|
Post by Noa on Oct 7, 2020 0:34:17 GMT -6
After all, if he left and it spread, that would definitely be bad, so he forced himself to stay until it had burned down into nothing.
Which meant they had some waiting to do. The fire was strong, but it wasn’t so strong as to instantly incinerate that much wood. It wasn’t exactly comfortable to sit around either, even though it was autumn, and the air was starting to feel chilly enough that a regular fire wouldn’t have been remiss, if only it had been smaller. Alas, this hot-and-cold flame did little to alleviate a chill, and was just downright uncomfortable to be around in a general sense.
Seeing as there was no real way to get comfortable in its immediate vicinity, Aster figured he might as well find somewhere better to wait, and led Nightshade down a little ways to a bench on the path between garden plots.
71
|
|
|
Post by Noa on Oct 7, 2020 0:34:39 GMT -6
At least this thing had been well maintained, though given the state of this stretch of gardens, Aster wondered if city officials felt that it was a waste of time.
And given the kinds of creatures Aster was bringing to the gardens lately, he wondered if he was somehow deterring the owners of nearby plots from making an appearance.
Well, if they had a problem, they could take it up with him directly. Which they wouldn’t do if they were bothered by Nightshade’s presence, since no one who was bothered by the sight of such a Wiurn would have the guts to approach Aster while he was in Nightshade’s company. All this to say that if Nightshade was scaring away the riff-raff, then good for him. Aster had never been very social, or very good at socializing.
There was still the matter of passing the time while they waited for the pyre to burn down.
72
|
|
|
Post by Noa on Oct 7, 2020 0:35:05 GMT -6
To that end, Aster began going over the tricks that Nightshade had learned with him. Nightshade was happy enough to oblige, knowing that commands inevitably meant rewards, and as far as Aster could tell, he really hadn’t gotten sick of his reward of choice yet.
As Aster scratched under Nightshade’s chin, he regarded the Wiurn with a bemused expression. “Is it really that enjoyable?” he asked, frowning slightly. As if in response, Nightshade made a rumble of contentment. Aster sighed. “I don’t know why I bother asking you,” he said. “Of course you think so. You’re willing to do all sorts of things just for this, huh?”
It struck him as an incredibly simple way to live life, but Nightshade seemed content with what he had, so who was Aster to criticize him? Honestly, maybe his creatures had the right of it, saying what they had about the ribbons.
73
|
|
|
Post by Noa on Oct 7, 2020 0:35:27 GMT -6
Maybe it was being human that was the burden, having all these thoughts and problems to contend with. Maybe it would be easier to be happy if all happiness meant to him was a full belly. He thought of Grunty, and how the Thundergug didn’t seem troubled by anything happening outside his own little corner of the world.
Unfortunately, the option wasn’t really available to him. And being the human, he was charged with the responsibility of looking out for the creatures who were under his care. If he went and became a bird or something, what would happen to them?
Shaking his head, he dismissed the thoughts. Ruminating on the matter would do him no good. He went back to practicing tricks with Nightshade until he could see the fire burn down enough for him to stomp it out, then went to take care of its remnants.
74
|
|
|
Post by Noa on Oct 7, 2020 0:36:20 GMT -6
Only once the whole thing was put out did he finally head for home, by which point it was a relief to be heading back. ---- Over the past couple of weeks, Aster and Nightshade had fallen into sort of a pattern. They went out to the gardens, and Aster did work until he got sick of it, and then he would spend time playing with or training Nightshade. Sometimes he got sick of garden work pretty quickly; sometimes it took him quite a while to get to a place where it felt suitable to stop. Today was one of the former. He just couldn’t get into it today. After maybe thirty minutes of trying, he eventually gave up, and went to go see what Nightshade was doing. The nice thing about this Wiurn, he always seemed to have time for Aster. Or maybe that wasn’t the word Aster was looking for. 75
|
|
|
Post by Noa on Oct 7, 2020 0:37:01 GMT -6
It wasn’t as if his other creatures tended to have other engagements so much as it was that they didn’t always look enthused to see him.
