FSE

Furry search engine

formerly SoFurry search engine

Rengar

Mmm... He stretched, sitting up. He knew some in his profession disliked sleeping on the ground, and spent lots of their hard-earned gold on the basic comforts, but Rengar preferred it actually. The softness of a bed was strange, though welcome sometimes, he was happiest leaning against a tree to snooze. He looked around to see Tobi, who was taking the last watch, pulling out a map from his robe. The vulpine waved, "Hey! You're up a bit early. I figured I'd go ahead and plan out the basic idea of our route, so you've got a few minutes to do what you want." Rengar nodded, and started slowly running through a series of stretches. It'd been a few days since he'd been able to practice, and he wanted to limber up, and be ready for the road ahead. As he was stretching, he noticed Val coming up, eyeing what he was doing, and spoke up, "Um, hey, do you think I could join you?" and, continuing quietly, Rengar having to focus a bit to make out the words, "I'm not sure I'm ready for this whole prophecy deal." Rengar nodded, and went through the remaining stretches a bit slower, so the wulf could keep up. After the stretching came exercise, first off, running to the nearby river and back, five times, since it was such a short distance. Val actually managed to outpace him, finishing up his fifth lap while Rengar was halfway through the third, leaving the ursari to keep going, and finish up. After that, he'd seen a log get lodged inbetween some of the river rocks, so he retrieved it, the heavy wood forming a decent enough training weight. With a quick grunt to Val, "Watch, you'll go next." he hoisted the log to one shoulder, brought it up above his head, then down to the other shoulder. Back up, down, up, down, enjoying the feeling of his body straining to hold the weight, the sweat running down his bulging muscles. Finally, after twenty reps, he dropped it, and stepped back, looking to Val. The wulf walked up to the log doubtfully, reached down, and - "Nope." the boy looked up at Rengar, who had walked up behind him, "Lift with your legs, not your back. Don't bend over, squat, grab, and lift." Val adjusted to the correct form, and started to lift the log, but couldn't even get it up to his thighs. What was a suitable practice weight for Rengar, Val couldn't even lift. Hmm... Rengar lifted it up, bringing it up to the wulf's shoulder, "You do the exercise, I'll help, though," he warned, "I will not do all the work for you. If you want to be stronger, you have to put in the time and effort. If there was a suitable rock or something, you'd use that instead, but, given the circumstances, I will help." To his credit, the wulf put in a good effort, managing to pull off four reps before his arms started to give out, and the ursari just let the log fall to the side. "That's enough for now." They went through a couple more exercises, before Rengar stepped up to the smaller male, "Now, we're going to spar." Val's eyebrows rose, "You and me? Unarmed, just... Fighting?" the ursari sighed, missing friends of times passed for a moment, especially another ursari, a male, who'd asked Rengar the same question, once. Moving the thoughts to the side, he responded, "That is what sparring is, yes. I want you to try and attack me." The wulf slowly raised his hands in a vague impression of a fighter's stance, "Um, okay..." and he threw a punch, so slow Rengar just kinda watched it for a moment, before grabbing the offending arm, and wrenching Val forward, bringing his head close to the other's, "I think you misunderstood me. I said *attack*, not swing a limp noodle at me. You're going to attack, I'm going to respond, and you're going to learn to look for those responses, and what to do to avoid them. Got it?" the wulf nodded, and he released him, stepping back a couple of paces. "Now, fight me!" they sparred for a few minutes. Val was fast, and was able to land a few blows on the ursari, but he struggled to put any real power behind his hits. He had the strength, he had the speed, but he lacked technique, and Rengar was willing to help him improve as long as he was willing to do what it would take. Any mistakes in the smaller males form, the bearfolk would correct by smacking the offending part, pausing a moment, and helping him change it. Eventually, Val started to improve, though he raised a hand, and backed up, "I'm sorry, I've got so many bruises, I need a break for a bit." Rengar nodded, breathing a bit heavily himself. He looked over to Tobi, who he'd noticed was watching them more than the map he was supposed to be studying. "Any progress made?" Tobi nodded, unfazed, "Yep! I should be done pretty soon. You guys can finish up your stuff before we move."

Val

Val sighed at Tobi's response, he had been hoping for him to be done, so they could start their journey up again. He didn't regret asking to train with Rengar, not really, but man, he was sore and bruised everywhere. That was more than he had ever done in his life, the training he did with Master Ulfen had focused more on speed, and occasionally stamina, but not this bad! And... It had been a little while since the last training session together, though he'd gained actual real world experience! His lack of self-confidence had turned into not wanting to start again with the strenuous exercises. He watched the larger male stride over to the log, and look expectantly back at him. He raised his hands up, "Listen, I'm sore already, and we've got a full days path to walk ahead of us, so unless you've got a wagon lined up, I've got to be done for now." the ursari met his eyes, and Val could see a bit of disappointment in them, had Rengar actually enjoyed slowing down to help him? He'd thought he was just in the way... Still, he couldn't, there was no - "What if you made a competition out of things?" both Rengar and Val turned to look over at Tobi, who'd stored the map away somewhere, and was grinning at them. "I mean, let's be real," he continued, "While the strength training is helpful for you, Rengar, it's not really gonna be that useful for Val, no? That's not really what he's going to be using in a fight. So, you want him to strength train, he doesn't want to do it, let's make a game out if it! You, Val, have to hide from Rengar, and successfully tag him with 3 arrows, blunted shafts of course, to win. Rengar, you've simply got to pin Val to the ground. What do you guys think?" The bearfolk raised an eyebrow, "And the stakes?" the cunning vulpine continued, "Well, that's where the strength training comes in! If you win, Val has to train with you at the start and end of every day until we get to Caezu. However, if he wins, hmm..." the fox put one hand to his chin, stroking his fur, before triumphantly pointing up, " I've got it! If Val wins, you have to carry him, and his equipment, for the next day's travel." Val thought about it for just a moment, before grinning. He'd practiced both stealth and archery a whole lot, surely it wouldn't be that difficult to hide from the bear long enough to shoot him a couple times? Even sore, he could win that. "Sure thing! I'll be waiting for my ride after this." Tobi sniggered to the side, as Rengar responded, a small, playful growl finding it's merry way into his voice, "Alright then, scamp, you're on. We'll travel to the forest ahead, and then I'll give you a minute to disappear yourself. But be warned, you'll soon find out where you belong, in your place beneath me." Tobi fell over laughing, as Rengar tossed him an annoyed look. Why was he laughing... Oh. Val felt his face heat up, s-surely Rengar didn't know that thoughts that passed through his mind... They were just random thoughts that didn't mean anything! Shaking his head to clear his mind, he responded, "We'll see then. Sounds like a plan."

