Wisps in the Willows

Flashes of black and purple showed through the trees as the Fatalis girl charged uncaring through them. The long spines along her spine were held ridgedly up in her annoyance, and she could feel her claws on the edge of being bared though experience thought her to keep them sheathed while running as much as possible so they didn't fray and wear. "Its stupid," she was complaining loudly to the blue jay that wove theough the branches above her. "She wants us to train on our own but we're kids. We're supposed to be taught. How the fuck am I supposed to train myself in something I don't know how to do?" It had been a common refrain lately from the youth, who was pissed off about the injustice. She'd been deliberately refusing to go crawling to her elder sister to beg for the lessons that should have been given to them, purely out of rebelliousness. The jay, who was used to the refrain, just cackled harshly to egg her on.

"She just doesn't want any of us to be able to challenge her for her rank. She thinks if Dad thinks we are useless, she'll get all his attention and no one will be able to be better than her. Its bullshit! She only got her rank because the last Reaper was too useless to fight for it, and the guy who fought her let her win because he's in loooove." She made a gagging noise. "I mean, you should have seen him at that meeting. He was practically fawning all over her and kissing her ass. She didn't even bother fighting Gossy when she challenged her, he did it for her!"

The cat bounding alongside her shrugged. "If you want to challenge her shouldn't you be finding training instead? She isn't the only one who could teach you, you know. There are plenty of birds in the thicket."

Aris snorted rudely. "Who in the Armada is going to bother actually teaching us now that they think we are getting training? I'd have to go outside the pack to..." She hit the brakes suddenly, so that the cat who had kept running had to backtrack. The jay landed on a thin willow branch, head cocked as he eyed her interestedly. Duh! She was running off anyway, why shouldn't she find a mentor outside the pack? "I," she announced determinedly, "am going to find a mentor."

"About time," the cat muttered, fastidiously licking a paw and running it over her ears. Ari stuck her tongue out at the cat, but refrained from imagining the best way of disemboweling her - Aris' mom had given her Tansy as a fluffy little green-eyed kitten so they'd basically grown up together, and she tried to avoid murdering friends. Besides, Tansy was a badass hunter and a scrappy little fighting partner. She'd be pretty much irreplaceable.

Ignoring the rude tongue, Tansy cocked her head to the side, listening. Ari did the same, and caught the sound of someone talking. This is a white willow here. Note its look and its smell.

"Well that sounds like some fucking lessoning to me, eh?" the jay called down raucously, taking off in a racket of wings and cackling at her as he went his own way, as he often did. The foul-mouthed asshole of a bird stuck around mostly to mock her and teach her bad language, and having her go cadge plant lessons of a stranger wasn't the jay's idea of interesting.

Aris took off in the direction of the nearby voice and nearly blundered into the strange pale pup and her far odder vulpine companion. "Hey!" she blurted out, fascinated. "You have antlers! Cool!"

Rolling her eyes at Ari, Tansy spoke up from behind her - having, of course, had the sense to not nearly knock over a stranger. "We heard you talking about the willows. Are you healers, by chance? Aris is an untutored heathen and could use some schooling, if you are teaching." She directed her velvety purr of a voice at the fox, who of them was clearly the only one old enough to be teaching anything.