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Post by Fiera Ferella on Aug 12, 2020 10:43:51 GMT -6
“Okay Ophelia!” She called from the top of the rock. “Get ready! And… wave!” She said, bringing her arm down sharply. The amphadron took a deep breath, pushed her arms forward toward the water, and then brought them in sharply. As if waiting for her cue, the water rushed up around her, surging along the shore, sweeping away anything in its path (or just coating it in mud). Fiera held her breath as it crept several feet up the rock on either side of her, yanking anything that wasn’t nailed down back into the water. The force alone would be enough to cause a ton of damage, and Fiera found herself very glad she wasn’t in this one. She looked up as it rushed back into the lake, and shouted out some praise for Ophelia, but she had the feeling her amphadron didn’t need it. Her success today gave her pride enough.
Fiera 10
Ophelia 21.0/21.0
Wave of Muck 10
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Post by Fiera Ferella on Aug 14, 2020 10:03:05 GMT -6
Another day, another training session. Ophelia had done remarkable well at the training gym, and even though it had been exhausting work, the pair of them seemed a lot more well rested and light hearted than before. Perhaps it was because Ophelia was now more physically nimble as well, making little hops and jumps and more acurate strikes ever since they had trained in the gym. Fiera had tried to increase her dexterity, and it seemed to have paid off, with Ophelia now ducking and diving at any given opportunity. It was honestly a little silly to watch her “practicing” like this, dodging and weaving at any opportunity, and Fiera always made sure to look away and pretend she wasn’t staring when Ophelia glanced at her. She didn’t want to embarrass the creature after all, and she deserved to feel proud of her accomplishments. After all, all FIera did was toss some balls at her.
Fiera 1
Ophelia 21.1/21.1
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Post by Fiera Ferella on Aug 14, 2020 10:15:44 GMT -6
Now that they were back at the water’s edge though, Ophelia seemed raring to go. The second Fiera dropped her big training bag down on the pebbly beach that stretched for ages up the shore, the amphadron made a straight shot toward the water, diving in and splashing around for a while to get out some of her excess energy. It was a little uncharacteristic for her, all things considered. Ophelia normally had such a blank, flat personality that seeing her act so exciteable or just… active was unusual to Fiera. Now she had to wonder how much of her flatness was due to an actually serious personality, and how much was due to the natural sluggishness of amphadron, which Ophelia had now broken free from now that she knew that those limitations of her species didn’t have to STAY limitations. If she just worked hard, she could be as quick as she wanted.
FIera 2
Ophelia 21.2/21.2
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Post by Fiera Ferella on Aug 14, 2020 10:16:14 GMT -6
Well, maybe not THAT quick. Fiera knew that they would still have plenty of problems with naturally faster species in the upcoming power level four tournament, especially mosca. The humanish knew that her amphadron could never beat a mosca on its own four feet, but hopefully Ophelia would be able to hold her own against some of the less “gifted with speed” species, such as baakir or equillion. However, she also still had a lot of regular training to do. If Ophelia couldn’t outrun her opponents, she would need to learn how to withstand their attacks and block them as much as possible, which was going to be the focus of their training today. Fiera had a whole list of tricks all ready to go for it. With any luck, Ophelia would be just as receptive to those tricks as she had been for earlier training and their gym session the previous day.
Fiera 3
Ophelia 21.3/21.3
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Post by Fiera Ferella on Aug 14, 2020 10:16:27 GMT -6
She also made sure to bring plenty of treats with her, and enough equipment for all of the tricks she needed to train. The last thing Fiera needed was to run out of supplies halfway through their training session and have to delay it even longer. After all, the tournament was coming up fast, and Fiera wasn’t even halfway done with what she wanted to train Ophelia. Perhaps it was a poor decision to take her to the gym, and yet couldn’t really find it in her to regret it. Everything that could prep her pet for her future fights she could take, and they were already done with the gym training right now anyway. She had intended to teach Ophelia more obedience training tricks too, but they had run out of time for those as well. Luckily, Ophelia was smart enough to know her manners on her own, so that should’t be an issue.