The forest was nice and close by, and helped Val get a nice little warmup walk, he was ready to go. He'd be so relaxed after this, Rengar had broad shoulders, he'd be able to sit up there no problem, like a child, heh. Soon as they got to the beginning of the forest, he saluted to the bear, before running forward, out of sight. The plan was simple. Move out of sight, climb in a tree, cover himself with his cloak, and bam bam bam, game won. There, that oak seemed like a good spot. He caught a branch and swung himself up, no different from when he'd sneak out back at home. Rest in the crook between the branch and the trunk, and relax, and there. He was hidden. Just had to wait for the other two to appear... He soon saw Tobi, carrying his and Rengar's packs merrily walking forward. Where was the - Ah... He saw Rengar prowling to the side, moving relatively stealthily through the trees, but, after all, a nine feet tall bear couldn't hide very well, right? He waited a half second before drawing his bow, using his shoulder muscles to pull the string back, blunt dummy arrow prepped on the string, and hold it, drawn, fingers all the way back to his cheek, all he had to do was wait for his prey to take a couple steps more, and... *now.* The arrow soared through the air before perfectly hitting the ursari in the side, exactly where he'd aimed for. He wanted to jump up and pump his fist in the air, the bow from the Archfey worked great! But he knew it wasn't over yet. Rengar's eyes instantly turned towards his position. He recognized it that fast? The bear instantly took off running, his own gift improving his already intimidating speed as he loped over the ground, towards Val's spot. Alright then, a chase! Val lept up, dextrously running across the tree branches, an easy path there to those familiar to its movements, or to one with talent honed on his own time. As soon as Rengar got within sixty feet, he paused to loose an arrow behind him, but he was a bit too careless, and the bear casually sidestepped it. C-Crap, that was supposed to make him lose more time! The ursari jumped, clawed paw reaching to drag him off his high spot, getting higher than Val could have expected, but a last second dodge saved him, the paw only grazing him, knocking him off balance for a moment, but he regained himself, loosing one more arrow quickly before resuming his run. Rengar might be faster than him, but the height advantage meant Rengar had to be careful about his movement, and make the right read when jumping to catch the wulf's dodge. All he had to do was read his opponent's move first! He saw that arrow tag the bear, an easy target, before turning, running a ways, then finally turning, preparing to fire the final arrow at the - wait, where had he disappeared to? That freaking bear was nine feet tall, and, even though the tree canopy blocked out some of the sun, there was still no way he shouldn't be able to see him! He scanned left, then right, head moving back and forth, that was a tree, just a random branch... He barely registered the grip tighten around his ankle before he was yanked out of the tree, a yelp escaping him as he fell upside down, and was pushed up against the free, one massive paw holding his legs in place, the other on his chest, holding him in place, with his bow on the ground out of reach. Rengar leaned his head down to growl at him, a smirk on his face. "Guess I win this one, pup. Don't worry, I get you've still got to be able to walk later, but this will better you. And hey, you got close! Two out of three. Don't feel too bad." Wow, he hadn't seen Rengar talk like this before. The bear had a hidden competitive streak? Honestly, the way he was talking, Val was glad the bear had been careful not to slam him into the tree, and broken half of his bones. His bow was below him, he couldn't break free of this grip, and he was pinned. He guessed the game was over then, he'd simply... Wait a minute. He reached towards Rengar's arm, but, instead of grabbing at the arm to break the grip, he grabbed the dummy arrow that had gotten caught between his quiver and the ursari's arm, and swung it so it tapped him on the chin. "That's 3 tags, I win." a bark of surprise from the bearfolk, as Tobi walked back into view. Rengar protested, "No, that was too late, I've already pinned you! You could barely move your arm anyways. You lost!" Val made eye contact, despite the awkward height difference at the moment, keeping his gaze. He spoke up, "Tobi, please say what the rules were, again?" The vulpine's eyes widened, as he caught on. "W-Well, I'd said you had to successfully hide from Rengar, then tag him with 3 arrows before he pinned you to the... Ground. Unfortunately, as Rengar has pinned you against the tree, I think Val wins this one!" Not even Rengar dropping the wulf in surprise could have wiped the satisfied look on Val's face. Maybe he did have strengths after all, and ones that didn't necessarily require, well, strength, even though he wasn't bad at that either! He raised his hand to stop the other two from arguing, "Tell you guys what. Since you did pin me, just the rules were a little bit funky... Call it even? You don't have to carry me, I don't have to go overboard on training. Sound good?" the ursari eyed him with... A bit of respect in his eyes? That was new. "Alright then. Even. Next time I'll get you though!" Val nodded, and stepped forward with a spring in his step. He'd just have to make sure he didn't lose next time, too, so Rengar couldn't do anything too painful, hehe. Onward, then!