The white female took in a deep breath of the thick, salty air. The weather was gloomy. The sky was so white it hurt the eyes to look at, and the waves that crashed were drab gray. It was humid and muggy, but when the wind blew, a chill could be felt. It was a day of malaise, driving lions to do smaller tasks closer to home, their usual vigor and enthusiasm dulled. Beyla wanted to go home, too, to give up practicing her techniques, but that was not an option. Not for the lioness who had withstood so much mockery and teasing for being a portly little cub. As an adolescent, she was becoming proportionally awkward in another way. She was becoming incredibly tall. Her exercise regime had helped her become slim, but now her god-genes were taking over. Beyla felt helpless now. Her height was not something she could control. She was already taller than most adolescent males her own age (save for her siblings who got the same god-genes; Hakon was already a giant) and even had a few inches on a few adult males. So she tended to let her head droop around others. She was muscular and strong, but that did not help fill out her frame enough to not be an awkward, lanky teen. But she despised her feeling powerless to affect things.
So she still trained. She had not found Hakon to help, but she trained without him most of the time anyway. He had good captains to learn from, and she was grateful that he shared that knowledge with her, but... Maybe she should find a more direct line. Well, after she was more confident.
The lioness took a deep breath, and began again in practicing her lunging training.
Adelheid, too, was looking to take the gloomy, gross day as an opportunity to do some training. Fewer lions would be out than usual, or at least in the especially breezy and clammy area where she was wont to do some practice exercises. She had been successful on her first reaving; she captured a thrall and had brought her back to the pride as her own, and if she was lucky, she just possibly might be pregnant with Vaskr's cubs. But it was too early to tell. She considered the only disadvantage about the her choice of sire for her cubs the fact that he would be impossible to find if she was in fact, not pregnant, and needed to try again. However, maybe she would not need to find him. A moon had not turned since she that evening. She had only told her mother about the possibility of her being pregnant (since Chayah might have killed her otherwise- but, like, probably not meaning to). Her brother, Eikthyrnir, who had gone on the same viking to become a reaver, too, had been asking some questions, though. He had smelled the scent of a strange, male lion all over his sister, which was weird considering the fact that the thrall Adelheid had captured was a female. Instead of being pressed for more questions, she was avoiding him, and these not-oft-used training grounds were pretty optimal for that. Eikthyrnir preferred the sparring pits to individual practice.