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Post by Lethalia on Sept 29, 2021 22:14:50 GMT -6
"Vidarr, move," Lethalia bit out. She could never really be mad at him, but being gentle with her words was never going to get this oaf anywhere. When the massive body before her didn't move an inch, she reached up to run her knuckles over the closest ribs. That finally got a flinch out of him, barrel sucked up and away from the 'assault'. It might've gotten him to glowering, so at least he was acknowleding her more - but he was still smack-dab in the way. "Okay, now move more," she repeated, flat of her hand on the huge drake to push him away. The first jab couldn't have hurt him much, but it seemed to have made some kind of impression. The flat of her palm this time was enough to make the drake side-step over, sparking an idea. Moving away from pressure was one of the first set of 'manners' she taught equines - why not the same with sarane? Surely the pseudo-dragons would need to be moved around just the same, with a similar bulk and a lot more sharp instruments at their disposal, it was slightly more pressing with them. And just like the hooved critters, it would be the perfect introduction to steering - moving away pressure naturally made steering a lot more intuitive. Vidarr lv|135.1 ly|91.1 left/right|1
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Post by Lethalia on Sept 29, 2021 22:15:46 GMT -6
A lot of training tactics didn't transfer cleanly from prey to predator, but this ought to work! It was kind of her rhetoric with these more unusual labs' creatures, either treat them like a horse or dog and something might work out eventually. Most creatures didn't like being poked or pulled or pushed, and even something of Vidarr's size was no exception. He was already trained enough - taking the time to make him move away from her command took no time at all, even for an idiot. He looked suspicious when he donned his riding gear for yet another session grounded - his newest gripe that he'd latched onto. "Oh, bitch more, will'ya?" the satyr finally sighed, patting his shoulder once she was done fiddling with the buckles on his breastcollar. |WILL.|"Alrigh' then," it was going to be that kind of day. She could deal with that by now, but it wasn't going to make his normal pleasant disposition any less painful to work with. left/right|2
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Post by Lethalia on Sept 29, 2021 22:17:08 GMT -6
Once Vidarr was prodded back to his feet, Lethalia experimentally poked him in the ribs again - he sucked in and glared at her, shuffling over at the second prod. All things considered, that was pretty good for his usual rate of learning. "Okay so - thats' wha'I'm lookin' for," she informed him, even if his feelings looked like they were still hurt at being prodded around. "If y'feel pressure on this side-" she placed the flat of her hand on his ribs, not an unlikely place she'd be squeezing with her knees when mounted, and he sidled over once more. -y'move away, jus' like that! Good! That's goin' righ'." She jaunted over to his other side to give him a gentle shove to the left and inform him of the direction. Lethalia might not admit to having a good time harassing the oaf, but it was too easy. Since he took so easily to being pushed in a direction, she spent time going from one shoulder to the other just to adjust where he was standing by several feet. left/right|3
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Post by Lethalia on Sept 29, 2021 22:17:21 GMT -6
It was.. not as transferable as she'd hoped, once she hopped into the saddle. Tapping or squeezing with on leg only resulted in a stuttering start-stop as he tried to figure out if she may have been asking for a 'go' or 'faster'. Even trying to give him a hint with the neck rein couldn't do much - they were both well and frustrated in the few minutes of practice before Lethalia gave in and hopped out of the saddle. With a little bit more schooling to remind him of his directional cues ( "When I push y'on this side, y'move left to th'other side, yeah?" |Right!| "Ugh-" she decided he didn't need to know the words, strictly.) Lethalia grabbed up his neck rope. She slid the rope up his neck as she walked up to his head, twirling it into a tighter noose as she went. Vidarr was none too pleased with that one; she never contained him. She'd never been given reason to. left/right|4
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Post by Lethalia on Sept 29, 2021 22:18:48 GMT -6
|Feel that, the fact that I'm pulling you this way?| she asked him smartly, because how could he not. Vidarr's tiny ears twitched and he strained against the rope bowing his neck over to his left where she dragged him, clearly metering his strength so he didn't just yank her off the ground. That might be a trick for another day. When it became clear she wouldn't relent without an answer, Vidarr grunted a |Yes,| strained even mentally. "Okay - the rope is pushin' ya from th'other side," she explained, reaching beneath his neck to pat where the rope indented his scales. "If y'bein pushed here, y'gonna move t'me..." The additional aid might've gotten something to click in his little brain, because he stopped resisting against the rope and instead moved along with the direction she pulled him in and was rewarded with immediate release of the pressure. Vidarr lv|136 ly|92 left/right|5
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Post by Lethalia on Sept 29, 2021 22:20:01 GMT -6