The next best one about this was Azalea, but even she had off days. Nightshade always looked as though he expected good things.
Aster knew part of it was just how much Nightshade liked attention. In fact, that was probably the bulk of it, actually. But part of him wondered if it wasn’t also because the Wiurn had no access to Aster’s thoughts, and was thereby free from being plagued by them. Or by the more complex problems that you inevitably began to think about if there was a human in your head thinking thoughts at you all the time.
Grunty didn’t really show it - though, okay, in Grunty’s case the reluctance probably had more to do with an unwillingness to be made to do work.
76
|
|
|
Post by Noa on Oct 7, 2020 0:37:23 GMT -6
And Azalea hid it, in her case likely because she didn’t want to trouble him with it. But Avander talked about it sometimes, how things used to be a lot simpler for him before he got his ribbon, and Avander had had his ribbon a pretty long time. The way Avander talked about it, it wasn’t all bad, and somehow Aster trusted Avander to show him at least some degree of candor. But Aster really did wonder if maybe they wanted a break from the mental connection now and again, outside of his sleeping hours.
Well, either way, Nightshade wasn’t troubled by these considerations. He looked up as Aster approached, anticipating nothing more than some games or other enjoyable thing, and greeted Aster by bumping his nose to Aster’s shoulder. A request for pets, as always. He was getting to be as predictable as Grunty in some ways.
77
|
|
|
Post by Noa on Oct 7, 2020 0:37:44 GMT -6
Aster indulged him briefly, but he figured maybe Nightshade could use something more active today. Sometimes they played tug of war; it was an odd thing to be doing with a creature of this size, but Nightshade sometimes menaced his toys in a way that wasn’t altogether unlike a dog. Aster had one of Nightshade’s toys with him, and now he offered the tug rope to the Wiurn, who took it up readily and began to tug.
Nightshade didn’t tug as hard as he could have, of course. He had learned pretty early on that it wasn’t much of a game if he did, since Aster wasn’t capable of matching him in strength. Even so, he dragged out the game by holding back, and tugging a little at a time, and he seemed to enjoy it, so Aster kept playing with him even with these low stakes.
78
|
|
|
Post by Noa on Oct 7, 2020 0:37:54 GMT -6
Today though, Aster put a little more effort into it. And Nightshade, surprised by the change in tenacity from his opponent, tugged harder to.
At some point, darkness engulfed the rope.
Aster let go. The rope was immediately yanked from him, but he wasn’t bothered. In fact, it was what he was looking for, and now he scratched Nightshade under the chin. “Good boy,” Aster said. He regretted only that he hadn’t managed to utter a command word in time, but then he hadn’t known whether Nightshade would really do it until just then.
This was one ability Aster had been aware of for some time. It did come up occasionally when they played, and at first Aster considered trying to work with Nightshade to get it under control, but it seemed to happen only when Nightshade was biting, and Nightshade didn’t seem particularly interested in biting anyone or anything he shouldn’t, so long as Aster was there to watch over him.
79
|
|
|
Post by Noa on Oct 7, 2020 0:38:05 GMT -6
And all the other creatures on the property were either stalled well away from where a Wiurn might reach them, or could fend for themselves.
Something like this might be what people wanted to see at a contest celebrating spooks though, so now seemed as good a time to work on it as any. And Aster had managed to coax it from him this once, though the question now was how to get him to do it again.
Being rewarded told Nightshade that Aster was looking for something, at least. The Wiurn was definitely paying more attention when Aster brought out the rope again. Aster considered saying the word when Nightshade latched on, but that would probably have been premature of him. He didn’t want Nightshade associating the word with the simple action of biting, after all.
He would wait, then, for the shadowy bit. There was no guarantee it would happen again either.
80
|
|
|
Post by Noa on Oct 7, 2020 0:38:17 GMT -6
Nightshade latched onto the rope, though a bit more deliberately than he had before, pausing to see if this was what Aster was looking for. It wasn’t, but Aster gave the rope a tug, signalling for them to begin.
