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Post by Lethalia on Aug 11, 2021 21:24:09 GMT -6
Lethalia didn't want to assume their intellect - sarane didn't exactly have a lot of that to go around - but she had to wonder if Rime had any knowledge that this gleaming white was his daughter. Surely they'd indiscriminately inbreed if it was left up to them, but somehow it'd seemed like the drake knew. It was just... nothing except for Stark could approach Rimefang without getting their head ripped off, while June must have played with his fluffy white tail for the greater part of an hour. Made it hopeful that there was more to her savage white lineage than hate and pain. That wasn't a legacy she was interested in carrying on - and if she could save Juniper from the sour life her father led, she'd count that as a complete win. Juniper strode into the gym with a purpose this time. She knew this place, knew what training was - especally when her owner came prepared with a sack laden full of treats that could only be for the hen. Leth appreciated the young hen's spirited heading into the gym, only hoping they could keep that willingness alive throughout an entire day of hard work. The hen had been doing quite admirable with the work during their past visits. stamina|2
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Post by Lethalia on Aug 11, 2021 21:25:05 GMT -6
Juniper knew these hills! They bypassed the track entirely just like last time, and Leth only hoped they wouldn't get shooed off of the grass! They got lucky enough last time that they weren't driven off, hopefully it would be the same this time. Surprisingly enough, Juniper headed straight for the rolling hills before Lethalia could even drop her bag and thermos off nearby. "Lookt'cha, June!" she laughed as the white blur sailed over those rolling hills, just the smallest amount slimmer and more lithe than a typical hen. June was still pretty normal and looked like a hen from a distance complete with belly and hennish form, but there was no mistaking the less fat and a bit more muscle build up than sitting on eggs lends them. There was one of those hen specific tournaments coming up - it was a goddamn tragedy that the satyr hadn't entered the first one while claiming hens were her favorite creatures. Now that she had a rather suitable hen, getting back into tournaments sounded like a lot of fun, actually. With a willing partner, it made the pit that much more bearable. Still, going to the gym with a hen got no few funny looks. stamina|3
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Post by Lethalia on Aug 11, 2021 21:26:00 GMT -6
Maybe that was the whole thing about hens. It wasn't in their nature to go pick fights like the drakes, but hens could still come close to a drake's level with enough work. That meant often there was no reason to shovel the work in for a sub-par animal, but Leth had never really been concerned with pure power. This - this was quickly becoming a challenge, bringing Juniper up from an awkwardly rushed teenager to her next pit hopeful. Now if she could just get a saddle on such a gorgeous hen to show around town! Somehow she saw more fighting coming of that than she ever would in a gym trip. If Juniper was happy exercising herself, Lethalia was more than happy to let her go right ahead without her owner's guidance. Hell, it came down to being active and running Juniper around as much in a day as she could, Leth was going to struggle to keep up with the hen. All of her experience with distance running, she was slowly but surely getting outpaced by the growing hen. As much as she might hate the fact her creature was getting a leg up on her, it was nothing but a good thing to see her improving so trememdously. stamina|4
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Post by Lethalia on Aug 11, 2021 21:26:21 GMT -6
The more work June did herself, the more Leth could try and keep her going from the sidelines to retain enough energy to keep up with her throughout the day. It sounded like a good plan, up until Juniper stopped her romping through the grassy knolls to whirl around and look pointedly at her owner. "Yeah?" Lethalia asked, grinning to herself about the demanding snort that followed. Was she really demanding that the satyr had to be doing work, too? "Wha'? 'm I s'posed to be goin', too?" she further inquired, getting a playful little twist of June's neck as she tossed her head and bounced forward. She could only maintain looking so cold and aloof looking for a short amount of time. Under there was that goofy kid Leth had grown accustomed to; there could be hope for her yet. "Okay - comin'ta getcha!" Leth crowed in announcement, giving up the pleasant idea of just sitting and drinking coffee while June played. It could never be so cut and dry, could it? Her thermos was dropped by her bag and the satyr took off after the hen, charging through the dewy grass to where the hen had made it rather far across the field. Juniper lv|39 ly|39 stamina|5
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Post by Lethalia on Aug 11, 2021 21:26:38 GMT -6
With another dorky toss of her head, Juniper danced in place while her owner approached and took off while the woman was still quite the long way out. Leth couldn't help but chortle about it a little - the hen had already gotten enough of a head start, now she had to go and make the gap even bigger? She really didn't want to give her owner a chance in hell to catch up! When they first started coming to the gym, Lethalia was certain she could both outpace and outlast the diminutive hen. Now? Now she had much less of a chance to actually catch the hen, and she was beginning to think the hen very well might be developing her stamina enough she could go a while longer than her owner. Using herself as a metric for her creatures paled in comparison to what they were capable of, but it kept things in perspective when they were starting out. The only thing Leth had on the hen was a wee bit of brains. Juniper dodged around the hills and weaved in a funny irregular pattern. It would have made her hard to shoot. It made it much, much easier to cut straight across and catch up to her. stamina|6
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Post by Lethalia on Aug 11, 2021 21:26:59 GMT -6
Juniper was having the time of her life; she was gliding between the hills in a way that made Leth wonder if she was going to turn into mist herself. They'd gone early enough the sun wasn't sweltering yet, and the blades of grass flicked dew from their morning watering. It suited them both better than the summer heat, but thanks to her desert red dam Juniper wasn't as bothered by the heat as most technical tundra dwellers would. "Gonna getcha!" Lethalia announced with a booming voice as she came up behind June. Her tail was within range to catch, if anybody was stupid enough to do that. Looking back to where her owner tailed her, the hen gave a quiet screech that sounded more playful than truly offended. If the hen had been actually upset, Leth would probably have ended with a face full of thorns right about now. Happily, June liked her more than that.
