In his bid to push Adaline out of her comfort zone, he had taken her on a short trip to the Gorge for a hunting trip. The steep rocky mountain offered many levels of plateau, and they found themselves more than a few feet above the ground floor of the gorge as they made their way through a smaller forest along the cliff side. “Let's start with something small. What scents can you find so far?” He asked, turning to the small slave as he spoke.

As he faced her, he closed his own eyes, lifting his head upwards. Sampling the scents of pine, shale and the hint of ice that drifted in from the cool Northern wind. Amongst all that, there were squirrels, skunks, foxes, and rabbits. The forest wasn’t well-hunted, and an abundance of game could be found here. Which was why he had suggested the trip.


"Sirius"

While her comfort zone stayed pretty well fixed to the boundaries of her room, it seemed that today they were going to make another attempt to expand that exposition. Whether she liked it or not. Of course, she would grit her teeth and follow orders. However, it made her very anxious not being able to anticipate what exactly today’s outing would entail.

The Gorge wasn’t actually all that far away from the territory. So that was something. But once they arrived, the Warlord was quick to get down to the business of things- asking just what kind of prey animals were present based on the array of scents she detected. “Squirrels …” The perpetually nervous fae answered, trailing off as she racked her brain for more details. After a few painful moments, she produced another answer. “And rabbits, I guess ...” Adelina murmured softly. There were other things that smelled familiar, but the exact identity of the creatures didn’t come to mind right away. She had never really tried to pursue anything larger than what she could feed herself with.

With any luck, hunting lessons would go better than what they had gone over in the training grounds.

Like Adelina, he caught the scent of squirrels, as well as an abundance of other prey animals. There was also the hint of something else in the wind there, but he couldn’t quite pin it down. He took a few more deep sniffs. Sampling the air, but it was gone. He pulled his distracted thoughts back to the slave beside him. Looking at her small, timid form. He knew he had a long way to go with her.

“Alright, let's start with rabbits.” He said. Something small, that couldn’t fight back. Baby steps, right? “Isolate that scent, and lead us in.” He instructed Adelina, pitching his voice low as he spoke. He felt an itching up his spine as he spoke, as if something was watching them. He fought the urge to look at twitched a paw at Marshal, sending the bird scouting.


"Sirius"

As Sirius instructed that they would start with hunting a rabbit, she offered an uncertain nod of acknowledgment. It wasn’t too difficult to pick out a familiar scent among the ones that were unknown to her. As lightly as she could, she proceeded further- nostrils flaring as she went in search of prey. However, she hadn’t been following what she believed to be a rabbit for very long before a sense of paranoia set in. It was hard to tell if it had merit or not- she was generally always pretty anxious. But when the warlord sent one of his companions to look, it only confirmed that maybe she wasn’t the only one the felt something off. Something wrong.

On a reflex, the girl stiffened a bit. While Sirius might have been able to keep his attention forward, the timid slave could not. Casting a quick glance toward the direction from which they came, she couldn’t help but seek out reassurance. “Is everything okay?” Adelina asked softly. Still looking into the cover of the forest around them.

Adelina started moving them after the rabbit, and he heard nothing from Marshal in those first few moments. With his companions keen senses in the area around them, he concentrated on the lesson in front of him. Keeping enough of an awareness of what was going on around him that he felt he could leap to his pupils defence if anything troubled them.
Or so the infallible Warlord believed.

Adelina stopped, and the Warlord stopped beside her. “I’m not sure yet” He admitted, “Marshal is scouting, I’m sure it’s nothing we can’t handle” He said softly. But when the danger came, it came quiet, and sudden. Leaping from the thick woods suddenly, the creature that both wolves should have been able to scent - and couldn’t - collided with the Warlord. He recognised The orange and black stripes of the cat, before his paws were skidding on the rough ground. “RUN” He roared to Indie.

"Sirius"

When the Warlord reassured her that they wouldn’t encounter anything that they couldn’t handle, she began to feel a minuscule amount of relief. However, it wouldn’t last for very long. Just as Adelina moved to return to her own lesson, the roar of a large cat echoed in the forest around them. However, it was no warning- but a battle cry as it slammed into Sirius. The slave’s eyes went wide as she gasped- a silent scream trapped in her throat. She stumbled out of the immediate way, but couldn’t pull her gaze from the event as it unfolded.

It took her a moment to register the fact that Sirius had yelled at her to run. She wasn’t even sure her legs would work. But after a moment, she scrambled back, and into the tree line. However, she had only just made it into the thicker cover they had come from before skidding to a halt. She needed to go get help. But the heart of the Armada was a fair distance away. What if Sirius didn’t have that long? Instead she stood frozen in a path, caught between the decision of leaving him to find help, or trying to offer help herself.