Phoenix Maplewood Teach me, Master

"She's not hungry", Saena assured the child, only now realizing the harsh cut of her prior words. A child's mind was a soft thing and Saena would need to learn that before bearing children of her own, lest she traumatize them and harden them to the world far too prematurely. "But if you pretend... well, nevermind", she said, a little exasperated. Saena succeeded at hunting by imagining the macabre image of her family dying, but it likely wouldn't work for Desna. The pup would become too upset to focus on anything, least of all hunting.

But if not the thought of death, then Saena didn't know what could motivate the girl to sharpen her focus.

"You don't get good in a day or even in a month", the alpha said, choosing to narrow her teaching down on Desna's slow-going training instead of trying to coax the girl into focusing. "It takes a while, but you'll get there". She ought to have offered some tips or something, but Saena wasn't a great teacher. She had little experience in sharing her skills with others aside from showing them, or having them show her. Verbal instruction was not her forte, even though she was a social individual and generally extroverted. So instead of offering advice, she gestured for Desna to follow and began heading deeper into the woods.

"I want you to show me how you approach a hare", Saena told the youth with her nose angled toward the ground. There were hares all over this forest; it was teeming with them. The deer avoided it, since it was a tangle in most places, but for small game it was a paradise. "Here", the alpha instructed, hovering over a small pile of relatively fresh rabbit turds. "Track this, and show me how you hunt".