always

oh your hands can heal, your hands can bruise. I don't have a choice but I'd still choose you.

The enthusiasm shown by the boy was a welcome change in attitude from what Alcide had become used to dealing with with his blood son. Despite everything – the way Swallowbane acted and his treatment of his own sister – Alcide would never stop loving him. He was family, just as Taliesin was as he stood before the alphen now. Family was the most important thing in one’s life, and the gray and brown wolf had learned that better than anyone else. To lose one’s family, or even to be under the impression that they were lost to you forever, was the most painful of ordeals for one to go through. And perhaps that was where this father and son pairing connected so well. Alcide had lost his family for many years, and now even as they were reunited he felt he had lost Swallowbane to his rage and resentment as well as Orca to her wandering ways. MoonGlow, too, was at such a distance from him that the pain had become a ever present clutching in his chest that he had learned to live with. And Taliesin himself had lost both of his parents, who had been given to leave Moladion just after the birth of their two children. Their losses had brought them together.

From his defensive posture Alcide watched as Taliesin adjusted himself and did his best to copy the stance. The brute stood up straight then and walked over to Taliesin, inspecting his posture. “Good,” he said, and then quickly lowered his head and forcibly pushed it against Tal’s left forelimb, hoping to catch him by surprise. As he withdrew, he said, “It is important, if you choose to brace yourself against oncoming attacks, to build strength in your legs so that you may absorb the attack and remain on your feet. Otherwise,” he paused then and threw his weight into Taliesin’s shoulder to knock him over onto his back. It was not a move made to hurt the boy, but he had a further point to prove. Alcide then stepped over the boy, placing his front paws on either side of his head and his hind paws on either side of his hindquarters. “you may allow yourself to easily be taken down.”

He remained where he was, effectively pinning the boy without any violence used. “This is one of the most detrimental situations you can get yourself into. Avoid falling on your back at all costs, because if you become pinned you risk your neck,” Alcide lowered his open jaws to rest lightly on the boy’s neck, “underbelly,” he then drew his head back and poked the boys stomach with his nose, “and even your paws.” he nudged one forepaw with his nose. He moved forward once more to stand squarely over the boy. Looking down into his bright green eyes, Alcide asked, “Now tell me, if ever this should happen to you, how do you escape?” It was a test of Taliesin’s instincts. Pinning typically caused a wolf to feel trapped, claustrophobic. Surely no one would have told him the best routes for a getaway and counter attack in such a situation. This was a trial of his instincts, and what he had learned from sparring with the other youth of the pack.

alcide | sixteen | moonglow | polaris of spirane
sleekwing, swallowbane, orca, daenerys, ceal, taliesin | ♥