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Post by Noa on Aug 7, 2021 12:54:07 GMT -6
After their stint at the gym with the little feathered creature, Noa thought they might as well return to the mines too. It was funny how he had slowly begun to associate the little feathered creature with this place, since they had come here so often together. The little feathered creature wasn't any help when it came to mining, but it was a good way to spend time bonding with it while he did other things. That was what Noa thought, anyway; husbandry experts might not agree with his methods, but he figured as long as he was spending time with the creature, it probably didn't matter much what it was they were doing, so long as it was also not actively harming the creature or causing it distress. And maybe this wouldn't have been true for creatures from other regions, or at least not as much so -- but the creatures here were made to serve the people who owned them, and many of them were made so as to be predisposed to be biddable. One of his other companions, a Sarane drake, wasn't particularly biddable, but they tended to be the exception rather than the rule. And sometimes he wanted a challenge too, which was why he kept them around. Noa's trip here afforded him the opportunity to work on the gem detection spell again too. He was getting quite deft at casting it, and the energy shimmered over Rhys's form after only a little bit of concentration on his part. 1
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Post by Noa on Aug 7, 2021 13:00:27 GMT -6
Rhys was used to it by now too, having gone through it a few times, so there was less of a delay between when Noa applied the spell and when he began waving his whiskers about, as if casting around for something. It would still take him some time to actually find anything, since he didn't have a sense for gems until after the spell was cast, and he needed time to get his bearings. But while he did that, there were other things that Noa himself had to attend to.
Namely, the issue of the little feathered creature, who was currently huddled in one of Noa's empty pockets, shaking like a twig.
It was funny, actually -- he had been around big and dangerous creatures so much in the last few years that he had actually forgotten the effects they had on creatures, or people, who weren't acclimated to them. And maybe it was because he worked with beasts that were even more dangerous, like Azalea and Grunty, on a fairly regular basis, but he didn't really think of Sarane as things to be cowed by anymore. And usually, to be fair, they didn't have quite so acute an effect on other creatures around them. In this case it was because it was Alioth, and he was a third tier drake; apparently the sight of those big horns really put the fear of the gods in the uninitiated.
"Oh come on," Noa said. "It's really not that bad. It's being dramatic, isn't it?"
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Post by Noa on Aug 7, 2021 16:40:18 GMT -6
Ostensibly he must have been asking Rhys, since Rhys was the only one who could respond, but Rhys didn't bother responding as he was currently occupied doing something else. But Noa knew that, and he wasn't really expecting a reply. He turned to address the drake himself. "You agree with me, don't you, Ali? You're not frightening at all."
Alioth flared his nostrils and made a low rumble that might have been a growl. The little feathered creature's shaking became more pronounced. Noa looked between the two of them and sighed. "So unhelpful in this household... Very well."
He walked a few steps away from Alioth. The drake attempted to follow him at first, but after a bit of back and forth and some insistent hand motions, Noa made it clear to the drake that he wanted Alioth to stay where he was. Then, he reached into the pocket and tried to extricate the little feathered creature, but the creature wouldn't be budged from its hiding place. It had the audacity to try and peck at Noa's hand as he tried to take it out, which hurt, but only made Noa more determined to follow through with it. After all, if he rewarded the behavior by giving in, then what sort of message would he be sending?
Fingers slightly bloodied, he extricated the little feathered creature from the pocket after all... only for the little feathered creature to wriggle free of his grasp, shedding a few feathers in the process.
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Post by Noa on Aug 7, 2021 16:45:25 GMT -6
"What -- Oh, gods damn it," said Noa, and gave chase. He had no choice but to rush after the creature as it attempted to make its great escape. All that time at the gym had only served to make it faster, so it took some chasing and trapping before Noa was finally able to corner it. It screeched at him in an impressive display of defiance, but of course it was no match for Noa's determination to subdue it.
Noa picked it up, and made sure to hold onto it firmly this time. It still made some pitiful cheeping noises -- it really was quite bird-like, even though it wasn't exactly a real bird -- and wiggled in his grip. "You're not getting away that easily this time," Noa said, and began walking back to where Alioth was standing.
