Phoenix Maplewood Teach me, Master

@Saena

Desna trotted through the forest of the Phoenix wolves. She was starting to feel very at home. She was never the complicated one. She would make her life worth while instead of scowling around and be unhappy. Her mother told her that another female in this pack, their new leader was one that knew a lot about hunting, and Desna was most eager to learn. The plump pup was getting less plump each day. She was close to being five months now which meant she was big and getting her gangly shape. For Desna who was a very fat pup was finally loosing all her baby fat.

Her nose was close to the ground as she tried to track down the female she needed. Her scent was close to everywhere but Desna made it her mission to find her. The dark pup might have been at it for a good hour but now she was close to something. She saw some paw prints and started to go quicker and faster. Once she looked up she spotted the other. "Hi! I'm Desna!," she grinned. "Mommy said you could help me learn hunting!!," she instantly spoke.

A patrol as in order, but first, Saena needed to limber up. It felt like her wounded body would permanently be stiff, but the reality was that the wounds were nearly gone and the pain was only felt when the weather was bad or when she exerted herself. Scars were all that remained of the bear's mauling. The more recent cut above her eye was looking—and feeling—much better, too. There was no excuse to stay away from the borders now. Although wardening wasn't her favourite pastime, Saena still acknowledged its importance for an alpha wolf, and so she planned to go directly to the borders after a short jog around the woods' interior.

She never quite made it that far, though. Somebody else was on an equally determined mission. Saena heard them long before they arrived—it was tough to be silent as a wolf, especially one not well trained in walking quietly—but she still humoured them with a falsely startled expression as she turned around. One of Scarlett's pups, looking well, had located her.

The alpha female turned her ears politely forward, doubling it as a reminder of her rank, and observed the pup. Desna immediately introduced herself and got straight to the point, a quality Saena could appreciate, even if a small jealous part of her was tempted to tell the pup to go ask someone else, if only so she wouldn't need to deal with these recent surges of possessive jealousy. Her own litter wouldn't be coming until the spring. They weren't even a thought at the moment. Yet she still felt that jealous tug when she looked at others' pups, and she still wondered if she would ever allow any pups aside from her own into Phoenix Maplewood again after she reached sexual maturity.

But, yes, teaching she could do. "What do you already know?" she quietly asked, fixing Desna with a curious glint of indigo eyes.

Desna looked a the female, somehow very impressed by her. Desna knew that she couldn't be too bossy with this lady otherwise she wasn't going to like her very much. Desna had a natural instinct when it came to seeing leadership. She ducked her head a bit and looked up with her big hazel colored eyes. "Um. I know tracking! I tracked you," she retuned to the female as a reply to her question. She could find the prey but the catching was the hardest part.

Desna would have to admit what she liked to learn. "I am not always fast enough," she admitted. "And.. I sometimes scare them away," she added. Sometimes she was still a bit clumsy with her surroundings. Sometimes in her excitement a giggle would escape which was not very favorable to her side. She was still young. She was around five months and already she was already into hunting. It was probably just the meet aspect that she liked.

Hmm, hummed Saena. Desna hadn't done a great job sneaking up on Saena, but the lead female couldn't deny that the child had found her. Use of her nose was important for that, so it seemed Desna had some promise in the field. But by the pup's admission, she wasn't good at actually getting close to the prey without startling them. It was the single hardest thing about being a hunter, and often hiding in plain sight was better than trying to sneak at all. But that was a lesson for another day.

"What scares them?" Saena wondered. If Desna could describe what caused her prey to flee, then Saena could probably lend some tips. If it was the child's heavy steps, it would take some training and time to become light and quiet in the forest. If it was the pup's breathing, there were exercises for that. If it was something else, then perhaps Desna would just need some hard experience actually catching something in order to realize the amount of razor sharp focus required. Saena could help her with any of these things, she was certain. What she couldn't help her with was speed, so she opted for some advice: "all wolves have a max speed but not all wolves can run efficiently to be quiet while doing it. You just need to practice running, try to get good at it, so you can reach your max speed more easily."

Desna thought about her words and nodded. So she would need to do more running? She knew her mother often ran around the territory even when they were still at the other place. Maybe she should start running with her mother. Desna looked at her over-sized paws she still needed to grow into. She would probably be bigger than her mother. She was so slender and small and she was so big, and differently colored. Desna was often confused if Scarlett was her actual mother. The girl quickly shook that thought away, because she needed to focus on this. She wanted to be a skillful hunter.

"Um.. Depends. Sometimes I step on a leaf that cracks or I let out a giggle in excitement. Sometimes I am wagging my tail and then I hit the leaves of the bushes I am hiding in," she admitted, now her ears dropped a bit. It was mostly her youthfulness that made those mistakes. She would probably learn that focus. "I just like Hunting a lot and then I get too excited."

