Vassago was growing stronger every day, more stable and swift with the experience he gained. He definitely knew it too, because today as the sun began to dip down, he poked his face outside the den and sniffed around for anything that would play with him.
Just a couple of feet from the entrance sat a grasshopper. His blue eyes flicked to it at once, a sly grin spreading on his face as he lunged mindlessly for the little green thing. When it leapt away, Vass could only stare in amazement. It'd gone so FAR! With an excited bark, the chestnut boy jumped straight up from his hind legs and launched himself into the air.... But only came tumbling to the earth with a thud and a yelp of surprise.
Grumbling in irritation, Vass stood and shook himself off before lunging again. This time, his jaws snapped and he squealed with anger as he aimed to crunch the bug between his baby teeth. Alas, it jumped away again, this time across the clearing. At least the bug seemed worried about keeping the boy close to home!
Concealed, the pale femme watched the boy with silver eyes that revealed nothing. Her gaze fell on the shortened tail, the scars that marked him at all too young an age. Guilt resurfaced from where she had hidden it deep inside herself, she shoved it back down as she stepped toward the boy. A small smile tugged at her muzzle as she watched him play, making no move to interfere.
After a moment, she beckoned him over with a flick of her tail and a few words, spoken softly in a tone that rarely graced her tongue. "Vassago. Come here, boy. I want to show you something." she said, smile growing as she tapped a spoke in front of her. This caring, this protectiveness, was still a fairly new experience, but with the pups she fell into a way of acting that she did not use on any other occasion. Today, she would teach the boy something...something that would help him greatly, she hoped.
Eventually, the grasshopper is no longer interested in keeping the boy there and hops further from the den. Luckily, it is then that Aunt Aero calls him, and he turns to her with a curious grin on his face. The pale woman is the biggest part of his life, outside his own actual blood family, and perhaps Shink and Issun are next.
Aero called softly, and she used two words he knew like the back of his paw: Vassago, and come. He pranced on over to her, stump high in the air and chin tipped up proudly like he'd actually caught the bug. Silly boy.
She tapped her paw close to her, and there he went, standing still and looking up to her with wide blue eyes, expectant for something from his obedience and willingness to cooperate.
He obeyed, complaint, and Aeronwyn cracked a smile. The pups were learning fast, Vassago seemed good at following instructions and was growing quickly. She bowed down to his level, her idea for this morning prevalent in her mind. Today, she would teach him...things that would come in use later. Though the skills she would teach him now would hardly save him from a bear or an angry adult, they may come in use. "Vassago. I'm going to teach you something, okay? Fighting. Defence." She was not sure how far his understanding reached, and tried to keep her words simple.
Aero rewarded him with a smile and coming closer, with which he responded with attacking her face with his little puppy tongue. The silver lady said some words, and the only reason he heard any of them was because she caught his attention with his name. The only word he knew without flaw. The middle was a jumble, but the last two were emphasised, and Vass felt he needed to remember them. With a tip of his head, he wondered what they meant. Remembered though they may be, he still had no idea what such words depicted.
"Vass?"
Well this would certainly be more difficult than expected. The boy didn't seem to have the best understanding of words yet, but she would get around that. She hesitated a moment before peering at Vassago, this time using even simpler words. "Vass. When something attacks you...is mean to you, makes you sad...what do you do?" She said each word slowly, drawing out words she thought he might have trouble with. "When another wolf is bad to Vass, what do you do?" she rephrased it, wanting to get the pup to understand the purpose of this lesson.
She did little to respond to his love, but instead went on with words. She was trying to make him understand, he knew, so there was effort put into trying to memorize the words she was saying. Why, he didn't know, but it seemed important. She said his name a few times too, and that made the boy happy. But it was a lot of words to try and remember, none of which he knew the meanings of.
"Vass.... M-Meeee... Meeeaaaannn? Mean?"
