is this our earth?

The matriarch followed the trail of Element, tail swaying behind her as she found where he had made his abode. Quiet footfalls precluded her arrival as she shifted her weight, a low whuff summoning him, if he were home.

the staff team luvs u

^^

 He was home, nestled comfortably in his small cave, curled tightly in upon himself with the white of his tail draped across the silver of his snout. While spring was blossoming upon the mountain, the nights still held some chill to them yet, and it took time in the mornings for the stone to soak up the warmth of the suns rays. A whuff tore him from his slumber, although not unpleasantly. Blinking the sleep from his eyes, he returned the sound with a whuff of his own to acknowledge the matriarch's presence.

 The small nook he'd chosen for himself had continued to grow on him, and the first few weeks he'd spent isolated on the mountain had been devoted to carving out a little home for himself and adding his own little flourishes. The time spent had been worthwhile. It had been by sheer fortune that'd he'd stumbled across the little cave in the first place, tucked as it was along the mountainside. The entrance was partially obscured behind a jutting boulder, over which an old log had fallen and had since been draped with climbing vines - dead now, after winter touched them, but soon to regrow and reclaim. The mouth of the den was wide enough for one to pass at a time, and the rocky cliff-face was cracked and pocked with holes. In some of the cracks Element had wedged small stones of different colors; a piece of pink quartz he'd found nearby, and even more precious to him a sparkling chip of pyrite.

 To pass inside, it was a short wiggle on ones belly for a mere foot or two before the space opened up into the canine equivalent of a small studio loft. It was no more than eight or ten feet wide, but he'd dragged large amounts of soft moss to cover the stony ground and made a nest for himself among it, warm and soft even among the rocks. There was a bit of an upper ledge, two feet higher than the entrance area, on which he slept. It was from here he stretched out inky limbs and yawned before rising, hopping down to his mossy foyer and then crawling out to greet Hydra and the morning light.

^^
the staff team luvs u

He emerged soon enough, and the matriarch noted that he looked well-rested; moving to greet him with a companionable nudge, Hydra then nipped gently at his whiskers to rouse him. Her tail waved, happy to see him up and well. Part of her was tempted to take a look inside of what he had created for himself... but she reminded herself she had come here today for a reason. 

“Today,” she drawled, “I will teach you of self-defense, and some of the essentials involved in it. Self-defense need not only apply to the body,” she drawled, “but also the mind. One must be prepared for anything, at any time...” The matriarch hoped the topic would aid him in activating his mind; she watched him, then, to see if he was still crawling out of the vestiges of sleep as he had his den. “It might sound exhausting,” she drawled, “but when the alternative could be death... well,” she hummed, “one finds the energy.” 

Her tail lashed behind her, ears pricked forward as she shook out her furs. She listened and watched to be sure that Element was locked in to the beginnings of her lesson; first, to see if she had his attention.

the staff team luvs u

^^

 She had kept to her promise the day prior to teach him what she had offered, and he was ready for it. Finishing his shimmy and rising to his full height beside her, his own tail waved in a pleasant greeting and he responded to her nip with a gentle, playful growl.

 This was maybe the first morning he'd woken that his mind hadn't immediately turned in upon itself, fussing over fragmented memories. Instead, he felt alert, all his focus on Hydra and her words. He was curious what her lesson would bring, and only nodded in acknowledgement that he was listening, and was ready. As her tail lashed he tensed, eyes narrowing slightly as he shifted some of his weight into his hind legs, a springboard ready to be set into motion depending on her next move.

^^
the staff team luvs u

He seemed to listen, and all signs pointed to the fact that he was awake thus far. That was good. “When it comes to a fight,” Hydra drawled, “and self-defense,” she added, “you always want to protect yourself. Your eyes, your ears, your throat, and what aids in continuing successions,” she drawled, “all vulnerable areas. You also want to make sure that your weight is as squarely set as possible; to be unbalanced is the time in which you are most vulnerable. Defenses are often lost in such a state and difficult to reset on the ground. It is easiest to be taken advantage of there,” she hummed, “and killed.” 

