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Post by Noa on May 12, 2021 19:05:54 GMT -6
A new day, a new... trip to the mines, apparently. Noa had been spending a lot of time down here, mostly looking for rocks to fund the magic crystals he was looking to buy from the Underground. Oh, he wasn't able to visit again just yet, but come next month the wait would be over, and he would be free to drop by again. And he meant to be ready for that occasion, which was why he was spending so many of these perfectly nice days down in the dirt and rock hell that was the caverns in the mountains. Today, Noa's team - if you could call it that, since it would be mostly himself and Rhys doing the work - was himself, his familiar, the little feathered creature, and a Houluh pup. Neither of the latter two had any names yet, though at least the Houluh pup was known to be a female. He had no idea how to tell with the little feathered creature, and for the moment it didn't really matter, so he hadn't made a concentrated effort to find out either. He didn't expect these two to be any help, but if he was going to be plumbing some cavern, he might as well make some more efficient use of his time by also using it as a bonding activity for some creatures that needed... bonding to? It wasn't exactly a husbandry best practice but, well, time was money. Or something to that effect, as far as Noa was concerned. 1
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Post by Noa on May 12, 2021 19:06:45 GMT -6
The gargoyle had accompanied him for the last trip, but that gargoyle was nowhere to be seen today. Noa wasn't punishing him for the low yield of the last trip, exactly, but he did want to try that spell with Rhys again, and there was no point in having the gargoyle here if Rhys was going to serve as the rock hunting guide du jour. Besides that, after having been crammed into one particularly small and troublesome tunnel last time, he was in no hurry to repeat the experience. And so they picked out a nice wide cavern, from the looks of it at least partially naturally formed, and Noa began preparations to cast the spell.
By now he knew the steps pretty much by rote, but it still took him some time to cast it. He suspected it would never get very much faster. It also took a lot of energy to do it - some of which he recouped from Rhys, but only a little.
"Well? How does it feel?" Noa asked. This was only the... what, third or fourth time they'd done this? It was still worth the effort of trying to monitor Rhys's status with regards to the usage. But Rhys seemed to be his usual self, and by now he was also getting used to the added sense that the spell gave him.
{Pretty good,} Rhys said. {I think I can sense something, but it's a little further in.} But that was pretty much a given.
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Post by Noa on May 12, 2021 19:07:22 GMT -6
Noa generally didn't find anything this close to the entrance of a cavern anyway. The stones must have been here once upon a time, but such easily available fruit, so to speak, was easy pickings for anyone who wanted it and had some equipment to their name. The good stuff was pretty inevitably deeper in.
They weren't getting any closer to it standing around here though. "If that's the case, then let's head in," he said, and stepped into the cavern. The little feathered creature, who was in Noa's pocket again, and Rhys, who usually rode on Noa's shoulder, had to come with him as a matter of course, but the Houluh pup that Noa had brought with him balked at the entrance. She pulled at the leash, whining, and even sat her rump down when Noa tried to tug her in. He didn't use a lot of force; he had no desire to haul her around by the neck if she didn't move, but he did try tugging first, to see if he could prompt her into moving if he did.
No dice on that front, unfortunately. It looked like he was going to have to convince her through more conventional means. That wouldn't have been a problem except for the matter of how long it would take... But it would be just as much hassle to try and send the pup back now, with no one available to receive her back at the estate when she got there.
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Post by Noa on May 12, 2021 19:07:41 GMT -6
Rabbit was out on an errand, and he couldn't very well communicate instructions to Briar from this distance, even if Briar was at Gracehaven at the moment.
Sighing, Noa dug around in his pockets for a treat. He did have some, having at least had the forethought to anticipate that something might go wrong with the pup that could be rectified with some treats... Though if he was being honest, it was more in the hopes that he might be able to do some training with said pup while he was down here.
The little feathered creature nestled in his pocket perked up at the sight of the treat too, so experimentally Noa broke off a little piece and fed it to the creature, but it took the thing in its beak and then spat it back out. "Not for you then?" Noa said, arching a brow. "Well, alright." The treat wasn't wasted, that much was for sure; the pup smelled it and made her way meanderingly towards it, sniffing for several long moments before picking it off the ground and eating it.
