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Post by Alma on Oct 20, 2020 23:26:53 GMT -6
She perched on top of the cooler to watch the little beast as it fully woke, the plastic lid settling beneath her weight but holding it as she stared down at the chelucauda like a misshapen bird. Patience was easier to come by in the illusion of safety that the cooler provided, with no part of her body touching the soiled earth of the mansion. That she crouched upon something that felt much less real, the plastic of the soft-skins like nothing that she had ever encountered in her homeland, only served to solidify her fragile safety. Yes, it felt wrong, the false ground both fragile yet solid, but the dirt beyond claimed to her senses to be exactly the same as dirt anywhere. A lie that her mind easily picked up on.
She watched the little chelcauda’s sides stop heaving quite so clearly as it began to stand, no trace of wobbliness now that its breathing had returned to normal. 77
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Post by Alma on Oct 20, 2020 23:27:33 GMT -6
The young chelcauda stood still for a few breaths, the loose length of rope ignored as it looked upon Haix. With a chirp that Haix sincerely hoped would grow into something more intimidating as the beast itself grew, Coin launched itself at Haix with all of its normal, stubby legged grace. The rope and stone allowed her to nearly reach Haix and the cooler, Haix half-rising from her crouch as the rope snapped taut. The stone tooth held against the hatchling, stubbornly continuing to point straight into the shadow of the night sky as the chelcauda kicked up small piles of soft dirt as it struggled against the rope.
Watching the chelcauda gradually give up its assault was mildly disappointing, and Haix slipped off of the cooler as it finally stepped back. No second assault came as her feet touched dirt, the hatchling instead pacing side to side at the most comfortable nearness to Haix and the cooler it could achieve without being strangled, switching directions repeatedly as if that would somehow cause the rope to stretch farther. 78
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Post by Alma on Oct 20, 2020 23:28:24 GMT -6
With the beast somewhat calm, Haix retrieved the small list she had scratched onto a thin scrap of paper. She had, perhaps foolishly, sought some form of entertainment that was less demeaning than directly performing for the soft-skins at the pit and hall, and the little guild that claimed to give out prizes for those who trained their beasts whatever tricks the head soft-skin wanted to see seemed like a decent one. Earning rewards for training her own beasts sat well with her, or else she never would have brought Coin to the mansion to learn.
The first on the list was the beast's name. Unfortunate, as named beasts seemed harder to sell at later points, their prospective new owners disliked the idea of something linking the beast or slave to their previous masters. Still, Coin’s hide would likely be worth more than the beast itself if it ever came to that.
So she opened the cooler to extract a few waxy-chunks of fish flesh from between the ice, and called out “Coin!” [Coin name start.] 79
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Post by Alma on Oct 20, 2020 23:29:02 GMT -6
She had wondered about naming it in her own tongue, but it took no great leap of logic to realize the soft-skins would mangle anything not in common. And if the chelcauda proved to be more than a quick lesson in anatomy and a fine cloak, they might need to say Coin’s name. That, and with the soft-skin guild head, she doubted the silly thing would be able to restrain itself from trying to call the little beast.
Coin, on the other hand, had not one moment of thought when the reek of fish reached her nostrils. She threw herself at Haix and kicked her front legs in the air as the noose held her back. Haix watched for a few seconds, waiting for the tubby beast to set its forelegs back on the ground before tossing the fish to Coin. It never even reached the ground, disappearing with a click of jaws as it was swallowed whole. 80
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Post by Alma on Oct 20, 2020 23:29:51 GMT -6
A few more calls of the name, matched with a few more treats thrown, showed a problem Haix had not considered when withholding the young chelcauda’s breakfast that day. It never looked away from her. It’s eyes followed her when it’s legs lost the match against the rope, never looking away from Haix nor the rapidly dwindling supply of tiny fish cubes she continued to throw to the beast after calling its name.
