How to Kill with Kindness

"Excellent, excellent." Malkia nodded at Clopin. "So let's stop when the sun gets-" she looked up suddenly, only now remembering the darkness that was enveloping them all. "Oh. Well then, let's say we stop to practice those in two...(Oh, what do you humans call them again?)...hours? Yes, all right."
She waved her trunk-tip after him as he went to attend to his area of expertise, and gave a slight jolt when the weapon appeared in his hands. This magic stuff would certainly take some getting used to.

 She turned to oversee the soldiers under her own supervision then, and watched as most of them found suitable partners. There was some dispute between a few dogs and a lion, but it had apparently been solved. She noted the presence of the Spring Sprite also, such a beautiful and elegant being. Malkia had been meaning to introduce herself to her but never had the chance. It was nice that she had decided to come along. Even if she couldn't bring the sun back, a trail of fresh vegetation sprouting from wherever she flew was certainly a heartening morale-booster.
 She was about to go walk among the ranks of fighting animals and humans, straightening backs and correcting stances, when she heard a small, nasally voice sound right in front of her, and she had to squint to make out the form of Ono the egret.
 She smiled warmly as she listened to his anxieties over the training system. Poor thing. It was hard for the elephant to imagine being so tiny amongst a group of such large animals. She extended her trunk like a perch in case he wanted better position to make himself heard. She noticed that he looked rather like the flocks of egrets that lived on the Pridelands, and reasoned that he was probably a recent fledgling of that community. It was nice to think that not all of the Pridelander animals had abandoned the Kingdom, and at least some had stayed to help out.
 'Of course, of course." Malkia nodded understandingly. "If you think that's where your talents are best spent. How good a flier are you? How fast? Accuracy? You could practice diving for vital areas, or at least causing a distraction, if you wished." she advised, listing off several options to see what course he would take.

 Her eyes slid left as the lioness approached them, and offered to spar with the little bird. Well, her heart was in the right place at least. These lions obviously didn't know their own strength among smaller creatures.
 "Err, I think you may a little too large for him dear." she smiled sympathetically, almost in an aside towards the cat, hoping the egret would not be disheartened or nerve-racked because of her sudden appearance.

 She double-took once more when yetanother animal approached her, this time a cape buffalo, whom she recognized as Kula (she remembered the name because of the similarly-called lioness). "Sparring? Well..." she took a moment to look at her raggedy ear and the scars on her flank on account of Scruffy's attack a few days ago, but then thought, what of it? She had plenty of those anyway, so what if she opened up one or two again? "Oh all right then, why not? Forgive a bit of rustiness though. Just let me finish up here then I'll be with you in a second!"

"Oh, well... I don't really like to brag, but I'm a pretty good flier, ma'am," Ono said. He also was good at diving through the air and catching things that he could see from high up. It all came down to working on precision in his strikes, he supposed. Ono didn't really think of himself as much of a fighter, but if he ever had to defend himself then he wanted to be prepared. That was why he thought that working with the training dummies would probably be the best bet in that regard. He could also see that Malkia had offered her trunk for him to perch on, and he was about to accept that much until...

Vunjika spoke up, offering to spar with him in the process of making her presence known. Ono briefly looked away from Malkia to address her, but when he did he found himself looking at a lioness. A startled squawk filled the air and he nearly toppled over onto the ground as he flapped his wings frantically and leaned backward. A lioness was not the sort of opponent he wanted to go up against. This was especially true when he had only been among the heroes for about two weeks at the very most. Thankfully, though, Malkia seemed to understand the plight of this much. Ono righted himself on the ground as the elephant spoke to Vunjika, and he nodded vigorously after she had finished speaking.

"Yeah. I actually just got done saying that I don't really want to go up against someone bigger than me. Which... Is pretty much everyone here right now," Ono told her. He hated this. Being a fledgling made him fairly small compared to everyone else, and that was definitely true here. The smallest creatures he could see were Cassie, Peg, and Thumper, and even then they all were fairly large compared to a bird of his stature. Thumper might have been his best bet if he was to train with someone. Of course, Ono didn't really want to bring that up. A land walker against a flier like him didn't really seem like a fair matchup, especially when he was going to try and work on his diving and flying skills. He ruffled his feathers a bit and shook himself out for just a moment before deciding to speak again.

"I mean no offense, ma'am, but you're a lioness and I'm an egret. And you're kind of... Okay, a lot bigger than me. I don't really think I'd stand much of a chance, even in the air," Ono said. "So if it's all the same to you, I think I'd prefer to work on my accuracy, speed, and diving. Against a training dummy. Or... Maybe someone a bit closer to my size."