This pup was one of Nana's, but apparently she hadn't gotten the glutton gene that characterized Nana's training process. It was nice that she still liked the treat, but Noa wondered if she would be as motivated by it.
Well, there was nothing for it but to try, he supposed. "You should scout ahead a bit, see if you can narrow down the location," Noa said to Rhys.
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Post by Noa on May 12, 2021 19:08:06 GMT -6
"I know you can't go too far, but just a little bit should be fine, right? I'm going to have to do something about this." He waved a hand at the pup, who had gone back to whimpering.
{Are you sure? I could try and soothe her,} Rhys offered. He had the ability to do it, though it saw more use in calming down angry drakes than with frightened puppies.
But Noa shook his head. "This is a teaching moment," he decreed, then knelt down and held the rest of the treat down at the pup's level, right under her nose. That caught her attention, and she began to sniff at it. Now that she was distracted, the whining stopped momentarily. Noa didn't let her eat right away, of course, since the point was to try and keep her distracted and calm. Giving up the goods too early would just let her go right back to thinking about how much she didn't like being in the dark again. But he also couldn't make her wait for too long, or she might lose interest in the treat entirely and... go back to thinking about how much she didn't like being in the dark again.
It was a delicate balance. Noa decided to play things safe for now, and only kept her going for a little while before he fed her the treat. She ate it, and seemed to do a little better for a bit thanks to the treat providing a distraction.
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Post by Noa on May 12, 2021 19:08:32 GMT -6
Noa didn't let her have any room to be distracted by their environment again, taking out another treat and showing this one to her as well. It seemed to be working so far. The pup sniffed at this treat more eagerly, having already eaten the one. Noa led her in a little circle around himself to see if he could get her moving, before letting her have it. The fact that she was able to follow the treat around was a good sign. She had refused to leave a certain spot when she first balked at the cavern, so getting her moving again in general was a good step in moving past that mental block. But it also meant that he could lead her further in if he got her calm enough, which was what Noa really wanted to do.
Rhys had flown away a little further into the cavern, though being Rhys, he was keeping Noa updated with telepathic chatter in the back of Noa's mind. {I don't see anything yet,} Rhys said. {I think it must be a little deeper in. How are you doing with the pup?}
“It’s going,” Noa said, leading her around with yet another treat. Now when he pulled on the leash, he managed to get her to walk a few steps into the cavern before her surroundings caught her attention and she stopped again. Noa let her stop, but he got her attention with the treat under her nose again pretty much immediately.
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Post by Noa on May 12, 2021 19:08:56 GMT -6
He didn’t want her to get to that frightened stage if he could help it, because it would take more time to get her out of it once she was in it. And the less she felt that real, acute level of fear, the less terrible her association with being in the cave was going to be.
The little feathered creature didn’t seem to be as bothered by the darkness, though maybe that was just because it was smaller, and had less capacity to make things difficult even if it was uneasy. Right now its head was tucked into that pocket rather than poking out; it might have been napping. It was just as well, since that gave Noa more room to focus on the pup, who really did need the focus at the moment. Noa coaxed her another few steps with yet another treat, and got a little more distance out of her this time.
Experimentally he gave her a few pats, and she seemed, if not necessarily enthusiastic about them, at least not opposed to it either. After a little while, with the treat helping to distract her long enough to calm her down some, she even managed to work up some curiosity about Noa’s hands. He let her sniff them, and as she didn’t seem inclined to nip, he didn’t feel inclined to try and correct her behavior either. Whatever it took, so long as she didn’t do anything he really didn’t like.
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Post by Noa on May 12, 2021 19:09:27 GMT -6
The important thing was that she didn’t focus on how scared she was of where they were. Slowly but surely, he managed to acclimate her to being in the cave. They weren’t very deep in yet, but he had to do it at her pace. Even Noa, impatient as he could be, knew that there was no point in rushing this process. With each treat, he coaxed her to go a little further than she had gone before, and over the course of about half an hour, he managed to get her deep enough inside the cave that Noa would otherwise have lit a flashlight himself by now. But he wanted to get her used to the dark, and it would be counterproductive to use the flashlight now. Besides which, he wasn’t sure if she was going to start spooking at the shadows thrown up by the flashlight either, when he finally did have to bring it out. He hoped not, but she had balked at the darkness, so right off the bat she didn’t seem like a particularly brave individual.