He hadn't intended to take the little feathered creature right up to where Alioth was, but this was too far a distance for any sort of effective training, Noa thought. But the little feathered creature evidently thought that he intended to take it to be eaten or something, because it began at once to struggle with renewed vigor. "You would think I'd slaughtered your entire family, rather than feeding you every day like a fool," Noa said, frowning at these antics.
Though it seemed that he had underestimated the creature's determination. With a mighty struggle, despite Noa's best attempts to get a better grip on it, it wiggled free once again... leaving Noa with more feathers.
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Post by Noa on Aug 7, 2021 16:49:58 GMT -6
That this was becoming a pattern wasn't a comfortable thing for Noa, who stared at the feathers in his hand and fell into thought. If it could wiggle free from his grasp... Ah, come to think of it, he remembered that some creatures had this ability as a defense mechanism, shedding some of their fur or feathers to help them escape the grip of a predator or rival. He didn't know that it could be induced like this.
Perhaps it was an avenue worth exploring.
He gave chase with renewed purpose, and when he had managed to close in on the little feathered creature once more, he picked the creature up again, more loosely at first. It wiggled free almost immediately, though the grip was loose enough this time that it hadn't needed to shed any feathers to escape. But that was good; Noa rewarded it with a treat. If he began rewarding for this, maybe he could get it to reproduce the behavior under conditions other than intense duress.
{I found some -- what are you doing?} Rhys said, coming up to where Noa was now, and taking in the scene with a perplexed look.
"Training, what does it look like?" Noa replied. Rhys could always skim his thoughts for the full details if he wanted them. Right now Noa was focusing on getting this training under way. The little creature didn't flee as far this time, partly because it had been rewarded with food, and partly because they were already a good distance from Alioth.
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Post by Nadia on Aug 7, 2021 16:53:40 GMT -6
Pick up these before you start training!
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Post by Noa on Aug 7, 2021 16:55:41 GMT -6
As for acclimating the little feathered creature to Alioth's presence, well... They could do that after they were finished with this. For the moment Noa thought it would be more helpful to have a force that could freak out the little feathered creature somewhat, in case nothing else seemed to work and they had to go back to the drawing board. He hoped it wouldn't come to that, but sometimes that was what one had to do for training purposes.
He grabbed the little feathered creature again, a little more tightly this time. Having gone through the same process several times in the past few minutes, it knew immediately that it ought to start struggling at once. After a little more effort than the last time, it slipped out, and this time a few loose feathers were left in its wake.
Noa gave it a bigger treat this time.
{Wait, you want it to escape? That's what you're training it to do?} said Rhys incredulously, watching the entire exchange take place.
"If it can escape from my grip, then it can escape from other things," Noa said. "I didn't teach you this because he has to shed his feathers to do it. Most of you don't have feathers or hair." It was kind of funny if he thought about it; most of the creatures he worked with tended to be sort of reptilian in nature. Pliathor were... what, were they some kind of fish? But Azalea specifically had a scaly hide too.
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Post by Noa on Aug 7, 2021 17:12:35 GMT -6
So it all worked out to be about the same, in the end. Avander had his mane now that he was a Wiurn, and there was certainly a lot of hair there, so maybe he could do something similar... But for now Noa only knew for sure that the little feathered creature was capable of it, being covered in feathers as he was.
Now that they were a sufficient distance from Alioth and it was being rewarded for its escapes, the little feathered creature didn't even try to run away from Noa anymore. "Good to know all that feeding was good for something," Noa said, with a hint of irony, as he picked up the little feathered creature once again. It cheeped at him in response. "Very well, here we go again," he said, and wrapped it up in his fingers in an even firmer grip this time. It began wiggling at once. It took more effort but it came free this time too, and Noa was left with nothing more than a handful of feathers.
{At this rate it's not going to have any feathers left,} Rhys remarked as Noa fed the feathered creature a treat.
