The Hybrid

The First Shard

His nose was starting to have a problem finding her as fast as usual. Verloor's sensitive muzzle sniffed out Raven's track. Another game of hide-and-seek, but this time the hyena was being challenged by the purple-haired teen. Suddenly, something moved in the nearby shrub. Verloor grunted in his head. "She needs to learn how to move around more silently," He thought as he quietly moved to the scrub and saw the leotard. "Gotcha!" He said, grabbing the leotard, but finding it was a dummy. A large piece of log, with a round ball having purple-dyed pieces of grass attached to the ball. "What the?" Suddenly he heard something behind him and felt a pair of eyes menacingly piercing through him. "Oh no," he meekly muttered.

Raven jumped out of the bushes and swung a bo-staff right at Verloor's head. "OW!" Verloor exclaimed as Raven continued to whack him with the bo-staff. A month's worth of training had fine-tuned the purple-haired teenager's fighting skills. Already learning Lief and Groot's powers, her training mostly consisted of learning how to use them all accordingly. But she still had much to learn. "OW! OW! OW!" Like when to stop hitting one's trainer. "OK! STOP!"

"Sorry," Raven said, stopping her rampage of whacks. Verloor looked at Raven's new outfit. She wore a dark blue cloth bra and skirt much like Ada's. (The lioness was a seamstress after all). She could move around freely. Verloor grumbled as he rubbed his head.

"I'd say you're getting better," Verloor muttered.

"Yay Rae-Rae," Shouted Verloor's son from the sidelines.

"As my own son has obviously declared," Verloor grumbled as Raven put the stick down. "Now we should work on your powers. Lief, you're up." The lion got up from the small log the others were sitting on, made 20 duplicates of himself ready to fight Raven. "Remember, think like you're an animal. Find opportunities, take them, learn quickly, attack."

"That's a very vague guide," Raven commented. One of the lions rushed her. Raven flipped over him, kicking him on the back and pushing him away. Another came at her, receiving a swift kick to his side and punch to the gut, then to his neck to bring him down. Four ganged up on her. Raven's right fist glowed gray as she struck the ground with it, sending a shockwave through the ground and making the lions tumble. Raven quickly leaped at each one, striking them hard to make them poof away. As she came to the final one, Verloor stopped her.

"That's enough!"

"Yeah, thank you," Lief whimpered, scampering away from the hovering human. Raven was panting hard.

"You did well, but you're letting the moment get to you. Be sure to continuously think while you're fighting," Verloor explained.

"I think she did excellently," boomed Groot. The hyena still saw a flaw with Raven's training. It was just that... training. She needed a real lesson. A real fight. Just then, a shadow from the air flew over them. Everyone looked up to see an eagle touch down in front of them. It had a large satchel across its chest as his winged appendages removed a letter from the satchel and gave it to Lief.

"An emergency from the eastern village. Under siege by Kwaad himself," Lief relayed. "I have to go, Groot will come with me. Verloor?"

"I can't afford Kwaad to think I'm not on his side," Verloor argued.

"What about me?" Raven offered herself.

"Sure."

"What?!"

"She needs actual experience. They won't hold back in a fight," Verloor answered Lief. The lion knew he was right but still rebutted.

"A small village uprising is better than this."

"You have a better option?" Verloor pointed out. Lief groaned.

"I believe that Raven is ready. As ready as we can make her," Uchawi interjected with a smile. The hyena looked seriously at his feline brother. Lief sighed.