"Err, I think you may a little too large for him dear."

Kula turned with a snort to the crippled lioness and scraped his hoof along the ground in thought. Stupid lioness, as crippled as she was, Kula didn't pity her. If anything, they weren't together in this war, fighting on the same side. He would of surely killed her on the African plains. He shook his head as he realized that the elephant was speaking to him and he looked up at her.

"Sparring? Well..." he watched as she gave a glance at her torn ear, thinking.

"Oh all right then, why not? Forgive a bit of rustiness though. Just let me finish up here then I'll be with you in a second!"

"Thank you," Kula grunted, before trudging over to the sparring fields to wait for her.

(Somebody should get some humans in here so Clopin can have someone to spar with!)

Bob continued to levitate Aladar, with a bemused expression upon his face. It wasn't until Peg shouted at him to drop the dinosaur that Bob let Aladar go, and the dinosaur was released from the unicorn's magical hold. Besides, she was the only one to react, as everyone else had thought a floating dinosaur was the norm. Bob pinned his ears to his skull, as he looked to Peg.

"But he's a dinosaur! They're supposed to be dead, y'all!" Bob said, with a frown. Without waiting for her to answer, the unicorn snorted, and scanned his choices for a sparring partner. His eyes fell on Vunjika, and he trotted over to her with a grin upon his face.

"Hey y'all! I was wonderin' if maybe y'all wanted to spar with me?" Bob asked. He then leaned down next to her ear.

"Y'know, since I can't be sparrin' against a little bird like him. It'd be unfair." Bob whispered, as he motioned to Ono with a hoof.

Aladar stood silently as he listened to the instructions before getting the odd feeling that someone was staring at him. He was right about that. The large dinosaur shifted his head to see the unicorn standing next to giving him a wide-eyed expression. Then the pink maned creature spoke.

"How are y'all alive? Last time I checked, dinosaurs were dead!"

"Um, er..." The iguanodon started to think of something to say as he craned his neck as the unicorn started circling him.

"Whoa! What? did you just...?!" Aladar sputtered, jerking his knee at the touch of Bob's cool wet tongue in surprise.

"Y'all taste like a lizard..but I still don't get it!"

"I'm an iguanodon," Aladar corrected,lowering his head to speak to Bob. He didn't really know whether to laugh to cringe away at the comment. "I'm very much alive, else I wouldn't be standing in front of you," he laughed a bit nervously.

Even Zini wasn't this nuts. Then suddenly he was lifted into the air. The hell?

"Hold up! Whoa!!" Aladar grunted. He had no clue what on earth was going on. Just that he was know floating slightly off the ground via the unicorn's magical horn.

It wasn't until Peg shouted at him to drop the dinosaur that Bob let Aladar go, and the dinosaur was released from the unicorn's magical hold.

"Ugh, Thanks" Aladar says to the dog.

Cassie was about to reply to Thumper, but Peg had beat her to it. Her ears perked when the fluffy dog spoke her name, then introduced herself.
"Peg..." She nodded, it was short and sweet, and easy to remember. 
She listened intently as Peg said she should take it off slow. Cassie nodded in agreement; though her leg didn't hurt any more, she didn't want to possibly re injure it by taking on more than she was ready for.
She turned her head and looked in the direction of the path that led to the obstacle course. She was about to take a step towards it before Peg's voice caught her attention again, her head whipping back around at the sound of panic in the older dog's voice.
She saw what it was that caused the commotion. In all honestly, she wasn't sure how she hadn't noticed before; the big lizard looking creature... she'd talked to him a couple times before, but his name slipped her mind. She watched, moth hung open, as the levitating lizard was dropped back to the ground, and the one who'd been levitating him, a horse with a horn on it's head looked annoyed.

Her brown eyes blinked, trying to take in what she'd just witnessed. Giving her head a small shake, she turned her attention back to Peg.
"umm... right! Obstacle course, good idea..."

----
Meanwhile, Spring was simply meandering around the training grounds, looking for something to do. Being a pacifist, she wasn't exactly the best sparring partner, but for the most part she could get around obstacles pretty easily as well, so there wasn't much need to go to the obstacle course. 
Instead, she made her way over to the part of the training grounds where the humans would be training with their weapons. Her golden eyes fell upon one of the Generals, the one with the large purple hat. She floated over and softly tapped him on the shoulder.
"excuse me, I hope I'm not bothering you. I was wondering if there was anything I could help with?"

Peg heaved a breath of hair in relief that ruffled her bangs again as the dinosaur was dropped to the earth once again. The last thing they needed was for some poor dear like Cassie to be crushed under the weight of a giant, or even herself. China blue's eyed the horse skeptically, scrutinizing the horn that protruded from the center of his forehead and the pinkness that touched the hair that extended from his neck and head.

