a grin. She was enjoying this more than she'd thought she would; it was fun to be able to just tell somebody something rather than having to fight her corner against bitter stubbornness. "Try on me. Not the sinking your teeth into my neck part, mind," the dark lupus grinned.

[freckleface130]

Charis nodded, “It’s not for glory, it so I can fight, defend my pack if needed.” Truly it wasn’t for glory; it was for not making Charis feel totally helpless when fighting something. Listening carefully to her instruction, she swiveled her ears back, and attempted to get in position.
She started by spreading her paws apart, the stance seemed easy enough. However upon attempting to adjust her weight she nearly fell, only adjusting it the other was for the same result. She growled under her breathe, adjusting her weight evenly on her paws. She knew she would have a hard time remember to keep this stance though.
Next she tried slinking her paws across the ground, making sure not to lift them and to keep balance on each. She found this fairly easy, even easier than actually lifting her paws up.
She took a note in her head of the claws and teeth thing. It made sense, using claws might give an opportunity for something to throw you off balance. She was careful that if her mentor suddenly attacked she would snap her neck upward to attempt to get a blow in herself.
She made no attempt to attack her mentor, it would throw her off balance, and quite likely put her in a fairly vulnerable position. She would stick with this one for now, and if her mentor tried taking her from behind, she would slink her paws across the ground to adjust her angle.

[magispar]

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[atrb=background,http://i.imm.io/56Mq.jpeg] Magi smiled encouragingly as Charis fell over. "It's OK. It's not like normal walking. It's hard to get at first, but when you can do it properly it helps to stop people pushing you over, because your balance is in place and can't be knocked." The Sennyo didn't seem to want to try the moves out on her mentor. Magi shrugged slightly; it didn't matter. "OK. Claws, then, are most useful for hunting- and counters." She moved closer to Charis, sliding her paws along the ground and keeping her weight low. "Most fights don't happen from a distance- both wolves will be up close, where they can use their teeth and claws, and try and roll the opponent over. So if I come in closer, like I'm going to try and use my teeth, or bodyslam you-" she paused and mimed snapping at Charis- "you can use your claws without a worry of being off balance. Because I'm moving forwards, you can keep me moving forwards. Fighting's all about balance. If my momentum and balance is forwards, if you hit me in front my own strength is pushing me onto your claws and teeth. Also, if you want to trip me up, then you should trip me up in a forwards direction." Magispar took a moment and leaned backwards, pulling all her weight onto her front paws and exposing her neck. "A lot of wolves think this is a good dodge if somebody swipes at your neck because you don't have to move your feet. But really, it exposes your neck and ruins your balance. If you swiped my front legs now, it'd be like swiping at feathers because I have no weight on them. Then you could throw your weight into me and I'd fall backwards, exposing my neck even more and putting you in control. When you have control of your opponent, you can do anything. Then's the time to use your claws- you can swipe at their belly or neck, or if you're only aiming to injure or pin, not kill, you can squash them flat." Magispar went back into her stance. "A better dodge is to move all your paws backwards quickly, like this," and with that she made a funny little jump, all of her paws sliding backwards at once. "Hard to get the hang of, but a better dodge. Never duck under a blow, either- it exposes the back of your neck and means you can't see what they're doing."

[freckleface130]

Charis tried to remember all of the information. Taking a deep breathe, she tried her paw at attacking.
At first she lunges, trying to keep her balance. She kept low to the ground, as not to be knocked out of the air. However, she easily trips up. Backing away, she tried again.
As she lunges like the first time, a butterfly passes overhead, causing her attention to dwindle for a second. She falls, and ends up in a heap.
Quickly shaking herself off, she gets into position one more time, instructions running through her head. She lunges, keeping low to the ground, and her balance even. She takes a swipe at both of Magispar’s front paws. Trying to throw her mentor off balance. Quickly she takes a snap at her mentor’s neck, before jumping. She tries to keep her body in such a way that her jaws would be the only clear target, and that her body is focused evenly. So if suddenly thrown out of the air, she could at any moment change the direction of her weight to land gracefully. Before landing on her mentors back, she throws all her weight forward, a risky plan if her mentor suddenly decides to take a swipe. However would greatly enhance her landing to be more affective in harming the target.
The whole time her wings are flapping wildly, as if trying to fly right off her back. She also doesn’t take account for her scrawniness, which would make ramming into her mentor in such a way, nearly ineffective.

[magispar]

(OOC: Sorry I took so long)

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[atrb=background,http://i.imm.io/56Mq.jpeg] Magi watched anxiously. It had been a while since she'd tried to teach anybody, and while she was definitely enjoying herself, it would be frustrating if she turned out to be a bad teacher. The first couple of times Charis did it wrong, and Magi's fears seemed to be confirmed. She didn't blame the young Sennyo- it was her own fault for explaining things wrong. Maybe she was a useless teacher and her apprentice had put her faith in the dark-pelted light lupus for nothing. Then the younger wolf lunged, low to the ground and balance even. Magi found herself grinning as the wolf swiped at her front paws. The dark wolf allowed herself to be swept off her feet, rolling quickly up and moving slightly away as Charis snapped at her neck and then jumped. "Once you've got me down, follow me down," she instructed breathlessly as she moved, only half her attention on speaking as the rest concentrated on the mock battle. "Once I'm on the floor you need to take control and put your weight on me so I can't escape. Then you can bite my throat out or let me go, whichever you want. If you just swipe and then bite at me, I'll move away." She then realised her apprentice had landed on her back with all her weight. Magispar looked around and shook her off gently. "You need to use speed and agility and skill," she explained gently. "You're a Sennyo. You can't rely on weight, or power, or crashing into people. You need to use your other skills. Sennyo grace and balance. Use agility and skill. If you try and use weight, it'll only work against other Sennyo, occasionally Keiyou, and pups. You're not heavy enough." Magispar frowned, then realised she could have framed this in a much simpler way. "Play to your strengths. Use the moves which require the qualities you have, rather than qualities like strength which you're still developing." She still though she was putting it rather stupidly, but then she wasn't quite sure how to explain what she meant. Maybe she was just tired and stressed, and it was messing with her brain. She made herself smile. Hey, enjoy this rather than worrying for once. Magi grinned for real, and looked back at Charis. "Try again, but when the sweep works, keep on me. Don't let me up so I can dodge- once your opponent's on the ground you're in control, so pin them down and keep them where you want them."