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Post by Silver on May 24, 2020 6:21:26 GMT -6
"You'll need to be on your toes for this one," Silver said. They dropped their bag on the ground and started going through it. There must be something in there to help them along. There were tons of treats, some random magical trinkets, loose change, but no... balls.
"Well then, I guess I'm the one that needs to be on their toes," they said with a laugh at themselves. "That's okay, we'll just grab something from the park. There has to be a suitable stick around here somewhere."
While Silver was looking around for training tools, Victor was hopping around in the grass. He loved this place! He had nothing but good memories of treats and petting here. The learning was secondary to the amount of attention he got. It wasn't even that hard and he got so much love and good food for it! He was really excited to get started again, so long as there were treats involved.
[105.45, 5.6]
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Post by Silver on May 24, 2020 6:25:26 GMT -6
"Ah, there it is," Silver said to no one in particular. Victor had wandered too far away to even hear what they were saying. They yanked a dry looking branch off of a nearby tree. "Thanks for that," they said to the tree. The dry and dead branch being removed was probably a relief for the tree, if trees could even feel such a thing.
They snapped the stray bits off the twig until it was at a good throwing shape. They were actually an expert in what kind of sticks were best for playing catch with. Too many curves or wonky bits, and they just didn't fly right, or fit in puppy mouths.
"Okay Victor, catch!" they said, hurtling the stick as hard as they could in his direction. Maybe they weren't as much of an expert as they thought, since the stick tumbled to the ground in the gap between them. Victor hopped over and sniffed it curiously.
[105.5, 5.8] [Catch - 1]
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Post by Silver on May 24, 2020 6:34:13 GMT -6
Victor picked up the stick and chewed on the end of it. Then he tried to run away with it, but since he had grabbed it by the end instead of the middle, he only lost his balance and tripped over it. Then he grabbed the other end and had the same problem. Silver watched on, adoring it too much to inturrupt.
Eventually, they needed to get back to work, so they grabbed the stick and pulled it away from Victor. His mouth was still pretty small and his grip wasn't the strong, so they managed to take it without much issue. They were sure they'd lose a tug of war contest to him some day, but for now they were still much bigger than he was.
"Go on Victor, catch!" they said. They flung the stick as far as they could while still keeping it within the sort of trajectory they thought he could work with. Not that it mattered for these first few tosses.
[105.55, 6] [Catch - 2]
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Post by Silver on May 24, 2020 6:37:11 GMT -6
As it turned out, Victor had no idea what to do with the stick. Not only was he bad at catching it, but he had no idea that was what he was even supposed to do. He did want to play with it, however, especially since Silver seemed so interested in it, too. He slowly plodded along after it. He was in no particular hurry since he didn't realize he was supposed to get it before it hit the ground.
Victor started chewing on the stick, peeling off some of the bark and the little knobs where the twiggy bits used to be. By the time Silver had gotten over there, he had a hunk of it in his mouth. "Ah, no, don't eat that," they said. They quickly grabbed the stick from his mouth before he ate any part of it and shook it off. "You're doing this all wrong," they said with a laugh. "I should probably buy one of those fuzzy throwing balls, eh?"
[105.6, 6.2] [Catch - 3]
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Post by Silver on May 24, 2020 6:43:14 GMT -6
"Okay, maybe trying with this first was a little ambitious," they suggested. Then they plopped their bag down and dug through it again. Why hadn't they thought of this before? They had plenty of treats in there, and if Victor could catch a treat, they could move up to the sticks and balls and discs later.
"There we go, your favorite," Silver said. Victor was easy to please so all treats were his 'favorite.' Not that that stopped Silver from making a terrible joke as part of their ramblings.
"See this Victor? See the jerky? Catch it, Victor, catch!" they lobbed the treat into the air so that it had a clear, slow arc. Victor followed it with his eyes and tried to get it as it fell, but he was hilariously off the mark. With his head in the clouds looking for the treat, he tripped over his own feet and ended up sprawled out in the grass.
