Naiche had planned to see Rue again at somepoint and brig Mort with him if possible.  However this time he’d entered the mangroves for Pan’s sake without specifically seeking out Rue.  He walked along the mandrake’s and heading towards an area Pan seemed to like for his food supply.  Naiche caught Rue’s scent but paused near a tree planning to let Pan off either way. Pan did climb on the tree but then settled himself on the ground and started toddling his way in the direction of Rue’s scent. “Hang on Pan, if you want then it's still faster for me to carry you.  We can go say hi to her.” Squatting down he let Pan easily get back on and following Rue’s trail.  He paused a few times, sniffing at the trail and air to make sure he was still going the right direction. Once she was in sight Pan slid off to head towards her, hunched over jogging on its two back feet.  Naiche would have still been faster but apparently, the pangolin wanted to make a personal appearance.  Naiche would roll his eyes but wait for the pangolin to get to her first before he would approach.  Pan’s greeting to Rue would just be the wave of one clawed hand. “Pan wanted to find you,” Naiche offered by way of explanation. Speech:"Live to fight" Think

Rue had been practicing in anticipation of her next lesson with Naiche. It was nice to have something to focus on. The leggy, spotted girl had taken to chasing rabbits and birds when she was able. She stalked when she could, but she wasn't very good at that part yet. Mostly during her time alone she simply explored. She found many rotten logs during her exploration but one in particular really caught her eye. She knew that her little pangolin friend would love it.

Making her way back through the mangroves, Rue was surprised to see Pan waddling towards her. The little creature waved and the chocolate girl grinned. "Pan! I was hoping I'd see you soon. I have a surprise for you." Coming up to the pangolin, Rue placed a little kiss on top of his head.

A moment later Naiche came into view. His words brought a smile to the girls face and her little bobbed tail flicked. "Aww, really?" The thought that Pan sought her out specifically warmed the girls heart. "I'm glad though. I found a fallen tree while exploring. Part of it had been taken over by termites but there are big, juicy grubs and larvae inside. I instantly thought of Pan." The spotted lady smiled, big blue eyes crinkling at the corners. With a pull of her head, she motioned for them to follow.

When Pan got kissed he responded in kind, sort of.  The little pangolin’s tongue was a sticky thing so he instead just reached up with a clawed hand to gently scratch her forehead while it was down low. At the suggestion of going off to find the rotten log Pan looked back to Naiche who made his way forward and lowered his shoulder.  Yes, Naiche was a taxi service for his little pangolin. “He seems to prefer the termites over grubs,” Naiche casually responded, “Give him the option between both and the termites and ants are the first things to go.”  Naiche’s head was tilted up and angled while Pan was climbing on, “It was sweet of you to search for food for him.  Have you found chances to practice anything we played around with last time?”  Naiche would have used other terms instead of ‘play’ except she seemed so easily pressured on hunting details he was attempting to soften this as much as possible.  He had been practicing on his training and tolerance after all! With Pan fully on and in his normal spot between shoulders and head Naiche moved to follow with Rue. Speech:"Live to fight" Think

Pans little scratches were met with girlish laughter. He was such a charming little creature. As Pan clambered onto Naiche, the yellow brute told her of the pangolins preference of termites over grubs. "Oh, well there are tons of termites. A huge mound of them." The spotted girl motioned for the boys to follow her. Naiche spoke odd her gesture being sweet and thre girl lowered her giant blue eyes bashfully. "I try to help my friends where I can."

When asked if she had practiced, Rue perked up. "I have!" The long legged girl pranced alongside Naiche. "I chased another rabbit. I chased a few birds. I chased a butterfly." She had accidentally squished the butterfly, but bugs didn't hold the same place in the girls mind that other creatures did. It was still unfortunate that she'd killed it though. "I think you would have been quite proud."