The final treat was thrown after Haix had waited several minutes, the chelcauda never daring to look away even when Haix gave in and gave the call and the treat shortly after. She went back to the cooler , flipping the lid open to grab another handful of meat before pausing, then looking back at the chelcauda. There was one time the beast looked away from her, or else it never could have caught the fish sailing through the air. As proud as Haix might have been of her skills, her aim was not that good. 81
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Post by Alma on Oct 20, 2020 23:30:46 GMT -6
Reaching inside of the cooler, she withdrew a fish. Not a cube of meat as she had rewarded the chelcauda with, but a whole, if a bit small, fish. Haix waved it in the air, fingers pinching its stiff tail, and the chelcauda lunged for the fish as it had done many times already. Haix waited for Coin to have calmed down enough that it no longer gasped and wheezed on the end of the rope. As Coin watched, Haix slowly lowered the fish to the ground, laying it to rest just short of the little piles of dirt that curved around Coin and the stone.
Leaving Coin to strangle itself as it snapped and chirped pleadingly at the fish, Haix shut the cooler and walked a short distance around the upraised dirt. Coin ignored her first few commands, the tone and the fish cubes she held nowhere near as enticing as the whole fish laying inches away from Coin’s snapping jaws. 82
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Post by Alma on Oct 20, 2020 23:31:37 GMT -6
So, with a sigh and a deep inhalation, Haix shrieked the chelcauda’s ‘name’ as if it were a warcry, demanding that “CAWN!” turn to face her. To her surprise, the young chelcauda did just that, but failed to charge as it had done the previous times treats had been available. It just stared, it’s tail rattling softly as Haix called out praise, then tossed the fish cube to the dirt in front of Coin.
It did not look away from Haix at first, even as the later repressed her annoyance as she made cooing sounds of praise. Slowly, the tail stilled, and the chelcuada sniffed the air. The treat was gone a heartbeat later, but it was several long minutes before Coin dared to so much as glance back at the fish laying in the dirt behind it. It was a few more before the young chelcauda turned its back to Haix completely, resuming its attempt to reach the fish. 83
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Post by Alma on Oct 20, 2020 23:32:02 GMT -6
She called out to Coin again, softly at first and was thoroughly ignored. Then again, this time it’s name clear and loud enough to invite some demon of the house to appear if it had not already been frightened off by her earlier cry. The chelcauda spun around to face Haix, and was greeted with more praise and a treat smacking it squarely in the snout before its tail could so much as twitch.
The meat hung there for a second, then slid to the dirt below, leaving Haix unsure which of them was more confused. Then the fish was eaten, and Haix wondered if there would be any ill effects felt by the chelcauda for eating dirt from the mansion. Or if it would somehow be insulting enough for the mansion to act against them anyways.
She took a step back from the chelcauda just in case, and Coin resumed her fish-snatching efforts. 84
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Post by Alma on Oct 20, 2020 23:32:38 GMT -6
If the mansion had been annoyed by the mouthfuls of dirt the chelcauda had eaten, it gave no sign. The training instead soon slipped into the usual for such things, with Haix slowly dropping the volume of the command from battle cry to a near whisper. There were a few times that she had to raise her voice, one particularly memorable time when the chelcaude was sticking its tongue out as if it could lick to fish closer, only to turn around and stare at Haix with its tongue lolling out one side as if it were a vulticus.
By the end, it turned when Haix spoke to it, so long as what she said was audible. Not necessarily the name, just that it was audible. All it took was one quick cough from Haix to send it spinning around on its toes to face her with its mouth gaping like a baby birds, revealing the new hitch in her training. 85
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Post by Alma on Oct 20, 2020 23:33:19 GMT -6
Maybe the mansion dirt made it stupider. She doubted the labs-crafted beast would have much in the way of resisting another cursed piece of soft-skin technology.