[105.65, 6.4] [Catch - 4]
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Post by Silver on May 24, 2020 7:22:42 GMT -6
Hey! The treat was on the floor. Victor lazily rolled over to grab it with his long tongue. Success! He wagged his tail and looked up at Silver to see if they had any more goodies ready. Silver smiled at him, thinking about how sweet he looked when he was upside down like that. What was it about exposing his tummy that made him so irresistibly cute?
"Let's try again," they said. They had another treat ready to go and Victor's eyes were fixated on it. He really, really wanted that treat. "You'll have to catch this one, okay? Get up, first of all," they encouraged him to stand up by waving the treat in the air above his head. He didn't have too much of a problem with that. Once he was on his feet, Silver made the motion like they were about to toss the treat. Victor looked behind him to see if it was in the air, but it wasn't.
[105.7, 6.6] [Catch - 5]
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Post by Silver on May 24, 2020 7:27:04 GMT -6
"Good," Silver said. They gave Victor the treat without throwing it. He had clearly matched up the motion of throwing with something going through the air. That was a great start! They pulled out another treat, and this time they actually threw it. Victor chased after it, and whether it was luck or skill, he managed to grab it before it hit the ground. "Aaah, good boy!" Silver said. They ran over and petted him all over while he was chewing through his jerky.
"Let's try again. More treats, Victor? Catch!" they tossed a treat a little further this time than last. Victor tried to catch that one, but it bounced off his nose and hit the ground. Silver figured that was good enough and went over to pat him again. He had the right idea, even if he wasn't terribly coordinated. This was something they'd no doubt practice for years to come. Adult Houluh loved to run, didn't they?
[105.75, 6.8] [Catch - 6]
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Post by Silver on May 25, 2020 4:56:29 GMT -6
They tossed some more treats intermittently to see if Victor could catch them. He went from clumsily watching them fly over his head to being able to catch them somewhat reliably really quickly. Baby humans were not even close to this good at catching things. Houluh, just like Vulticus, seemed like they had it in their genes to chase things. There was probably a reason for that, but they'd rather not think about it.
"Okay that's great, now can you catch this one? Catch, Victor, catch!" they grabbed the stick they had been using before and threw it straight out behind Victor. He ran to catch it, but when he got there it hit him on the nose and he dropped it. "Ah, oops," Silver said. Was that because of their bad throw, or Victor's bad catching ability? They tried again at a slightly different angle and he managed to get it that time. Yep. Definitely their bad throw.
[105.8, 7] [Catch - 7]
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Post by Silver on May 25, 2020 5:02:02 GMT -6
"Wow that was a pretty good jump, actually," Silver said. That gave them an idea. They could teach him how to jump! That would round out his show tricks nicely. Hopefully it was enough to impress the guy over at the adoption center. They had to prove that they'd done some work together in order to keep Victor until he was an adult. They really hoped that this would be enough to impress him.
"Gimmie that," they said, pulling on the stick. They playfully fought over it for a moment and eventually Silver got it. They held it over Victor's head and bounced it up and down. "You want it, don't you? Hop! You can do it, buddy." They continued to wiggle the stick around in the air, just high enough that Victor would have to hop up to grab it. He continued to try to snap at it over his head, but he was just too short.
[105.85, 7.2] [Leap - 1]
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Post by Silver on May 25, 2020 5:08:29 GMT -6
"Hop up," they repeated. They lowered the stick so that it was really close to Victor's nose, but then pulled it up right before he tried to grab it. Victor stumbled forward and landed on his face. He was lucky that the grass was soft and he was no worse for wear.
"I know you can do it, don't be lazy!" Silver laughed. Victor had boundless energy to hop around before, there's no way he couldn't jump up to get the stick. "Do I have to bribe you?" they asked. They already knew the answer to that question: yes, they probably would. Victor was relatively easy to work with, but he really loved his treats. Silver wasn't totally convinced that he wasn't just holding out until the treats came out. That was much to clever for a puppy, right? Well whether they were manipulated into it or not they pulled out another piece of jerky and broke it up into little bits.
