as fate would have it

Birna nodded as Irving explained that what she'd encountered was a gator and they were not nice creatures. "Indeed, we don't have those where I grew up." High up in the mountains there was rarely anything in the water she needed to watch out for so it was definitely a surprise when a predator larger than her tried to end her peaceful drink. She was not used to being prey.

The leopard introduced himself as Irving and agreed to give her lessons. She settled down to listen, her great tail wrapping partly over her paws and then trailing off into the brush. "Ok, sounds straight forward enough." She got to her feet and padded over to gather her own piece of vine. Her claws made short work of it and she dragged it over to where Irving was. "One moment." She called her raven down and sent him to grab a chunk of leftover bird from their last meal. When the raven returned she used her dexterous paws to tie the vine around the meat and the the cropped rib bone it was attached to. "How does this look? I find hunting fish quite different from larger prey so any tricks are most appreciated. Do you mostly hunt fish or have you ever tried for bigger prey?"

Speech