This is a private roleplay between Thane & Cato (Roman Foi) and Calixte, Tinúviel, Ithillún, & Lynnea (Mahogany Sunset). Please do not post without permission.
They're using the new sparring method that Roman developed [here]. Their stats and certs may be found in the spoiler.
Calixte wove her way through the outskirts of the Vanaras' territory, her friend Lynnea at her side. They were on patrol - with the herd on high alert since the most recent skinwalker attack, isolated though it had been, the patrols had doubled in the last few days. Volunteers were scarce and everyone was frightened; the last attack had been years ago and much more grievous, but the blow struck this time had been no less far from home. Instead of the Alpha suffering wounds, it had been her daughter, Tinúviel, the young mare who had been raised as much by the herd as by her parents. And it was not only that that made Cali's own scars ache in sympathy and worry: the deathblow had been meant for her youngest daughter, who was still a filly. Still a filly. She shook her head in frustration. If they couldn't find someone to teach them soon, they would be lost. The herd needed to be confident in its ability to defend itself, for if it was not when the purewalkers returned, someone would surely perish.
They had been looking for a trainer - for anyone who knew how to do anything more than spar - for a long time. The Vanaras, or at least the lead family, had grown rusty in the years past the first attack. The one that had happened not even days ago had been a wake up call: if they were not prepared for a wayward skinwalker, how could they possibly be ready when Rishy and Frostbite returned with vengeance in their minds? "We have to find someone before the week is out," she said abruptly, interrupting the silence that she and Lynnea held so dear in each other's company. "We must be ready for the next strike."
Lynnea had been buried in her own thoughts when Cali spoke. It had been something about needing to find the spring blossoms for drying and harvesting, to figure out what flowers were in bloom in this strange land of theirs... But Cali's words jarred her from her thoughts. Uncertain and not altogether willing to learn to fight, Lynnea frowned. "Are you certain there will be a next strike?" she asked. It had, after all, been years since Calixte had stumbled, bleeding, out of the forest and onto the plains of the Herdlands, with her mate beside her and wounded children close behind. Perhaps the skinwalkers were not coming back; perhaps they had forgotten. It could be hoped, at the very least... Lynnea did not want to learn to fight. She was peaceful, quiet. She could get by with hiding... But if that was all she did, how would she be able to protect her loved ones?
Conflicted, Lynnea sighed. She had not been raised to fight - she had been raised to be prized, someone's trophy mate... But that was in the past. She had a new life now, and that new life meant changes and would need protection. "I suppose learning could not go amiss," she mumbled, not looking up to meet Cali's eyes. Once again frustrated by her ingrained deference and timidness, Lynnea shook her head. "Let us look at the clearings; I would like to check them for blooms."
Taking the lead for once, Lynnea glanced back at Cali. The brutal scars that marred her chest and forelegs seemed to almost shine in certain light. It had been years since the Alpha had received them, and still, they had not healed. Kenton had tried everything to heal his mate and son, hunting down every medicinal plant that he knew, but Cali had been permanently disfigured despite his efforts. It was a sad tale, but it had given the family a warning against the evil breed that now plagued their nightmares... Cali had, long ago, shared with her the tale of how she had been unimpressed by her first skinwalker, and that had been her mistake: she had underestimated the ones hunting her foals. Now, however, it seemed as though all those bitter feelings were cropping up again. To Lynnea, delicate as she was, the threat was intolerable, and she turned her mind from it.
Finally coming to the outskirts of the clearing, Lynnea paused, waiting for Calixte to catch up. She had, lost in thought once again, unknowingly left the older mare behind, but that was not unusual; Cali usually seemed content to amble along at a relaxed pace, letting Lynnea do as she pleased. It was nice to be, at long last, comfortable in someone else's company.
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Posted: Wed Feb 12, 2014 1:10 pm
Thane had developed some what of a routine. He'd found a home--finally. What better a home than with his brother. No, not by blood. But he was family all the same. Cato and his lifemate Bernadette had become a very strong bond, and he could easily envision him setting roots into the territory. Joining Cato, and having their own small herd of 3. A family of 3.
Cato laughed out right, disrupting Thane's thoughts. The sun was on the rise, morning soon turning to midday, and they were both standing on opposite ends of their "arena." They called it that for kicks--much to Bernadette's displeasure. She hated that they fought, hated it so much she often gave Cato the silent treatment multiple times a week. But Thane never doubted their love for each other. He felt a the pang of loneliness, and shook his mane, grinning back at his friend.
"Best two out of three?" Cato murmured, setting his feet apart, preparing for another assault. More often than not, Thane beat Cato. He was faster, stronger, and much much more level headed than his abrasive comrade.
Posted: Wed Feb 12, 2014 2:09 pm
Catching up to Lynnea when the bright green mare paused up ahead, Calixte had just stopped next to her when alarm bells started going off in her head - her voices were frantic, screaming warnings about what was going on in the clearing. Scuffling hoofbeats, male voices, fights! The last word caught her off guard, and Cali laid her ears back against her skull, trying to dampen the clamor in her head so that she could focus. "Something is going on up ahead," she said, and stepped up behind the bushes and trees that guarded the meadow.
Two stallions were facing off within, each with wings, each huge. Calixte felt her eyes widen in shock - two males had slipped, unnoticed, into the Vanaras' territory? It took her a moment to remember that she was not in the Vanaras' territory, however, but just outside the border: the patrols had expanded their reach, straining and struggling with their number of volunteers. In reality, Calixte and Lynnea were more on a Gathering run than a patrol, visiting the meadows she had found to check them for flowers and fruit.