Smiling to herself, Lethalia allowed Juniper to put on some speed and put more distance between them. The satyr would tire if she tried to catch the hen the whole day, but being the driving force behind her? This she could do forever.
stamina|7
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Post by Lethalia on Aug 11, 2021 21:27:30 GMT -6
It was even rather fun. It'd been such a long time since the woman had gone hunting, she'd almost forgotten how much fun it was to feel like an actual predator from time to time. There was no thrill in the simple butchering she did now; the fodder being brought to you was rather boring. Her expertise paid the bills, but she'd more readily go out hunting if it were legal in the labs' outskirts. Not that legality changed her mind on many things, but sentry bots.. could. So this was as close as she would get, playing with her critters in a pseudo game of cat and mouse. It was every bit as real as the play fighting of hatchlings - and that was to say, it served a very real purpose of increasing their coordination and honing those fighting skills. June could always use some catch up in that department! She hadn't gotten nearly enough time to simply play and explore as a hatchling. Hm, funny, reminded her of another peculiar white. Rimefang's curse be damned, Juniper was happy now. Leth could see in the faltering of the hen's steps that she was growing tired after some time, but she was unwilling to give up her lead. stamina|8
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Post by Lethalia on Aug 11, 2021 21:27:47 GMT -6
So, Leth used that stubborn nature to keep pushing Juniper on. Of course the satyr could feel that ache in her own bones, but it was one that was something of an old friend to her. The ache of running and pressing further - it had been the entirety of her life for a long time. She could keep going for a while yet, if she kept metering her speed while Juniper yo-yoed all over the place. She'd tire and slow, speeding up and dashing away only when her lagging put her in her owner's path. Not wanting to hurt the hen, Leth knew she wasn't going to be able to set a hand on Juniper's pallid scales either. Well - only one way to reel June back in. "June!" Leth coasted to a stop and hollered for the hen, who didn't seem to quite trust her owner conceding and maintained a swath of field between them. "C'mon, Juni. We cou'go swimmin' at th'lake," she suggested, making sure she heard those choice words loud and clear. 'Lake' was the word used at home, so Leth used it for the word she almost mistakenly associated with water. Agreeable when swimming was on the table and her owner turned her back first to begin jogging towards the long oval pool. stamina|9
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Post by Lethalia on Aug 11, 2021 21:28:06 GMT -6
Juniper slid into the water with her own strange grace, and Lethalia soothed her panic as it flared when she knelt by the pool's edge to peer in. This was the only time she got to see the hen swimming in clear water, something she hadn't appreciated enough about the gym in the first place. Of course it was uncanny looking down at the lithe form of a predator just underwater, her entire body cutting through the water and her wings and legs tucked out of the way rather than helping. She could only imagine how much a blue's tail helped them swim like this. Much as she liked the water, the injection hadn't removed her need to breathe or extended the amount of time she could hold her breath. She was getting markedly better at it as she got older, but pliathor she was not. She had to surface in pretty short order, floating there with her nose out of the water and her wings fanned across the surface in a way that looked like it took no effort at all. It was as good of a place as any for her to rest before going again. Clearly her owner couldn't bother her much when she floated in the center of the pool lane without some effort, and Leth had been wanting for the hen to take a break too much to disrupt that. Juniper lv|40 ly|40 stamina|10 stam+2 end
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Post by Lethalia on Sept 29, 2021 20:28:29 GMT -6
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Post by Lethalia on Sept 29, 2021 20:29:55 GMT -6
At least June was easy to get to the gym, compared to Vidarr. In spite of both being introduced to the hard work early as they could, the drake simply couldn't stand this place where the hen seemed to think of it the same as venturing anywhere else. Lethalia pondered that she'd made a mistake in telling her drake that the gym was a place of extra hard work, back when she underestemated his willpower or lack thereof. Juniper? She was beginning to walk into the gym as if she owned the place, and at this point she was likely half convinced it really was hers. Sarane were funny like that. It was (one of the reasons) why Lethalia hadn't put a lot of energy into turning more of them dominant; she simply didn't have the space or patience for constant pissing contests between them to see who's territory belonged to whom. Once June got there, it was going to be trial enough with two dominant outdoor hens. Well, they had to get to that point before there was reason to fret over it. There was quite a chunk of work to get done before that happened, especially if she was trying to equip the hen to go up against more than brown drakes someday. Juniper lv|50.1 ly|50.1 dexterity|1
