Start... starting from?! Starting from scratch? Starting from [i]scratch?!?[/i] Ah, gfhb... psssshyeah no foolin' she's starting from scratch! The sword's in the other mouth!! D'you forget about the paws, or didja just not notice? Start from scratch. Might as well just try scratching, for all the good she's gonna mmmrble bmmble wmmf whff brrk! 

So, uh, um... pros: a day's worth of running everywhere that physics would let her has left Wolfy Yue feeling a lot more agile than she remembers being in her own body. Even with all the soreness and tired she's built up with all this exercise she's still got zips and zigs and even a few zags that would've had her falling on her butt for sure just two days ago! Plus, she's a lot shorter like this (which is still weird, thanks for asking) and while she never exactly mastered the art of the duel the Demon Swordswoman did teach her well enough for her to be pretty sure this'll let her safely ignore a whole buncha different angles of attack. And something that Hyra taught her just the other day is that it's surprisingly difficult to guard your shins while you're fighting, so that's another advantage in her poc-- er, her uh... m-mouth? No, that's where her sword is. Wow, this is harder than she thought.

And, y'know, cons: she's got a sword. In her mouth. She's gone back to her wooden training sword because honestly she does [i]not[/i] trust herself to use the pointy one right like this, but seeing as it's still magically enchanted to have the same weight as a proper metal one that's not doing her a lotta good now is it? There's just no getting around the fact that these things are designed for people. People with [i]hands[/i]. And two limbs they can freely move around however they feel like without falling onto their faces because they don't need them for, y'know, walking. And centers of gravity a good foot above where her head is right this second. The weight's all to her side and she's gotta fight to keep it from tilting her neck until the tip jabs into the ground. The handle hurts her teeth if she bites it too hard, but if she doesn't bite it hard enough then she's gonna drop it or oh gosh gosh [i]goshies[/i] if she hits or parries something like that, then... well, you wanna talk about tooth aches? Yeesh. 

So there's, um, y'know, challenges. To be overcome. Before we actually get close enough to the hurdle of 'Hyra is fighting differently than she was before' to curiously sniff at it. We're not even talking about jumping over that hurdle yet, ok? Starting from scratch. Starting from scratch...

The first thing she tries, of course, is fighting like Hyra. That's her whole model for Wolf Holding a Sword Style, after all. But what's that mean for her? She's at a loss. Before she even tries going for the furniture her head is filled with images of being made to sit and pose for pictures with a sign around her neck that reads "I was a Bad Girl and broke the Prison Cabinets" and she freezes so badly she winds up on her face again with her back paws wiggling comically in the air behind her. And in any case that wasn't gonna work in the first place because Hyra cares more about the fight than she does about being polite all the time.  Which TO BE CLEAR makes her cool and sexy, not a jerk. But it's a dead end approach, is the real point to be getting at here.

Yue runs and leaps as Hyra plants her feet and goes sailing to the side of her so that she can rip... uh, ripos-- erm, bounce off the bed all fancy-like and come at her from a surprising angle after she's planted her feet in response to the first charge. Her sword clacks harmlessly into Hyra's and all she can do is hang in the air with a determined look in her eye for a couple of seconds before she drops back low and has to try Plan C, which is spinning around like she's chasing her tail to take a good swing at her girlfriend's thighs. There, how do you like it when the spankies are on the other paw, huh? Well, it turns out she can blunt the blow by stepping into it before it gets to her. That's a neat trick! But all Yue's got to show for her new lesson is a tiny smile on Hyra's face. Did she... did she do a good?

...she's really out of breath right now. That's bad, huh? Not the least of the bads is on account of when she runs out of breath like this her body kinda wants to pant? But that involves tongue, and tongue need stay in mouth 'cause sword am still there. Blurgh. Cons, +1. Is it quitting to fake a tummy ache so that she has to postpone her first fight and give Hyra more time to work on that fix she's promising? 

Yeah, it is. Darn it, that sounds really nice right about now. And come to think of it, fighting Hyra like Hyra fought her is quitting, too. She can't try to beat [i]Hyra[/i], as cool as that would feel, she's gotta try and fight this Sure Footed Mountain Style or whatever's going on here. That's the whole point, isn't it? To get her ready for her big fight. Sillyhead, what were you thinking?

Yue's tail starts wagging in spite of the fatigue. In spite of the ouchies and the grumbles and all the negative emotions of a person who keeps having to start from square one every time she turns around. It's not like she ever thought of herself as capable of mastering all this adventuring stuff, y'know, but after everything she's been through it's hard not to want to cry when you're all the way here and you feel like you've done so much but you can't see what skills you've got to show for it at all. But she wags her tail, even while that thought spirals inside of her brain. She's happy, fighting like this. She's happy, dodging, ducking, blocking, slipping between those iron, shapely legs and thwapping her useless fluffy appendage against them as she goes, because everything that's happening in this prison cell today is what Love looks like. 

You're so great, Hyra. You're so strong, Hyra. Thank you so much, darling. Heart. Cutie. She promises, ok? It's a slobbery promise made with muffled barks, but it still counts! She's not gonna let you down. 

Yue runs. She darts all around the room, because this is the one thing she's sure she's got down. She feels breathlessly fast, graceful, beautiful, and a lot've other smarter words that city folk probably keep up their sleeves for moments like this, but she's a simple country wolf from the Crescent Lake so you'll have to forgive her not rising up to meet this moment like a poet. She's too busy doing it like a warrior. Wherever Hyra turns, Yue runs the other way. Whenever she gets cornered she boldly darts through the kind of opening a human body can't clear but that are hard to cover up entirely unless you're constantly accounting for how much of your opponent's body mass is floof. She leaps out of the way of every strike as she winds her way around the room like an exceptionally small typhoon. 

All waiting for the moment when she gets to pounce. She's got Hyra's back at last! Her body's better at turning, her blood's better at not rushing to her head, and [i]that[/i] makes her better at spinning around all over the place without getting so dizzy that she falls over. When she leaps, her body surges with so much extra strength it seems to her that she's somehow accidentally cast a spell. Is she flying right now, or just jumping very far? Hyra pivots to meet her, but she's already entered the handmaiden's zone. Yue's form is a perfect poumce, a special technique that Kat taught her, though of course the esteemed Miss Fluffybiscuits never intended it to be a lesson. 

Yue lands on top of Hyra with a joyful bark. She boops that beautiful nose with the crossguard of her sword, which is as good as a deathblow for everybody here. She drops the weapon on the ground and promptly flops into the arms of the most amazing person in the entire world. There's a lot of kissing that needs to be done right now, you see. Don't worry, it's all part of her training <3