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Post by Noa on Mar 3, 2021 19:57:50 GMT -6
After all, if it was meant to be used in a combat situation, there wasn’t going to be much room for error… And almost everything was, with Avander, practice for some eventual combat situation.
But after those two weeks, Avander finally managed to perform the ability to Aster’s satisfaction. And then, happily, it was time to move on.
As for what they would be doing next... There was not actually a lot of strange magical abilities for Aster to teach Avander anymore. Which was probably a relief from the Wiurn's point of view, considering those things tended to be fairly mentally taxing for him to do in the first place.
Of course, that didn't mean Aster was all out of things for Avander to practice period. But the physical stuff would definitely be easier for Avander to grasp, even if the movements themselves might take practice to get right.
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Post by Jack on Mar 3, 2021 20:08:44 GMT -6
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Post by Noa on Mar 8, 2021 21:35:33 GMT -6
Honestly, it would be a good change of pace for Aster too. “Maybe…” Aster thought on it for a moment, then said, “Hey, let’s work on doing something with that tail stinger of yours.”
Avander had in fact kept the sting on his tail. It was a commonality between his Sarane and Wiurn forms, though that had been more a coincidence than an intentional thing. Avander had never learned to use his sting on command in his time as a Sarane though, so he would be learning it from scratch now, as a Wiurn.
Maybe it was just as well. Both forms did have stingers at the ends of their tails, but now that stinger was hidden beneath the plume of fur that ran down Avander’s spine.
Aster went to Avander’s tail, and Avander let him handle it. Brushing back some of the fur, Aster saw the long point of the stinger beneath.
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Post by Noa on Mar 8, 2021 21:35:51 GMT -6
It wasn’t actually as buried in the fur as he had thought; both the fur itself and the stinger were long, and it was merely the drape of the fine, silky hair that hid it from view. Aster pressed slightly at the base of the spine, and watched as a drop of what was probably the venom dropped onto the ground.
“You ever used this before?” Aster said. “The poison, I mean.”
{No, not really,} Avander said.
“Then, you think you can get the poison to come out on your own?” Aster couldn’t really imagine the associated sensation, though he imagined it must be like flexing a muscle you didn’t often use.
{Probably,} Avander said, though from the way he said it, Aster thought he probably wasn’t too sure either.
But if that was the case, then the best thing for them to do was just to get him to try it.
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Post by Noa on Mar 8, 2021 21:36:11 GMT -6
So Aster found a piece of driftwood, held it up, and said, “Sting this, then.”
Avander complied readily, and Aster suspected that Avander was just glad to have a command that was easier to understand than all the other things Aster had been making him do lately. He jabbed the tip of his tail into the wood. That part was easy enough, especially since he was used to attacking with his tail. The movement for this was definitely different, but Aster wasn’t making him do it at any great speed as of yet, and the wood wasn’t a tiny pinpoint target either.
The issue was more with getting the poison out. Nothing really… happened, at first. Aster gave Avander a chance to do it on his own, before taking matters into his own hands and pressing at the base of the stinger like he had done a little earlier.
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Post by Noa on Mar 8, 2021 21:36:21 GMT -6
“Focus on this sensation,” Aster said. “I don’t know… Can you flex something around here?”
Avander tried. Aster watched his tail twitch and move, but to no avail; after several minutes, he shook his head. “We must be going about this the wrong way. It should be a… a reflex. Maybe if… Hold on.” Aster rummaged around in his bag, and then around the riverbank, until he finally came up with a sodden bundle of rags that had been washed up along the rocks. “Just jab the stinger into this,” he said.
Avander seemed dubious, but after failing his last attempt, he could at least do no worse. He jabbed the bundle of rags as Aster instructed, then pulled away. There, in the place where he had struck, there was a residue of the same liquid - the poison.
“Ahhh, there we go,” Aster said. “It is a reflex then. Let’s have you try it again. Sting!”
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Post by Noa on Mar 8, 2021 21:37:07 GMT -6
The second attempt went much the same, which was highly gratifying to Aster. It was promising that they could reproduce the results a second time. Now he was just kicking himself for not trying this earlier, but sometimes training was just like that.
After a few more repetitions, Aster moved Avander to something that was less yielding, and had him strike the wood again. It took a couple of attempts, but Avander had a better feel for what he should be doing now, so he was able to manage a proper sting eventually. From there, it was just a matter of repetition, trying different targets to make sure that Avander could perform the attack properly.
Most of the time, Aster dragged out a new move over a few sessions, but this one was so simple and innate to a Wiurn’s body that he felt satisfied with their progress after just one.
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Post by Noa on Mar 8, 2021 21:39:03 GMT -6
It was also easy to repeat, and didn’t tire Avander out to do, so they got a lot more practice in than they would have been able to with some of Avander’s fancier abilities. At the end of the day, Avander was able to sting with his tail and inject the venom. That was good enough for Aster.
And as it turned out, their session didn't wrap a minute too soon either. As soon as Aster called an end to it, Avander called his attention to something else. {It's none of my business,} Avander said, {but that pole of yours is moving. Shouldn't you do something about that?}
"Oh shit," Aster said, and scrambled over to pick it up. Sure enough, there was something on the line. It was about time too, since they'd been here for a while now. At least he had something else to occupy him.