Coming around a bend, the trio arrived at the fallen tree. The left half had been turned into a huge termite mound. The little insects had done a number on the dead mangrove. "There you are, Mister Pan." Rue gave a low bow and winked one heavily lashed eye at the little creature. The mound was large. Too big for him to eat them all. Perhaps it would be a reason for Pan and Naiche to come back. Rue was really starting to like him. Er... them.

Naiche nodded, “That should make him happy.” The golden wolf followed the deer-wolf as she leads them elsewhere in the mangroves. Pan didn’t show much sign of his excitement, other than the minor detail of his head being up a bit higher than normal as he watched ahead of him.  Other than that though no one would likely notice. A butterfly? The rabbit and birds were good signs but, a butterfly? Did she label it as the same as the prey animal? Well, there was no harm in chasing butterflies and at least she was enjoying chasing things.  The birds and the rabbit were good to hear about. “So does that mean you can also smell out the rabbits on their own?”  No need to ask about the birds, he assumed she just found those in the trees.  “I’m glad you are having fun at it.” There they were with the large termite mound before them.  Naiche lowered his front end again to let Pan climb off.  He gave them both a backward wave then toddled over on his back legs to the dead tree, tearing open where the termites coming out as if it was absolutely necessary to tear even when the termites were there.  That done, bugs everywhere and that absurdly long sticky tongue slid out, termites sticking to it as if it were flypaper. Naiche watched with disinterest to a thing he had surely seen now many a time.  His interest turned back to Rue. “It sounds like you’ve done great.” Naiche gave his tail a slight sway to show some pleasure in her attempt.  “Want to try and find another one? I’d like to watch.” The more she chased them the more the instinct to catch it and kill should grow.  Even if she didn’t want to harm it, wouldn’t the desire to bite down just happen on its own? Wasn’t that the way of it? Naiche imagined this was a way to find out. He’d need to come back another day with a reward of some kind, like a good chunk of meat for her to take.  If it was a prize she’d be happy to eat it and not think about where it came from, right?  Well, that was for another day.  Today they would focus on getting her more driven to chase. Speech:"Live to fight" Think

As Rue led the pair along, her little bobbed tail flicked happily back and forth. She was quite pleased to see how happy Pan was when they finally reached the termite mound. The young lady wrinkled her nose slightly when the pangolin began to eat simply because she found bugs to be gross, but she was glad that her little friend would be getting a good meal.

When Naiche gave her praise, Rues face lit up, blue eyes lifting as she smiled. "I can tell that it's a rabbit most of the time. Some of them smell a little different." Eventually she'd learn the difference between rabbits and hares, but she hadn't quite yet. "The big ground birds have been easier to find. Pheasants, I think they're called?" The chocolate lady gave her head a quizzical tilt as she searched for affirmation from the yellow wolf.

As she expected, he asked if she wanted to try again. "Oh, of course!" Rue was eager to please Naiche for some reason. It was because he was her teacher, right? It had to be. She could think of no other reason as to why she looked forward to seeing him. No reason why she hung on every word that he said. She tried so hard outside of her lesson as so that he would be proud of her. All because he was her teacher. Her mentor. Right...?

Without being asked, the leggy girl bent her neck, putting her nose to the ground. With practice she was now able to differentiate and select the scents of prey animals. The spotted fae didn't have to walk terribly far before she hit on a scent. Casting her vibrant blues towards Naiche, she motioned ahead with a pull of her skull. There was a rabbit up ahead.

Again, without being asked, Rue hunkered down, using the mangroves as cover til get as close as she could manage to the rabbit. Giving her rear a little warm up wiggle, the brown and cream lady dove out of hiding. The rabbit jumped into the air in surprise and began to run. Rue gave chase, keeping on its tail. The rabbits white puff of a tail flashed and the pale underside of her own flashed as well. Rue ducked and weaved, keeping right behind it until the rabbit dove head first into its burrow.

Laughter spilling from Rue at the sheer thrill of the chase, she turned to Naiche with glittering eyes, waiting for her assessment. She believed that she was getting better, but he would be the true judge.