Fiera 4
Ophelia 21.4/21.4
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Post by Fiera Ferella on Aug 14, 2020 10:16:52 GMT -6
Finally, Fiera figured she had enough of her stuff together and ready to be able to consider herself “ready to go” for their training session today. She had all her equipment out, she felt spry and happy, Ophelia seemed to have settled in (or at least, she was currently busy basking on the pebbly shore, staring at Fiera and waiting for her to try something), and she didn’t feel there was anything else that needed to be done. “You ready, Ophelia?” She said chirpily. The amphadron gave a few short clicks in reply, not wanting to dignify Fiera with a more intricate response. “Excellent!” Fiera said, giving a single clap and ignoring her pet’s silence. It was time to get stuck into it, and begin their training. The weather was clear, the sun was shining, and the water was still. Hopefully, it would go just as smoothly as before.
Fiera 5
Ophelia 22.0/22.0
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Post by Fiera Ferella on Aug 15, 2020 1:08:29 GMT -6
Fiera scanned her list of things to train. The very first thing on the roster? Hardy. She hummed thoughtfully, considering her options for that. Hardiness usually implied strength of body, mind, and spirit… well, Ophelia certainly had the ‘mind’ part down, that was for sure. And she had worked the amphadron’s body hard enough during their gym training, so she must have been feeling pretty hearty in that aspect so far. That only left the spirit, keeping her from being intimidated by larger and scarier opponents. She would definitely need that, if Fiera’s previous tournaments were any indicator. She was always coming across creatures far larger than her own, and even just the roaring of the crowd was enough to cow smaller creatures into submission, let alone whatever they were supposed to be up against. So she would have to get used to scary things and intimidating beasts. Well, that could definitely be arranged.
Fiera 6
Ophelia 22.1/22.1
Hardy 1
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Post by Fiera Ferella on Aug 15, 2020 1:08:42 GMT -6
Thankfully, Fiera had a few tricks up her sleeve for this. She definitely had some scary creatures- she was thinking of going back to get Algol for this, her sarane drake. He was a massive tier three brown and could scare the pants off of Fiera on a good day. Despite his apparent ferocity however, Algol was one of Fiera’s best trained pets and she knew that while he would snarl and spit on command, he wouldn’t actually hurt a fly without Fiera’s strict permission. You couldn’t keep a sarane drake in this city without that level of obedience training, after all. So Ophelia would have an excellent partner to “fear spar” with, though Fiera didn’t want to bring him in to trian with her until later. After all, she wanted to start small with building Ophelia’s hardiness and work her way up to the full “faced with a sarane” level of fear and intimidation.
Fiera 7
Ophelia 22.2/22.2
Hardy 2
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Post by Fiera Ferella on Aug 15, 2020 1:08:58 GMT -6
Not to mention she had plenty of cherries to use as treats. With any luck she could keep Ophelia calm with those, though there was always a good chance that the amphadron would find them patronizing rather than comforting- she was a little stuck up like that. Still, Fiera had to try. On top of that, Fiera had a couple of other fancy “tools” to teach the ability with- such as a particularly scary mask she had gotten from vai min mur one year and a speaker through which she could play loud, scary sounds at full blast. Fiera had a whole playlist of recordings of roars from various creatures far more fearsome than Ophelia. For many of her pets, those recordings and the mask were enough, but Ophelia was probably too large and too clever for those to work for long on. Fiera would need to upgrade soon enough.
Fiera 8
Ophelia 22.3/22.3
Hardy 3
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Post by Fiera Ferella on Aug 15, 2020 1:09:13 GMT -6
Still, the humanish had to start somewhere. While Ophelia was distracted by having a swim in the lake (with Fiera keeping an eye peeled for her bright green markings so she didn’t get lost), Fiera began setting up the speakers, concealing them behind her bag a bit so Ophelia wouldn’t spot them right away and hooking them up to her WATT so she could play the audio over them. The mask she held behind her back, waiting and ready for when Ophelia came over so she could quickly put it on and (hopefully) spook the living daylights out of her pet. “Oh, Ophelia! Would you like to come here please, dear?” Fiera said, deceptively sweetly, though Ophelia probably knew better than to trust Fiera’s voice by now when she sounded nice. It was usually followed up with some sort of attack after all. Well, today would be no different, Fiera had to admit.