Hydra licked her chops. “You want to remain on your feet. And you want to remain out of reach,” she drawled, “of course, that is only speaking to self-defense. We are discussing survival, at this point,” she hummed. “Now, do as I do.” Hydra moved to the front of him so she was easier to see, and squared her weight before him. Her tail pressed against her rear, though did not tuck and curl in submission—it did, though, hide a certain prize. Her muzzle dipped neatly over her throat, and her eyes narrowed so that for the most part, they were protected; her ears pressed against her crown, so that they could not be so easily taken. Easy things to rip off, the skin there so thin. Hydra stood this way for another moment longer so Element could follow her lead, and would not move until he did so.

the staff team luvs u

Hydra is by far the more experienced tactician, so feel free to powerplay him a little bit if she wants to toss him around at any point. :p

---

^^

 Prickles of tension ran along his spine as he focused on Hydra, trying to split his attention between her words and her actions as she shifted stance before him. Fighting had never been a strength of his (as far as he could recall, anyway), but he'd been lucky in many regards, that the lives he had lived had never called for war. He was only of average build, evenly toned, not too lean but not as piled with muscle mass as some of his more athletic peers. For the first time Element made a mental assessment of himself compared to Hydra as she moved before him. He may have stood just slightly higher in the shoulder than she, but this didn't make for much of an immediate advantage. Both he and Hydra's limbs were carved from mountain stone - agile, well balanced, broad and ready to maneuver unforgiving terrain. She had a sleekness to her he did not possess, the masterful eye of a tactician and a queen who, he could only imagine, was always planning her next move before the other knew they were even in the game.

 Stone still he had been standing, no words spoken as he took her in - until she made mention of the eyes, the ears, the throat, and the... jewels. Hydra didn't skip a beat, but Element's eyes widened for just a moment and he could feel a flush ripen beneath the fur of his cheeks.

 To be fair, it was good for her to point out - he'd never contemplated the idea of a fight being played that dirty. And he didn't want to.

 In reaction to that, his own tail lowered and pressed more closely to his haunches. The way she hummed her sentences felt to him like a false sense of security, the calm before the storm. Thus far she'd been all words, but he was just waiting for the mask to slip and lesson to continue with the sudden flash of teeth. As Hydra moved in front of him he took a step back and to the side, moving his left shoulder closest to her to act as a shield while he tucked his head low beside it. Hydra's eyes narrowed and so did Element's, steel gaze meeting sea. A little wave of unease flickered through him to meet her gaze so steadily, and he chuffed gently in the hopes to appease her that it was for the sake of their lesson, and not an actual challenge to be taken to heart.

^^
the staff team luvs u

It would not do to attack him when he was ready, given that was simply not the way of a fight. True, this was a lesson—but she would make sure it would be one he would not forget. Hydra observed him set his defenses, nodding in approval as she loosely circled him in a catlike prowl. “I want you to get into the practice of keeping your defenses always at the ready,” she drawled, “I will actively test as much in the future. There are those in this world who, the moment they spot a weakness, will exploit it. Physically, sometimes mentally. I cannot speak to preventing mental wounds,” she drawled, “but I will guide you in avoiding the former as best I can. A good defense can beat a strong offense,” she hummed. 

“Think of the way of the wolf. When it comes to those we prey upon,” she drawled, “we know quickly enough whether we are beaten by the way our prey carries on in defending itself. Some will not tire, and we recognize the strength within our adversary. The smart move on,” she drawled, “and the foolish, well, they will keep harrying until they exhaust themselves,” and that battle could be considered as good as won. It was how wolves got killed in the hunt... and why several died. 

Hydra licked her chops. “A fight can be a lot like the hunt, in that sometimes, it can simply be a battle of will. Others and their motivations can be questionable,” she advised, “...I will never understand those that hunt children, for instance, or those that they know they can simply take advantage of thanks to their youth,” her tail lashed behind her. “And while you yourself may be an honorable man, and fight in an honorable way,” she hummed, “you must anticipate that who you might come up against is no such being. That when your back is turned, they will come for you,” she forewarned. Her children knew as much, too. 

