It was late into the night when the Warlord took his young daughter from the den and out into the starry plains of the Hallows. It was a clear night, and the stars could clearly be seen in an open expanse above them. Endless. His steps were quiet as he led her across the grass, and then halted. Turning, he faced the crystal-eyed girl.

“Today, I want you to concentrate on scents above all else” He said softly. She could not always rely on her sight, and she would need to work harder at her other senses. “I want you to track what's around us. Take in the scents, think about them. Think about their freshness, and what things might make a scent stronger or weaker” He said softly, keeping his own body still so as not to disturb her when she complied. Could she scent the field mice and rabbits that had burrowed nearby? Or the birds that had left when night began to fall. There was a hint of blood on the grass, one of the mice had been injured. And that would make tracking it so much easier. He said nothing, letting her take it all in and find it for herself.


"Speech"

Vanta was quick to accompany her father on their lesson, enjoying the newness of the territory around as well as the change in temperature this far south. Beneath the stars the two headed off for the plains, but before Vanta had a chance to explore in depth her father was seating her down for a lesson. She turned her crystalline eyes toward him, regarding him with interest and curiosity as he began to explain what he wanted her to accomplish on this night.

Obediently the pup tilted back her head and scented the air, closing her eyes so that the twinkling night sky would not distract her from what she could smell (or not smell). An array of unfamiliar scents swam around both wolves, some stronger and some weaker, some interesting and some not. Vanta screwed up her nose and thought on her father's words. "I smell blood, but not wolf blood." She stated. "But it's so small I don't know where it is."

"Speech"

“Good,” The Warlord said as she mentioned the blood. keeping his voice soft so she could concentrate. “You’re on the right track. I want you to concentrate on that blood” He instructed her. Taking in a deep breath of his own as he spoke. “I want you to identify it for me.” He said, before offering her hints to help her.

“You haven’t seen it alive, but you’ve had it for breakfast. Think small. What can you scent about it? Is it furry or feathered? Does it smell earthy, or something else? All of these traits help us. For example, if you know what an eagle is, but you’ve never met a comoront, you can guess it's from the same family by identifying traits like these” He continued, falling silent so she could complete his instructions. He wanted to hone her sense of smell.


"Speech"

Continuing on with the lesson, Vanta redirected her focus back to the scent. Asked to identify it by species, the pup scrunched up her nostrils and gave a big sniff of the fresh nighttime air. Keeping track of Sirius' urging words, she followed the suggestions in the order he'd given them. Did it have fur, or feathers? Vanta thought on that a while, running through her mental catalogue of scents of various birds and referencing them back off of mammals, trying to distinguish what a feather might smell like. In the end, she decided the creature must be furry. Or at least void of feathers. "Fur." She stated distractedly, still sniffing.

Further clues came next - the earthy smells of dirt (very familiar to the mountain-dweller) and the distinct underground smells that came along with it. Something that burrowed, almost like a mouse but... dad said she'd never seen it before, and Vanta had chased a mouse through their mountain tunnels once. What was similar? A squirrel? She'd seen those too, in the trees. "I don't know what it is, dad." She grumped.

"Speech"

The Warlord felt a smile spread across his face, and he nodded in encouragement as Vanta identified the covering of the creature. He didn’t speak, seeing her concentrated, sniffing pose. He let her finish fulfilling his instructions.

After a time, she gave up, grumpiness in her voice. “Well, tell me what you have worked out. You know it’s furred, and it's in the field. Can you determine its size, and how it might live in the grass, without knowing exactly what it is? That's the trick to hunting, sweetheart. You can’t know every creature in existence, but you can categorise it and make judgement calls by what you can work out. And if you can do that, then you can hunt just about anything. Your sense of smell can be more important than sight in tracking” And why he had brought Vanta out for this lesson. He wanted her to feel in control of her life, and capable. Especially with the way everything was falling apart around them. She could still have strengths that she could rely on.


"Speech"

Her father could tell she was struggling and blessedly offered Vanta more hints, encouraging her in the right direction and pressing her for details about the nameless species. The crystal-eyed pup sighed and tried again, tilting back her muzzle to scent the clean night air for a third time. "It's small." She decided after only a moment, noticing how faint the scent was compared to a massive lump of dinner back in the Col. Small, furred, dirty with soil... Vanta wracked her brain, her paw coming up to her chin in contemplation. "Is it related to a mouse? I don't know any species that are close to one that I haven't seen before." She admitted. "A vole, maybe. But I only know a vole's name and not what it looks like." Man, hunting was hard when you could not simply see your target and chase it.

"Speech"

The Warlord nodded encouragingly as she completed his latest task. Once he was certain she had exhausted all she could learn from its scent alone, he prepared to take their lesson further. As started to get to his paws, he paused, and then chuckled softly. Leaning down to kiss Vanta’s forehead. “Ah, in which case you do know today's adversary. It is a mouse you track” He admitted, as finished climbing to his paws.

“Now, I want you to follow its trail through the grass. Carefully, you don’t want to startle into a burrow” he cautioned her. Slinking low to the ground himself, preparing to follow her.


"Speech"

Vanta squinted up at her father in suspicion as he admitted that it was indeed a mouse they were tracking. Her tiny ears flicked backwards, her tail flagging fierce as she stamped a paw. "You think I've never seen a mouse before??" The pup squeaked, betrayed. She was an expert huntress! Of course she'd seen a mouse! With a huff she turned to revisit the scent once more, preparing to approach the next step and actually track the thing. She'd track it, catch it, kill it, and show her dad that not only had she seen a mouse but she could kill one, too!

With her nose to the ground the puppy stalked forward, sniffing so hard the blades of grass were nearly pulled into her nostrils with each breath. The trail was faint and hard to follow, but the hint of blood would be enough to keep Vanta moving forward diligently toward it.

"Speech"

He gave a soft, hoarse laugh as he tried to swallow most of it. “Sorry sweetheart” He apologised gently. He should have guessed she’d have tracked down a mouse in the caves of her birthplace. He fell silent as she got to tracking, following quietly after her. When he truly tried, he could move quite quietly despite his massive size. His thicker coat also meant thicker fur beneath his paws, which muffled the sound of his steps.

Vanta was on the right track, and he had no need to correct her as she stalked over the grass after the scent. Watching her just about inhale grass brought a smile to his lips. But he managed to swallow his chuckle this time. Keeping his peace so he did not alert her query.


"Speech"