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 Posted: Mon Jun 22, 2009 8:32 am
Fox's eyes slowly opened, blinking shut again as a beam of early morning sunlight pierced the leaf canopy above her and caused light patterns to dance in her vision. She opened them slower this time, raising her head, and realising that sometime during the night she'd shifted position and was laying alot nearer to Lamb; in fact her head was almost touching his.
She wriggled backwards, breath held, hoping he wasn't feigning sleep or that he wouldn't wake until she was a distance away. Drawing that close in the night might be enough for Lamb to question her behaviour and she still had no answers for that. Once she moved back away, she forced a yawn, as if she was just waking up in that spot, stretching her legs and slowly getting to her hooves.
'Time to get up..' she said quietly, still clinging to the hope that he had been asleep all this time.
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Posted: Mon Jun 22, 2009 9:00 am
Lamb had in fact been sound asleep. No part of him had felt all that tired before he had dozed off but he had slept soundly throughout the entire night. Perhaps it had something to do with the pleasant and fascinating dream he was having. He had found himself in a large meadow bathed in warm light and there was a very pleasing scent in the air. It was a familiar smell but he couldn't quite place it.
As things started to get brighter it suddenly got a bit cooler and the smell all but vanished. That wasn't right. This was a dream, it was supposed to be nice. Not liking this turn of events he slowly opened his eyes to see Fox standing up. At her voice he lifted his head blinking the sleep from his eyes. It took his brain a moment to process everything but once he was certain that he truly was awake and not still dreaming he stood.
He shook his head a few times to settle his bangs on one side of his face where they belonged before casting a lopsided and sleepy grin in Fox's direction. "Morning."
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Posted: Mon Jun 22, 2009 9:25 am
'Morning,' Fox found herself returning the grin, thinking how nice he looked when he was half-asleep..she shook herself and left the canopy of trees, walking down the short distance to the water's edge and bent to have a long drink. As she drank she made a firm decision not to think anymore of Lamb, other than how to train him. She had to, for safeties sake if nothing else because she couldn't concentrate when her mind was wandering.
The morning taste gone from her mouth, she straightened, turning to see if Lamb had gotten up properly yet.
'Once you've woken properly, stretched and taken some food, we'll start todays lessons.' she said, before walking off down the bank to graze, looking for a breather to get her head together and decide how the lessons were going to go.
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Posted: Tue Jun 23, 2009 9:01 am
It seemed that Fox was in a good mood this morning. Pink eyes followed the mare as she moved to the water before sealing shut with a yawn. He stretched his front legs out one at a time and then his back legs keeping his eyes shut all the while. When he opened his eyes he found that his mentor was looking at him.
He went still as she spoke then nodded to show understanding. At the moment he wasn't really hungry but he also didn't feel all that awake either. Eying the sparkling lake water an idea came to his mind. That water was cold.
Before giving himself time to reconsider he took off making a beeline for the waters edge. Then, like a a very clumsy bird, he leapt off of the ground tucking his legs up and splashed down in the water. Sure enough, it was cold. He unfolded his legs and found his footing on the slick, muddy ground beneath the rippling surface.
All he could think at the moment was that he now felt wide awake. His mane clung to his face and to the back of his neck and every hair on his body was now thoroughly soaked. Still, somehow it felt good to take a bath like this early in the morning. It was refreshing. Lamb turned his head to locate Fox and smiled at her a little before pushing his way through the water towards her. He still didn't feel hungry.
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Posted: Wed Jun 24, 2009 8:21 am
At first he couldn't catch what she meant. He had enjoyed shaking off, it felt like an icy weight had left him. Why she wanted to get him back for it he didn't understand. He blinked a few times and thought back for possible explinations.
It hit him like a fish to the face.
Fox hadn't been wet before he had come over. She shouldn't have needed to shake herself dry. Lamb had soaked her as he had dried. All he could do was smile sheepishly and laugh quietly. There was no reason for it but somehow he found it funny now that he understood what had happened.
"Ready, Fox." He said with a nod and a cheerful flick to his tail. He didn't know why but the air felt different around them, a bit lighter but strained at the same time. It was odd and he hoped that getting things started would bring things back to normal...or at least get them to make sense.
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Posted: Wed Jun 24, 2009 8:37 am
Yes, she would definately return that little favour, as she watched his face change into a smile and then saw him laugh. Of course it was nice that he was relaxed enough around her to do that, but oh yes..she smiled back, as though what he'd done was all forgotten and they should make a move.
