Waiting for Gent to fetch her was like waiting for a storm to hit. She knew he wanted to train her, but the woman was hardly convinced it would do any good. No, she'd just look foolish in front of him. He would see how weak she really was. The worries plagued her endlessly ever since he posed the idea. She liked Gent; he didn't need to know how awful she was at anything. If anything the fact that he was her friend was cause to panic over impressing him. He was her Alpha too! The opinions of strangers might have hurt her but being looked down on by someone close, someone important? It twisted her guts. His appearance only made the feeling worse. It was time. The whole trek from the den she remained quiet; jaws tight with anxiety. Gent seemed a bit uncomfortable around her too – but it was only a guess as to why. Maybe he felt bad, or maybe he was worried that his best friend was actually useless. Either one. 

When it became obvious which clearing they were headed towards, the woman let out her nervous breath with a sigh. Her head remained low as they passed between the trees and into the sunlight. She didn't want to be here. Rigidly the subordinate came to a halt; golden eyes regarding Gent's form with caution. He wasted no time in again assessing her condition. While the concern was nice, being reminded of them wasn't. Perhaps for the relief of having something else to look at besides her soon-to-be-disappointed teacher, the girl's eyes found the patches of missing fur on her hip. “They're alright – scabbed over.” Her notched ear was fine as anything by now. It healed surprisingly fast, and the skin on the cut was nearly closed. Raela looked back his way, letting the silence move between them before the dreaded words found her. 

Nervously, she faked a smile; chuckling a bit to try and brush off her fear as foolishness. “No.” He would know it as a joking “yes.” Her reluctance was near palpable. Swallowing as much apprehension as she could, the agouti woman directed her eyes upward. “So, what are we doing?” What can I screw up first?

The way her friend completely ignored the woman's wry humor left her feeling all the more nervous. Not even his eyes softened as he stared back at her, and Raela found herself searching for something else to look at. She took a shaky breath as he moved away; tensing and relaxing his muscles in preparation. Her heartbeat hummed along, and the woman was left standing there with her soft tail beginning to hide away at her hocks. She really didn't want to do this. His words were still entirely serious, and she felt her tongue passing nervously over her creamy maw. Something akin to panic was chewing at her ribs as she stared; mind digging frantically for whatever he expected her to do. 

What did he want? Was she to doge away? To lash at him in hopes of deflecting the blow? To intercept his charge full force? She had no idea, and that was all the more terrifying. Lost in the tempest of her own anxiety, honeyed eyes settled on him as the mammoth sunk down. A moment of hesitation on her part followed before the subordinate tried some form of preparation herself. All roads seemed to lead to failure and humiliation, and she was still horridly tense. Gent leapt at her after far too little time (in her book anyway), and Raela's actions were left entirely to instinct. 

Her ears flattened, jaws parting with a fearful snarl. He came down toward her, and the smaller female rushed right back. She lunged upward with all the nervous energy from the sickening tension in her chest. Her fangs reached for the side of his neck, as if she could force him back with her lessened strength and slender body. Such an outcome was unlikely, but she was at an utter loss for what to do otherwise. Perhaps that was the point of this; for him to assess her current knowledge as well as her shortcomings; but that still required her to fail on some level; a notion that her frightened brain couldn't accept. She already had. There was no reason to do it again in front of him. 

The action was so raw and swift that she had next to no time to anticipate the crashing wave of his frame against her's, though her skin crawled with the expectation of force and pain. It was a force all right; a force not unlike the kick of that mule deer's hind leg when they last hunted together. But this time she could still breathe; even if it was between teeth clenched tightly into her attacker's scruff. In an instant he was upon her; lifting his legs to press down on her smaller, more meager frame. It was exactly as she had pictured his retaliation to go, and the outcome was nearly inevitable. She was just too weak to stand any chance against the black King's might. 

Any hint of his approval went unnoticed as the weight buckled her locked-up legs. Her teeth would have been torn away had she not opted to release him as soon as Raela felt herself falling. In a most unorganized and frantic fashion she crumpled to the dirt; pushed down sideways and doomed by the angle she'd chosen to attack from. All of her weight shifted to the side and sent her toppling over with a high pitched growl only a second after he'd first moved. Despite the adrenaline and despite the electricity in her muscles there was nothing to be done now. The snarl that had been present on her creamy maw faded quickly as her golden eyes met again with his judging ice. The ferocity gave way to more nervousness as she felt the weight of failure creeping up again. The wrinkles smoothed and her teeth were hidden with a nervous lick to the woman's wet, ebony nose. 

Fine, he'd proven it. She couldn't do it and now he knew. So what did he want now? 

She was still internally sulking right up until the point that his black jaws parted in speech. All at once he had praised her, and walked away. She was left curled against the ground, watching Gent leave her side with befuddlement. Despite the fact that she had fallen and despite the fact that she had allowed herself to be caught; a death sentence with her lighter, weaker body, that was... good? Apparently he was only looking for her to respond violently; and she had, though it had been on impulse and without proper strategy. She searched his face once more, still looking completely dumbfounded. As soon as his legs splayed she found herself shuffling awkwardly to her own spindly stilts to the sound of his rumbling voice. 

Her bright eyes turned on him; wide with apprehension as he asked for her confirmation. Feeling a bit sick again at the blunt way he spoke, she nodded anxiously. But I can't... her mind repeated; curling the tip of her tail toward her hocks once more. Orange ears drank in the rest of the info, and she found herself actually pondering it in the moments before their scuffle would resume. So just... stay out of the way? She already knew that allowing herself to be pinned or grasped for very long was a horrible idea, so if he wanted to see her dodge, she would dodge. 

The click of the mammoth's pearly teeth was the signal to begin again, and Rae watched his movements more carefully this time. It was the same exact charge, and now she would be ready for it. In the last moments before his weight would have a chance of pushing her to the dirt again, Rae's hind legs crouched and pushed off of the ground like a coiled spring. Her lighter frame danced to the side and she whirled, offering him another wrinkled snarl of her own as she realized that he had missed. But there would be only seconds before he would move again, and she tried to find her balance...