Gradually, as she moved around more and more, the pup seemed to grow used to… well, to moving. And so he could get her to follow the treat a little more readily, without holding it very close to her nose. A Houluh’s nose was pretty sharp, so obviously she could follow the scent of the treat at a further distance than a mere inch or two from her nostrils.
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Post by Noa on May 12, 2021 19:09:51 GMT -6
But until now it hadn’t been a strong enough stimulus to punch through her anxiety about her surroundings. But keeping her distracted and moving had been a good call. Now that the fear switch had been off in her brain for a good while, she moved around more readily, and almost seemed to enter… not a working state of mind, exactly, since she was too young and untrained for that, but something like the beginnings of it. There was something for her to do – it might be more like a game to her at this point, but still, the idea that she ought to be focusing on it was there.
With that mindset in place, Noa made some better progress. He actually had her walking around on the leash pretty well after a certain point, and only occasionally had to stop and distract her or feed her a treat. But that was all while they were doing something, while she had something to distract her from what was going on. He needed her to be able to keep her calm even when he wasn’t actively providing her a distraction.
That took longer, but they would get there. Once he felt confident that she was okay being active in the cave, he stopped her every so often and just let her be. At first she began to grow uneasy again after a moment, and every time he saw her start to get unsettled, he would give her a little distraction with food or pets – but only a little.
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Post by Noa on May 12, 2021 19:10:25 GMT -6
And then, slowly but surely, the stretches of time before she started looking concerned got longer and longer.
It wasn’t a quick thing; in fact it took so long that Rhys flew back, with ready reports of a spot where he thought there was likely to be something good, if only they did a little bit of digging. Unfortunately for all of them, it was going to have to be Noa doing the bulk of the digging today if it was through rock. Noa wasn’t looking forward to that. But before he could get to it, he had to finish things up with the Houluh pup.
Gradually, spans of seconds and handfuls of minutes turned into longer stretches, at which point Noa felt that the pup was at least functional enough at being calm in the dark that he could take her with them. After all, it wasn’t as though they would only be sitting around waiting in the dark. He did turn the flashlight on then, and set off with the pup deeper into the cavern, with Rhys leading the way now. Once they got to the spot that Rhys had indicated, Noa got out his equipment and started chipping away.
Noa had thus far been trying to distract the pup before she could work herself into a panic, to lower the chances of her forming a strong and negative association or traumatizing herself. That would be much tougher to undo than to prevent, he knew.
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Post by Noa on May 12, 2021 19:10:57 GMT -6
Now that he had real work to do, however, there was nothing for it to but to leave her at least a little bit to her own devices. He figured that if she got real worked up, he would be able to hear it, even over the noise of his own work; and he would intervene then, if he had to.
But as it turned out, he needn’t have worried. All his slow and painstaking acclimation had paid off in the end, and the pup was ranging about without much in the way of nerves. It was Rhys keeping an eye on her, making sure she didn’t wander off too far, and even picking up the leash sometimes if he had to. But neither of them had to intervene anymore because she was scared of the dark, and Noa supposed that was something, at least.
It was just as well, because now that the Houluh pup was no longer giving Noa any trouble, it was time for one of his other charges to make a nuisance of itself. The little feathered creature, who had thus far been asleep while Noa went through that whole song and dance with the pup, chose this moment to wake up and start making a ruckus.
Okay, maybe that was uncharitable of him to think – or to say, not that he said it aloud. It was, in all likelihood, the noise from his own chiseling away at the rock that had woken the creature from its slumber.
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Post by Noa on May 12, 2021 19:11:32 GMT -6
And given that it had suffered a rude awakening, it was perhaps not completely unreasonable for it to be feeling cross. After all, Noa was himself not very gracious when he had just woken up, whether it was by his own choice or from an outside source.
Still, that did not really justify the squalling.
“Oh, hush,” Noa said, when the little feathered creature began emitting these sharp, piercing cries. When it did not heed his request, he was forced to put down his tools and reckon with it. He picked it up out of his pocket and fixed it with a look, and once he had had a good proper glower at it, the little feathered creature did calm down somewhat. At the very least, it stopped making noise, which was the outcome that Noa had been looking for.
