In Disbelief, I Didn't Know (EBONY)

Walk | Talk | Think

The hunt that Tahlia had conducted alongside Katja had opened the woman's eyes to just how out of practice she had grown regarding on land catches. Her expertise had always been below the surface of a lake or river, with the fish that made their home there. She could swim well, could wait out even the most stubborn of fish, and make a meal out of just what she could find in the water. But out of it? She needed work. Her tracking had been decent enough but she had grown slow, slower than she found acceptable for herself. The proud female had been working on that, tracking the little animals that wandered through the snowy territory and attempting to sneak up on them even when she was not hungry. It had been helping, but practice made perfect and she intended to keep at it.

Despite her desire for the pups to stay little for as long as they could - Anais, Jakart, and Nako had all grown so fast, she hated to think that Lior and Kailos would be the same within the blink of an eye - she was allowing them more freedom. Katja had noticed that many of them were old enough to begin training and taking up a task to focus on so she allowed them better freedom to figure out what they wanted to learn, where their talents lay hidden. And she was using that time away from them to better herself as well, all the while promising herself that it would be better for them all in the long run.

She was tracking, nose quivering as it fluttered above the ground, when her ears perked with the sound of Katja's call. Tahlia's dark gold eyes were cast in the direction of the call and then back at the ground, testing again the scent she had been following. No, she should go. There would always be little things to follow and hunt later. Giving up on the scent she had been following, she loped over to the location where Katja sat above the gathered pack members atop a short boulder, catching sight of her daughter already sitting and waiting for the meeting to begin. Tahlia felt proud to see her there already and walked over to her side. "How are you, my dear?" she asked quietly, reaching forward to nose her daughter's cheek affectionately as she sat beside her. As she did so, she realized in that moment that she was nearly even in height with her. How quickly children grew.