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Post by Noa on Jun 7, 2020 18:32:53 GMT -6
“Alright, you lot,” Aster said, sitting perched on the fence. The three whelps looked up at the sound of his voice. They did seem to have some modicum of… he didn’t know whether it was respect, affection, or simply a loose sort of regard for him as the provider of food, but they did pay attention when he made noise that seemed directed at them. It was kind of nice, in its own way, even though at this point it didn't mean much in a practical sense.
They weren’t going to be real keen on him in the next few minutes though, at least not until they had figured out the game. “Hope you’re ready to work for your meal today,” he said, levelling a dart gun at them. It shot foam darts, which weren’t even very hard, and had just enough rigidity to be mildly unpleasant on human skin. It wasn’t even what Aster would have called pain, just kind of a nuisance, especially if it happened to interrupt whatever you were doing. Aster had even tested it out on himself at point blank range earlier just to make sure it wouldn’t do any harm. At this age, his skin was about as hard as the whelps’ were, so it was a good approximation.
But he hoped it would be a good deterrent, even though it didn’t exactly hurt.
With the three of them watching, he took aim and shot a series of rounds at them.
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Post by Noa on Jun 7, 2020 18:33:25 GMT -6
The whelps didn’t dodge, since at this point they had no frame of reference for what to expect from the dart gun, or even what was happening in the first place. Aster wasn’t a crack shot, but this also wasn’t a difficult thing to do, with them being so close and making fairly large targets now. The shots all hit their marks, more or less, and immediately the two larger whelps sent up a cacophony of complaints. Roland joined in with a high, reedy whine; Aster suspected that Roland might have to go the route that Aurelius did, and learn to screech instead of roar, if Aster ever meant to make a serious fighter out of him.
But it was good that they found it unpleasant. It meant they would do better the next time he shot at them. Aster reloaded the gun, then fired another round.
This time, at least one of the hatchlings wised up. Aster half expected it to be Abelia, since she was the one who led the trio, but it was Roland who shied away from the oncoming dart. Well, there was something to be said for an avoidant personality, Aster supposed. And despite his small size, he did tend to be the quickest, in terms of running and scrambling around. Maybe his gold, rudder-tail heritage had something to do with it. Adapted as they were for agility, they probably relied on it more heavily than the other breeds in both their hunting and their courtship.
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Post by Noa on Jun 7, 2020 18:33:43 GMT -6
Whatever it was, Roland dodged the round properly. Abelia and Alioth took it and simply hissed threats at Aster. “Good boy, Roland,” Aster said, ignoring their bravado and tossing a piece of meat to Roland.
The three of them knew the concept of names: the one who was called was the one who got fed. It had been their system for so long that they didn’t try to steal the meat from Roland, not that it kept Roland from snapping it up as though someone really might take it from him. Poor fellow never quite forgot that he had been bullied early on in life, apparently.
The other hatchlings didn’t fight Roland for the food, but Aster could tell that Roland definitely had their attention now. He didn’t call them out, after all, so Roland was the only one who got fed this time. There had to be some sort of trick to it--- and there was--- and he could see them trying to puzzle it out.
They probably didn’t have it yet, but with enough repetition, he was sure they would soon. So as soon as Roland was done eating, Aster loaded his gun and repeated the process. This time, when he shot, Roland got out of the way of it again… And so did Abelia. He couldn’t tell if it was because Abelia had cottoned on, or if it was merely because she didn’t like being hit either and had finally decided to do something about it, but hey, it was the right idea.
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Post by Noa on Jun 7, 2020 18:33:59 GMT -6
“Roland, Abelia,” he said, and tossed them both a piece of meat.
Alioth, seeing this, hissed at Aster, but that didn’t do him any good. “You want to eat, figure it out,” he said. “Your siblings have. Come on, get it together. Your great-grandsire would laugh at you if he saw you.” The whelp didn’t know what he was saying, of course, but still.
Alioth wasn’t very clever, but after a couple more repetitions, even he wised up--- though it had taken his sister snapping at him before he moved, startled to find himself rushed by her, and then startled again to find himself rewarded for it too. What a strange game they were playing, he must have thought. But finally he had his reward, and from there, the idea began to get through to him.