Slowly, he lowered the little creature, unsure as to whether the quiet would hold. It was alright until it was back in the pocket, at which point the creature did not start screaming again, but did start fidgeting in earnest. Sighing, Noa stuck his hand in the pocket and felt the little creature calming down, huddling its body against his hand.
So that was that… But now he didn’t know how to keep digging. With only one hand to work with, it wasn’t as if he could handle the tools properly. The chisel and hammer required two hands as they were two tools, but the pick also needed two hands.
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Post by Noa on May 12, 2021 19:11:53 GMT -6
They were at an impasse until the little creature calmed back down enough to either fall asleep again or be more like it had been on their last trip, awake and alert but not alarmed.
But Noa supposed being forced to take a break wasn’t a bad thing either. It wasn’t as if chiseling at the rock was a particular passion of his, and he was getting kind of tired anyway. He really didn’t have the muscles for this, since the job of it had usually fallen to the gargoyle on their trips. And before that, he’d had this gem drake, who had had a terrible attitude but nevertheless managed to get the job done. Actually, Cinna would probably never have actually let Noa dig around. It wasn’t sentient, but Noa suspected that Cinna didn’t give Noa much credit in terms of his ability to… well, to mine.
Noa didn’t need credit, as long as he got what he wanted, but nevertheless it had been nice to move onto a less abrasive partnership. He found himself missing the gargoyle a little now, even if that gargoyle had led them down almost a wild goose chase the last time they were here. At least if the gargoyle was here, he wouldn’t be impeded by the feathered creature’s apparent need to spoon his hand.
“Rhys,” said Noa, walking up to where the Faeron was still minding the Houluh pup, a little ways away.
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Post by Noa on May 12, 2021 19:12:39 GMT -6
Rhys angled an ear in the direction of Noa’s approach, but didn’t feel the need to turn his entire head for it. As his familiar, Rhys was aware of where Noa was at all times. It was actually kind of disappointing that he couldn’t sneak up on Rhys for the purpose of playing jokes anymore, but in general it was more useful than not, so Noa supposed he shouldn’t complain about it.
{Oh, are you done?} said Rhys, who was still watching the pup. {What kind of stone was it? I can’t really tell yet, since I don’t know what feeling means which stone. Was it pretty? Could I see it?}
“That’s a lot of questions,” Noa said. “Anyway, I didn’t manage to dig it out yet. This guy started screaming before I could.” Noa lifted the little feathered creature out of his pocket, and the creature made a peep, but not an unhappy one. Apparently being lifted out of the pocket wasn’t something it particularly minded. Actually aside from the squalling from earlier, and the squalling it did when it was hungry, it wasn’t that troublesome a creature. Considering it had no training to speak of, it really was surprisingly even keeled.
{Oh,} said Rhys, who finally did turn now to look at the creature in question. {But it’s quiet now, isn’t it?} And it was true, the creature wasn't making any sharp, piercing screams at them anymore.
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Post by Noa on May 12, 2021 19:13:03 GMT -6
“It must have calmed down,” Noa said. “But I figured I needed a break anyway. My arms were starting to feel kind of sore.”
{You’re really not very good at digging, huh?} Rhys said, not unsympathetically. There was pity in his voice, but all the same.
Noa crossed his arms. “Hey, are you comparing me to that gargoyle? I’ll have you know, those guys are made for things like this. I’m made for… finer things.” Besides, it wasn’t as if Noa didn’t know anything about stone carving or digging through rock. What he lacked in terms of physical strength, he made up for at least in part through intelligence and expertise. He knew how to dig efficiently, which when you didn’t have brute strength, made up for it in part. It was just that all the finesse in the world wouldn’t keep Noa from actually getting tired.
But the weakness of his body was not new, and it wasn’t news to either of them. They had both been working around Noa and his condition for a long time now. Noa didn’t want to dwell on it, so he turned his attention to a different topic. “She hasn’t gotten into any trouble since I started?” he said, indicating the Houluh pup with a toss of his head.
{No, though I had to stop her from trying to eat a rock once,} Rhys said, which got Noa to raise a brow at him.
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