"You're welcome, deary..." she replied distractedly without looking away from Bob. They'd had horses back in Marceline, but none that looked quite like this creature did, and certainly not with the same ability. They were mostly used for carriages which were more scarcely used with the introduction of those motor run contraptions. Peg understood them to be cars. This one was certainly not towing any carts, and she had half a mind to ask him what exactly he was and where he came from, but this was a training session. She'd have plenty of time to talk later instead of distracting the troops from learning so she let them carry on.

She turned to Cassie again, bearing another smile as she encouragingly nodded her head.

"Yeah, get on over there hon. I'll be right behind f'you need me." she promised. Though Peg herself wouldn't be planning on joining the obstacle course herself.

"Hey y'all! I was wonderin' if maybe y'all wanted to spar with me?"

"Of course!" Vunjika beamed right back at Bob, her tail twitched again as she shifted her weight, she was getting ready to turn towards the sparring area.

"Y'know, since I can't be sparring' against a little bird like him. It'd be unfair."

She heard the unicorn speak his concerns, as he gave a jab of his foot to the bird that she had been speaking to. "I know I just though..." she raised her crippled foot to show Bob. "That he woul-could have the advantage," she blushed, clearly embarrassed at the foolish thought. "But, yes I would love to spar with you. Um, I won't end up like that dinosaur, will I?" Her eyes widened with worry for a moment, as the female looked into the unicorn's dark colored eyes.

Clopin went along and began to set up the weapons, collecting them in large vases for each soldier to have their choice of. To his left sat the bamboo poles, and the swords. To his left were an assortment of weapons, from knives to throwing stars. It was a potpourri, and one would have to be careful while sticking their hands into that vase. He sat back and waited, scythe twirling in his palm, before he was approached by a floating green...spirit?

Excuse me, I hope I'm not bothering you. I was wondering if there was anything I could help with?

The gypsy king tilted his head, and tugged gently at his goatee. Was there even anything she could help with?
"Alas, no. Unless we get some soldiers here, I'm afraid there isn't much to do." Clopin said, with a shrug.

-------
Bob looked down to the lioness, as she lifted her lame leg. He felt a small pang of sympathy for her, and being the kind soul that he was, he nodded his head.

"Sure, he'd have the advantage, but he doesn't have what y'all have. That leg might feel like a burden to y'all, but trust me, there's ways to use it. I've broken my foreleg a couple times before, 'specially this one." Bob said, as he lifted his right foreleg. But to her second question, he shook his head gently, pink mane swaying as he did.

"No, y'all won't end up like him. I was just messin' with him! It's nothin' to worry about." Bob said, with a chuckle. He extended a pink hoof towards her, to introduce himself.

"Don't know how you lions introduce yourselves, but I'm Bob. It's nice to meet y'all."

 "Hmph. No need to be ashamed about bragging, especially if it's something you're good at." Malkia said to the egret, a firm believer in positive thinking. "As long as you can back it up of course." She added coyly, then began scanning the field of dummies for a suitable target. 
 "How about...That piece of work over there!" she extended her trunk in the direction of a messy combination of sand-bags and sticks that formed the (very) rough shape of a lion. "'Hope that shouldn't prove too challenging!" the elephant joked. "Show me what you can do then. You could try timing yourself to see how many pecks you can score within a certain amount of time, or practice targeting the sensitive areas hmm? (It has little pebbles for eyes as you'll notice. I made that one myself actually, I'm quite proud of it)." She ranted on half to herself, perhaps taking a bit too much control once again. But then she stood back, in a signal for Ono to begin his training. "Let's see what you have to brag about then!"
---