By then, the other two were doing quite well, consistently dodging the darts. But then, Aster hoped they would be; they were being herded on both sides, the darts being the stick and the treats being the carrot. Aster repeated the process from his stationary position a few more times just so Alioth could get the gist of it, then decided it was time to kick things up a notch.
The whelps couldn’t keep just dodging attacks from the same head on position, after all. So Aster wandered around this time, hopping off the fence so he could do a circle of the enclosure, his dart gun at the ready.
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Post by Noa on Jun 7, 2020 18:34:33 GMT -6
The hatchlings watched him, perhaps sensing that the game had in fact begun in earnest. Aster waited some time before firing his first shot, and the hatchlings all got out of the way of it. “Good,” Aster said, and rewarded them for their trouble.
He walked around a little more, then shot again. Once more, the whelps avoided the darts, so he gave them another reward. On his third attempt, he managed to hit an uncareful Abelia, so she was the one who didn’t get fed that time.
He repeated the process with them for a while, and by the end of it they had gotten a pretty good idea of what the rules were, he thought. And they were, all of them, paying attention to where he was and where, therefore, an attack might come from.
He did a couple more sessions like that, just to get them used to the idea of looking out for him, and to the movements that dodging would involve. And then he surrounded the pen with artificial cover, so that they couldn’t see where exactly he was. The game had gotten more difficult with the addition of that particular factor, but otherwise the rules stayed the same.
It was hard for the whelps at first to adapt to this new change he'd implemented. They didn’t know where Aster was, and they were much slower to dodge the foam darts than they had been when they could keep an eye on him.
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Post by Noa on Jun 7, 2020 18:35:17 GMT -6
But again, it was Roland, who had a slight streak of nervousness in him, who managed to get the hang of it earlier than the other two. He had the better sense to listen for where Aster was, and for where the sound of the gun was when it fired.
He might have had a better instinctive understanding of how to avoid things in general, really. Maybe he wasn’t as hopeless as a fighter as Aster had initially given him credit for. He would have made an evasive combattant, and getting him to master attacks might be a challenge, but it wasn’t as though he had no useful skills for it, apparently.
But Roland was merely the one who figured it out the fastest. Over a series of sessions, eventually everyone picked up the idea, especially once they saw Roland getting fed. It was an interesting period in their growth; Aster knew that Roland was never going to match the other two in size, though he was starting to catch up to Abelia, at least; but in those few weeks, he did seem to catch up rather more, and faster. The supplemental food was helping, though Aster generally made sure to feed them the recommended amount to ensure healthy growth among Sarane whelps.
Even if they were fed enough, they were all food-motivated at this age. A little extra as training treats never hurt anyone, and it definitely worked out for Aster, since food motivation was easy to play into.
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Post by Noa on Jun 7, 2020 18:38:21 GMT -6
Eventually all three whelps got to the point where they could determine where Aster was, and dodge his attacks whenever he made them, even with the added challenge of the cover Aster provided himself. At which point Aster pronounced himself satisfied with their progress, and decided they could move on to other things.
For now, though, he was going to give them a little more of a break. They had worked hard these last few days to learn this thing he wanted of them, and it was more or less the beginning of any real training he was doing with them. As such, he wanted to give them room to adjust to it so that he didn't shock them with too much, too soon. Moreover, they were all still young--- though it was precisely for that reason that Aster was doing what he could with all three together now, before their last growth spurt hit and they became unmanageable in each other's presence. This endeavor had shown him that it really could be easier to deal with all three simultaneously, and now that he had done it, he felt more inclined to continue this way as long as he could get away with it.
So for the rest of the afternoon, he let them have their fun. Roland snuck away from his clutchmates to get a well deserved nap in the sun, while Alioth and Abelia played more intense games, like tug of war with an old branch they had found.
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Post by Noa on Jun 8, 2020 23:05:31 GMT -6
Now that the hatchlings were a little older, Aster figured he ought to work with them on some more serious skills. One of which was just… getting used to being around big, intimidating creatures, he supposed. For Aster, there was nothing to it, since he had by now gotten so used to being around Grunty and Azalea and the like. There was hardly anything that could quite strike that same fear into him that he saw happening in creatures that weren’t hardened to that kind of influence. Some creatures could be dangerous, sure, but quivering in fear of them wasn’t a helpful reaction. There was a difference between wise caution and simply being cowed.