"Good!" Leth chimed; he always hated when she had that tone of voice. Usually that meant things were going her way, which meant it wasn't going his. How annoying, to a drake who was lord of his lands (in his own mind if nothing more; it was best to let drakes have those ideas so that they might stand a better guard) only for his lording to be disrupted by this infuriating woman. She was just a humanoid who tended to get in the way and make him do things he didn't like, and yet. Somehow she was just as endearing to him as his daughters or favorite hens - and Leth wasn't even the right kind of hen! The satyr ought to be grateful for that love (and if not love, then some incredible tolerance for her) for it was all that kept her from the inside of a massive maw when she pulled on the rope again. A lip curled in half-hearted snarl and Vidarr's rolling growl let loose, but she didn't appear all that worried over his sass. left/right|6
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Post by Lethalia on Sept 29, 2021 22:20:20 GMT -6
In spite of the grumbling he gave her, Lethalia was delighted that his neck bent easily towards her as the rope was pulled over to the left again. It was Vidarr's genuine reaction to avoid being jerked around, but if it got her close to the outcome she was looking for, something would going in the right direction. (Ha.) That was the trick with Vidarr, providing him with ample pieces of the puzzle to put together... and often times had to put together some tricky parts of the picture for him. Still, he was doing better at this particular trick from the ground with being dragged around by the neck. Letting him sleep on it meant she had to run him through all of his paces again the next day - but she did manage to get in the saddle and get several circles in both directions. Enough to deem it a win, assuming anything 'stuck' with the drake whatsoever. left/right|7
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Post by Lethalia on Sept 29, 2021 22:21:07 GMT -6
Well... Vidarr had the basics, and that was all she could really do for him. He ought to have all of the pieces he needed to figure this one out. Was this practice for dealing with even bigger, dumber, stubborn creatures? There was no reason they needed to beat their heads together for any more of the day than they already had. No, that was because Lethalia was going to just go about life from now on acting like the drake understood what she was asking of him. Sure, maybe it was a cruel play on his nature. There were so many things that worked with this drake, and trying to talk through everything they just learned was going to scramble his brain trying to keep it all straight. The next time she went out flying and gave his lead a good pull to the side, he looked at her like she was half mad. |Left - that way, remember?| she asked as if he would've known that already, leaning harder in the saddle off to that side. |Thought you got it yesterday, Vidarr. Should we be practicing more instead?| |No!!| bridle knowledge|1
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Post by Lethalia on Sept 29, 2021 22:21:20 GMT -6
Like magic, he veered off to the left. Lethalia laughed joyously, glad she didn't have any particular destination in mind for his direction to really matter. |Maybe a bit smoother next time, you're a better flier than that!| He didn't need to tell her 'damn right,' she's heard it straight from Vidarr more than once. |Pick up the pace, Vidarr! You're lagging today,| she pointed out, almost causally accompanied by the squeezing of his sides. Vidarr grunted with effort to pump his wings a bit harder, not quite able to catch onto her obvious ploy. The push and pull and poking at the drake didn't stand out much from their normal, certainly not enough for Vidarr to catch onto the fact that he was still practicing these things with her. It was just - an added element to their daily, blending in seamlessly. If it wasn't this, she'd be finding something else to hassle him over just for their shared entertainment. After all, he was most easily trained when he didn't even realize it was happening. Somewhere along the line, he began to understand the (rather clear and different) cues for 'stopping' and 'going'. bridle knowledge|2
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Post by Lethalia on Sept 29, 2021 22:21:47 GMT -6
Lethalia had grown so used to fighting Vidarr on directions and then learning them over the months, it was just another day when she realized he'd become adept at it. Vidarr was half asleep as she guided his trajectory with hardly a light hand on his neck rein, or a tap of her heel if he really needed to wake up. He must've trusted her enough that she wouldn't be pointing them into a tree or labs' 'radio' tower, allowing her to guide them home while she caught a glimpses of the great drake's eyes drifting closed from time to time. An itching in her fingertips bid them to curl around the rein, suddenly recognizing the sheer potential she grasped. There was no question that the drake would fly to whatever horizon she pointed him at. She didn't have to take it, but an option out was comfort to the wander's mind. The city didn't have her in it's grasp, like so many had warned her. She very well could] leave - though now the thought came with a pain of something in her chest upon conceptualizing leaving her farm behind. How strange, being attached to a place. Someday, she told her restless being; for right now, this was enough. Vidarr lv|137 ly|93 bridle knowledge|3 riding training end
