Easy does it, little one

Walk | Talk | Think

Daddy kissed the top of her head, but even as he did Aurora continued to stare with a perplexed frown. What had gone wrong? Why did it not work? She had splashed her paw into the water just like Daddy had, and she had pulled it out quickly the same as he had too. There was something missing in there, some key step that had been forgotten or omitted, and she huffed as she tried to think of what it might be. Silly fish, being so scared, she thought rather grumpily, putting the blame on their skittishness instead of her own unrefined skill.

Another soft nudge against her side sent her attention back to her father again, and with a patient smile he began a new demonstration. Rory watched through her serious expression as he motioned with his paw, dunking it below the surface of the water slow enough that she could follow each movement that he made precisely as he did it. Her tail flicked against her side and the blue pup squirmed a bit in place. I know this part, she wanted to complain, but as he moved his paw beneath the water, shifting his toes and curving them just enough to, she presumed, grasp one of the fish, it clicked. That! That was what she had failed to do. That was why it had not worked!

The fish were gone, but that did not mean that their lesson was over. Glacier demonstrated again for her what she needed to do, and as he held out his paw, ready to begin the first step, she realized his hesitation was really him waiting for her to complete the motion with him. Eagerly to comply, so very eager to learn, Aurora tiptoed closer to the water and did as her father demonstrated, raising her white-toed foreleg up and over the water in mimicry of what he was doing. Expectantly, she turned her head and looked up and over at him, signaling with a glance that she was ready and flexing her toes in anticipation.