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Post by Lethalia on Sept 29, 2021 20:34:54 GMT -6
"This'un, June," Lethalia beckoned, steering Juniper away from the door she'd been headed towards. The hen would've been right if they were going back to the indoor pool with all of it's mechanical obstacles - Lethalia would have loved trying out Juniper's 'handling' compared to the last time. Instead, the pair headed through the gym building to their impressive stretch of land out back, again past the pools Juni had come to enjoy the gym for. Lethalia could let June continue training soley in the water, but if she were going to go toe-to-toe with other sarane - trained sarane, potentially even trained drakes - they certainly weren't going to be in the water. It would be limiting June's later abilities to do so. That was probably why they ended up hating the gym for all it tended to turn into drudgery. Even being used to the sensation with other creatures, it was keenly strange to feel the hen's disappointment wash over her when she was urged past yet another body of water. "Water after s'more diff'rent practice, aight babe?" Leth reasoned, as if their newly formed connection lent them the means to communicate. In a way it really did, just not as directly as a ribbon might have. dexterity|2
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Post by Lethalia on Sept 29, 2021 20:35:17 GMT -6
June was one of the less lazy sarane - more the type that neccesitated reining in more often than spurred on. But even she stopped on the dirt track, took in all it's flat features and slow curved lines that made up the gracious half-mile track, and heaved a dramatic sigh. Lethalia chortled and patted the hen, not giving her the choice to deem this 'too boring' and giving her a nudge into trotting forward. Not only would this be good for her footwork on the ground, but they could use some fine-tuning Juniper's steering. "Don' worry babe, 's only gonna be boring for a little," Lethalia reassured, as if it made a difference to June. For being relatively recent training, she plodded along the path her owner steered her on pretty reliably. For her first mile, Lethalia simply spent time sitting quietly atop the hen and not asking for much unless her pace dropped from the unenthused trot she started on. Really, it was a good practice to keep Juniper within the margins of one lane. June wasn't learned enough to pick up on the more subtle neck reining cues, and frankly Leth was going to get tired of hauling the hen around like she lacked power steering. dexterity|3
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Post by Lethalia on Sept 29, 2021 20:35:37 GMT -6
At some point June had stopped focusing her bitter feelings about the track and rapt attention had to be given to the minute changes in the reins. For all she was cranky and had a feline aloofishness to her, she was some kind of people pleaser. She seemed driven to figure out what her owner was putting her up to, which was more than could be said about a lot of creatures. She wasn't really touchy or sweet, but she wanted to be in Leth's pocket all the time. Needy more than personable. Lethalia hadn't quite decided if she thought the white was a terribly intelligent hen or not; but you could sure see her fitting pieces together when she decided to think deeply on something. Especially when they got to the end of that first mile - and Lethalia yanked left on the rein-rope. It was much more than the small movements she'd been straining to 'look' for and spooked her into half of a spin for how hard she was pulled in that direction. Maintaining the pressure on both rope and the coinciding leg, Lethalia encouraged her "Like tha'! Keep goin'!" dexterity|4
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Post by Lethalia on Sept 29, 2021 20:36:03 GMT -6
June didn't really get what the woman was after, but her positivity was enough to keep her winding in a wide looping circle that her owner asked for, only getting narrower as the pressure on the rope increased. Soon the raidus had been made so much smaller such that Juniper was practically chasing her own tail in the tight spin she'd been tricked into. Leth was somewhat impressed how they got here without being able to pull the white's nose into her hip like she would with an equine. She was just trying that hard to get it. Reins were loosened and Lethalia called out a mellow 'woah'. Juniper staggered to a stop, legs splayed to hold her spinning self upright - or was she trying to hold the dizzying world still?! "G'girl," Leth commended with a customary pat, sharing all of the feelings of warmth and affirmation she could. Odd still as their primary communication, but the woman was coming to enjoy the simplicity of this partnership compared to others. There was some give and take with this sensitive hen, but it was never a tug-of-war with power with her as much as it seemed like June figuring out the world. Juniper lv|51 ly|51 dexterity|5
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