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Post by Alma on May 20, 2021 0:58:13 GMT -6
The girl ended up staying the rest of the time they agreed upon, even a little longer as she stood near Alma and tried to figure out exactly where the wiurn was standing. He paid no attention to either of them, as far as Alma could tell, but now he struck at the thundergug whenever it wandered near, never quite grasping that the cage bars prevented him from reaching the meaty beast.
The girl seemed rattled when she and the thundergug finally left, Alma seeing them out before handing the younger woman the bag of credits she was owed. Anonymous seemed in better shape, roaring at the thundergug as it left the room, and having nothing but happy hisses for Alma upon her return to check up on him and set the room to clean the outer flooring. She could only hope that his newfound boldness would be there to stay. There were far too many creatures in the labs that turned her knees to jelly if she would have to face them alone, and she did not want the wiurn to flutter away at the first sight of them.
[Anonymous-13.0] [Hardy-End?]
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Post by Alma on May 20, 2021 15:12:56 GMT -6
[Interupting to quickly teach these two to not drown instantly] There were a few things one had to train a beast for their work. For Tin, it had been vital that the hound knew how to hunt when given the command rather than being allowed to slip away and chase any small creature at will. For Walker, she had to be certain he would not eat the gems he found without giving her a chance to inspect what was valuable and what was fodder. For the balgor, getting the pair of them to work together had been just as important as ensuring they would not be easily cowed, and with one vicious attack she could call upon them for, Alma had thought their training was finished. What else could they possibly need for one of the famous boss fights, especially when those she hired had beasts that could defeat the bosses without a single balgor? That had been before she had known which of the bosses they would face. For the majority of them, the training should have been enough that at least one of her balgor would remain standing for a round or two. And for that reason, she had Farida and Hektor moved to a new cage, one with a sandy floor near the gate while the rest of the cage was taken up by a massive pool. [Hektor- 20.0 Farida- 20.0] [Swim-Start]
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Post by Alma on May 20, 2021 15:13:37 GMT -6
Balgor were known for their thick fur, their manes that ran across their legs and back in massive wings of hair, with tails that somehow had even more thick hair than the rest of their body. But they were not covered in the long fur entirely, with the custom sporting a meager amount of the thicker fur compared to the temblor balgor, and that gave Alma some hope that they could learn to swim.
If not, all it would take is one slip on the platforms in the arena, and suddenly it would be a great deal more obvious how little the hired fighter needed aid. No, if her balgor were to fall, she rather not have it be because she had never taught them to survive in water deeper than a puddle. That, and she was not too keen on the thought of watching them sink beneath the water.
Farida and Hektor were sniffing the edge of the water, the custom taking a moment to lap up some of the freshwater as Alma climbed atop the cage. She had laid a large square platform of wood on top of it earlier, and the ropes and meats and toys were waiting for her as she carefully made her way across the metal grid.
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Post by Alma on May 20, 2021 15:14:21 GMT -6
The first rope she grabbed held a toy, a large squeaky bone covered in thick fabric meant to survive the jaws of the larger carnivores. This one had fraying fabric and a neat line of stitches to seal a hole torn by a sharp tusk, the bit of wispy white fur she plucked from it reminding her which of the two balgor tended to gnaw on it.
She looked down at the pair of balgor, meeting the gaze of Farida as Hektor tapped at the water with her massive paws. Alma giggled at the sight of the custom balgor yanking her paw back from the water as though it were acid, then called out, “Hey! Farida! Hektor! Look up here!” The balgor looked up at the shouting woman, then to the bright red squeaky toy held in her hands. With the rope coiled loosely in her hands, she let the toy fall between the lines of metal that she stood on, stomping it through the grid with a wheezed shriek when it proved just slightly too big. The toy came down near the shallow end of the pool, the water no higher than her waist when she had done a test swim. Both balgor stared for a few seconds at the swaying toy, Farida taking a step towards it before yanking it back to glare down at her paw.
