What Good Are Teeth and Claws If You Can't Use 'Em?

[Deleted]

(ooc: September 3rd. Open to anyone that wants to practice fighting.)

Her uniform lay off to the side and the golden-furred cub was, at present, clawing at the air impatiently. Vitani had come into the practice gymnasium with the hope that she'd find someone to practice with, but she'd only been greeted with the boring prospect of using some training dummies that were offered. Vitani didn't want to just rely on wastes of time like that; she wanted an actual opponent. Unfortunately for her, it looked like she wasn't going to get anything like that. This had put the cub in an irritable mood and she was willing to strike at just about anyone that might come her way. Whether or not she was caught off guard had yet to be seen, though.

"This is such a waste of time," she scoffed. What was the point in being there if there was no one to practice with? At least back home she'd been able to scuffle with Nuka and Kovu. Here? She would be lucky to even find anyone at all. Another fierce practice swipe of the paw went through the air and Vitani went on imagining an opponent. It was better than having no one at all, wasn't it? Probably not... But it was still better than the alternatives. She only realized then that the possibility of having a weakling go up against her was a reality. This caused Vitani to roll her eyes in disgust as she plopped her bottom down on the floor and let her tail lash behind her. There was no way she'd train against just anyone. Vitani wanted someone up to her standards...

...Maybe she was expecting too much.

It's not like someone perfect is just going to waltz in and train with you. Maybe you should lower your standards... she thought. With her guard lowered, it would be easy to catch her by surprise this time. Vitani only barely acknowledged the possibility of someone else coming into the training gymnasium at that very moment.

[Louis]

A sound that couldn't really be described squeaked out from between the little rodent's mouth as he scrambled into the training room. He was rubbing his hands over one another, pushing himself towards the room. He needed to train. He had to be tough. He had to fight, didn't he? Eventually. And digging wasn't going to cover it in the arena. At least he assumed. So Louis padded backwards into the room.

And slammed backwards into the plush fur of the tiny blue eyed lioness.

He cried out, landing on his stomach. He covered his head with his claws and whimpered, shaking like a leaf. His teeth gritted as he ventured to seek out what he bumped into. "Puh-please don't...hurt...AH! A SABRE!"

A sabretoothed tiger, or what he thought was one was behind him. He jumped to his feet and grimaced. "Hey, um, where're your teeth? Your y'know, sabreteeth?"

[Deleted]

The feeling of someone bumping into her was impossible to miss. Vitani looked around to see who had bumped into her, and to her surprise she saw Louis there. Not that she knew him, though. She'd never seen the little creature before in her life. Yet, he seemed convinced that she was a... Sabre? What the hell was that? Uncharacteristically, she tilted her head to the side and blinked a couple of times. Vitani looked about as befuddled as one might imagine her to be. Still, that wasn't going to deter her from answering Louis's question. It was a strange question to be sure, but a question nonetheless.

"They're right here, see?" Vitani asked. She opened her mouth a little wider so Louis could see the clear lack of sabre teeth. Now she could move on and ask a question of her own. It was high time she figured out what a sabre even was.

"I'm not a sabre, whatever that is. I'm a lion. ...What is a sabre, anyway?"

[Louis]

Louis winced as the sabre opened her mouth. He saw the fangs, saw the teeth and the lack of the sabre fangs. What kind of cat was she then? She looked just like Diego and the other sabres he'd seen. His ears folded back. A lion? "What's a lion?" He asked. The lion didn't seem like she was going to fight or attack him. So he relaxed a little.

"A sabre is what I thought YOU were. They look like you. Except bigger and they have like fangs as long as me. And they run in packs." He shuddered, looking about. "You don't come in packs do you?" No ground, no dirt to dig through. He'd just have to run.

"I'm Louis," he whimpered.