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Post by Noa on Mar 8, 2021 21:41:33 GMT -6
In that sense, these training sessions by the river were a good way to kill two birds with one stone, in theory. He could spend his downtime doing something productive rather than feeling like a moron just waiting around for fish. A lot of people found it relaxing, but Aster didn't know if he could do conventional fishing, now that he didn't have to think about doing so for survival anymore. That was too much time that he might end up spending alone with his thoughts, which really didn't bear contemplating.
The unfortunate reality was, however, that if he was too focused on training, he often missed when a fish did bite... Like he had nearly missed this. It wasn't too great a loss, but it definitely wasn't efficient either. This time he got lucky, and had caught on before the fish had gotten away, but most of the time it didn't happen like that.
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Post by Noa on Mar 8, 2021 21:44:07 GMT -6
Most of the time he just lost the fish full stop, unfortunately. The stakes were pretty low, but even so.
Sometimes he wondered if he even still had it anymore, so poorly did his fishing trips usually go... But as soon as he felt the tug, muscle memory or something came back to him, and he was reeling it in as though he had at least a semblance of an idea of what he was doing.
Avander watched with amused interest, possibly thinking about whether he could steal the fish once Aster had brought it up. "Don't you dare," Aster said, gritting his teeth as the fish drew up within visible distance. It was smaller than he thought it would be, based on the fight that it had been giving him. Disappointing, but then, well, it wasn't as if he had anything riding on this, and any catch was better than nothing.
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Post by Jack on Mar 11, 2021 8:24:14 GMT -6
A couple little fish could be found in the river.
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Post by Noa on Apr 25, 2021 14:22:44 GMT -6
Noa wasn’t sure what, exactly, had possessed him to volunteer to help train the pups that Briar had been working with. Curiosity, mainly, he supposed. Houluh were unimpressive creatures, meant for companionship and some utility work; but Noa’s interests usually ran toward the more overtly dramatic, the big ferocious beasts and creatures with awe-inspiring magical prowess. Anything less than that felt underwhelming, though maybe only because he had been spoiled for it by the wealth of such creatures within the confines of his own property.
In that sense, he supposed Briar’s choices in companion had been a… change of pace. And when curiosity got the best of him, well, here he was pursuing that curiosity. Briar hadn’t looked as though he had wanted to let the pups go, but Noa had insisted, and whatever Briar’s other misgivings about Noa, even Briar had to admit that Noa knew what he was about with regards to creature training. After all, look at Avander, or even some of his drakes, or Rhys.
… Maybe the issue was that Noa tended to gear his training efforts toward combat, since that was what interested Noa in terms of creature skill application.
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Post by Noa on Apr 25, 2021 14:23:04 GMT -6
But then, Briar had mentioned that Nana had might turn out to be a promising guard, and that was certainly more in Noa’s wheelhouse than in Briar’s own. As far as Noa could tell, all of Briar’s other Houluh were essentially trained in basic obedience and a few other tricks, and that was it.
Well, whatever the circumstances, the outcome was that Noa now had two of the pups in tow with him: a silvery one named Nana and a yellowish fellow named Doc. Curious names for dogs, especially compared to that one Tat-lung of Briar’s, but it wasn’t his business what Briar wanted to name his creatures, Noa supposed.
The dogs had a reputation as fishing companions, which intrigued Noa a little, since he couldn't see any distinguishing features about them that would suggest that they were any use in the water. He hadn't really heard of dogs used for fishing either, though that might be because these weren't really the kinds of creatures that interested him much to begin with. It sounded farfetched, but then again, a lot of creatures here had surprising aspects about them that you might not think about at first glance.
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Post by Noa on Apr 25, 2021 14:23:42 GMT -6
Who was he to say whether or not they had some hidden talents up their proverbial sleeves?
They arrived at the riverside, with Noa carrying his fishing equipment. For a moment he stood there, looking out over the shimmering waters of the wide river, the long grass of the bank swaying all around him. It was a peaceful moment, almost picturesque.
But then one of the pups jumped into the water, and the moment was ruined. Noa sighed. It wasn't much different from babysitting Sarane whelps, he reminded himself, but at least with Sarane whelps, he knew that they had big prospects as fighting creatures when they hit adulthood. And there was also the impetus of forming a bond with them when they were still small, so that the drakes might remember him fondly enough to hold back their blows a bit when it came time to break them. It wasn't a sure thing, and it never did stop them from trying to maul him, but given their differences in size and the weakness of Noa's physique, even a less enthusiastic mauling was to be preferred over one at full force. Though he rather thought this was probably true for most people.
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Post by Noa on Apr 25, 2021 14:23:59 GMT -6
But there was a bright side to this, which was that unlike most of the whelps that Noa had babysat, these pups did know something of basic obedience. Maybe that would help him keep them in line, and prevent this from being as much of a headache as it could have been - as much of a headache as it was surely promising to otherwise be.
Experimentally, he snapped his fingers. The pups both stopped what they were doing to look at him. So far so good. He patted his thighs, the way that Briar had showed him, and both pups came dashing over... Which was, as it turned out, something of a miscalculation on Noa's part, because Doc was still wet from splashing around in the river. And he chose the moment when he got to Noa's side to finally stop and shake off his coat, splattering all three of them with more water. Noa sighed once again. This wasn't really turning out to be much fun for him so far. Maybe this whole thing had been a bad idea... But they were already here, and he was loath to waste the time and effort it had taken to get out only to trudge back to Gracehaven again.
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