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Post by Alma on May 20, 2021 15:15:09 GMT -6
Farida licked at her paw while Hektor looked between her and the toy. The custom balgor slowly placed a paw in the water, slowly enough that Alma did not see a single splash as her paw sank below the surface. Another brown and green paw followed the first, and Hektor took a couple of small steps until her chest was fully over the water and her front paws were completely under the surface. Alma wiggled the dangling toy some more, encouraging Hektor with a “C’mon! Play-play?” and the balgors head turned to watch the bouncing toy. Slowly, the custom balgor lowered her chest to the water, stiffening as it soaked into her mane but never taking her eyes from the toy hanging a short distance from her. Then she lunged, kicking up a spray of water that splashed Farida as she caught the toy in her jaws.
Farida’s mane was now sopping wet, her tongue hanging out and her upraised paw as still as a statue’s as water dripped from her fur onto the sand, and Alma would have laughed if she had not been struggling to avoid being dragged into the grating as Hektor squeaked the toy again. “Hey! Hektor!”
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Post by Alma on May 20, 2021 15:15:46 GMT -6
There was a moment of slack as the custom balgor twisted to look up at Alma, the roped toy still held firmly in her mouth. Alma quickly dropped to her knees, letting the painfully tight loops around her arm slide free as the balgor continued to stare at her. With all the quickness she could manage, her rope-burned fingers tied a series of simple knots. After another moment, the balgor tugged on the toy again, And Alma let it slip free, the bars of the cage now taking the strain.
Farida watched this for a second, lowering her paw to the ground. She shook herself hard, flinging free a small amount of water before looking back at the custom balgor who held her toy. Hektor squeaked the toy with a quick glance at the temblor balgor, taking a few splashing steps that the rope allowed her and rumbling at her packmate from behind the squeaky toy.
Farida flicked her tail side to side, and Alma wondered if the balgor’s reluctance to enter the water stemmed from the fur there. Hektor, with her tiny tuft of fur at the end of her tail, certainly had little issue rushing in after her initial hesitation, but Farida merely stared from the shore.
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Post by Alma on May 20, 2021 15:17:01 GMT -6
It was her toy.
Farida had claimed it repeatedly back in their normal territory, hip checking and play fighting with Hektor whenever the custom balgor had tried to come and take it from her. Sure, there were rare occasions that she was asleep or found a new toy to bat around for a bit that Hektor might steal it away from her briefly, but she always got it back. And now this sea of slightly too cold water formed a barrier she was not sure she could pass as Hektor played with her toy.
Farida’s tail twitched side to side as she watched Hektor, the custom splashing around in the water without a care, often looking over at her as the toy squeaked between the custom balgor’s jaws. She knew the invitation to play, and her heart longed for her to join in, but the water was still there. She glared down at it as though to order it aside, snorting as she looked back up to the custom balgor.
From Alma’s view there was no warning in the temblor balgor’s posture as she launched herself into the water, splashing her way straight towards the custom balgor.
It was her toy, and she was going to play with it too.
[Hektor- 21.0 Farida- 21.0]
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Post by Alma on May 20, 2021 15:17:37 GMT -6
Hektor squeaked the toy, then tried to back away from the incoming Farida, claws scraping uselessly against the smooth floor as the rope held. The custom wiggled the toy side to side, fighting the rope like a fish on a line, having about the same level of success as one as well. She let go at the last possible second, the toy swinging free from her mouth to bounce off Farida’s face as the temblor balgor reached her. The two went down in a flurry of flailing paws and snapping teeth, and Alma turned to make her way to the remaining ropes and treats. She knew the pair of balgor liked to play violently, but she could never fully suppress the feeling that this time the fight was real, and that she would have to stop it or end up with a dead beast on her hands.
