"Therians are by nature highly physical people, something that had at times caught outsiders unfamiliar to them by surprise. What looked to outsiders like a serious brawl are most of the time nothing more than what therians considered playing. This habit is prevalent even in children of young ages, often as soon as they learn to walk properly." - Al-Sadr Barsinus, known as one of the fathers of sociology, circa VA 21.

Imperial Palace, Sabaya

Central Elmaiya

Third Elmaiya Empire

5th day, 1st week, 3rd month, year 95 VA.

"Come on, sister-in-law, let's do something more exciting while the old coots do the negotiating," said Zoya with a grin as she walked the halls of the palace, with Aideen and Artair beside her. "You too, little bro! It's been ages since we had some exercise together!"

That morning, shortly after they had a sumptuous breakfast, most of the delegation from Ptolodecca had been ushered to a room where they sat down with the imperial ministers and the emperor himself, to further negotiate the dealings between the two countries.

Aideen and Artair were technically part of the delegation, but they were not saddled with the responsibility of negotiations and the like, and the Bone Lord merely tasked them to just see the current empire with their own eyes and report back. Naturally, they planned to visit Artair's family while they did so.

Mimia and Éirynn, by their status as direct disciples of the Bone Lord, were stuck with the negotiations as witnesses from the Ptolodeccan side. Artair's father Illyvich was similarly part of the talks, and thus it was Zoya who was assigned to accompany Aideen and Artair instead.

Altair's older sister was tall much like him, easily a head taller than Aideen, with the main difference being that she lacked a mane like those he and his father sported. Her outgrown fangs were also smaller, as her mother was a pureblooded lion therian. She also shared their father's tawny fur tone.

Zoya brought them to the side of the palace. Where the front of the palace had a large courtyard fashioned into a lush forest, the sides of the palace held the barracks where the imperial guards were housed, as well as their training grounds.

Even as they approached the courtyard used as a training ground by the imperial guards, Aideen could hear cheers and wild roars from within, as well as sounds made when flesh struck against flesh. Clearly someone was fighting inside.

True enough, once they stepped into the training grounds they saw a circle of soldiers around where the fighting took place. Zoya easily got them through the circle so they could see the fight, and to Aideen's surprise, the ones fighting in the circle weren't other rank and file guardsmen, but their officers instead.

It was clearly a friendly fight though, as the two men - or maybe women, Aideen still couldn't tell that well with most therians - used wooden practice weapons, and even the sabertooth therian hit the other therian who resembled a hippopotamus with a closed fist, rather than with deadly claws.

A few more minutes passed before the fight finally wound down. The hippo therian finally managed to push their opponent's weapon away, and they made use of their superior bulk to wrestle the other therian to the ground. The sabertooth therian yielded the fight soon after.

"Is that normal?" Aideen asked with a raised eyebrow. She had participated in several wars, and knew how soldiers get. Even so, usually it was the soldiers who fought and the officers who broke it up, not the soldiers who cheered while the officers fought.

"That's just regular sparring for us, pretty much," replied Zoya with a nonchalant shrug. "Us therians tended to be a more physical people than humans. What might look like a fight to you is usually just play for us. Generally, unless you see the claws come out, it's not a real fight."

"I see," replied Aideen as she nodded. The two combatants from earlier had helped each other up, and they had saluted Zoya, as she apparently had some status to her. Zoya had simply greeted the soldiers, and headed to an open area. There was a rack filled with all sorts of wooden practice weapons by the side.

"C'mon, little brother. Haven't had a chance to practice with you for a long while now!" Zoya said to Artair as she picked up a wooden practice axe and a kite shield from the rack. That got a raised eyebrow from Aideen. She had been with Artair for five years now and didn't know that he learned how to fight.

"Never told you because I suck at it, to be honest," he said with the expression she recognized as a blush of embarrassment when she asked, as he took a practice mace and a similar shield - the grips differently shaped to accommodate various kinds of therian hands - from the racks.

Aideen stood by the side, together with the crowd of soldiers who gathered to watch the spar between the siblings. She knew that Artair kept in shape, and that he had a lot of power in his large frame, as he loomed over his grinning sister.

Even so, from the way Zoya deftly handled the axe in her hand, Aideen could tell that she was very well trained, with quite a bit of fighting experience to back her training to boot. Artair was less assured in his movements, she judged that he had solid basics, but far less experience.

Once they clashed her judgement was proven to be correct, as Zoya skillfully deflected Artair's blows, his greater strength neutralized by the clever angles she took his blows on, and her own strikes were far trickier, as she exploited blind angles to his defenses and quickly put him on the back foot.

Less than five minutes later Artair yielded when his sister managed to strike his mace out of his hand and rested the blade of her wooden axe by his throat. Even from where she stood, Aideen could hear Zoya disappointedly complain that Artair hadn't kept up with his training while he was away.

"Mind if I take the next bout instead?" Aideen cut in before the siblings could restart their bout. She had walked towards the rack of weapons and grabbed a staff around the same length as the one she used, if far lighter since it was made of wood.

Zoya gave Artair a questioning glance, and this time it was Artair who had a hard time as he forced himself not to grin as he stoically nodded and stood aside, by the gathered soldiers.

For her own part, Aideen simply exchanged a smirk with him as he passed by, and twirled the staff in her hands lightly as she beckoned for Zoya to come at her.