Well, it was past time for her to be calling for the young man Valentine had assigned her to mentor. Ashmedai, his youngest son. She wondered if Valentine had realized she was already subtly mentoring Ash anyway, and just gave it the official stamp of approval. Well, she and Valen had had their fun, had taken a bit of an adventure in Sonticus, and it was time for her to take up what she'd left hanging here. She wasn't... completely sure what Valentine had assigned Ash to her to learn. Hunting? Healing? Fighting? She was kind of a jack of all trades and tended to bounce from one to the other on a whim. Yesterday fighting, today politics, tomorrow hunting? She was all over the map. Well, he was Valentine's son... he'd probably be more in tune with a fight than healing, so there was that.

Pacing through Imperium's territory, she finally settled on the Orchard. Why not? Made sense to her. Well, time to find Ash, or rather bring him to her. She sang out a howl for the boy to come see her for their first lesson.

He didn't feel like moving. The moment kept playing over and over again in his head. His dad... and Rhythm... they were gonna have pups. Ashmedai couldn't think of anything worse. He lay on his side in the Orchard, unable to return to the common den area. Any time he smelled Rhythm he felt sick. He hated her. He really, really hated her. He hadn't hated anyone before. How could he hate someone his dad loved? How was that possible? Did his dad love him still? If he asked his dad about it, would he try to explain it or turn him away angrily like he did Vana at the meeting? Ashmedai didn't know what to do. He felt like he couldn't breathe. He kind of wanted to die. He was being overly dramatic, but he was hurt and he couldn't just go and fight Rhythm. Wasn't that what you were supposed to do when someone made someone else mad? He couldn't just fight his dad's mate though, especially if his dad loved her more than him. If that happened... Ash shivered a small sob. He would be kicked out for sure and lose his whole family. Were they all upset too or not? He wanted to know, but he didn't want to ask. A call startled him to his feet. It was Cascade! Normally, he would be excited... he was still excited. He sought out Cas eagerly, but his smile just wasn't there. He found her and ran up, aiming to bump shoulders with her as he passed. He would circle around to face her, trying to throw on a smile, but failing to completely pull it off. After a few awkward moments of trying to hold it up, he settled for a neutral expression, sighing, "Sorry," he'd say, his voice rough from yelling and sobbing in the past day. He coughed as he started his next line, "Bad day." His lips would twitch as he tried to not think about anything but talking to Cas. He wasn't going to cry in front of her, "Training today?" "SPEAK!"

Ash's appearance immediately gave Cascade some concern. Uh oh, someone was looking a bit down and out. He didn't seem inclined to launch into an explanation though, and since Cascade's usual method of handling problems was to shove them aside and forget about them, or to work them off, she took the out without any shame. "Yes, training!" she confirmed, completely shoving aside the whole sad-Ash problem. "What is it you want to learn about, Ash? Healing? Hunting? Fighting? I know a little bit of everything, so I can teach you whatever it is you want to know, but the important part is getting a good idea of what you want to do with your life so that I can make all your lessons work towards your goals instead of wasting your time and effort in something that's not going to be useful for you as an adult." That was what 'mentor' actually meant, right? Having not had the benefit of growing up in a pack environment and having a mentor herself, Cascade was operating entirely under the actual definition of the word. A counselor, an adviser, a trainer... not someone who was a teacher of specific things and that was that. She didn't know what it was supposed to mean, so she just rolled with what she knew. Tilting her head to the side expectantly, she waited for his response.

Ashmedai's eyes welled up with tears as Cascade began to talk. He was quick to try to shove them down. Cascade asked him what he wanted to learn and went on to explain something else. Normally, Ash would cling onto her every word, but today, he just couldn't. His mind kept drifting to Rhythm and his dad and he didn't want to think about it, but he did. As she finished talking, Ashmedai sniffled, "Fighting... I wanna be a good fighter..." He explained, "I wanna be able to beat up anyone... Except I can't because that would make Dad upset. What if he loves Rhythm's pups more than me?!" Ash burst out, his tears overflowing. When he felt their warmth on his cheeks, he reeled himself back in, "Sorry... Don't tell Dad... I wanna learn fighting now..." Ashmedai backed up and started forming some sort of weak combative stance, "i'm ready for whatever," he sighed, not making eye contact. Maybe she would come at him suddenly and they could fight for real and of course Cascade would win because she was amazing, but he could try and maybe that would be kind of nice...