The two balgor continued to play, splashing through the water as they continued their play fighting. Alma could see the line of blue tile beneath the surface despite the troubled surface of the water, a line that, when crossed by a rear paw searching for grip, the balgor would quickly spring back over. She supposed it was too much to have hoped the pair would have gone deep enough to prove their swimming ability on their own, and she picked up a few pieces of holed jerky.
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Post by Alma on May 20, 2021 15:18:25 GMT -6
The two balgor continued their game while Alma threaded the rope through the holes, ting a simple knot for each that might hold against gravity and the swaying of the rope, but not much else. With that done, she stepped towards a second panel of wood, this one over the deep end of the pool.
Of the two, Farida found herself having a harder time keeping up. Her wings of thick hair and the long tail covered in thicker hair dragged behind her whenever she tried to make her way back to the shallower zones, her limbs growing quickly tired there. But here, in the water that swirled around her mane and hid the rest beneath the surface, the drag was much less. When Hektor tried to pull back to the shallower areas, snorting and spitting water, Farida remained in the deeper part, gnawing away at her squeaky toy and the rope that held it.
Alma called out below to them, and sent the first of the treats crashing down into the water below, looping her end around the bars of the cage. When that one was knotted, she looked back down to see Hektor splashing her way towards the treat and the blue line of tile. Alma waited until the custom balgor was about to cross the line, then called out, “Swim!”
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Post by Alma on May 20, 2021 15:19:03 GMT -6
Hektor had felt the water level rising as she ran, and twisted her head to look up at Alma as her front paws passed the unseen blue line. Then water closed over her head as her front half plowed into the water. Panicked, the custom balgor began to flail her paws, clawing at the water as she tried to pull herself out of the water. Her rear paws collided with something more solid than water, and she instinctively kicked off the tile. Hektor erupted from the surface of the water with her mouth twisted into a silent roar, spraying water as she choked and sunk beneath the water once more.
Alma watched for a moment, dropping the remaining ropes and treats on the other board. She could not run outright as she moved across the metal grid, but she made her way towards the side facing the control panel as quickly as possible.
But before Alma could begin climbing down the cage wall, Hektor was up again. This time she surfaced with a snort, her head sinking back towards the surface of the water, then she stopped sinking. Alma froze as she watched the balgor swim in a small circle, the custom balgor turning herself back to where the temblor balgor was pacing in the shallow water.
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Post by Alma on May 20, 2021 15:19:33 GMT -6
Alma hesitated long enough for the custom to reach the shallow water, breaking out into a splashing slow-run as she fled back to the dry sand. Farida watched the custom rush by with the toy in her mouth, a frayed rope swinging gently behind her. Then the temblor balgor turned to look at the other rope and the treat dangling from it.
Farida made her way to the blue line with a little more caution than Hektor had, testing the ground with each step before shifting her weight onto a given paw, She paused when she came to the blue line, her paw waggling in the water as she searched for a spot to place it before pulling it back. Alma watched her, glancing a few times at the custom balgor to see that she was rolling in the sand and looking decidedly less drowned than Alma had feared.
It was during one of those glances that Farida crossed the line, and Alma yelled out, “Swim” with a hopeful tone as the balgor crossed the line. She did not lunge as Hektor had done, but instead slid into the deeper water, her body and mane slipping below the surface. Alma lowered herself down a few bars as she watched, but stopped when she realized the balgor’s head was not dipping below the water.
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Post by Alma on May 20, 2021 15:20:27 GMT -6
Alma hung there for what felt like an hour as she watched the temblor balgor paddle her way to the treat, bumping her toy against it as she tried to grab it. She swam past it a few more times, never stopping as she made her way through the water, and released the toy as she tried yet again. This time she grabbed the jerky between her sharp teeth and pulled it, the meat slipping free of the rope as Farida turned in the water yet again. She made her way to the shallows, then to the shore to plop down next to Hektor and finish gulping down her treat. It was a testament to how tired the custom had to be that Hektor made no attempt to steal the treat, only huffing once and rolling herself to better expose her sodden mane to the air.