The rabbits smelled differently? Naiche thought of the various animals he had seen in this area and had a good guess on the species she had smelled.  Both hares and rabbits were food so it wasn’t a sticking point to worry about for today. Naiche nodded about the birds, “Pheasants.  I find most birds that spend a lot of time on the ground are fairly dumb.” Naiche had made more than one meal of foolish birds, including a goose with a bad attitude. He followed Rue with a mixture of amusement and even a bit of pride in her new tracking skill.  He helped make it and now she had followed through and really grown! Naiche kept his steps soft and when she motioned he obliged in staying down low and following.  When she gave chase Naiche followed but not overly close.  He wanted to stay close but observe both her and the rabbit. The only regret was that she seemed to have no desire for catching the rabbit as of yet, of course, that was his suggestion.  As she looked at her naïve happy laughter Naiche wondered if she’d be so happy if he reminded her this was training for catching and killing it later. Once the rabbit went into the hole Naice caught up to her, offering a tail wag and shoulder bump, “Good job.  You were competent at finding the rabbit, confident in what to do, and kept on the rabbit well.  It was like watching an entirely different wolf.” In terms of confidence, it seemed all the more true, she had seen so flighty the first time he met her but now there was no sign of that shyness. Speech:"Live to fight" Think

One the rabbit ducked into its burrow and the laughter of the chase died down, Naiche approached. He bumped shoulders with her and offered compliments. The leggy girl was tickled pink with the compliments. She wanted to impress him so much. Not only because he was her teacher, but because she genuinely liked him. He was a little gruff and definitely rough around the edges, but Rue appreciated that. It didn't bother her one bit. When Naiche said that it was like watching a different wolf, Rue grinned. "Nope, still just me. Thanks for being a good teacher, Naiche." Without really thinking about it, Rue extended her neck and placed a quick kiss on one golden cheek. Indigo seemed to like being kissed often, so she figured she'd try it on Naiche too. Everything was a learning experience lately. Being social was a whole new garden of worms and was something that she was still getting used to. After the quick peck, the spotted girl turned and began moving around the edge of the tree. She called back over her shoulder. "Did you know that rabbits have more than one hole to get into their homes?" She sniffed around the tree. "I found one the other day that had five holes. Five." It was crazy to think that such little creatures could be so industrious. "You know," she called back over her shoulder. "I'm chasing rabbits and other things, but I'm still not sure about catching them or killing them. I don't even know if meat will taste good to me." She'd never eaten it, so how was she to know? The prospect still made her pretty nervous. She wasn't sure if she could commit to killing when the time came. "Speech"

Naiche was about to respond to Rue’s thanking him but was a bit startled at the kiss so that there was a seconds pause before the “no problem,” came out.  After that second he brushed it off as the nicety it was.  The golden wolf correlated kisses to a thing either for mates and lovers to do or irritating sisters or other females used to taunt or tease.  Of course, it could also be used with a ‘thanks’ but, it wasn’t something Naiche had much reason to receive in the past. “They have to keep multiple holes.  Imagine if there was only one hole.  They’d be trapped and either a persistent predator ready to dig in could get to them, or even a lazy predator would only need to lay around and wait for the prey to emerge.  It would be boring for the predator but regardless it would still end up with lots of dead rabbits.”  Naiche imagined the more interest she took in the rabbits the better. It was entertaining how excited she could be on learning things most wolves acknowledged as obvious fact. Naiche had planned to bring her some meat and now she was admitting her concerns about the taste. His mouth opened in a toothy grin. “I know of no wolf who has tasted meat and disliked it.  I hadn’t realized I would be running into you when I brought Pan out this time.  I already planned to bring you up some meat for you to try.  If you want to meet up where we left Pan tomorrow I will bring you some meat to try.  Does that sound reasonable?  I’ll bring you the food as a gift, and you won’t have to kill anything.” He wouldn’t point out, either way, it was her eating an animal killed for the point of food.  Hopefully that much wouldn’t bother her as she didn’t see it die. Speech:"Live to fight" Think