Hmm. This would certainly be a difficult task, though Aeronwyn was unwilling to call it quits just yet. She would teach this boy, however long it would take, and would get something into him. She opted for the simplest self-defense, things she had learned proved effective time and time again. Go for sensitive areas; eyes, ears, the face. Most would severely underestimate the fighting skill of any pup, and that he could use to his advantage, should he be bright enough to gain anything from their lesson today.
"Yes, Vass. Mean. Mean is bad." Bad she knew to be a word the pup knew, being simply and a common word delivered when he made mistakes. What was important was that he realized the negative correlation of the words, not their meaning at the moment. "When wolf is bad, when Vass is sad, you attack." She turned toward a tree, growling and biting the bark. "See? Attack." she performed the action again, biting and otherwise mauling the tree, though not excessively, being careful not to scare the pup. She repeated the word again, attack. Finally she stepped back, lowering her gaze to the pup, and said "Vass, attack. Vass attack now" Now was the crucial point; would he be bright enough to understand, or would he be somewhat slow?
Mean is bad. Bad? The bear was mean to him, yes? The bear was bad. That was a word he knew very well, being it himself most days, but this time it wasn't aimed at him. Aero was telling him about other things being bad. What was bad didn't matter, it seemed, just that they were bad, and it was his duty to do something when they were bad. Something called attack. His aunt turned, snapped at the closest tree, and scattered little pieces of bark with her fangs as they clashed. She only turned back to repeat the word, attack, before doing it again. Did she want him to jump in? Little half-worm tail wriggling in happiness, Vass play bowed but otherwise watched with interest as she did it again and again. Finally, the silver woman turned away, and called his attention with his name before using that word. It was HIS turn! With a playful, but vicious growl, Vassago trampled towards the bark and gouged at it with sharp puppy teeth.
He did exactly as she had asked, causing a wide smile to spread across her features. "Good boy, Vass! Good job! Attack!" she said with excitement palatable, she had taught him something. Sure, it may not have been what his parents had intended him to learn, but hey, it could save him someday. He did a good job going at the tree, and she decided to teach him something else. She bite the bark as she was, making the movement dramatic. "Bite" she said, repeating the action and the word. Then she took a step back and whacked the tree with a paw, saying "Hit", then again repeating the action. Looking at him, she said slowly, words pronounced clearly, "Vass. Hit the tree." she wanted to teach him these basic things now, more would follow later.
Vass pulled away, and at once he was greeted with praise and excitement that he couldn't help but literally bounce in place.
"Goo Vass! Goo!"
He settled in a couple seconds, and watched carefully as Aunt Aero gave him a new word. She attacked the tree with only her teeth, and pulled back. It seemed important that this word meant only teeth, and the little boy made sure to remember that one. Everyday he could do more, know more, understand more, and developed the skills he already knew.
Unfortunately, it seemed the boy was too inthralled with this new "move", maybe a little overwhelmed, and took a turn from where his aunt was trying to go. When she went forward to pummel the tree, Vassago saw only her silver, feathery tail, and decided to use his new knowledge on it. He jumped forward and did his best to latch on tight.
Pain lanced through her tail, she whipped her tail around and saw Vass trying out "bite"...on her tail. It took away somewhat from his adorable "Goo Vass goo!" earlier, but at least he was taking away something from this lesson. She twisted, ripping her tail out his grasp quickly, noting a red smear where the boy had managed to sink his teeth in. Obviously, he had become a tad overexcited...
Making sure that her tail was curled tightly over her back, in an odd, awkward pose that also proved functional at times such as these, Aeronwyn ignored the throbbing in her tail, letting out a small hiss. "Yes, Vassago. Bite. But no bite good wolves. Bit bad wolves. Not good wolves." She tried to get him to understand, but he was pretty hyped up, and her words may have no effect. Feeling like now would be a good time to end the lesson, and to tend to her tail, she said, "Okay, Vass. Good learning. But time to go back to mommy now, okay?"
When the boy had bumbled back to his den, Aeronwyn making sure that he made it inside, she departed, seeking a river in which to tend to her tail. Puppy teeth, she had discovered, were sharp.
-[end]-