Alma climbed down and let the two balgor rest for a few hours as she went and took care of a few errands, internally giddy. Of the two, she had expected the temblor to be the one that had issues swimming, perhaps to the point that a single misstep in the pliathor’s arena would have been a guaranteed loss for her. [Hektor- 22.0 Farida- 22.0] [Alma-245.0]
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Post by Alma on May 20, 2021 15:21:25 GMT -6
But the temblor balgor had done it easily, paddling through the water, a little slow for her taste perhaps, but certainly with enough ability to keep from drowning. The only question she had now was how to get Hektor to properly swim. She could not just hop in the water and try to hold the balgor if Hektor started to panic and sink after all.
When Alma was gone even longer than she had planned, Farida had taken to getting Hektor to play with her. Both of them were finally dry and refreshed, though the former lasted only as long as it took for Farida to hop back into the water after Hektor had returned to grooming herself, the temblor balgor eyeing her toy floating in the opposite end of the pool. She turned to Hektor with a wag of her tail, imploring the custom balgor to play, but Hektor ignored her.
Annoyed and bored, Farida sped through the water, half-walking half-paddling as she reached the blue line. The sudden drop in the floor did not dissuade her, and she swam out to the toy, grabbing it in her jaws with a loud squeak. Hektor looked up from the leg she was ridding of sand at the sound, staring at the bobbing balgor.
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Post by Alma on May 20, 2021 15:22:10 GMT -6
Farida started to swim in a large circle, squeaking the toy every couple of seconds, blue eyes darting to the balgor standing on the shore. The custom balgor grumbled, but stepped into the shallows, cautiously making her way to the blue line as Farida had done the first time, pausing when her outstretched paw could not find any ground. She mewed at the temblor balgor, but Farida made no move to swim closer, continuing her circular path full of squeaking. Another mew provoked no response either as Hektor watched the toy, her own jaws tensing and relaxing as the temblor balgor squeaked the toy. Then, with none of the reckless speed that had categorized her first attempt, Hektor slid into the deep end to chase Farida.
It took two tries before she made it more than a meter from the blue line.
The first time saw her began to splash and panic the moment all four of her paws were off the ground. The water frothed around her as she flailed and sank, climbing back up to the shallow end from beneath the surface of the water. The second time she tried, Farida had swam closer to her, and she flailed for only the first few seconds before the toy caught her eye. The toy that she was going to claim.
The two chased one another in the pool for a little longer, moving back to the shallower water as their play turned rougher. When Alma finally returned, she was surprised to see them both still dripping wet and stretched out across the sand.
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Post by Alma on May 20, 2021 15:23:07 GMT -6
Alma soon found out that something had happened while she was gone. She climbed to the top of the cage with a few extra treats to tie to the ropes, and both balgor followed her path from inside the cage, noses lifted to the air. Hektor’s willingness to reenter the water had been a welcome surprise, and she discarded her plan to lure the custom balgor across with treats tossed down to float on the surface of the water. Instead, she made her way to the part of the cage suspended over the deep end, laughingly calling out “Swim,” as she passed the blue line as though she thought either balgor would hop into the depths.
When they both did, a few of the bits of jerky slipped free of her hands, the smaller pieces of the dried meat slipping between the bars to land in the water below. “Since when do y’all like swimming?” she asked them, picking up the larger pieces that had been caught on the grid of metal. Neither balgor answered her, both instead snapping up as many of the jerky treats as they could grab before returning to the shallow end.
“Well well well. Guess that makes this a bit easier, don’t it?” Alma smiled down at the two balgor, the broad pieces of dried meat cradled in her arms. “Well, no point wastin’ time. Hektor! Farida!” She called to them, holding up a piece of meat. They bounded back towards the deep end. ”Swim,” she yelled as they slid into the water, and she dropped each of them a piece of meat.
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