we must be swift as the coursing river

Art arrived in only a few moments, coming up to her with a smile and a friendly greeting. Avantika met him with a genuine smile of her own, which widened slightly as he praised her beginning as the Commander. She was always a sucker for words of affirmation from those she respected as much as the Aegis. "At least that," she replied. While she was on a mission with this talk, talking to Art often seemed to last longer than she thought it would and she also wanted to ask how he was doing and see how being a parent was treating him.

She had rehearsed bits of what she was going to say beforehand in sheer excitement, tempered by a bit of nervousness that she wouldn't say it right. She was no great communicator of ideas; she did think that she was pretty smart, but her intelligence was tuned to battle strategy and things like that, not diplomacy or advising. "Mercury and I were discussing ideas for elevating the fighting training of the pups, and agreed that we might plan a practice raid -- perhaps with the Armada? Also, I was thinking that we could make their education in general more organized by assigning the knights, Mercury and I, and other wolves with fighting ability and willingness pups to teach? That might work for other subjects too, but I wouldn't want to speak for them." She tilted her head slightly, pausing to see what Art would say.

"Speech"