Neverwinter Forest he was growing in my garden and i pulled him out by his hair like a weed

@Mal

He'd been avoiding everyone in the forest, growing more upset day by day. It was one thing to be back here in the first place, but now something entirely new had been troubling him. He couldn't stop thinking about Zephyr. When he thought about what he saw his stomach began to flutter or churn and in the end he always felt like throwing up. The worst part is he didn't know why he felt that way. Instead of figuring out the reason, he'd keep himself busy with small tasks.

Tonight he wanted to fetch a meal for Twig, who had been spending her time in the trees ever since they arrived. Phillip kept his eyes peeled for any rodents. They seemed to be her meal of choice.

He had got lucky hours into the search. An unsuspecting mouse sat yards in front of him. As soon as he saw it he sprinted towards it, and of course it was able to make a swift escape. Phillip wasn't even close. He let out a defeated sigh.

Mal, on the other hand, was back to his normal shenanigans. He hadn't run into Phillip since Zephyr's adventure but that hadn't seemed too odd -- Mal had gone on a couple of short trips outside the pack, patrolled, hunted, and basically just been kinda solo. Nothing weird. Heck, positively just your average day.

He'd heard the attempt to catch something rather than seeing it, and after a bit more tilting his ears around to hone in, Mal headed that way. Hell, when he finally wove around enough trees to spot it was Phillip in the first place, and actually was kinda looking forward to having a proper conversation with him -- after all, Mal pretty much missed out the first time. Hey, anything I can help with? he called, sauntering Phillip's way. Could at the very least point him at a cache if he was feeling hungry, though Mal wasn't too sure what he was trying to catch -- with food returning he'd started ignoring mice.

He wasn't expecting anyone to run into him at this hour. For once he wasn't in the mood to spend time with anyone. Oh, um, I'm alright. He turned around to face the wolf who adressed him. Thank you tho—

Oh no, no no no. This was the last face he wanted to see. It was him, that guy he saw with Zephyr! He suddenly felt like he was gonna collapse on the spot.

—oooooough. Oh, I-um. N-no! I mean- I- Phillip stumbled backwards, his wide eyes fixed on that spotted face. S-sorry to bother you. I'm uh, I'll just go now. He turned around and ran a few feet before tripping on his own paws.

Wait what the hell, why was Phillip acting like he was some sort of monster? Come on, that wasn't fair. His confusion was pretty visible. And though he'd previously just been expecting to do something food related, now he was just plain confused. If Alarian, then Zephyr both thought Phillip needed help, Mal was gonna do his best. But he wasn't expecting this. Like how were you even supposed to respond when a guy literally falls over? Mal took another step and a half forward, tilting his head to one side, Hey, c'mon. What's the matter? It's my job to make sure all you guys are safe and doing well and stuff. It's no problem. Maybe it kind of explained why Phillip skedaddled the first time though, if he was this skittish around new people or something.

If he could bury himself into the ground he would. Instead, he hides his face underneath his paws and prays that the man would leave him be. But he could hear footsteps approaching. His heart stops when he's asked what's wrong. He's been trying to avoid that question this whole time, so he'd dance around it.

Nothing's wrong! He scrambled to his paws and smiled awkwardly. Y'know, I actually do need some help. Y-yeah! I'm trying to catch a mouse for my friend, Twig.

Yeah, Phillip was definitely kinda weird. There had totally been a problem, but now there wasn't. Mal wasn't sure if he was just flighty as suspected, or -- whatever. He figured out he wanted some help, so Mal could actually do something. Maybe just hanging out and doing that would make Phillip chill out a little. But what was with this Twig business? That wasn't one of the newest trio, Mouse eh? Who's Twig?  Making the assumption that an owl would not really have fun on a wolf's back while running, let alone tripping and falling, Mal had entirely not noticed wherever she was if she was even nearby given the theatrics going down in front of him. I mean, I know we've got some stuff in the cache if you haven't seen, but I don't think any of it's mouse. Rabbit and stuff mostly.

