RIGHT TO REMAIN VIOLENT ☆ spar

It was both extremely weird and an amazing relief for Worm to be back in his lion body. The weird part had been that he had been away from it for so long, along with the fact that... his right eye was still missing. He had figured the moment that he was able to shift into his winged big cat form again, he would once again have two bright blue eyes to watch people with. However, that wasn't the case, and he still only had one eye for the moment. He sighed a bit as he sat on his home's deck, hovering his paw above the bandages covering the right half of his face and gently pressing down at them, wincing when he felt nothing underneath. He knew he would be able to adapt to only having half of his vision, but it still sucked that it seemed that, no matter what form he took, he would always be without the right side of his gaze. He found himself thinking back to his very recent fight with Arethas, and how Red had to save him because the "necromancer" had beaten him. He had lost because of a mixture of his lack of his full vision, along with the fact that he had still been exhausted from his recent fights with Pittians. He had been able to take the Pittians down and injure them fairly easily, but that had mostly been because he had been able to get the element of surprise over them. He knew that he was out of practice, and with the war with the Pitt still looming over them, he needed to be ready to fight sometime soon.

Taking a deep breath, the lion slowly got to his feet and moved down the steps or the deck, making his way to the middle of the small town that made up the camp. He waited until the sun was high up in the sky and almost everyone was up before he cleared his throat and called out, his tail flicking back and forth as his wings shifted upon his back, the newly returned limbs presenting an odd shift in his balance of weight, "Hey, everybody! Anybody wanna spar with me? I need to get used to fighting in this body with one eye, and I know there's at least a couple of us that aren't fucked up right now..." Truly, Selby probably wouldn't have approved of this activity, since Wormwood was certainly still a patient of his, and had been even more injured after the fight with Arethas, but Worm felt useless right now just staying inside. Of course, he now had the company of Roy in his home instead of just being all alone, sitting and reading his books. That made it slightly nicer to be on bedrest, but that still didn't mean that he was too enthusiastic about it, and he found himself leaving the house more often than not, even if Selby wouldn't be happy about it.

[glow=black,2,300]YOUR CHANNEL IS UNREACHABLE[/glow]

WE'LL MAKE A WAY WHERE YOU CAN FIND YOUR PLACE
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"Oh, you're back to normal! When'd that happen?" Feza couldn't say that the sight of the other being a lion again was unnerving. She had grown used to the other being barely smaller than her. It eased her fear, her fright, the terror that had formed from her nightmares. The green colored lion that would sink sharp teeth into her throat over and over and over again. The pain, the misery, the lack-of-happiness of it all. The snow leopard shoved it down. It wasn't happy, therefore it didn't matter. What even was a spar? Was it like the battle practice that the lion had hosted before? She truly couldn't remember anything from that practice, but thinking of it served Feza in the manner of moving her thoughts from terror and onto something else. There had been people there at the event. And it was an event. Feza for a moment considered it's potency for a festive event that she herself could do, and swiftly decided against it. She only threw parties for what she was skilled in. Combat and battle? Her skill set was far from such a thing. Her fluffy tail rested on the ground behind her, while her head gave a small tilt of curiosity.

The other was lacking an eye now, too. Feza knew it would be inconsiderate of her to ask about when such a thing had happened. What was it like, having only one eye? Did it hurt? She was curious, yes, but she dared not to ask. It would be rude. Rude was not happiness, it did not cause such a thing, and therefore she had no reason to look into it. "Is, is this like that little..fighting thing you did before?" The vibrant feline inquired as she moved closer. Slow movements, a little hesitant, but a smidgen of curiosity moved her forward. The term 'spar' was lost on her. She turned it over, thinking just as she had when she noticed that Wormwood had returned to his normal lion form. What had even caused him to be a short hellhound in the first place? Feza's mind absolutely loved to derail, and it did so now. Her face scrunched up a little, seeming to be thinking quite hard. Had it been one of those strange, equally rotten squirrel things? Had that been the cause for the change? "Wait, yea, fighting, it's like the last thing, yea? I could..partake, yea, yea," Feza stammered, finally coming to a halt. Her words tumbled together, her focus not quite on them. He had two eyes last time, right? Or had that just been the lion that hunted her in her nightmares? She couldn't remember, she could not differentiate. Again Feza shoved it down. It didn't matter. It wasn't causing someone joy and delight and therefore meant nothing to her. "If, if I'm allowed to, yea. Maybe watch. Again. Like last time."