 While most heroes had arrived on time for the session, or had otherwise trailed in late, Tojo had been in the clearing exactly an hour early. 
 The lion always had liked to be punctual and on-time, but he felt he was rather over-doing it at this point. After a long period of sitting around twiddling his paw-tips, other heroes had at last begun to arrive; thankfully in groups of two or more so awkward conversations could be avoided. But he soon realised he had made a mistake in choosing his particular seating spot, for as the hour went on he found himself more and more compressed into the crowd. Great. The noise and atmosphere of big groups but him incredibly on edge, instigating a nervousness that not even the eagle's gentle grasp on his shoulder could take away.
 He was almost on the verge of a panic-attack, when Malkia thankfully called the soldiers to attention. He stood up with the rest of them and watched as the old nurse turned to drill sergeant. Then Tojo had to quickly cover his ears at the rousing cheer that went up among the army, accompanied by a racous 'CAW' from Tai. Couldn't these people ever be quiet?
 Tojo breathed a sigh of relief when at last the crowd began to disperse and leave him with a personal bubble once again, then he looked around for something to do. He had intended to bring his medical equipment and oversee the combat training to ensure no one got hurt, but he had forgotten right up until Malkia had started speaking, and it was too late for it then wasn't it? He couldn't just get up and interrupt a meeting like that.
 But then Malkia mentioned activities that even medics coud do, and he turned his head over to where the steady stream of smaller and more agile animals were headed. 
 "I think," he said aloud to the bird on his shoulder as he got up. "That I'll try the obstacle course first." 
 "That figures. It'd be kinda pointless for me to do that, so I'll see what else I can do, see ya!" Tai answered abruptly, and took off from his shoulder into the air. Tojo watched him go with a smile, and headed over to the course. 
 The first obstacle to be overcame was a large wooden-log wall that had to be scaled in any possible. Unlike all the other animals and humans who just bounded straight over without a problem, Tojo stopped when he got near it and began to look over it. 
 'Hmm...Weak-looking log there...failing supports over there...possibility for the logs to come rolling down on everyone if too much weight is put on it...chances of me breaking my leg if I fall from it...Yup, this is a big health and safety issue waiting to happen, I'm going around.' He thought to himself, and began to slink around the side of the logs held up by iron support.
 "Not so fast young man! No cheating!" came an unmistakeably booming voice from behind him, and Tojo winced and slunk back to the front. There was no arguing with an elephant. 
 Looking the wall up and down again once more, he sighed, and attempted to jump for it...but only ended up spread-eagled and face-first straight into the lower logs. Ouch.
 
 Tai watched him with a chuckle for a moment, then flapped over to where Malkia and the little egret were talking. Hearing something about flying percision; an area he considered himself a particular expert in, the eagle swooped over for a closer look.
 The big dark bird landed on one of Malkia tusks, chirping happily up at the elephant then looking down curiously at the fledgling. "Don't worry Malkia! You go tussle with beef-cake over there, I'll watch this little guy!" he saluted dutifully, then took off and began hovering in one spot. 
 "Going for that lion dummy eh? Well, let's see what you can do then!" he said almost challengingly. It was plain to see that he was patronising the young bird, humouring him a bit before he could really show off to him. Tai was a bit of a narcissist like that.

---

 "Hmph, very well." Malkia gave a rumbling chuckle at the incorrigeable raptor and turned away slowly. "I'll leave you two too it then I suppose!" 
 She began striding towards where Kula was waiting for her, and gave him a small nod as she took up a position opposite him. "Anyone who wants to watch and observe to take mental notes can!" she announced to the surrounding heroes, planning for this to be a demonstration of sorts. She didn't plan to spar for long, she had too many other responsibilities, but it would be nice to let the buffalo test his strength.
 "Now," she lowered her head towards Kula. "I want you to push against me, as hard as you can."

The massive bull gave a bow of his head in return to the nod, dust and dirt escaping his nostrils as he snorted. His long horns lower as he heard the cow speak to the others.

"Anyone who wants to watch and observe to take mental notes can!"

"Sure they can! They can watch as I beat your butt!" It was rare for the bull to fool around. Most of the time he was dead serious, but with a fellow plant-eater, things were very different. A playful side was shown, one that he still had ever since he was just a young calf, trotting along side his mother.

"I want you to push against me, as hard as you can."

"Heh, easy!" Kula snorted, a determined smirk appearing on his muzzle as he tossed his horns left to right, then charges full force at the elephants head. The impact would hardly hurt him, his skull was made for taking hard blows that would normally kill a man.

The black haired boy was a bit late for the training but based on what he was observing, it was sparring time. Though the only other human there was Clopin. The rest was animals. Was he in the right place? Was there another group training elsewhere?

No. That didn't make sense. His confidence wavered a bit, Clopin was a general. The teen pushed the thoughts away. He wouldn't know unless he tried, after all he had been unsure of himself when he trained with Elsa. However with Elsa she had powers. Clopin may have more tricks on his sleeves.

"Hey, Clopin, uh sir." Wilbur gave an awkward salute to the general, remembering to show some respect to the generals. "I don't suppose you would ya know...uh spar with me?"

Ono, in turn, looked to where Malkia had indicated and soon saw the pile of sandbags and sticks. It vaguely looked like a lion, and Ono nodded once to confirm that he saw it. The instructions were simple enough. All he had to do was time himself and see how many pecks he could get in while flying in close to his 'opponent.' It wouldn't be anything like a real fight, but this was training. Training was all the little egret needed. So, Ono's grin broadened a bit and he saluted with one of his wings. This was something he could handle doing. Anything would be better than dealing with trying to fight a lioness or anything else that was bigger than him.