Well, Desna's explanation shed light on one thing: she was still young. She didn't have much of a reason to hunt with the seriousness and focus of an adult. Saena's own focus had come from the need to prove herself at Blacktail Deer Plateau, and it was enough to curb any childishness that might've interfered with her training. She supposed that Desna needed a similar focus in order to keep herself from botching her own hunting attempts.

"What do you think about when you're hunting?" Saena asked patiently, holding on to her suggestion for just a moment longer. "What's in your mind as you're preparing to go after prey?" Knowing what the girl was thinking about could help to better the alpha female's understanding of her excitement, and it could allow Saena some insight into Desna as an individual as well. It had less to do with hunting than her previous questions, but all the same would lead to some sound advice. Saena thought about how hungry her mate and her pack would be if she was unsuccessful in the hunt; it usually quelled any excitement, even though hunting was naturally exciting for all wolves.

Desna thought about her question. She would think about a lot of things. How nice food was and how much she needed to run for it. How proud her mother would probably be if she came back with a kill. Her mind would buzz in excitement. For her hunting was just to get more of the food she liked. It wasn't a need to survive yet. Maybe that was what needed to be changed. After their long journey here she was often hungry so she wanted to learn to hunt herself so she didn't have to beg her mommy for food all the time.

"Um.. Lots of things!," she returned. "About mommy and how she will like it, and how I am helping her. And.. that i like food and meats. And... that I have to run a lot. And I think of winds and of other sounds. But I mostly think about making mommy happy," she admitted. Her mother was a big inspiration. She always had food for them, well most of the time, and Desna wanted to be like her. She also wanted to prove herself. More to her mother than to the pack.

"Okay", declared Saena with a smile. The alpha female understood now. Desna's mind wandered too much during the hunt, and her focus suffered for it. The alpha female thought it was an easy enough fix, though she probably overestimated the pup's ability to develop her skills quickly and efficiently. How easily did Saena forget that she'd once been as young and eager, and probably not as dedicated to the trade as this child was. "You're thinking about too many things.

Try to focus on just one thought. It should be a thought that makes you want to succeed". Saena thought often of herself or Reek starving to death. It worked for her, so the alpha, well-meaning as she was, gave some rather piss poor advice considering her audience was a child: "Try to imagine your mom being hungry if you don't catch your prey. Think of how she needs the food that only you can get her, and how much happier she'll be when you bring it to her". Was that a cruel thought? Probably. Saena believed she'd put it well and that it wasn't at all a traumatizing thing for a pup to imagine, but then, Saena wasn't exactly a whiz kid when it came to puppies. Her exposure to them was so limited, it was a wonder she hadn't told Desna to imagine Scarlett dead if she failed her hunt.

Desna sat before the alpha female. The young girl tried to nod determinedly. Though it was kinda tough to hear that she was doing something really wrong. One thought... That was really difficult! She tried to think of ways that could make her succeed to only have one thought but then Saena painted a picture for her. Desna's mouth dropped a bit, clearly shocked with that visual. The thought that she would have to provide for her mommy otherwise she would die was giving her quite some fear. "But-- I am not that good yet," she breathed out with a tremble. "I don't want mommy to be hungry," she let out kindheartedly.

Desna looked around, taking the words spoken to her maybe a bit too seriously. She knew her mommy could hunt herself but the fact that Saena was telling her that her mother would be extra happy if she did caught something, was what struck her the most. She should bring meals to her mommy to make her happy then! "I don't wanna fail. But I am training every day and I still don't catch things!," she pouted, looking at the paler female with big puppy eyes.

"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".

Desna tipped her head at the female's tone. Her hazel eyes looked at her questioningly. It didn't seem like she was understanding it right. Did she irritate the female? Desna was very sensitive to that, and could quickly get if someone disliked her or not. Maybe she had that from her mother's side. With Saena she wasn't really sure. "Okay," she spoke with a sense of commitment. She had to do this for super long before she was good at it. She got that part.

Without hesitation the pup followed the leader. Desna didn't realize that they were teaching each other something. The pup clearly saw her as a higher figure and instinctively knew to follow and be obedient. Her dark gangly body was trotting next to Saena, her head low like hers. She sniffed the droppings and then without a word started to sniff and track the scent. She felt her heart beating quickly, not wanting to fail before the watchful eyes of the other.

Desna slowed down as the scent became fresher and fresher. Her ears on sharp, listening for the rabbits, to then use her eyes to see if she could spot them. A bit away in a clearly there was quite a big group of hares. Her ears were pushed forward and her tail started wagging excitedly. She looked over her shoulder to Saena, like she hadn't seen them. Then the pup tried to find her focus and picked the one that was the closest to the bushes.