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THE EMPTY CHAIRS WILL BE RESERVED FOR OUR PITY

"Oh, you're back to normal! When'd that happen?" Wormwood was surprised when the first one to approach him was Feza, not only because the two of them had a very tumultuous relationship, but also because he hadn't known the snow leopard to be much of a fighter. After all, she hadn't shown up to any of the fights or skirmishes against the Pitt thus far, and hadn't been present at all for the rescue as far as he knew, in addition to the fact that Feza had shown up to his fighting class before and claimed to not really know anything. He blinked at her for a couple of moments, opening his mouth to respond to her initial question, but she had already moved onto the next think, asking if it was like his self defense course that he had hosted a bit ago. He chuckled, going to answer yet again, but Feza was already off to the next thing, her thoughts seeming to bounce from place to place and grabbing her attention so rapidly that Worm could hardly even begin to follow. He decided to just wait until Feza had finally decided to stop speaking, the silence stretching between them for a long moment, before he finally spoke up, his tail flicking back and forth as he tilted his head to one side, "To answer your first question – I've been able to shift back for about a day now, not very long. Apparently somebody caused my transformation into the hellhound, which was why I couldn't change back. But Red.... got rid of him, so now I can go back and forth. And trust me, I highly prefer this form. Although... I'm not as used to it anymore, since I've been out of it for a while. That's why I wanted to do this, ya know? Get used to fighting as a lion again before the big fight against the Pitt."

He opened his muzzle once again to tell Feza that they could try sparring, when Crow approached. He noticed the way that the leader's gaze held on his bandaged up eye for a long moment, and he looked down, feeling a bit of a flush of shame coming up beneath his fur. He knew that it wasn't as if he had lost his eye from losing a battle, it had just been Beck lashing out, but he still couldn't help it. It felt like he had failed somehow. Failed Beck, and failed Tanglewood. A sigh left him, but he quickly shook it off, saying with an only slightly forced smile to Crow, wanting to cheer him up since he knew that the group leader had been going through a rough time, "That's fine Crow, I understand. I'm sure others will show up to make sure you're all trained up." Hw then said, turning to Feza and trotting a bit away from Crow and to the more open part of the area, a sly little smile on his face, "You can spar with me if you really want to, Feza. The only rules are that we can't seriously injure each other, and that we can't use powers." That was more of a rule for himself than her, since he hadn't seen her use any powers offensively, but he was finally starting to get a hold of his flame elemental powers these days. Still, he didn't want to cause any serious damage to anybody. He just wanted some experience fighting with only the one eye, which he knew Feza could take advantage of if she was smart – which he wasn't really sure she was, at least in terms of battle, "You can make the first move."

[glow=black,2,300]YOUR CHANNEL IS UNREACHABLE[/glow]

WE'LL MAKE A WAY WHERE YOU CAN FIND YOUR PLACE
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"That's something that can happen?" Feza mused after a few more seconds of pause. Her head had turned when Crow approached, offering up a smile. She hadn't really interacted with the leader much. It made sense to her: he was the leader and a leader absolutely had to be busy. Feza felt as if she almost could relate. It was with those dreams where she felt like she was supposed to be leader, but had no idea what she was doing. There was a lot more important things for a leader to be doing. Very busy! Her smile remained on her face, then turning to look at Crowley. "Isn't this what this is for? For, for the, uh, learning? Yes, yea, yea, yes." The vibrant feline stammered.

