261 The Only Way To Learn Is To Practice

Darric and Bertuf sat by the fire that had long burnt out. Only a pile of ashes were left behind. Without turning back, they greeted one another. 

"Good morning," Darric greeted them. 

"Morning," Vy said as she stretched out her arms. 

Vy did not want them to wait too long, so Lycster and her quickly packed up their things. Within a matter of minutes, they were ready to start moving. As they trekked through the forest, Vy noticed that from afar the forest looked like any other they had seen before. 

But upon closer inspection, she noticed multiple key differences. The plant life in the Shrouds Forest looked sickly and were of different colours from what she was used to seeing. Berry bushes usually were covered in dark coloured berries. Yet the berry bushes here, were covered in pale coloured fruits of unknown origin. 

"Was everything alright last night?" Vy asked Alpha Darric. 

"Nothing out of the ordinary. Just a few wandering souls. But the fire kept most of them at bay," Beta Bertuf snappily answered on his Alpha's behalf. 

Vy nodded, listening to the explanation as she carefully deciphered what it meant. She had not read up much about the Shrouds Forest, but from the little she gathered, spirits wander the forest grounds during the night. 

In the day, spirit activity is a lot less, but they still need to be on their guard. Lucky for them, with the added protection of the Moon Ring pack, Vy felt like she could be at ease. This mission had been an incredible ride. They had encountered countless enemies, barely escaping some encounters with their lives. 

Vy knew that if she was to survive what came next, she would need to become stronger. This made her wonder if the Moon Ring pack might be able to teach her some new tricks she could use in combat. 

-I'll ask them later.- she reminded herself. 

-What good would they be? I think you're doing well enough, Vy.- Aether commented upon hearing her thoughts. 

Vy smiled as she rubbed Aether's keeled scales on the top of his head. 

-We can always do better. I can always do it with some help. It would be interesting to see what tricks they might have for me to learn.- 

Aether seemed a little annoyed by it, but she could not figure out why. After a short period of silence between them, Aether muttered under his breath, "I could teach you."

"Hmm? Did you say something, Aether?"

Vy heard him the first time, she just wanted to make sure she heard him right. 

"I could teach you."

She grinned.

"Sorry, I didn't quite catch that. Could you say it louder?" 

Vy laughed, "That wasn't so hard, was it? Are you afraid they would teach me the wrong things?" 

Aether hissed. - I don't want them anywhere near you.-

-And why is that?-

Aether did not answer but Vy knew why. Her Familiar was protective of her. She had no qualms about it, in fact, she found it sweet that he cared so much about her. In the beginning, she wondered if Aether cared about anything since he was always so quiet. 

Actions speak louder than words. With Aether, that was clearly the case. After a day of travelling, they set up camp in a clearing just as the sun was about to set. As she set up their tent for the night, Vy spoke to Aether telepathically.

-I'm still going to spar with them.-

Aether sighed. -I know.-

"Are you going to stop me?" she asked. 

Her Familiar rolled his eyes. -Would you not go if I stopped you?- 

Vy shook her head. 

Once everything was set up, Lycster offered to prepare dinner. This gave Vy the opportunity to ask the werewolves to spar with her. She went straight up to Alpha Darric with her request. 

The Alpha folded his arms, "You want to spar with us?"

"Yes. You don't have to go easy on me. I can handle it."

Darric turned to his Beta and his fellow werewolves. Some of them seemed apprehensive about it. Was Vyrena just joking with them, or was she serious about it? Seeing the expression on their faces, Vy was quick to assure them. 

"Don't worry, it doesn't have to be a one on one. You can all come at me at the same time."

Aether chuckled. Lycster who overheard the conversation tried hard to stifle his laughter. 

Some of the werewolves were aggravated by Vy's remarks. 

"Are you trying to say that we can't beat you one on one?" one of the werewolves challenged. 

"Are you trying to say we're weak?" Beta Bertuf growled at Vy, he was offended by Vy's words. 

Upon realising what she had done, she knew immediately that she had to recon the situation. 

"I'm sorry, I didn't mean it that way! It's just that battling one on one and one against many is different. It would be good if we could spar both ways." 

Vy could tell that they did not seem to believe her words. She understood why the werewolves were offended by her comments, she truly did not mean it that way. In her recent encounters, her enemies did not come at her one by one. 

They took advantage of their numbers and used that to their advantage. Vy simply wanted to try out different strategies to combat such situations, so that she would be more prepared for them. 

"I've been in a couple of fights recently, where it was one against many. So I wanted to spar that way to see if there's any strategy I could come up with to improve my chances of fighting back."

Alpha Darric was impressed by Vy's explanation. At first, he too thought that the young woman was taunting them. But after hearing it, her remarks seemed justified. Beta Bertuf and the other werewolves had their eye on Vy. 

But seeing that their Alpha did not take offence to it, they did not pursue the matter further either. Together, they found an open space for them to spar, free of any obstruction or trees that could get in the way. The space was large enough for all of them to spar comfortably.