Moonspear grey area

attn @Caelum <3

 

Hydra had a mind to teach her cubs how to work with this sort of weather when it came to fighting. She remembered a time her own mother and father had taught her, and how close she felt to them throughout, and for, such lessons. They were able to wander more nowadays, and though she advised they steer clear of the lowlands thanks to the weather they had access to the other paths the pack created. None too idly, Hydra followed one that seemed recent made by her young, dark son; now and then she adjusted her course, the weather making the tracking a bit more difficult... but not impossible to follow, at least.

Caelum wasn't a very initiative-rich child. He often followed his siblings when they were up to something, and he was the quiet sort, easily forgotten. He was wandering around as a light rain came down, trying to find something of interest; a scent to follow, or anything at all. This proved a difficult task as there wasn't much to be found; either because it wasn't there, because his nose wasn't refined and trained enough, or because the rain had washed the scents away.

Not until his nose picked up the scent of his mother, that was, and he turned around slowly to look at her. Caelum's tail wagged two or three beats, slow and steady, as he chuffed and walked up to her, intending to lick her chin in greeting.

Spotted. 

Her little inkblot—not quite so little anymore, though—noticed her, too, and as he greeted her the matriarch chuffed and nosed him gently. She had seen him seeking to catch a trail of his own, and this warmed her... he was still young where such a feat was difficult, but the weather was no help in that. It is not so easy to pin a trail when the weather is like this, she drawled, and yet, you managed to catch wind of me, she commended with a hum. Perhaps he had a nose as sharp as hers. 

Settling alongside him, she hummed, what else did you pick up on? she wondered, interested in what scents he could identify on his own at present. Hydra would list scents to all her cubs from time to time on their walks, but memorization was still something she was trying to grasp... as far as when her cubs could.

Caelum whined with a puppy-like excitement as his mother nosed him -- just a few squeaks before settling down -- and his small triangle-shaped ears perked up attentively as she started instructing him about trails. Caelum knew very little about the theory of anything -- he mostly acted on instinct -- and though he seemed to be listening, little of it seeped in. He nodded as she suggested that he had caught wind of her, for this was true, though he did not link any exceptionality to this because for him, this was the default.

Upon her question, he pondered as he looked around and sniffed again. Wet, he said, his voice rough because he only used it when something was asked of him. The rain did not help much, but there was one other thing: Stone, grass, mud. The wetness emphasised a lot of nature's scents such as the mountain's stones and the mud on the floor. Was he a bit further down, closer to its forests, then he also would've smelled the trees.

Yes, she confirmed for him, these are some of the things there. The most prominent, to be sure. The grass beneath your foot, the stones alongside and around it—and even under the grass is the dirt that has turned to mud. But there is more, if you pay close enough attention, she informed, drawing her wrist against the blade of grass beneath his chin. The strongest thing upon that blade of glass, beyond the raindrops, ought to be me. Can you sense it now? she inquired, ears pricked forward as she observed him.

His mother elaborated that he was correct but that there was more. Ears perked forward and he moved his nose closer to the ground when she asked him if he could smell her there, too. He sniffed elaborately, taking his time l then slowly moved his nose up to look at his mother. He nodded without a word in answer and awaited the next challenge or question.