When the offer to spar against Wormwood finally did sink her - as her mind had glossed right over it upon the other two's arrival before returning the thought to her - she briefly stiffened up. "Well I'm..I'm glad you figured out how to turn back. 'Cause uh. Couldn't have been comfortable to be in someone else's body. Or a different one." Feza couldn't quite grasp how it felt to be in a form other than her own. Yes, her thick fluff was annoying on hotter days. It left her to bake in the sun and stay inside. It was fine with her: it allowed her the time to plan out her partying ideas. Feza wouldn't change her body for another form, not if she could help it. "Powers? I don't, I, ah, uh, don't have none of those." Feza waved a paw in a dismissive manner. She still kept away from the aspect of fighting. Why? She wasn't sure. It was probably those silly nightmares: the terror of being held down and ripped apart by a similar lion form. To be impaled and bleed, to be torn apart and decapitated. Wouldn't it be rude if she declined?

"Okay. Okay. Yea. Sure. I'll..yea." The vibrant feline stammered. The smile on the other's face, what was that for? It was sly, which she could only briefly grasp as being the description for such an expression. Her wings unfolded from where they had pressed against her sides. She was told to make the first move, too. And not severely hurt the other. As if she would do such a thing! Pain was not joyful. Not to her, at least. Some people found joys in being miserable, a concept that Feza knew that she would never be able to comprehend. She followed after the lion, moving a good couple lengths away. "I've never sparred before, so just..yea." Feza quickly realized that she had been using such an ending phrase far too much. It hinted at her nervousness, her choice of a stutter term. It was a form of 'yes', therefore it was a positive term.

Feza shuffled on her feet. Had she ever instigated a fight against another before? If she had, she couldn't remember. The fights in her nightmares were never started by her. She hadn't ever been the one to begin the fight, to strike the first blow. Did the comment of severely injure mean that she was supposed to be using her claws and teeth? Wouldn't that hurt him, though? She was rather certain that her glitter-glue coated claws wouldn't even cut skin. They were practically rounded due to the substance. The snow leopard remained stiff and rigid for a couple moments longer. Those sporadic thoughts of hers were good for party planning. Not for coming up with a way to fight against others. Thinking too much, overthinking. She sharply shook her head and decided that she'd just have to come up with the tactics as she went. That was the point, right? Learning? She had never done this before, and needed to learn. There she was, overthinking it again! The snow leopard's wings flapped and sent her forward. Charging, and then swinging herself to the left. Then she again turned, trying to swat at Wormwood's side, before her wings then flapped to send her small form backwards and away.

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THE EMPTY CHAIRS WILL BE RESERVED FOR OUR PITY

He noticed the nervousness that Feza was radiating, and he silently decided to go easy on her, not wanting her to freak out or get hurt. As Feza charged forward, he saw her skew to the left, going towards his right side. His right side was his weaker one now, thanks to the fact that he couldn't see that entire side, but he had seen where she was going, and he could hear the soft woosh of her wings as she bolted past, aiming for his side. He felt her soft swat at his fur, and he grunted, swinging towards her and reaching a paw up to whack her in the forehead as she moved backward. Once she fell back, he gave another roll of his shoulders before launching himself forward, his claws digging into the earth and sending him forward. He moved to shove at her shoulder, trying to send her onto her back and begin raking at her belly, not using his claws, "You shouldn't just jump back like that all floaty. You wanna dig your claws into the earth and make sure you stay upright to fight back." He wasn't too worried about losing this fight, so he was pretty sure that he could use this as a teaching opportunity for the snow leopard. That way perhaps she wouldn't be so scared when the mere prospect of fighting came up.

[glow=black,2,300]YOUR CHANNEL IS UNREACHABLE[/glow]