Fortunately, Aster had the perfect creature to help them get used to that kind of thing. Grunty was honestly great for stuff like this. He looked scary, and his head crest was just as good as any other Thundergug’s. He ate a lot, so it was nice and plump, the surest sign of a healthy member of his own species. But he was also such a sedate fellow, with no interest in trampling or charging at anyone unless Aster was asking him to do it for the sake of getting a treat.
Especially if they stayed outside his enclosure, but also probably even if they didn’t, Grunty never posed any real threat to them. He might have if the hatchlings were small enough that he couldn’t see them, but they were now large enough that Aster trusted this wouldn’t be an issue.
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Post by Noa on Jun 8, 2020 23:06:32 GMT -6
So long as they didn’t run directly underneath his feet, of course, because at that point all bets were off as far as what might happen. Grunty just wasn't dexterous enough to avoid stepping on something that insisted on weaving between his legs like that.
And so Aster brought the trio of whelps to the enclosure where Grunty usually lounged about. It was a large pen with a shelter on one side, for when the weather got bad, which had a heater for the cold months. Right now, Grunty wasn't even awake. The big lug was sleeping, having a little mid-day siesta in the sun.
Aster couldn't really think of anything less intimidating, really. But of course, the whelps had a different opinion on the matter. As they approached the enclosure, Aster could sense that the whelps were growing more and more ill at ease. At first they were tided over by a sort of disbelief, as though they didn't really think Aster would bring them up to something that was so obviously dangerous. As all hope of that dissipated, they began to chirp, first a customary alarm and then more agitatedly. At that point, Aster thought that was probably close enough. If he went any further, they would freak out too hard for him to be able to calm them down or distract them, at which point all he would have done for the day was traumatize the three Sarane he had been working with. And Aster didn't want that.
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Post by Noa on Jun 8, 2020 23:06:55 GMT -6
"Okay, Okay, let's just stop here then," he said, deliberately keeping his voice to a lazy drawl as he spoke to them. One of the ways he was trying to get them to relax was to show them that he himself didn't mind being here, and wasn't on edge. To that end, he also carefully tailored his body language to be as unalarmed and languid as possible, while still maintaining his control over the three whelps who were with him. He couldn't just sit down and go to sleep, since some of them might make an ill advised run for it, or cause mischief in other ways. But his heart rate, his breathing, all of that was even and unalarmed. It wasn't actually a difficult effect to achieve, since he honestly wasn't afraid of Grunty.
At this early stage though, Aster's little show of bravado wasn't quite enough to calm the nervous whelps. They needed something with a bit more punch to grab their attention, metaphorically speaking of course. And what better way was there to redirect them than with food? They were, fortunately, still at an age where food took precedence over almost all other things, so all Aster really had to do was show the lot of them a piece of meat.
He'd picked out a good one for them, poultry hearts, which were by far their favorite. Organ meats were nice and rich, and at their size, the hearts made for a good snack, rather than a full meal.
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Post by Noa on Jun 8, 2020 23:07:38 GMT -6
You could have too much of a good thing, after all, and overindulging in something that was supposed to be a treat would strip it of its appeal in fairly short order. At least, that was how it worked for people, anyway.
Aster held up one of the hearts, hoping the whelps would notice, but they were still in the throes of their alarm at being so close to Grunty's enclosure.
Sighing, Aster resorted to more dire tactics, bringing the offering right up to the nose of the whelp who was most likely to be able to get the other two to follow her lead. In this lot, that was Abelia, a position she had established early on and kept to this day.
For Aster, it was actually pretty convenient sometimes, to have one whelp he knew was the leader. if he could get Abelia on board she could usually push or lead the other two into doing what she was doing, which was a more effective way of controlling them than trying to get all three to do something individually. And the stability of their pecking order meant that he wasn't having to figure out who was in charge every time he needed to get them to do something.
So with that in mind, he went after Abelia, and held the piece of meat up to her until she noticed it, with the scent of it almost pushed up to her nostrils, it didn't take Abelia long to notice.