Releasing a groan that was as much to convince the mansion that it had tormented her enough as it was a release of her actual annoyance, Haix grabbed more cubes of fish meat and repeated the training of before. All tones, all volumes except the heart-rattling cry of the first time, but now she threw in random words. Coin was rewarded only when she responded to the right one, words like loin earning it only a view of Haix’s back. Slowly, as slowly as Haix thought blood might run in the winter, the chelcauda stopped turning to face her at random words or sounds, the training made more mind numbingly long by its tendency to watch her for a little while after a successful treat rather than return to the fish immediately. But it seemed to have learned the command, and the chill wind of the mansion did not seem to be causing the fish to rot any quicker. [Name done?] 86
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Post by Alma on Oct 20, 2020 23:34:02 GMT -6
She had not decided on which of the next three commands to teach yet, all of them equally uninteresting. Well then, let the mansion continue to suffer training that was nothing more than silly tricks meant to show her mastery over the beast. There was only one of the commands that she was mildly worried the beast might pick up on before it could be trained, ruining the idea of it only doing so with a simple word.
The only problem was that it could end up being painful. The teeth of the chelcauda, for how little they were used when it gulped every treat down whole, looked sharp enough to saw through her scales. Well, she would just have to be faster than the stubby-legged infant that sought to strangle itself rather than gnaw through the rope.
She walked back to the fish, crouching down to pick it up and wave it, dirt and all, just out of reach of the chelcauda. [Coin no start.] 87
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Post by Alma on Oct 20, 2020 23:34:53 GMT -6
When it lunged, rather than falling back on her tail and kicking it away as her instincts told her to do, she flicked its snout and told it “no”. It took a step back, shaking its head as if it understood the negative command, then lunged at her yet again. This time, it tried for the fish’s head, kicking itself forward on nearly its belly to maximize its reach. It's snout came up an inch short as its legs dug furrows in the dirt, and Haix told it the new command again, the flick on the nose following the end of the short word.
Coin pulled its head back, shaking it again, but did not retreat as it had done the first time, leaving its body still straining against the rope. Then it ducked its head forward, only for a repeat of the command and another, harder flick that convinced it to slide back. 88
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Post by Alma on Oct 20, 2020 23:35:41 GMT -6
Sending the small creature reeling back time after time lost its charm quickly. Coin refused to retreat from the fish on command, refused to stop its snapping jaws with only the word. The flick always followed, the warning of the command never heeded, and Haix took a break to stretch her legs and circle the leashed chelcauda as she tried to see if any of the mansion’s unnatural denizens had wandered near, or if the heaps of rumored treasure had dug its way out of the earth to be collected by her. When she saw nothing at all out of the ordinary, just the wall of blackness as solid as any stone construction a few feet beyond her little training ground and the moonlit mansion that squatted on the other side, she crouched next to the beast again to resume the cycle of ignored command and painful flick, trying to keep her tone neutral as the beast continued to stubbornly ignore her words. 89
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Post by Alma on Oct 20, 2020 23:36:21 GMT -6
When the beast continued to display the intelligence of the dirt and dead fish combined, Haix let her tone slip into hisses and snarls, the word barely recognizable the first time the beast shied away. Her teeth had been bared as if she had intended to take a bite of the chelcauda as it wanted to do to the fish, her free hand already reaching upwards to hit the chelcauda a bit harder than the previous flicks, but Coin recoiled from the snarl as if her intention to strike the young beast had already hit it.
Surprised, she almost forgot to praise Coin, doing so a good few seconds after the initial reaction, accompanying said praise with a cube of fish. The next few repeats went smoother, Haix tossing the treats to the chelcauda when it halted its assault on the fish at just an angry word, and flicking it the few times it failed. 90
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Post by Alma on Oct 20, 2020 23:37:02 GMT -6
With a slowness that, in her opinion, only was matched by that of the chelcauda’s thoughts, she dragged her tone back to that of a conversational level, peppering it with random words and sounds that should have had no meaning to the chelcauda. A few times she even called its name and watched it freeze, gaze lifting from the fish to stare at her. Those times were rewarded as well.
Then she took to laying out multiple treats, all just out of the chelcauda’s reach, a fact it never puzzled out as any charge was met with a “no”. Soon the beast sat sullenly between a selection of fish bits that it had been commanded not to touch, and Haix, with words of praise that she thought only meant less to the beast than her, threw the fish to the chelcauda. It bit the fish in half, then swallowed the two pieces without any further chewing, looking at Haix a moment later with what she thought was higher spirits. 91 [No end?]
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