Esarosa was a busy woman; if she wasn't spending time with Steel, she was exploring new places and checking out the variety of prey to be found. If she was going to be a sufficient hunter for Ivalice, she needed to know the best places to find prey. Actually, she needed to know all of the places should they find themselves in a shortage, and she needed to strengthen her hunting abilities by learning to hunt anything and everything. She'd never been here before, but she'd seen the grounded barge in the distance and she had a pretty good feeling that there would be some interesting marine prey to be found. So today, she had decided that she'd bring along her apprentice to the S.S. Antiox so they could find something interesting. If they improvised, they'd probably be returning home with something good to eat. She'd seen seals before in other places, and she had a strong feeling that the marine mammals would be here. But there might be other creatures, too... penguins, puffins, and other weird arctic animals. Glancing to Gryphon as they made their way closer to the barge, she wondered how much hunting experience he had. "Have you hunted seals before, Gryphon?" she asked, curious. "Speak" "Listen" Think

Gryphon fairly quivered with anticipation as he trotted beside his mentor off pack lands. He'd never met her before being assigned to her, though he knew that was his own fault between avoiding pack lands most of the spring season and then coming down with a cold. She was the pack's only hunter, though, and he the only apprentice interested in becoming one, so whether she was competent or not neither of them really had a choice in the matter. Still, she seemed competent enough to his inexperienced eye, and Gryphon was eager to finally start the training that he'd been denied for so long.

He shot her a sidelong glance at her question, and grimaced. "I haven't hunted anything before," he told her apologetically. "I was extremely sick as a pup and by the time I was well again we were up here and everyone was too busy to teach me." He shrugged in embarrassment. At least he could keep up with her physically - building up his stamina and speed through long patrols was something he could do by himself without any teaching, so at least he wasn't lagging behind her and gasping for breath. "I don't think I've ever seen a seal at all before, actually," he added after a moment of thought. He'd spent a bit of time up here, sure, but couldn't really put a name to some of the strange wildlife.

Esarosa's black velvet lips pulled back in a smile when she saw how eager Gryphon looked, glancing sideways at him; he was basically vibrating with excitement. She was glad he didn't seem grumpy like his brothers. Instead, he seemed genuinely interested and ready to start training. However, his facial expression changed when she asked if he'd hunted seals before. Her ears folded back at the sound of his apologetic tone; he didn't sound too happy to admit that he actually hadn't hunted anything, describing how he'd been sick as a pup and never gotten a chance to learn from anyone. Well, she wasn't going to let him fall behind in his lessons anymore! "Don't worry about that, I'll get you all caught up," she assured him with a confident tone, tail waving, "We'll hunt all sorts of prey; you never wanna focus on just one prey animal. The greater variety you track and kill, the better your skill and accuracy becomes." As the experienced huntress led the way to the ship, she slowed her pace and stepped lightly as a slight salty scent passed through her nostrils - the scent of sea water. She knew that solid ground would soon meet solid ice just beyond the grounded ship, although they'd need to be careful; with the summer heat, it was very likely that the ice was not completely stable. But that would also create a good environment for the prey she hoped to find. They would come to the edge of the ice to rest, especially for their young to catch their breath. She paused for just a moment to turn her head toward her apprentice. "Try to step carefully," she urged him, her tail leveling with her spine for balance, "Seals live under the ice, and we don't want to make too much noise, which might discourage them from surfacing." After a vague explanation, Esarosa crept toward the ship, making her way into its shadow and moving along its edge until she was at the far end which faced the ice. Emerald eyes cast around the frozen expanse, making note that the ice did not reach out very far, and there were large chunks of ice floating freely in the sea beyond the flat ice surface. Pleased with her initial scanning of the area, she turned to Gryphon again. "So, seals are sea creatures," she began, offering a slightly more in-depth description of the beasts, "They look really smooth and have flippers for swimming. But they're not like fish. They have to come above the water to breathe. And that's when you get them, because they're clumsy and vulnerable on land. I'll show you how to get the young ones, and if you're feeling confident, you can give it a shot, too." Her eyes remained fixed on him, wondering if he had any questions, or any doubts. She hoped he would want to dive right in and give it a try, even if he hadn't had any previous experience. Learning on the job was one way to do it, and if it didn't work for him, she'd show him the basics with something easier at a different time. Today, she wanted to teach, and she also wanted to bring back something that would feed at least some of the pack. "Speak" "Listen" Think

Esarosa didn't seem too worried about his lack of experience, waving it off and saying that she'd get him caught up. His ears rose again in relief. "I suppose that if you concentrate too much on learning to hunt just a few kinds of prey, you'd be going hungry if that prey becomes scarce," he observed thoughtfully in reply to her advice.

An odd, bitter scent itched at his nose, one that he'd come to associate with saltwater, as they approached the edge of the ice. Gryphon inhaled deeply - he might not be well suited physically for the north, but he did like the scent of the icy northern ocean. It was a bitter-crisp scent that appealed to some deep part of his brain. He wondered if one of the prey-scents carried to him on that salt breeze was a seal, and what, indeed, a seal was.

His attention was pulled back to his mentor as she spoke. He nodded quietly, not wanting to speak in case that would alert these seals she spoke of. As she crept off he dropped into a half-crouch and stalking after her in imitation of her own silent movements. They lived under the ice? Were they fish, then? How could they catch fish under the ice? That seemed pretty risky - who knew how deep the water was under there, not to mention the possibility of becoming trapped under the ice. But Esarosa was confident, and Gryphon didn't think she was the sort to be reckless like that so she must have had some sort of plan.

Finally she stopped again, and turned to give him a more thorough description of what seals were. His brow scrunched as he tried to picture this fish-like animal, but gave it up as a lost cause. He doubted his imagination would match reality anyway. She offered him the chance to try to catch one of the young ones after observing her, and his green eyes lit up. "I'd like that," he rumbled eagerly, then lifted his head up high to peer out over the ice. "So what should I be looking for?"