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Post by Noa on Jun 8, 2020 23:07:56 GMT -6
It took her a little more time to pay proper attention to it, caught up as she still was in peeping up about Grunty presence, but gluttony won out in the end. Her eyes focused and her nose began to follow the meat as Aster redirected her away from the pen where Grunty was being held. He only turned her around, rather than leading her away since the point was for them all to be around Grunty without freaking out like they were doing right then. It would defeat the purpose if he led them away from the enclosure at all.
It took the other whelps a little longer than usual to notice what Abelia was doing, especially since the scent of meat wasn’t directly in any of their faces. But they did come around, after a while, to see what had gotten her attention. Aster figured they would; he had seen them check in with her every so often as they moved about, and figured that in a time of uncertainty like this, sooner or later they’d look to her for cues. And now that he had all of their attention, he led them back and forth within the same distance of the enclosure. They let him do it, though occasionally one or another would pause to look at Grunty again.
Aster let this go on for a little while before he rewarded them with treats. “Good,” he said. “You lot are feeling a lot calmer now, aren’t you?”
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Post by Noa on Jun 8, 2020 23:08:15 GMT -6
Once they were eating, the threat of the Thundergug was forgotten, at least for the moment. And when Aster held up another treat and called them, they all turned to him, and followed him around again.
Aster did this a couple more times, before deciding that was enough for the day. This was something to be built up slowly, and they’d had a commendable first session, especially since they had no way of knowing why he was doing this. As far as they were concerned, Aster was simply leading them somewhere dangerous and bribing them with meat. Though Aster wondered if they even thought that far, or whether they simply saw this as a strange excursion.
They were back the next day though. Nothing like consistent sessions to acclimate a creature to something, and if they didn’t stick with it, it would take all the longer for the whelps to get over this. They threw up complaints just the same as they had the day before, but now that Abelia knew that there was food in play, she picked it up a lot faster when Aster got out the treats. They hadn’t picked up yet what exactly they were being rewarded for, but they knew they would get fed sometimes, and the hope of that kept them following Aster around instead of looking over at Grunty. Since they were in better spirits this time around, Aster kept them around longer before deciding to head home for the day.
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Post by Noa on Jun 8, 2020 23:08:45 GMT -6
Over the next few days, he repeated the process of taking the hatchlings up to Grunty's enclosure and trying to distract them as best he could. It was hard to sort of measure how much progress they were really making, because after about the third session or so, they focused entirely on the food, and then that just didn’t change. Aster kept feeding them a while longer though, just in case, since he didn’t know how much was them acclimating, and how much the food was helping to distract them from their unease. But eventually he did stop with the treats, since he had to, and he wanted to see how they would fare without the promise of food as distraction.
The whelps were more preoccupied with trying to get food out of him at first, but eventually their attention began to wander. And when they noticed Grunty again, they did look rather nervous. It wasn’t as bad as it was; sometimes they were able to forget him, but sometimes they weren’t.
Aster figured he could just lead them out here to play every day, and eventually they would get the hang of being around Grunty without panicking, but there were ways to expedite the process too. So when they returned the next day, it was with toys instead of treats. They were still distractions, but ones where the whelps had some choice of engagement, and it didn’t instantly magnetize their attention the way food did.
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Post by Noa on Jun 8, 2020 23:09:26 GMT -6
He had to wiggle the toys in front of the whelps at first, to entice them into latching on and playing. And a game of tug of war with the Sarane whelps at this size was really no joke. Aster’s arms were sore after not even ten minutes, and he had to dig his heels into the ground to even stand a chance, especially against Alioth, who was the most enthusiastic. But once the whelps had noticed the toys and begun playing with them, they also began playing with one another, which helped give Aster’s arms a much needed break. Roland chased a ball across the grass, while the two larger blood siblings tugged a rope in a contest of strength. So far, so good.
Aster just let them play for the rest of the session. And the rest of the next session too, and the one after that. He rotated the toys out just to give them some variety, since he felt that if the toys repeated, the whelps might not find them enough to hold their attention after a while. There were ones with bits of food inside, things for them to chase, whatever Aster had in his repertoire that was safe for them to play around with.
The one thing he changed other than the toys themselves was their placement. With each session, he moved the toys closer and closer to the actual enclosure, in order to entice the hatchlings to go up to it.
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