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Post by Lethalia on Mar 12, 2022 10:06:00 GMT -6
"Y'big enough," Lethalia remarked, to a side-eye from her drake. What was she going to get into this time? "Ever carry y'food away?"Though he seemed hesitant to answer - likely for fear of what the answer would entail - he eventually confirmed |Yes...| His tone was enough to supply the feeling of of fucking course I do when he lacked the words to mock the question in full. "Show me!" She pointed to the field of livestock she'd brought her drake over to, especially well-stocked right now as she'd gotten distracted with Vidarr's training and wasn't processing creatures brought in as quickly as she normally might. He could pretty easily help with that issue. "Bring me somethin', still kickin'." Guilt weight at her for the request; she didn't make any habits out of torturing the fodder creatures, especially since a slow turnover could sour the meat. Let alone, it was all too easy to picture her own hooves being lifted off the ground by some huge predator. Doubtless the sarane dispatched their meals in a much less tidy manner than she did. Vidarr lv|141.1 ly|93.1 snatch|1
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Post by Lethalia on Mar 12, 2022 10:06:17 GMT -6
Vidarr looked at her like she might be joking (which she'd lessened doing, since jokes tended to go over his head,) but another prompting of "Go'n grab one," extended his wings without another thought. That was a challenge if he'd ever heard one! Lethalia had thought he'd go for one of the galabex does - plentiful, thin, and easy to wrap one's claws tidily around if they were Vidarr's size, lacking the wicked spines of bwee. But no, he made a beeline for the murp paddock instead, rife with his favored robust prey. Well - he made his choice. Now to see if he could follow through. He had not chosen an easier target. Descending on the flock who had already begun to scatter at the sight of a predator, Vidarr honed in on the one that had hesitated enough to single it out from the herd. It lowed at him and squared up against the drake, left with the fight now that there was no means of escape back to the safety of the herd. snatch|2
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Post by Lethalia on Mar 12, 2022 10:06:54 GMT -6
Having to backwing in order to descend low enough put Vidarr in an awkward spot. It wasn't his most controlled flying position, trying to hover above a moving target. Was this woman sure he couldn't just batter the beast with his entire body weight? It was a lot easier hauling off dead weight rather than meat that still fought back. He bobbled in the air and missed his first claw-swipe - if only those horns hadn't been moving!! Vidarr snarled his ire, the titter behind his back only cementing it on his face. "C'mon, Vidarr! Lil' cow givin' ya trouble?" Leth ribbed while perching herself on the fence nearby to watch. There were few times she was directly under the flying drake - being yards away from him while his wingtips skimmed the dirt was a little more than merely unsettling. No doubt he heard her, but he was a bit preoccupied at the moment. snatch|3 hover|1
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Post by Lethalia on Mar 12, 2022 10:07:09 GMT -6
A vicious upwards swipe of the murp's horns didn't do as much as it would have liked to deter it's attacker, but it did upset the drake's already precarious balance while attempting to hover so close to the ground. Though his wings thundered with the effort it took to keep wind within their sails, Vidarr had flinched away a bit too far and his hind claws hit the dirt. Too far gone to recover his hovering now, his weight came to rest on his back claws and that huge wingspan folded against his back. A neat landing that he managed to make appear much more intentional than it really was. Front claws curling against his chest in a towering rear, Vidarr roared his frustration at the simple creature who couldn't help but freeze in place. His fronts hit the ground and the bull staggered further away, brains too scrambled to make a clean getaway back to the herd yet. "Enough, Vidarr. Let 'im go." snatch|4 hover|2
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Post by Lethalia on Mar 12, 2022 10:07:28 GMT -6
Vidarr rumbled, turning to look at the woman and doing a double-take back to the murp which fled the moment it wasn't pinned under his gaze. Damnit. "Gotta' be flyin' fo what I'm lookin' fo," she told him, pointing to the cowering herd his quarry returned to, "try again. Go'n snatch 'nother one." Not without an amount of bitching did the drake take to the skies again, left to wonder the purpose of being able to pick one of these things up the hard way. What was the point? Knocked out sacks of meat were quite more agreeable to the whole process. The flock had pressed close after the drake's first pass, huddled against a fence for it's protection while they bowed their heads and kicked up clods of dirt, ever mindful at the drake considering them at a distance. In the middle of their ranks, the escapee caught it's breath behind the horns of it's fellows. They were expecting an assault the second time around, eyeing the drake and hunkering down. Vidarr lv|142 ly|94 snatch|5
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