[Deleted]

"You're looking at one," Vitani answered. It didn't really explain what a lion was, but that was Vitani's style. She wasn't the kind of girl that was going to explain anything cutely or anywhere near nicely. Why was she even taking that moment to just talk? She'd come into the gymnasium with the hopes of actually practicing her skills, yet there she was conversing with... Whatever it was Louis was. Still, she could at least try to answer his questions. Vitani had the time, anyway, so it wasn't like she was being deterred from doing something.

"We're big cats that live in the outlands. Big, fierce, powerful... Or so my mother says," Vitani explained. Well, not even her mother. Zira was her adopted mother, but Louis didn't need to know that. What followed was another question of whether or not they came in packs. A shrug followed; was a pride the same thing as a pack?

"Not packs; prides. We've got all these lionesses - girls like me - that do the hunting and stuff. The males are supposed to be in charge, but all we really got is my brothers. They're both kind of wimps, though," she said. Nuka was a much bigger wimp than Kovu was, too. He may have been the oldest and supposedly the strongest, but he was a scardey cat and a big mass of itchy fur. Kovu was supposed to be the heir and all, but Vitani hardly thought he was anything special. Sure he'd be more magnificent when he was older, but at the moment? He hardly was a fighter or all that tough, at least in her eyes.

"Vitani. What're you supposed to be anyway, Louis? I've never seen anything like you in the outlands."

[Applejack]

"Well, that's somethin' new."

Applejack had been looking to train up her bucking skills against the dummies she heard the school had. After hearing they'd be forced to fight every Friday, Applejack had made her schedule open to some extra training. She hoped her friends were doing the same. Not any ponies she knew were in her circle, besides Babs. She was glad to see some sort of family in her circle, but she was worried about Apple Bloom. How was she going to handle herself in the arena? What if they were paired up together? Well, what would happen if any of Applejack's friends were paired against her? But she wasn't going to worry about that just yet. She'd just have to concentrate and think of someone she didn't know.

But when Applejack arrived to the training area, she hadn't expected to find anyone else. But here she was, with two strange creature. One looked like a cat, but no cat in Equestria at least. And she had no clue what to make of the other creature. She could only pair it up with a possum of a sort, like she had seen in Fluttershy's garden a few time.

"So, are ya'll trainin' here?" Applejack said, giving a small smile. "I'm training myself to be prepared for the fights." She continued, before trotting over towards the two. "Can't ever be too prepared for anythin', can you? I reckon that I might not be picked, but you never can be too sure?"

[Louis]

"Hi."

Louis relaxed slightly, lifting up and smiling softly. Though she seemed kind of rough and tumble, she wasn't trying to eat him so that was alright. So he hugged his knees with his thick claws and blinked towards Vitani. "I'm a molehog. I thought everyone'd heard of us. But I guess if you're not a sabre you wouldn't have." He stood as Applejack entered. He watched the strange hoofed thing show up, having no issue with talking to them.

"I guess," he said, "Hi." He waved. "Uh...training, right. Were you training before I got here?" He asked Vitani.

[Deleted]

Vitani had opened her mouth and prepared to speak, but no words came out. The lioness cub had spotted Applejack. Needless to say, she didn't really know what to make of what she was seeing. Applejack looked like some kind of hoofed animal, but not like any she might have seen on the African plains. ...Not that the Outlanders really got to see many of those animals very often in the first place. Vitani only knew what they looked like because she had seen them while she'd lived amongst the Pridelanders. No matter, though. Vitani was never one to let a strange appearance stop her for too long. This didn't mean she wouldn't be herself, though.

"What're you supposed to be? A really weird looking antelope?" Vitani asked. If Applejack was an antelope, then were were her horns? Did female antelope even have horns? What was with her tail and those weird markings on her flank? Vitani raised an eyebrow as she continued to look Applejack over. It seemed, at least for the moment, that training had been forgotten. It was only when Louis asked that she was snapped out of her thoughts and made to answer.

"Oh, yeah. I was doing some training, all right. It's not as productive by myself, though. You two wanna fight? Show me what you got?"