'Good good.' she said, leading him away from the Lake, back to where they had trained the previous day, as it had been a good spot then and still would be now. When they were back, she stopped, turning to him.
'We'll be practicing some more physical moves so it would be an idea to stretch a little first. Canter in a circle to warm your muscles up.' she suggested.
In the woods watching..a set of crimson eyes had seen the two, mare and stallion, watched them from the time they'd emerged from their night time shelter..and waited.
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Posted: Wed Jun 24, 2009 8:53 am
Silently he trailed after her like a little dark ghost until they reached what he was beginning to call their training grounds. He was starting to grow fond of the spot. The attachment that came with familiarity puzzled him a little bit but it didn't bother him. He didn't have time to let it bother him.
Taking her suggestion he moved out a little closer to the trees and a bit further away from Fox to make sure he had space. Once he was pretty sure that he could make a decent sized circle without running into anything he started moving. His pace was slow at first, just a simple walk but he quickly increased speed until he was cantering around in a circle. He wasn't sure how long he was meant to do this but he was pretty sure Fox would call him over once she thought he was ready.
If not he would probably be going in circles until he wore himself out.
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Posted: Wed Jun 24, 2009 8:57 am
Fox watched Lamb only when he moved in front of her, otherwise she would have grown dizzy from following his path.
'Stop when your legs feel warm and your movements come easy.' she said, stretching one of her own back legs. She'd already been moving slowly about, and as she'd not done what he'd done and jumped into the cold water, she was warmed up enough for them to begin their lessons anew.
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Posted: Wed Jun 24, 2009 9:11 am
So that's what he was waiting for. He nodded his head a few times to signal that he understood before focusing on his movement again. His legs didn't quite feel warm yet but they did feel warmer. He could also feel the hairs of his coat slowly drying as his body heated up.
For several minutes he kept moving in circles until the chill from his morning swim had left him. At this point he slowed his pace and left his circle to return to Fox's side. Part of him was still running around in the circle and it left him feeling a bit dizzy when he finally came to a stop. It didn't take long for his brain to catch up to what he was currently doing, however, and the feeling subsided.
"Now ready Fox."
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Posted: Wed Jun 24, 2009 9:21 am
'Good. Doing any exertion without stretching is always a bad idea, but obviously you don't normally get a chance to warm up before a fight. However, training usually lasts longer than a fight and it's more repetitive.' she said, walking slowly as she spoke.
The mare was trying to shake off the feeling she was being looked at by somebody other than Lamb - it was making her strangely nettled. She wondered if it was because of her confused feelings - she couldn't hear anything that made her suspicious, but couldn't quite rid herself of that creeping, hairs raising on back of neck feeling.
Fox stopped, looking around the area, listening carefully, and then looked at Lamb.
'Okay then, we'll practice parrying with front legs, you can try to kick at my chest, and I'll block and push your legs away with my own.' she said, standing before him.
Shinoma stopped moving forwards, still keeping to the shadows that the tree cover afforded, watching just the mare now. Interesting.. Shinoma thought.
You know there's someone watching you..
This would be more interesting than she'd hoped for.
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Posted: Wed Jun 24, 2009 12:03 pm
Again Lamb was taking mental notes quietly. Anything important that she said was something that he felt the need to memorize. That was the only way he could really learn. When she fell silent for a moment he cocked his head to the side. She was looking around like she expected to see someone else standing near them.
Curiously he turned his head looking to either side of him. There was no one there. Seeing nothing he turned back to look at the mare as she began to speak once more.
"Alright..." He said slowly trying to figure out just how he was meant to attack. Just kicking didn't seem too difficult. Gathering himself he took a few steps forward before pushing his front legs off the ground to try and score a hit on Fox.
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Posted: Thu Jun 25, 2009 6:06 am
Fox was trying to do two things now; concentrate on training Lamb, and listen with all her instincts to their surroundings. Someone was out there, she couldn't be this thrown by how she felt about Lamb, it wasn't as if she'd never felt this way about anyone before.
She reared as he did, catching his flailing forward legs with her own, trapping one of his knees between hers and pushing down, bearing on the leg with nearly all her weight.
'Go down with me,' she said, not wanting to hurt him as she would a real attacker.
'And as you fall, fold your legs. You can also twist the leg in a painful way which would drop an attacker even quicker.' she said, as they would lower to the ground.
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