WE'LL MAKE A WAY WHERE YOU CAN FIND YOUR PLACE
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The barest of fighting knowledge that Feza possessed swiftly came to fail her. Trying to move away so she wouldn't be hit had met swift failure. She wasn't fast enough for such a tactic. Her head turned to the side when she was swatted at, mostly the force having moved her. Feza recoiled back a pace, her wings giving another flap. More so a startled motion with little movement being generated by said movement. She expected for claws to dig into her face, and her entire form tensed up when she expected the blow. It made it all the more easy to shove her shoulder and push her over. That, and the height difference was another gracious factor. Feza was small for a snow leopard. She had dwarfism. Her legs were smaller than usual, and her height suffered as a result. It made her far smaller than her sparring partner. "I- I- I don't want punted," Feza stammered. Her sentence was odd and broken, probably because of the feeling of paws batting at her again. She wasn't naive enough to know that if this was a fight, that would have probably done it. Spilled her guts all over the place in such a simple motion. The other wasn't using his claws, and the snow leopard supposed that she needed to do the same. It made Feza briefly feel bad about her first move, where she had used her glitter glue coated claws. It didn't seem to have hurt at all. Was she glad for such a thing? It didn't help her realize that, in truth, the glue had removed one of her methods of self defense. All she had were her claws and teeth, and her claws were useless. The vibrant feline tried to kick at her opponent with both of her feet, trying to shove him off of her small form to cease the raking of her belly. Feza could all too easily imagine actual claws tearing at her. It wasn't hard. The nightmares every single night of a lion tearing into her flesh was far too easily able to come to mind when something so similar was happening to her in the waking world. Her panic was hidden under her rapid kicking, such being the exertion used to try and compensate. Rapid and sporadic, the usual sign of someone in combat who had absolutely no idea what they were doing.

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THE EMPTY CHAIRS WILL BE RESERVED FOR OUR PITY

Perhaps the first person that the male sparred with shouldnt have been Feza. It had seemed like a good idea at first, given that it could be a good learning opportunity for Feza, as well as practice for himself, but it seemed as though Feza's beginning attempts to try and use her limited fighting knowledge had failed her, and now she was being gripped by panic. Despite the fact that the lion had simply been whacking without claws at her belly, he could see the cold fear and panic that filled the partymaker's gaze, and soon she was kicking out frantically at him, one of her paws slamming into his stomach. He stumbled back a bit, a grunt leaving him, before he decided it was time to end this. He doubted Feza would feel good if he stopped fighting her midway, and would believe she had somehow ruined the "fun", so that meant that he needed to finish things so he could back off. Pulling away after the harsh and frantic kicking, the male knew that Feza, still toppled over onto her side, had almost no chance of keeping him away, so he sighed before charging forward again, pinning her shoulder down with one of his large paws and moving to clench down at her scruff near her neck, simulating a final killing neck blow without actually hitting her at all, except for perhaps a slight pinch from her scruff in his mouth. Whether he was successful or not, he would then step back, rumbling softly as he observed Feza, a soft and faintly disappointed frown on his face as he spoke, "I guess you weren't lying when you said that you had never fought before. You didn't do too bad with the kicking me in the stomach, but it was obvious that you were panicking, and you didn't even try to get back up to your feet afterwards... you'd be dead twice over now if I was a Pittian." He winced a bit at how much he sounded like his Father right now, but he was just being honest, really. Feza hadn't done well, and with the coming big battle approaching, she would either be forced to stay here and help the medics, or would need to learn fast.

He then lowered his voice a bit as he moved slightly closer to her, not wanting to embarrass her over her obvious panic, "Are you alright...? You crumbled quickly, and you seem like you're freaking out a bit..." Once he knew that she was aware of him not wanting her to suffer, he allowed his attention to be pulled away over to Moth. Blinking at Moth, Wormwood rumbled with a little bit of a nod, "Alright, you can feel free to watch if you want, Moth. Don't be afraid to ask to spar with me of you want though. We should all have at least a bit of fighting experience so that nothing bad happens." He didn't mean it as an intentional jab at Moth being attacked by Roman and easily caught up in his jaws, but that was one of the relevant things in his mind at the moment. He didn't want anybody else getting snatched up by the Pitt these days, and he knew that Moth was far from the biggest fighter in the group, and could definitely use the practice. In addition to that, Moth was one of the few others in the group besides Feza that could actually spar fairly with him without him just crushing them easily, besides maybe Red... but Red was too injured right now for Wormwood to even think of considering that.

[glow=black,2,300]THE FREEDOM OF FALLING[/glow]