"You're just jealous that you can't do it, aren't you?" Noa said. Rhys didn't dignify that with a reply, knowing that of course Noa didn't mean it. There was no position to usurp here; the little feathered creature couldn't do any of the things Rhys did, even fly, at least for the moment.
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Post by Noa on Aug 7, 2021 17:25:19 GMT -6
And while Noa was optimistic that the flying part might change in the future, he rather doubted it would ever have Rhys's telepathy or his ability with healing. That would be a lot of development for a creature who thus far had no real skills at all to speak of except the ability to scream on command. And Rhys could do that too, when it came down to it.
Rhys did have a point though, and Noa didn't want to do this too many more times. Just as soon as the little feathered creature seemed to have the idea down. It no longer seemed stressed as it was wiggling free from his grasp, even though it was still shedding its feathers and getting out of pretty firm grips, and that was what Noa wanted to see. He repeated the process a couple more times with the little feathered creature, then decided he was satisfied, and allowed it a little break to rest.
"You watch him for a bit," said Noa to Rhys, then went over to see how Alioth was doing. These caves weren't exactly the ideal place for a Sarane that wasn't used to being underground. Alioth and Abelia both had some of the black breed in their genes, but she seemed to do better with dark and enclosed spaces than he did. It helped, Noa supposed, that she was the smaller of the two, and didn't have to wrangle with the horns that he had to account for.
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Post by Noa on Aug 7, 2021 17:32:28 GMT -6
And while Alioth was broken, Noa hadn't really bothered to teach him much in the way of basic obedience beyond his name and the word 'no'. It was enough, generally speaking, to control him if Noa was present and more or less paying attention, but it wasn't exactly the sort of fine level of good behavior that would keep him from wandering off or causing trouble if he had been ignored for a while.
He seemed a little cagey, but not too bad. Noa gave him some food too, just to give him something else to think about. "Rhys, see if you can settle his nerves a bit. I'll get this guy sorted out, and then I'll take over working with Alioth, but I can't keep both of them occupied at the same time."
{Okay, switch,} said Rhys, without any complaints this time. This was work, and for that matter it was the kind of work that Noa had especially trained Rhys to help him with. Calming down the Sarane with his psychic abilities was something that Noa had in mind for how to manage so many different drakes at once. They couldn't always be in stasis, after all. Noa walked back over to the little feathered creature, while Rhys fluttered over to Alioth, who jerked once -- probably as the Faeron's mind made contact -- and then relaxed again.
"And now you," Noa said, considering the little feathered creature. He couldn't grab it and take it right up to Alioth after all that.
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Post by Noa on Aug 7, 2021 17:39:28 GMT -6
It would certainly just escape from his grasp. The only solution to this problem was food. Noa supposed he walked right into that one, but the little feathered creature was almost always hungry anyway, so it wasn't as if this was much of an issue. He took out another mealworm, and held it out in front of him.
At once, the little feathered creature started to focus on it. Noa led it around this way and then that way, then led it closer to Alioth but in a winding trail, so that it might not realize what he was doing until it was too late.
The distraction worked, and it came a little closer to Alioth. Noa let it have the treat, then immediately fished out another so it didn't get distracted and freak out before Noa had a chance to pacify it. Fortunately it hadn't yet noticed what was happening, and Noa managed to coax it a little closer to Alioth again.
This method only worked for so long before it did, finally, notice where it was... and Noa let the knowledge sink in a little bit, because desensitizing like this wouldn't work if the little feathered creature never even noticed the thing that it was supposed to be desensitized to. But as soon as it started to look frightened again, Noa offered food, and the pull of that was just enough to get it to shift its focus for a while. Noa didn't make it work as hard for this piece.
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Post by Noa on Aug 7, 2021 17:49:17 GMT -6
After all, it was clearly in no mood to work for much of anything, and if the food wasn't within easy reach, Noa thought the creature might start ignoring it in favor of simply being frightened. And that wouldn't accomplish anything at all.
