"Are you two sure you want to do this?" Asked Orlan, sitting between two lions. To her left stood Jani, who was smiling confidently. On her right was Saniya, who looked to have a more determined expression on her face.
Honestly, Orlan would never understand the need for sparring, especially between members of the same pride. But the day had been long and not much had happened to keep them from their boredom. It seemed, for two soldiers, the only way to remedy things was to have a bit of a brawl. While Orlan didn't get it, she wouldn't get in the way.
She would ref.
Meanwhile, Jani watched his opponent with the same broad smile, though he did turn his eyes from her to glance towards Orlan. She sounded concerned, for whatever reason, even when it was obvious that they didn't intend on hurting one another. This was just for some fun! Didn't she like to fight when she was bored?
Maybe this was just a soldier thing.
"Don't get so bent out of shape, Orlan," Jani said, looking from her to Saniya, "we're not going to hurt one another. This is only for fun! Besides, we have you to be out ref for us, don't we?"
Saniya sighed heavily. Honestly, she didn't want to spar. She was used to killing for survival. Not using her claws and just knocking someone around didn't feel like enough. What she wanted was to have a proper fight. The risk of injury. But this wasn't her old home- there were rules in this pride. Hurting another pride member, even when it was agreed on, probably wouldn't go over well. But she supposed that made sense. They needed everyone in the pride, and all jobs were important. If soldiers were off beating one another up, who would really protect the pride? She kept silent as she watched Orlan and Jani discuss the conditions of the spar.
"Yes," sighed Orlan, "I'm here to ref for you. Just make sure I don't have to go find some healers, okay? I know the both of you- you can get a little OVER eager." She looked pointedly at Saniya, who offered her a bit of a smile in response. This made Orlan huff indignantly. They both knew what they were doing, yes, but SHE knew what they both were capable of.
This smacked of a horrible idea.
"You worry too much!" Jani assured Orlan, "we're both adults, you know? We've got this totally handled! NOW!" He turned to look at Saniya, his body tensing as he readied himself for their match. He lowered himself towards the ground, his claws gripping the earth. While he couldn't use them on her, he could definitely use them for traction. And he fully intended on doing so, too.
"I'm ready when you are, Saniya," he called to the calmer of the two of them. This was going to show which soldier was better suited for protecting the pride! Okay, not really, but it was going to be fun!
Saniya sighed, getting herself ready for the match as well. She nodded at Jani's question, before charging forward without missing a beat and slamming into the lion hard. She knocked him easily off his feet, her large size, for a lioness, enough to compete with his weight. She smiled as she watched him roll over himself before slowly getting back to his feet.
"I thought when you asked me if I was ready, that meant you were," she teased lightly, before readying herself for another attack. Maybe this wasn't going to be completely worthless, even without claws.
Orlan tilted her head to the side, watching as Jani and Saniya started their battle. This already looked like it was going to end up a disaster! Saniya had slammed hard into the confident Jani, sending him right off his paws and onto his side. He had to roll himself over to get himself back to his feet again. Then, the both of them stared hard at once another, sizing each other up. They were both looking for the next attack opening.
"Just remember that this is supposed to be a friendly match," Orlan called out to the both of them, for all the good it would do.
Jani was surprised! He knew she had come from a tough place and had learned to fight all her life, but he hadn't expected this from her right out of the gate! Clearly, she had a desire to prove herself, and he could appreciate that. But he also had his own pride, and he wasn't just going to bend over and let her win to make her feel good about herself. She was going to earn it! So he charged himself forward, swooping low to avoid a swipe from Saniya before pushing off the ground and slamming into her, sending the both of them to the ground.
Saniya had to admit that she was a little impressed when the lion dodged her- she hadn't been expecting it. He ended up managing to get her off her feet, though his weight was a bit more than he knew how to properly handle and they both ended up rolling together. They didn't seem to mind though, grappling as well as lions could and batting one another with their paws. They were both looking to pin the other, and working hard to pull it off, too.
Orlan continued to watch the two of them, keeping an eye on their battle. if it got too intense, she would have to leap in to break them apart. Something she hadn't really considered when she agreed to ref the two of them. Sighing heavily, she ran after them when they started to roll together, chasing them down a small incline.
At least it looked like they weren't killing each other... yet. How long that was going to last, however, she didn't really know.
When she reached the bottom of the hill, she saw that Saniya had ended up landing on top of Jani, with her paws pressing him down against the ground.
Jani found himself pinned under the lioness, attempting to kick her off with his back paws so he could roll back onto his stomach and get up. However, no matter how many times he landed a kick against her, she wasn't moving, keeping him pinned against the ground with what seemed to be a great amount of poise and control.
She hadn't been kidding- she definitely knew how to fight. When he felt her jaws around his throat, making a show that she could easily have killed him at that moment, he knew he had lost.
Once Saniya had Jani pinned, she knew it was over. There was no way for him to get himself out from under her when she knew how to take his kicks and flails. She chuckled softly, moving down and pretending to bite his neck through the fur of his mane. It was just to make him aware that he couldn't win. Thankfully, he did seem to tune in on that much himself, relaxing underneath her. At that moment, she let him up, slipping off of him and moving back.
"Good fight," she told him.
"I hope you two had fun," Orlan said with a heavy sigh, "I thought I was going to have a heart attack watching the two of you battle it out like that! For a moment, it looked like you were really going to get into it! But I suppose it was kind of entertaining, too." She couldn't deny a good match when one happened to come about. Saniya and Jani looked well build and a good face-off.
"Just don't expect me to ever ask for a spar from either of you."
Jani sighed and sat himself off. The feeling of having lost still stung, even if it was just a spar. Saniya's smile didn't help matters. Still, he knew she was very good at battle, and he hadn't completely lost against her! He had managed to get one good knock in, right?
"Thanks Orlan," he chuckled at her compliments, "it was a pretty good match, huh? And I'm always open for a re-match, Saniya. One day, I'm definitely going to beat you, just you wait and see!" He declared boldly, marking that day as the day he would train to defeat her.
Meanwhile, Saniya smiled, nodding her head along with his proclamation. She was, of course, feeling quite good about herself, even if she had thought it was kind of silly to fight without claws. Didn't mean she wasn't good at it, apparently.
"Alright," she said lightly, "you're welcome to challenge me any time you want, Jani. I have no problem kicking your butt every day of the week if that's what you want! Just don't expect me to go easy on you." However, she imagined Jani wouldn't want that.
She had found herself a nice sparring partner, it seemed, and she was actually kind of happy about that.
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