07-07-2018, 11:01 PM
[align=center][div style="0px; width:450px; height:auto; text-align: justify; font-size: 8pt; line-height:13px; color:black;"]Claws tore at flesh, breaking a part bark and causing it to crumble and fall to the forest floor below. A chest heaved in air before shoving it back out again thickly in quick pants that revealed the stress of the moment. The ginger colored leopard was high off the ground claws clamped deep in the trunk of a tree in the Canopy. She'd started training later on in the evening when she didn't think anyone would be out and about, the moon barely casting that much light through the canopy of thick green foliage. Her muscles strained to keep her up against gravity and she was pushing herself much harder than she normally did or would have. She could feel the pain of burning muscles as she detached one paw and aimed to try and fix it back into the flesh of the trunk. "Come on.....come on....." But then her strength gave out on her. Normally one would take breaks, settle upon a branch but Carolina wasn't the type to take easy ways out of anything. She pushed hard, trained hard because she wanted to be better and surpass the only one that had beaten her at what she did best. What she thought she did better than anyone else.
There wasn't much she could do when she felt her body falling backwards, the fight having left her form and she fell back down. Twisting she hissed as a branch smacked her harshly against the side of her face, jerking her head back a little bit. Wind whipped around her face as she tried to reorient herself before there was a hard thumping sound as one branch came into contact with the small of her back. It sent a shock wave of pain coursing along her spine and she couldn't stop the sound of pain that escaped her mouth. Her reflexes kicked in at the last moment through the haze of pain and she managed to slow herself as her claws caught onto a branch and broke it before she hit the ground. A gasp left her muzzle, claws flexing against the ground as she closed her eyes for just a moment. It felt like her body had gone numb after the impact but she merely gritted her teeth and forced her limbs to obey as she slowly and shakily pushed herself to stand. "Get up, Carolina. Get up!" She snapped at herself and even through the pain she made herself get back up and slowly turn to face the tree. This hadn't been her first fall, as the trunk of the tree was already missing a lot of the bark that had once adorned it but each time she managed to climb higher and higher. Which was the only thing that mattered to the Freelancer as she approached the tree, feeling bruises forming and tasting her own blood in her mouth.
There wasn't much she could do when she felt her body falling backwards, the fight having left her form and she fell back down. Twisting she hissed as a branch smacked her harshly against the side of her face, jerking her head back a little bit. Wind whipped around her face as she tried to reorient herself before there was a hard thumping sound as one branch came into contact with the small of her back. It sent a shock wave of pain coursing along her spine and she couldn't stop the sound of pain that escaped her mouth. Her reflexes kicked in at the last moment through the haze of pain and she managed to slow herself as her claws caught onto a branch and broke it before she hit the ground. A gasp left her muzzle, claws flexing against the ground as she closed her eyes for just a moment. It felt like her body had gone numb after the impact but she merely gritted her teeth and forced her limbs to obey as she slowly and shakily pushed herself to stand. "Get up, Carolina. Get up!" She snapped at herself and even through the pain she made herself get back up and slowly turn to face the tree. This hadn't been her first fall, as the trunk of the tree was already missing a lot of the bark that had once adorned it but each time she managed to climb higher and higher. Which was the only thing that mattered to the Freelancer as she approached the tree, feeling bruises forming and tasting her own blood in her mouth.