Wayne Word Count: 364
X'yrin Word Count: 396
The female easily dodged his punch with a quick reaction that shouldn’t have surprised him. However, rather than retreating from his attack, her finely-muscled body moved toward him and closed the remaining distance. Her claws shot to his throat, and only instinctive reflexes saved him from being put in a chokehold; his hand reached up to intercept so it was grabbed instead.
A silent snarl contorting his squared-off features, the wolfdog maneuvered the best he could with this limited range to jab his elbow into her side, anything to loosen her grasp.
Her had grasped not his throat but his wrist instead as it came to the defense of his vulnerable target. If she had the mind to express her satisfaction for this feat, she would have done so with considerable praise but her mind was too attuned to this awkward dance underway with her experienced steps taking lead.
Her claws clenched tightly around his wrist, boring her fingers into the blonde fur before a blow to her side forced her detachment. She leapt back the instant his arm was free, taking little notice to a smarting rib as though the blow hadn’t happened at all. Clearly her body had felt it, but a lesson learned was to not let her mind acknowledge it just yet. It was better trained on the present situation, her movements, his moments, the tell of attack and the hesitant reactions of a defense conjured by thought.
Her feet rested firmly on the ground for hardly a moment before the whole of her shot forward again, executed by a strong lunge with that strength she could gather in an instant. With her lunge, her arm darted forward as if to catch the boy by his neck again, yet a subtle shift marked her intended target as his shoulder with claws firmly poised to tear through it.
Claws dug into his wrist, and his arm and facial muscles tensed, lips still wrinkled back in a toothy grimace. Even though his other arm had connected, it might not have even brushed the tips of her fur for all the attention she paid to it.
Their awkward closeness was tightened once again as the russet wolf moved forward. The lock of claw unbroken, he had no ability to move back other than a weak jerk so that her momentum would not knock him to the ground. Her paw headed at his neck, and the arm not held captive reached up to defend himself once more - only for her blow to land on his shoulder. He snarled audibly at last as claws tore through the dusty-colored fur there, and he lashed out with his arm, trying to do the same to her. At the same time, he moved forward with lips pulled back to expose sharp teeth that aimed at the closest flesh.
Even in the midst of sparring, she could still siphon a second of precious time to show admiration for his tolerance to pain. She held no real disappointment on her face for him suffering the blow that could have been dodge, reminding herself that he had yet to learn the skills to move, and instead continued on with an indifference the likes of which had not been seen by any save for Saluce, acting as both her mate and sparring partner.
The boy’s visible mistake in her eyes was conveying both his pain and his attention to the marred flesh. His reactions were not missed, the quivering and pull of his lips to expose impressive incisors aimed to steal fur and flesh. A blind assault with no real direction as he struck for her shoulder only to have the claws knocked into by the very target he sought to mar as she rushed her whole front forward to knock him off balance and onto the ground in effort to end their scrap too soon after it began.
Even as his weaponry aimed at her shoulder, the whole of the she-wolf moved. The chaotic balance the two had sustained while grappling shifted out of his favor, and as she thrust her shoulder and the rest of her form at him, he could not keep his balance.
The Labrador mutt crashed to the ground, where he grunted in pain. His arms shifted as if to grab her, to turn them both over so that he could pin her -- but he decided against continuing it at he last moment. Visibly, he lowered his arms back to the cold earth and breathed, admitting his defeat for the moment.
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