They played the normal way for a bit, and nothing happened, so - and sighing at the apparent need for it - Aster tugged harder. It was hard to watch Nightshade carefully and throw his full effort into tugging against the rope, but he knew he had to if he wanted to do this. So he did, eyes open even as he wanted to close them in a grimace against the strain.
And then he saw it. Nightshade biting down harder, and the issuance of some dark energy from his jaws. “Shadow bite,” Aster said, just as soon as he saw the first wisps of shadowy energy, though he kept tugging to draw out a more pronounced effect before letting go, and praising Nightshade again.
81
|
|
|
Post by Noa on Oct 7, 2020 0:38:29 GMT -6
Gods, he hoped Nightshade caught on quickly this time. He didn’t know how many more times he could do that. Giving a Wiurn even a bit of a challenge was no small feat.
Shaking his hands out to get rid of the feeling of the rope, Aster took a deep breath before trying again. This attempt was more of the same: tug hard, wait for Nightshade to do his thing, and try to get the command word off before Nightshade actually fully committed. This time Aster noticed that Nightshade bit down a bit harder before the thing with the shadows happened, so maybe that was the real cue he ought to look for. Aster praised Nightshade once again for a job well done, let himself have a breather, then started the whole process over again.
Five tries. Five such tries were all that Aster had in him, and he wasn’t a weak or indolent man.
82
|
|
|
Post by Noa on Oct 7, 2020 0:38:42 GMT -6
People were just not meant to play this game with predators of this size. But five tries might be enough. He had to hope that it was enough.
This time when Aster held the rope up, he gave the command right away. “Shadow bite,” he said. Nightshade picked up the slack, and gave a tug, but Aster didn’t offer much in the way of resistance this time. “Shadow bite,” he said again, as if the words had any significance to the Wiurn, though it was entirely possible that they didn’t yet.
Nightshade watched him for a moment. And then he bit down, and those same shadowy wisps began to form.
“Good boy,” Aster said, immediately letting go of the rope and moving to pat Nightshade, making sure to give him extra enthusiastic pets in response to having figured out what Aster wanted of him. “That’s the idea. Just keep doing that and we’ll be good.”
83
|
|
|
Post by Noa on Oct 7, 2020 0:38:52 GMT -6
Of course, it wasn’t that simple, but it was the gist of what Aster wanted him to do. If Nightshade could manage it consistently, that was most of the work done.
Naturally, the thing to do was to try again immediately after. Aster picked up the rope again and presented it to Nightshade. “Shadow bite,” he said. This time Nightshade latched on more readily, and there was less of a pause before the shadows started issuing from his jaws on the bite. “Good boy.”
They repeated this process a few times to reinforce the word in conjunction with the command, and Nightshade’s confidence seemed to grow with each repetition. Aster felt better too, no longer having to tug to prompt Nightshade to do this. And because Aster had been letting go of the rope as soon as he got what he wanted, before too long Nightshade seemed to understand the idea that he only needed to bite, and that there was no need for the prolonged tugging that they had been doing earlier.
84
|
|
|
Post by Noa on Oct 7, 2020 0:39:03 GMT -6
Maybe it was less fun for him this way, but it was a lot easier on Aster. And in a combat situation, which was always what Aster meant to prepare for when he taught his creatures these things, there wouldn’t be time for such games.
From there, it was just a matter of trying different objects with Nightshade, to get him used to the idea of biting something other than the rope. This wasn’t too difficult to do. Aster presented him first with other toys, and then with sticks. After a little initial confusion and hesitation, Nightshade performed the ‘shadow bite’. And once he could see that Aster rewarded him just the same, he didn’t hesitate anymore.
Aster still practiced it with him on a wider variety of objects over the next two days, but by that point he wasn’t worried about the Wiurn’s progress. He had this. And this was the last bit of training that Aster wanted to put together before they went off and signed themselves up for that contest.
85
|
|