So, she thought, it appears that we have neighbors. She almost snorted at the thought, but suppressed it just in time - she didn't want to alert these giants, lest they be alerted to their presence. Shrinking back a little to observe from a careful distance, Cali remembered the last neighbors the Vanaras' had had. They had been Pachelbel's - Tinúviel's mate - family, and her candid daughter had scared them off with the news of the skinwalkers, but Pachelbel had, thankfully, stayed. He was in the Herdlands now, probably just now awakening from his slumber in the nest he shared with her daughter. The thought made her smile. Though she had a hard time connecting with her eldest without sparking a rebellion, the pair of them were undeniably sweet together.
Lynnea shot forward after Calixte, stopping right behind her as the Alpha shrank back from the clearing, behind a tree. Peeking around another trunk, Lynnea felt her jaw fall open. Within her clearing was a pair of males, one blue and one tan, in positions that said they were preparing for a fight. In her clearing! Shaking her head and blinking hard, Lynnea would have stepped brashly forward had Calixte not stopped her by stepping in front of her. "What are you doing?" she whispered fiercely, though the back of her mind was reminding her scathingly to have a little sense. "They're in my clearing! They are going to ruin it."
Shaking her head and looking back out at the stallions, Calixte whispered back. "What would you mean to do?" she asked, tilting her head and pinning her ears. If she had to assert her dominance, she would: Lynnea was her friend, and Cali couldn't let her go running off into the middle of what looked to be a fight. She could be hurt or killed or any number of unpleasant things. "They are four times bigger than us combined, they look to be violent, and we do not know them or their kind." That much was true - the blue one looked to be a wind with a unicorn horn, a crossbreed, but she could not identify the breed of the bigger one. He had horns, two sets of wings, a long, spade-tipped tail... Not to mention his bulk. All in all, Cali knew she was right to be wary of him. She would observe, though - from the snippets of voices she'd caught early, this was a mock-fight... Sparring, that's what they called that sort of fight, right? If she could learn a technique or two from this, she could share.
Fighting the Cerynei nature that told her to run and the friend beside her that wanted to run in, Cali stood at the edge of the clearing, watching from behind the trees that sheltered her and Lynnea.
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In Good Faith generated a random number between
64 and 186 ...
92!
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Posted: Wed Feb 12, 2014 2:31 pm
Thane huffed out a thick cloud of chilly air, his muscles tensing. They already tinged, warmed from their first round. He already had a gash on his back right leg, and a few sore spots growing on his shoulders. Cato's damn thick head, he thought sullenly, but full of affection at the same time. Shfiting ever so slightly, Thane tensed just a little tighter, before pulling his mouth in to a smiling grimace, and charged, his horn aimed at Cato's chest.
In Good Faith generated a random number between
41 and 126 ...
105!
Posted: Wed Feb 12, 2014 2:35 pm
Cato was taken a little off guard--he was the one who usually moved to strike first. Grinning wide, he watched as Thane barreled at him, but, he had the advantage with the time it took to close their distance. He was hoping to wait and feign, then attack, but Thane was quicker than he liked to think. Just as he dodged, Thane corrected enough to scratch his shoulder with the tip of his horn. Growling, Cato turned, intending to ram his horns down on Thane's side--aiming for the ribs.
Quote:
LOW: 41 HIGH: 38 + 42 + 36 + 10 = 126
RNG: 41 - 126
Stamina used: 1/3
Score Board Thane: 92 Cato:
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Posted: Sun Apr 27, 2014 6:46 pm
Lynnea bit off a gasp as the pair of males careened toward each other. They'd begun running even as Cali was reprimanding her for wanting to run out there between them - and she could now see that the mare had been wise. The had three horns between them, three sets of wings to buffet each other with, eight hooves, one snake-like tail, and far too many teeth. And she had been ready to dive in there with them to rebuke them for ruining her clearing. And it was ruined now, she saw, dusty in places, scuffed from hooves and bodies slamming into the ground. She wasn't sure if there was any plant life hiding in there or not. Stupid, she thought, they would have gored me.
But as she stood there watching, she felt as though she were on the edges of her hooves, leaning forward to see more of the fight, and that notion partly disgusted her and partly made her feel pride: perhaps she did want to learn to fight, to hurt others, but perhaps she was not the meek creature she'd been raised to be. The blue one's horn drew a red line down the shoulder of the tan one, and the tan one's golden horns whipped around - were they going to make contact? She watched with suspended breath as the four-winged stallion attempted to land his hit.
Lynnea was not fighting her anymore - that much she was grateful for. But the mare's berry-pink eyes had been drawn to the fight, and Calixte followed her gaze. It was escalating quickly; the stallions were not just standing around and staring at each other anymore, as they had been. They were charging each other, or at least the midnight one was charging the sand-colored one, silvery horn lowered dangerously toward the huge stallion's chest. She was just about to wince, praying the wound would not be deep, when the other stallion dodged out of the way, taking only a cut on the shoulder. That was what had happened to Tinúviel when the purewalker filly came after her and she managed to dodge. But now the tan stallion was going in for a hit of his own...
"Do you think it will land?" Lynnea whispered quickly. Everything seemed to be happening in slow motion - she couldn't believe she even had time to get those words out... Secretly, she hoped it would; the blue stallion had already landed a blow of his own, blood dribbling down the tan's shoulder as he whirled in motion.