[107.2, 7.4] [Leap - 2] [I'd been counting these posts wrong, level adjusted to compensate.]
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Post by Silver on May 25, 2020 5:32:06 GMT -6
"Here you go, lazy," they said in a teasing tone. They didn't actually think that Victor was lazy, but it was kind of fun to insult him since he didn't know what was being said anyway. If they thought that Victor could understand them, they'd never think of saying that, but since he was just happy to be talked to in general, they wanted to have a little fun with it.
Silver waved the treat just above Victor's nose so that he knew what the stakes were. He tried to grab it but Silver yanked it away too quickly. They waved it in the air above his head and repeated the command. "Hop, Victor, hop!" Eventually, Victor's feet finally left the ground and he sloppily wrapped his mouth around the treat. He swallowed it greedily before he even touched back down on the ground. "Good job, boy!" Silver cheered, wiping some slime off their paw.
[107.3, 7.6] [Leap - 3]
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Post by Silver on May 25, 2020 5:37:19 GMT -6
They tried the hopping to grab a treat a few more times, and just like always Victor got quicker and quicker with each repetition. Repetition was all he needed to figure most things out. Then it was time to change things up a bit. "Okay, now for a running start." They had to think for a moment on how they would accomplish that. They were going to have to run, weren't they?
They swept the treat past Victor and into the air, letting it go on the top of the upwards flick. Victor leaped into the air to catch it as he had learned in the catch part of the lesson. He landed on the ground surprisingly gracefully and chewed the jerky up like it was going to explode if he didn't. "Good job, boy," Silver said rubbing his ears and head. "You're pretty light on your feet for someone with such big ears," they teased.
[107.4, 7.8] [Leap - 4]
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Post by Silver on May 25, 2020 5:44:57 GMT -6
Now that they had the theory part of leaping up out of the way, they just had to practice until it was a habit. That was always the boring part, but Silver rather enjoyed it. It gave them plenty of time to pet and spoil Victor while still accomplishing something, however small it was.
The continued to mix treats and that now well chewed stick into the mix while getting Victor to follow it into a natural hop. It was actually quite a workout and Silver was feeling more energetic the more they moved. It might have been a while since they really got their blood moving like this. With the two of them both having so much fun, they practiced for a while before they finally declared it a success.
"What do you think, Victor? Should we go show off for the adoption center? Don't worry, I won't let them keep you." They really hoped that they weren't lying, but there was an underlying tingle of doubt that they hadn't done enough. There was only one way to find out, though.
[107.5, 8] [Leap - 5]
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Post by Silver on Apr 5, 2021 23:42:02 GMT -6
Spring had arrived with a series of vicious rainstorms which tore up the saturated and frozen ground. The old, dead branches had been blown off the leafless trees, and the ground was filled with shallow puddles. On the first sunny day of the season, Silver decided that it was time to go out and get back to work. They couldn't stay inside forever, after all. They arrived at the academy and sighed softly. As they expected, the ground was covered in leaf litter, stray branches, and bits of broken fence. They would have a fair amount of repair work to do before they could get any real training done. They set Quin down into his nest, which had thankfully faired alright through the storm, and asked him silently to stay there while they worked on things. Then they turned to look at their new companion, a relatively young species known as a Repointe. [117.7, 0.2] [Silver cast Sever Bond.]
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Post by Silver on Apr 5, 2021 23:47:11 GMT -6
Repointe were interesting looking creatures. At a glance, they appeared to be maned deer, but upon closer inspection, they also had the tail of a fox and a long muzzle full of sharp teeth. They didn't think they had met a predator with hooves before... well, besides some of those scary Equillion of Ashe's, that is.
"Hey there," they said softly. They had coaxed her into following them there, but now that they were still, she was becoming visibly nervous. She wasn't sure what to do and didn't like being asked to stay in one place for long. Silver was used to that, of course, and they were ready for it.
"Now now," they cooed. They rubbed their paw down her side, where her fur was shorter. Just to let her know that they were there. She turned her head and blew a quick breath of air out of her nose.
[117.8, 0.4]
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