While Rhys kept the drake calm, Noa worked with the little feathered creature slowly, little by little, feeding and talking to it to distract it. And although it wasn't happy whenever it noticed Alioth's presence, gradually it did allow itself to be coaxed closer to the drake, so long as it was kept occupied with food and other distractions. And other distractions did work after a while, like Noa talking to it and gently preening its feathers with his fingers. It seemed to draw some comfort from them both, and although Noa didn't really understand it, he could see that it was working, so he kept it up.
And then, gradually, he moved to giving the little feathered creature things to do rather than things it liked. It had calmed down enough by now that it could focus on other things if he gave it those other things to focus on, and the goal was eventually to get it to be calm enough to be unbothered even with Noa doing nothing at all to help. This wasn't quite that stage, but it was a step closer to that, and being able to function in the presence of something that it had been scared of before was progress.
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Post by Noa on Aug 7, 2021 18:08:03 GMT -6
And after quite some time of that, to the point where even Rhys was starting to get fidgety and start looking toward the two of them, Noa eventually started lapsing in providing distractions, so that there were gaps where the feathered creature wasn't doing anything at all. And in those moments it certainly noticed Alioth, who was standing quite close to where they were now. But it had already grown so acclimated to the drake's presence that, although it was a little uneasy at first, it was nowhere close to the freaking out that it had been doing before.
That was good, Noa thought. Or at least it was good enough for him, anyway. The little feathered creature was sufficiently calm now that Rhys ought to be able to keep an eye on it without too much trouble, although if things got real bad, Rhys could also always put it to sleep.
Now it was time for them to switch targets again, with Rhys watching over the little feathered creature and Noa working with the drake. Maybe he could also get in a little bit of mining now too. He couldn't really afford to take a break before, because until the little feathered creature could stay calm around Alioth, it wasn't as if he could take his eyes off it. But what he wanted to teach Alioth was much less urgent.
"Where did you say those gems were at, come to think of it?" Noa said to Rhys, considering his options.
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Post by Noa on Aug 7, 2021 18:17:56 GMT -6
The Faeron perked up, and indicated with a wave of a whisker. {It's not too far from where we are now, actually,} Rhys said. Just over there, if you start digging next to a stalactite...} Rhys broadcasted a mental image to go with his words, and Noa could just about see where he meant. Picking up his tools, Noa went over to that area and began to dig. Alioth joined him, more to have something to do than anything else. Rhys's treatment had done him some good as far as keeping him calmed in the dark space, and in the meantime he had been doing a whole lot of nothing for a while now, so he was probably getting pretty bored.
It was kind of a bummer to have to dig for stuff himself, but since the gargoyle wasn't here to help facilitate anything, this was going to have to do. It wasn't as if Noa didn't know how to do stonework, and he had even made a thing of studying it so he could do it more efficiently with the limited strength that he had. And as it turned out, if you knew what you were doing, you didn't even need to be that strong to cut through rock... But you really did have to know what you were doing, in that case. He went at it with the pick for a while, and then stopped he saw hints of something else on the new surface he had unearthed.
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Post by Noa on Aug 7, 2021 18:21:26 GMT -6
From that point on it was time for him to switch tools, so he came out with the hammer and chisel and chipped away more finely at the rock that he was dealing with, in an attempt to isolate the portion of the rock that he wanted to preserve. A gem was no good if it was split in half, unless it was very large; and even then it would be worth more in one solid piece than as two split halves.
Eventually he worked it free, and put it away in a pouch without giving it too close an examination. He had seen enough to recognize that it was valuable, and he could do with a finer appraisal after he had gotten home, and wasn't working by the light of a torch. Now that he had found one stone, he felt a little better about the mining trip in a general sense, and was ready to start doing a little more training work with Alioth.
It wasn't a lot of work, but Noa had a hen that he had recently acquired whom he thought would pair well with Alioth. And to facilitate that, they were going to have to get Alioth dominant... which meant that Alioth was going to have to fight other drakes... which meant that Alioth had to learn an attack, first and foremost, because he wasn't going to win any fights by standing there and looking pretty, as funny as that sort of thing would be.
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