Fiera 9
Ophelia 22.4/22.4
Hardy 4
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Post by Fiera Ferella on Aug 15, 2020 1:10:07 GMT -6
Ophelia crept carefully up the shore toward Fiera, eyeing the humanish with an expected suspicion. Fiera waited as she got closer and closer, not wanting to start it up too soon. Quietly, she leaned down and hit “play” on the recording, letting the initial few seconds of silence run out. Then, as Ophelia came within five feet of her, she pulled the mask on as quickly as possible, letting out a screech of her own as the first roars started emitting from the speaker. Ophelia let out a terrified chatter, the clicking from her throat quickly ramping up into a pitch that Fiera couldn’t even see, and she leapt backward at least three whole feet before crouching down into a defensive stance. It happened so quickly that Fiera could only barely process it all, though once she did she was noticeably pleased that Ophelia’s dexterity training was paying off, at least.
Fiera 10
Ophelia 23.0/23.0
Hardy 5
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Post by Fiera Ferella on Aug 15, 2020 1:10:37 GMT -6
Fiera didn’t let her stay scared for long- after all, she was trying to encourage Ophelia to be able to RESIST intimidating sights, not trying to traumatize the poor beast. She whipped the mask off and leaned down to hit “pause” on the recording. “See Ophelia? It’s just me! It’s fine!” She said, before pulling out a couple cherries and holding them out for Ophelia. She didn’t throw them though- she wanted Ophelia to approach her (the scary thing) of her own free will, resisting her fear to take what she wanted. The amphadron clicked nervously but edged closer before finally snatching the little fruits from Fiera’s hand. Fiera held her hands up in mock appeasement, chuckling slightly. It was interesting to see her usually dour pet display such intense surprise. If anything was going to teach Ophelia “hardy”, it would probably be her sense of shame whipping her into shape.
Fiera 11
Ophelia 23.1/23.1
Hardy 6
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Post by Fiera Ferella on Aug 15, 2020 1:10:58 GMT -6
While Ophelia ate, Fiera got started getting her supplies together again, leaning down with her finger hovering over the WATT. When the amphadron took her time eating however, Fiera decided to give her just a little surprise. She pulled the mask on again and hit “play” on the video, causing the grumbling prelude of a roar to fill the air. Ophelia looked up slightly, already tensing up just before Fiera snuck up next to her. “Boo!” Fiera said, curling her fingers into little claws. The amphadron shuffled back again, hissing, but this time Fiera couldn’t help but notice the response was more one of irritation than shock or fear, and her retreat was a well balanced shuffle instead of her leap of surprise earlier. There was still some shock and surprise, but it was a tactical retreat as opposed to a panicked one now. Fiera nodded with approval- they were getting somewhere.
Fiera 2
Ophelia 23.2/23.2
Hardy 7
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Post by Fiera Ferella on Aug 15, 2020 1:11:15 GMT -6
With that in mind, Fiera tossed Ophelia some more cherries and took the msak off again, giving the amphadron a bit of a break to rest and recuperate. This probably wasn’t one of those tricks to hammer in on a constant basis right now anyway. After all, her goal was to work Ophelia up to not being afraid. Once she was done eating her treat, Fiera got her WATT and mask ready again. The amphadron eyed them suspiciously, and turned to face Fiera as the rumbling started coming from the speakers again before quickly kicking up into a full roar. When that happened, Fiera put the mask on and rushed toward the amphadron, but to her delight the creature held her ground, leaning down as if to headbutt Fiera and letting out a small screech of her own. Fiera skidded to a stop in front of her, laughing instead of roaring. “Great job, Ophelia! Aren’t you a hardy girl!”
Fiera 3
Ophelia 23.3/23.3
Hardy 8
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Post by Fiera Ferella on Aug 15, 2020 1:11:30 GMT -6
Fiera was absolutely delighted by her progress and threw the amphadron a couple of cherries. She tried it a couple more times after that, but it looked like her pet truly wasn’t afraid of her anymore. Good. With that in mind, Fiera took a brief “break”, taking Ophelia back to the kennels while getting out a certain other pet to train with them. Algol sat neatly on the shoreline they had been training on until now, sniffing the air gently as he sat politely with his feet crossed. Ophelia seemed nervous, not wanting to get any closer than fifteen feet of that intimidating sight. Fiera knew she had to get used to him however. “Algol, come here sweetheart!” She called gently, and the exciteable sarane drake immediately hopped up, galumphing over to his owner and her… other companion. Fiera watched Ophelia carefully as he approached, hoping she wouldn’t bolt and make Fiera have to search for her.
Fiera 4
Ophelia 23.4/23.4
Hardy 9
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