She's my.. His mind wanders as he tries to remember what that woman had called her. Phillip was much too distressed to go through his memory now, so he settled for the next best thing. ..bird.

She c-can't eat a rabbit. She's too small for that, she may choke! He'd never forgive himself if any harm came of her. She likes bugs and stuff, but she likes mice the most. I tried getting one for her but then.. He failed in a miserable fashion. Phillip's head hung low. I'm such a terrible hunter.

Mal's first thoughts were the obvious birds -- crows, hawks, and vultures. Feeling like the former was probably too edgy and the latter would probably be way too freaky for a kid who seemed to be so on-edge, that narrowed it to, Like a hawk or something? But he let Phillip continue other than that.

Aw, hell. Come on, don't make Mal feel worse. His ears tipped back a little. But at least it was something they could theoretically fix? Fix it, get Phillip not being so skittish, it'd be a good goal, albeit probably not something done entirely right here, Well, don't worry. Everyone's gotta start somewhere. Nobody in my old pack taught me how to hunt -- I had to learn on my own, starting off probably not too much younger than you. We'll get you sorted out. Somehow. Mal hadn't exactly taught anyone anything before -- practice with was a different thing, but actually teaching, no -- he just clumsily experimented and eventually got lucky. What do you think the main problem is? Or uh, where does it all go south? Troubleshooting, how does it work. Would have been easier if Mal had actually seen the little hunt here.

Twig could be many things, but hawk was not one of them. Well, she could be. Again, Phillip tries to recall the night with Vallkyrie, when she had told him exactly what his companion was. Again, he was overwhelmed, so he just shook his head quickly.

His assurance is a little relieving. With a bit of practice he'd be just as good of a hunter as everyone else was. But why did the practice have to start now? With him? Phillip swallowed nervously.

Well, when do things begin to go wrong? Tracking prey was challenging, but he managed to find a few things here and there. But when he was face to face with them..

Everything sees me before I can even get close to them! And- and when I run after them they always get away.

Not a hawk but something else? Hm. Well, he figured he'd see the bird eventually, he was probably forgetting something else obvious.

This couldn't be too hard to figure out, right? He figured it out on his own (eventually) with a bit of luck and being able to go back and take from Elysium if stuff got bad, so giving Phillip pointers probably meant he'd figure it out way faster than Mal had. That's how it went in theory at least. So maybe two things, but we'll start with the whole getting close enough thing -- that might be the only problem right there anyway. So let's see what we can do. Now if the issue ended up being he tripped over his own paws too much like he'd so recently shown, then that might be  bit more work.

He nodded to have Phillip follow as he turned back towards the tracks that had been left from the failed hunt. Ok, show me where the mouse was when you saw it, and where you were. Do you know if you were upwind or downwind from it? Like if maybe it could have smelled you before seeing you. Hopefully the positions of them both would answer that even if Phillip didn't know what Mal was talking about.

idk what's goin on in this post LOL. its 3am and my brain is fried plz forgive me

He highly doubted that was his only problem. To put it more accurately, he'd call it a problem that contributed to other problems, or other problems contributed to that. It was all just one big, confusing lump of problems.

He had trouble differentiating 'upwind' from 'downwind'. The wind was coming from behind... I think, was the only way he could put it after a few moments of thought.

Phillip believed sight was the only thing that mattered in terms of hunting. Now he had to worry about smell too? Why did it have to be so complicated?

He thought about it a moment then moved around, surveying the scene. He ended up pointing with his muzzle as he spoke, Okay.. It was over there, yeah? So maybe over here--, he moved to a different position with a different angle of approach, would have been better? The wind would be more in your favor, you'd be downwind of the mouse, so its scent is definitely coming towards you, and yours isn't going anywhere near it. Just takes a bit of practice and awareness to recognize

But that was just step one.  Gotta see the other thing he was curious about -- But once you got the wind sorted, how did you try to get closer? Could you show me? It wasn't like Mal was going to be the best at lecturing, so maybe this would be better. If Phillip could do a bit of a reenactment, then Mal could figure out what he could work on that much faster. Mal just wanted to help, after all.