She watched him as she spoke, reading his body for any cues that he might have fallen into a more casual, relaxed state while he listened.

the staff team luvs u

^^

 Hydra's nod of approval sent whispers of a joyful shiver through him - unexpected and strangely delightful. While the middle of a lesson wasn't the time to dwell on it, he was struck in that moment by how much he desired her approval. He admired her, he realized, for her strength, her wisdom, and perhaps especially because of her kindness. Element wasn't sure of the myriad of ways the dark matriarch spent her time, but it seemed, at least to him, that she'd taken to him as one of her own. For no less than the hundredth time since meeting her, he vowed to himself to never let her regret her choice to make him one of the pack.

 The start of that, it seemed, would be learning a little more about how to defend not only himself, but their claim and those within it. Ele was not a fighter, but he could understand the necessity. More than that, he had no desire to be a dead weight among them, not when he felt he had so much to prove. Hydra did not so much imply as stated directly that she would test his defenses in the future, and he willed himself to keep at in mind, even when they seemed to be interacting casually. It would be a challenge. He was up for it.

 Hydra drawled on, offering him advise and guidance as she prowled around him. The way she spoke was casual and efficient, her words a gentle and consistent hum across his ears that threatened to lower his boundaries. As she circled, at first he merely kept his case on her, following her slow steps over one dark shoulder until she got behind him, and he had to turn to the other side to get her back in his vision. The hairs along his spine tingled, expectant of something that hummed in the air between them. She may have even complemented him, calling him an honorable man, and there was a light flush in his cheeks as he took in the words. But the time to fixate on the compliment was not now, and he only responded to it with a gentle swish of his tail - although even that gesture felt stiffer than his usual self, rigid energy cascading as it was through him. "I hope to never come across them - the ones who would hunt pups," he spoke slowly, eyes on her still. "And I hope that they haven't followed you here," he added, a touch of gentleness slipping into his voice. "But," he continued, shifting this time to keep facing her as she continued circling him, making sure to keep her before him instead of allowing her further access to his hindquarters. "Anyone to threaten this place would deserve no such chivalry".

^^
the staff team luvs u

To hear that he would be willing to do what it looks when such matter came was nothing short of a relief to her. But such things were easy to say, and more difficult to act on for some. But hesitation in such affairs was costly; for Hydra, the math was simple. What was one life, in comparison to the potential hundreds that would surely be saved? Even if the number were slimmer, even if the number presented to her was one, Hydra would act. For the life she would take was insignificant, and nothing to her in the end. On the other hand, that one she may have saved from harm could have been a cub of her own. A cub of their pack. 

It was a risk she would never take. 

His weight was still squared while Hydra moved, circling 'round as a shark would its prey. It was on her fourth (or perhaps her fifth) pass that Hydra, now nearly parallel to him, made a quick bid for his pastern, using practiced agility to move in a whiplike fashion to nip at his heel. Should any contact be made, it would be nothing but an obnoxious pinch—not applying nearly enough pressure to break skin—before she made to retreat swiftly backward in that same breath to see how he might react; it would dictate what came next.

the staff team luvs u

<3

---

^^

 
Perhaps it was the tone of the conversation that had him distracted; his mind wandering towards pups and loss and and fear. She moved in a flash, breaking what had been their trance-like dance, her circling him with the fierce weather around the placid eye of the storm. The touch was a gentle one, a nip that dragged canines against flesh for only a moment before she was gone again, leaving him aware of the ache before he had the chance to mount a defense. Shame lit inside of him, ears pressing back against his skull as he tried to fight back the disappointment. Letting your guard down while being lost in your memories was no excuse, and now he had all the more to prove.

He met Hydra's gaze briefly and inclined his head to her, acknowledging her strike and refocusing his attention on the true lesson at hand. In his look was an unspoken agreement, and a tension set itself high in his shoulders as his body stiffened, taking a step towards her and beginning his own prowl, no longer intent on sitting still and waiting only to guard. He was out of practice, and she wanted a pack that could protect its own. He had a lot to catch up on.

So they circled, Hydra's tips gentle even when her strikes were not, and he let himself he pushed and crafted until the dance was done.

^^
the staff team luvs u