"No problem, ma'am," Ono said. "I can do that!" With that, Ono moved his wing away from where he had positioned it and flapped both wings a couple of times to lift himself back into the air. Once he was in the air, he flew up higher to position himself for the best first assault. Everything seemed to be coming along smoothly enough. When he was up high enough, Ono searched for his target and managed to pinpoint it in a matter of seconds.

"Target in sight."

He squinted a bit and grinned more to himself. Now it all came down to timing himself and seeing how many pecks he could get in. The little egret gave himself a moment to fly up just a little bit higher and, once he was prepared, he dove down toward the training dummy. The closer Ono got, the more prepared he felt for timing himself. Then, he was low enough. It was time to strike, as odd as that sounded. The little bird gave a squawk in an attempt to sound like he was making some sort of battle cry and started to try and peck his opponent.

One... Two... Three...

Three pecks was all Ono could manage before he had to fly back up again. Ono shook his head and flew up once more. Honestly? He was a bit disappointed in himself. He thought that maybe he could get in more pecks than that. No matter, though. This was all about improving himself. The initial swoop downward had taken just a little over a minute, and the number of pecks definitely could be improved. So, Ono decided to try again.

"Not bad for a start!" Ono called as he started to fly back up. "But I think I could do better!"

Malkia smiled at bull's cocky attitude. "Humph, we shall certainly see about that then." She went to the other side of their arena and positioned herself accordingly; one foot stuck out in front of her, head lowered, tusks thrust forward, skull ready to take the force of the impact.

There was a resounding 'CRASH' as the 'boss' of Boma's horns met her ancient skull, and indeed she found herself being pushed back. Her circular feet were making a long dragging trail in the dirt, churning up dust, and at a surprisingly fast pace too. She had not expected Kula to be so powerful, or maybe she had just forgotten what fighting a buffalo was like. She had once been on the wrong of Kula's grandfather Boma's horns, and it was suffice to say that Kula was marginally weaker. Though maybe that was because he was only playing, and his Grandfather had been serious.

"Very good!" she called over the sounds of the scuffle. "Now, I'm going to push back. Brace yourself!" she called. If Boma had thought this was going to be easy, he was in for a surprise. Digging her heels in, she began pushing back against the centre of his horns; at a slow, steady, walking-pace, not quite a full charge. She would get to that.

---

 Tojo's eagle was flapping lazily in the air as he watched Ono salute Malkia and begin to train. This ought to be a laugh.

 

 Tai held back a condescending yawn as he watched the insect-pecker climb into the air. Where on earth was he going? That was way too high! Even with the martial eagle's eagle-eyesight, Ono was soon nothing more than a dot. Well, maybe he had had second thoughts and was now flying away.

 "Hah! What's he doing?" the burly eagle said to himself cockily as he flapped. "There's no way he can see from all the way up...AWK!" His monologue was cut off abruptly as he flapped out of the way to avoid the egret falling like an arrow from the sky. That couldn't be the same measly bird from a second ago? Could it?  He was so impressed, he forgot to laugh at Ono's awkward little battle-squawk.

 He blinked and frowned a little as Ono flew back up to join him. Instead of praising him, Tai wanted to test himself against the egret. Immediately he dropped like a stone from the sky and flew towards the lion. "KEEEEEE!" the signature bird-of-prey screech rent out as he dove towards the "bootleg-lion". Though, he found, he was no-where near as fast Ono.

  He extended his yellow feet, and swiped once, twice,....and then nothing. His right talon grasped only air. He gave a frustrated mumbled and circled back up to Ono. True, Tai was bigger, but Ono had still beaten him.

 "Impressive, little guy." he panted, out of breath. "But I noticed you're flying at a bit of angle. Have you tried a straight drop? That really helps you build up speed, and you have the momentum behind that dive to power your first peck. And maybe start from a little lower down? I mean, there's no way you could see that clearly from all the way up there right?" he laughed. As an eagle, he was immensely proud of his eyesight, but even he would have lost the sculpture from up there. "...Right?" he added, more hesitantly.

 Tojo meanwhile, had given up on the obstacle course all together. If he couldn't scale the first wall then he wasn't exactly going to do good with the rest of it. He strode over to the fighting arena to watch his companion teach the other bird (though as he found, who was teaching who was an interesting subject). But not wanting to feel useless, he did some push-ups to pass the time. He was out of breath by four.