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It was about midday, and Khanyo was already set into his daily routine. He had sparred with Neze in the morning, they'd shared a meal together, and now he was prowling the sparring grounds for another partner to fight against. Typically, this was when they would be sent out for contract work, but demand for mercenaries was light this day it seemed. So now he had to find a way to occupy himself, and to Khanyo he couldn't think of a better way to spend his time other than training. Not to mention there had been an influx of newcomers lately, and the golden lion was eager to test his mettle against them. His claws slid out of their sheathes as he scratched at the dirt beneath his paws and dark eyes scanned the area in search of an opponent. His attention was drawn to large, ruddy colored female who seemed to clock him as soon their eyes locked. The fiery look in her eyes brought a smirk to his face and Khanyo loosed a challenging roar in her direction. When she responded in kind, his grin widened into a snarl as he charged at her.
Helle hadn't taken much time at all in discovering her favorite place in the Tani'Ajiri. In fact, the sparring grounds had become something of a second home to her. When she wasn't patrolling the territory as a guard, or hanging out with Jord, she was knocking heads around on the sparring grounds. The ruddy colored lioness was large, much larger than your average rogue, and her muscles were thick from years of training. She rejoiced in any opportunity she found in using them. And right now, her next opportunity was issuing a challenge roar and charging at her. She grinned widely as she answered him with a roar of her own and squared her body to intercept his charge. The closer he got, the more she realized just how much larger she was than him. Her grin widened tenfold as she pounced forward to shove her shoulder into him.
The closer he got, the bigger she seemed to get, and certainly much larger than himself. Khanyo was a small male, short and stocky in stature due to heavy training as a cub; but his muscles were dense and strong. A lesser male may have been put off by the large lioness as an opponent, but to be honest it thrilled him. He grinned like a mad man as she set up to intercept his charge, though the sheer force of her shove caught him off guard and threw him off balance. Khanyo nearly had the wind knocked out of him as he was sent stumbling and tripping over his paws before he could regain his stability, but there was no time for a full recovery. She was on him in an instant!
Her opponent was rather shorter than herself, and that made Helle smirk. However, slamming her shoulder into him was like throwing herself at a sturdy tree! She had expected to bowl him over completely, but he had managed to stay mostly upright and that surprised her. He was thick, but she suspected that weight was almost pure muscle, not fat. This would be interesting! She couldn't let him completely recover from her earlier blow, she charged him with outstretched paws to throw around his neck as her teeth sank deeply into his dark mane. She had no intention of finding flesh, as this was merely a training exercise, but her grip was strong as she attempted to wrestle her opponent to the ground.
He felt her weight on him, and it was considerable, but his thick legs planted themselves in place as he claws slid out from their sheathes to hold him in place. He snarled at her as she pressed more and more of her weight atop him, attempting to drive him down towards the ground. He was a bit stuck at the moment, he couldn't risk shaking her off as it might throw him off balance, and he couldn't raise a paw to smack at her or he wouldn't be able to hold himself up. Hmm, this was quite the predicament. Well, at least she was close, so there had to be something he could do! She growled at him, and he sensed there was a bit of frustration on her end as well, which made him snort in amusement. "Hold on, babe, I got this," he rumbled at her, his grin returning as an idea struck him. She was pressing so much of her weight onto him, he just knew it would work. Instead of simply pushing back against her, he buckled underneath her, and threw his weight into the momentum, which ultimately sent tumbling to the ground with him.
Trying to push him down to the ground wasn't working very well, even when she had her full weight against him! This male may have been short, but Helle had decided he must be part stone. There was simply nothing she could do to move him! Short of actually sinking her teeth or claws into his flesh, that is, but that was poor etiquette for a spar. She was indeed growing frustrated at their stalemate, but then he called her 'babe' and before she could protest, he had them both tumbling over each other towards the ground! The sheer shock of it made her release her grip on his mane, and she knew that mistake was going to cost her.
It worked! Once he felt her grip loosen on his mane, Khanyo took full advantage of their tumbling over each other. In battle his fangs would have sought her throat, but in a spar like this he simply touched them to the nape of her neck and applied enough pressure for her to know they were there. She didn't have a protective mane like he or any other male did, so he couldn't grip onto her fur like she had him. Not without hurting her at least. They had come to a stop with him partially on top of her, and the large lioness mostly flipped onto her back. She looked baffled, and he simply grinned down at her. He had won.
She could hardly believe this was happening. Helle had fought many a spar back in her homeland of the Stormborn. Against her father, reavers, and hopefuls trying to join the pride. Though, that had all changed once the new warlord had taken over, and females were barred from being reavers. In fact, that's why she had left. Perhaps she was more out of practice than she realized? Of course, she felt his fangs against the delicate part of her neck, and she froze. Helle knew full well that this was the end of their spar, and that she had lost. Still, his stupid grinning face made her smirk. "That was some move, short-stuff," she told him. She hadn't forgotten that 'babe' remark, so it seemed fair game to call it as she saw it.
Khanyo removed his fangs from her neck as she seemed to accept his victory, and he shook his mane at the name-calling. Ouch, he guessed he deserved that. The umzingeli back home would not have taken kindly to him calling them 'babes', either. Maybe Thunzi was rubbing off on him a bit too much. Still, he was feeling quite good about his victory over such an intriguing lioness, and he though his fangs no longer touched her neck he was still partially on top of her. In no way was he holding her there, despite his upper half resting somewhat askew of her chest. "I can show you a few more, if you like?" he rumbled with a smirk, his dark mane falling to dangle over some of his face.
Helle's smirk fell away into an amused snort. Was he actually hitting on her right now? She had to admit, he was a brave one. The large lioness easily pushed him off of her so she could stand and shake the dirt from her ruddy pelt. "Some other time, perhaps," she told him as she locked gleaming blue eyes with his. She liked his courage, and his fighting skills were sharp, but Helle was in no hurry to fall into a relationship with a male she hardly knew. "I'm Helle. Let's do this again, sometime....?"
"Khanyo," he replied as she hung the question out for him. He had gotten up as soon as she made the move to get out from under him, and though she had rejected the idea he still grinned at her. "Anytime, Helle," he agreed, his fiery eyes ablaze and glittering in the mid-morning sun. She was beautiful, and strong, and he was pretty sure she could kick his a**. He would spar with her any day!
((Word Count: 1478 ))
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