He listened intently, following Mal wherever he went, looking to wherever he pointed. The importance of wind was a difficult thing to comprehend, and Phillip had trouble understanding why it was so important for the mouse's scent to come towards him. But he trusted Mal nontheless, he was more knowledgeable with these things after all.

Um, I ran towards it right when I saw it. I didn't want it to get away. He ran forward for a moment before stopping abruptly. Is that bad?

Mal nodded. So two problems that should be pretty easy to fix, he thought. Or at least, if Mal was any good of a teacher (jury was still deliberating) it should be easy. Main problem with that is all the small stuff can hide real easy. I mean.. If you saw some huge thing running at you, you'd hide, too, right? You gotta be sneaky -- he crouched down, slinking forward a few slow, careful steps for emphasis, get as close as you can before it notices you, then bam! Pounce. He sorta jumped up then but didn't really go anywhere.

He stretched continuing, Big stuff you get to just like.. run after until things happen. But a deer can't fit in a hole or anything either. But that seemed like a pretty abrupt way to end things, so with a wag of his tail he thought of something else to add, I mean, does that all make sense? Like I'm probably doing a bad job of explaining but I can totally try to make it clearer. -- Or we could try and find a different mouse and let you try it out? Couldn't be too hard, right?

He nodded quickly. Mal had a point; he would hide if some huge beast came running at him. Honestly he'd hide if anything was chasing him. It was pathetic but better safe than sorry right? 

Phillip mimicked his movements again. Crouching, crawling, pouncing. He felt stupid doing it when there wasn't anything there, even more so seeing as he was already nervous around Mal. When he finished the demonstration, Phillip quickly got back up and shook just cause.

If big things can't hide, then why should I bother with the little things? Was he weird for trying to catch this mouse in the first place? Probably. Oh well, it's too late to not look stupid now. May as well finish what he's started. Yeah, let's go get that mouse.

Mal nodded as Phillip acted along. Yep, that was the right idea. Gotta get that in front of a real live edible thing! But then Phillip asked a legit question. Because if you go find a rabbit or something, it's probably not gonna hurt you. You ever like really seen a deer? Like up close enough to see horns and hooves and stuff? You're probably not gonna take one of them down by yourself. So you need a few people and gotta take a risk -- but if you take that risk and it works out, you get a lot of food. It evens out... Sort of. Mal was probably pretty lucky he didn't get killed when got run over by one when he was younger.

Okay, let's go. We'll walk face into the wind, give us the best advantage. You tell me when you smell one. He took a couple of steps in the right direction and waited for Phillip to take the lead. This was about teaching him, after all.

Come to think of it, he's never seen a deer. He's seen birds and hares and mice; all the small stuff. Nothing with horns or hooves. Nothing that required multiple wolves to take it down. He imagined it as this monsterous thing. Maybe not seeing it was for the best.

An overwhelming sense of pressure weighed down in his chest when Mal waited for him to take the lead. This was going to be a disaster; he'd go the wrong way or trip over himself. Phillip swallowed nervously and slowly moved forward.

For awhile he couldn't smell anything. He thought that he may have missed some scent or took a wrong term. Phillip would periodically look back at Mal, take a deep breath, and move on. He had little faith in himself, but he knew he had to try.

I smell something, he whispered in disbelief. There was another mouse somewhere around here. Phillip kept his body low to the floor and crept forward.

IDK how you wanna wrap it up! Could be in your next post or a few, whatever you prefer!

It took a moment before Phillip stepped forward. Really the most Mal wanted to do was just make sure they were moving in the right direction versus the wind. That was probably the weirder bit to figure out, as with all the trees it wasn't always the most obvious thing. So, a little suggestion here or there to keep on a good trail.

Mal scented it about the same time as Phillip. Yeah, Mal whispered back with a grin. So be sneaky. You got this. He wagged his tail, but stayed back. He wanted to make sure Phillip actually got a chance. He should be able to do it. Mal believed in him.