She creeped closer, low to the ground as she moved. Though through the bushes might not be the smartest thing to do, she didn't have that insight yet. As she tried to move under the bushes they bristled lightly, alerting the rabbits. They looked up, sure if they were in danger.

She watched carefully the way that Desna lingered over the rabbit droppings then, satisfied with what she'd found, began moving deeper into the woods. The alpha followed carefully in the girl's wake, tracing her footsteps almost perfectly. Wolves were well-known for that—they liked to step in each other's exact prints. It made travel easier in winter but, more importantly, masked the exact number of wolves in the area.

But now was not the time for thinking of pawprints. She followed Desna closely, not so closely that she would intimidate but close enough to watch around the broad juvenile's body, as Desna slunk lower and lower. The young wolf's head whipped around to spot her, but Saena gestured with her nose that the other should keep her eye on the hares ahead. It would do no good if Desna's movement sent them scattering and she didn't see where they went.

Now was the critical moment. She watched the wave of the youth's tail, knowing it was something that would take time for Desna to control, and she observed with bated breath the juvenile's approach. Slow, steady. Not half bad, really. But then Desna stepped into the bushes and the crackle of twigs sent the hare's heads skyward, and Saena squeezed her eyes shut for a brief moment. She remained still as a statue, even though she felt the outcome of Desna's hunt was now certain, just in case the cub could take back control somehow.

Desna froze onto her spot as she made the rabbits go in alert mode. She was almost too scared to breathe. She closed her eyes too. Not moving at all. Her breathing was so silent. The rabbits were tense and some hopped back closer to their den, but some did lower their heads. It was quite a big group. Desna had never been so silent. She could peek through the bushes now, a rabbit hopping closer to her. The dark girl was not even thinking of Saena.

Desna didn't move at all, the one rabbit clearly interested in some of the leaves of the bushes close to Desna. Then she suddenly launched herself forward towards the rabbit hopping close. Her big paws pushed off and started to chase after the rabbit. It was too fast, Desna tried jumping it but landed on her tummy and with his nose in the dirt. She let out a soft 'oof' and grunted. Once she looked up there was no rabbit in sight. She kept laying down in the same spot, quite defeatedly. Saena would probably be next to her soon.

Desna's recovery was remarkable. Even Saena was unable to pull off that sort of stillness sometimes. Surely her bright white coat had a lot to do with it, but still, she was impressed with the youth's ability to remain silent long enough for the hares to get back to their business. This was the hardest part of hunting, and the most crucial. Desna seemed to be quite good at that part, at least. It was the approach that needed work, but it was a simple enough fix.

The alpha female hung back even after Desna gathered back her confidence and launched herself for an attempted takedown. The hare was still a little too alert from the earlier disturbance, though, and it turned on a dime and proved too fleet of foot for the youthful trainee. Saena missed the fall, but as she drew out into the open as the last of the hares disappeared, she noted that Desna had fallen. Concern pierced her heart, but rather than sweeping forward to pick the youth up, she stepped quietly forward, giving Desna more than enough room to pick herself up. This was an important lesson to learn, too. To be a good hunter, you had to be able to take your failures in stride and bolster your own confidence.

"That was very good", the alpha told Desna with a note of approval in her voice. "You have the makings of a very strong hunter". Perhaps Desna would even one day be stronger than Saena herself in the field. It was a thought that made her feel strange—a shot of unfounded jealousy, but also pride. "Your tracking and your waiting were almost flawless. I'm impressed. The only thing I'd do differently is to approach from somewhere else. You chose the bush, but remember, your body is large enough to make the bush rustle. Hiding out in bushes is great, but you want to give yourself an opening to move in while making minimal noise". She paused, then added, "you'd be surprised how your dark coat can allow you to hide in plain sight. Don't feel like you always need to hide in a bush to be unseen. The shadows can be your allies without hindering your movement. As long as you're upwind, some animals won't even spot you 'til you're on top of them".

Desna had the decency towards herself to push herself into a sitting position once Saena approached. She wasn't expecting a praise from the alpha, so when she did hear those words Desna's ears popped up cutely. "I am? Oh thank you Miss Saena," she asked and then went over what just happened. She did a lot of stalking and sitting still as a practice, only the approach was something that she needed to learn. The youngster nodded slowly as she was explained more facts and details about hunting.

She was motivated now to use the shadow to her advantage, maybe it would help her not make too much noise. Hopefully she would be rewarded with a catch. That would make her so proud. "I will try being in the shadows!," she returned to the female and wagged her tail a bit. The rabbits were all gone now, and Desna probably needed a mental break after being focussed for so long. She did want to tell her mommy about this experience. Desna was still very attached to her mother. "Thank you for the tips! I'm going to tell mommy now! If I caught something I will show you!," she offered before running off in her excitement. She was still a child, and she wanted to tell everyone what happened and how she was going to be a super hunter!

Last post from me! Thank you for this thread! :3