Despite the lack of sight Venom was determined to give her children the upbringing that they deserved. She was with them everyday, helping them in their lessons and teaching them how to be proper princes and a princess. All of them were beyond precious to her, and she embraced the struggle and hard work this time in their lives required. There would be rest once they were older. Which wouldn’t be very long at all.

Next season they would be expected to start deciding their path in life. They would take on an apprenticeship role and wouldn’t need her as much. The goal was to raise strong, intelligent, and self-sufficient wolves who knew how to deal with the world and its problems in a way that would bring them and their families honor and prosperity. Venom had zero doubts in their ability to do just that.

The encouraging mother was taking out her youngest daughter today, the only girl of her litter with Maverick. She was special in that regard, not that she was loved any more than her brothers. Having a little princess to dote on was special to Venom considering the traditionally matriarchal society of modern Kleins. Despite her vision loss, Venom led Rebel out to the beaches beyond the ravine for a lesson with mom. Her spacial awareness was much easier when she had the orientation of ocean on one side and the sound of rustling leaves on the other.

As usual the sky was darkened as late evening overcame the pair of them. Venom strolled slowly so Rebel could easily keep up. "Once the weather warms up we’ll start swimming lessons.” She mused softly as they walked the beaches. "Do you want a lesson on the ocean, or would you rather we kept to the curriculum and study our fighting forms?” She asked with a tilt of her head, leaving Rebel in charge of the decision.

"Venom & Maverick"

Rebel hummed softly to herself as she walked with her mother along the ravine to reach the beaches on the other side, trotting along to match her mother's more leisurely pace with her short, puppy legs. Ever since they were let out of the den for the first time, she had spent almost every moment she could out here, wandering around and learning every inch of the territory they were allowed to explore, so the path to the beach was already a familiar one to her. Playing in the foamy waves as they washed over the sand was definitely one of her favorite things ever even though she wasn't allowed to swim in the salty water yet. It was still just as fun to chase the water back and forth as it rushed up at her and her siblings before retreating back again. Today wasn't about chasing waves though, today was a lesson with mom!

She knew her momma couldn't see if she was paying attention or whether or not she was bouncing over the waves they passed as they walked along the shore, but somehow she felt like her mom would still know if she was being bad so she resisted the urge and kept to walking beside her mother instead, eyeing the waves and looking forward to when she was dismissed so she could go play again. The mention of swimming lessons once the weather got warmer made her ears perk with interest though and her magenta gaze snapped from the ocean back to her mother's face as she grinned. "Okay! I'd like that!" she agreed easily, regaining a bit of a hop in her step for a bit. Then the topic of today's lesson came up and she was given the option of a lesson on the ocean or more practice with the fighting poses and stuff. "The ocean! Let's learn about the ocean!" she insisted without hesitation, looking up at her mom eagerly to listen. The fighting stuff was fine, but it was all so easy and the huge body of mysterious water was WAY more interesting than just repeating a bunch of fighting poses again!

"Rebel Klein"

Rebel was surprisingly well behaved as they walked along the shore line. Venom wasn’t so ignorant to the desires of a puppy and the tempting sight of the ocean’s gentle waves. As the puppies got older their maturity naturally increased, opposed to what their namesakes might suggest. She smiled at the thought of her cute little angels being named after anti authority. An appropriate homage to their father that she adored so much.

Onward the Empress walked with her youngest daughter, silently wondering who she would grow to be one day. Like the Crown Princess who devoted herself to her pack, or like Ikigai who sacrificed her own free will for her clan. Or would she be more like Kitsune and forge her own way? Only time would tell, and Venom would be there beside her, guiding and teaching her so she could more easily reach her full potential.

For now that was primarily teaching her about the world and how to be a proper Klein princess. That included swimming lessons, more importantly fighting lessons, and general lessons. Rebel was excited for the first, she didn’t mention how she felt about the second, but the third very much got her attention. Rebel answered she wanted to learn about the ocean in swift succession.

"Alright, let's learn about the ocean.” Venom chuckled softly as she lowered herself to her haunches. "The first thing you should know is that it is so big, you’ll never learn everything about it.” She warned her daughter, "The second is how dangerous it can be. Not only is there an untold amount of life that could cause you harm, the water itself can easily drown you. We’ll talk about riptides more when we start swimming lessons but know this, water is the strongest force on earth. Always have a healthy respect for bodies of water.” Venom felt like she was always telling her puppies how to be careful, but she wanted them to have a head start at facing the multitude of dangers in the world.

"Venom & Maverick"

As her mother settled onto her hunches with the agreement that she'd teach her about the ocean, Rebel promptly sat down as well, looking up at her mom with eager energy while her tail whipped back and forth over the sand with energy only a puppy could possess. The first point of the lesson immediately blew her mind and didn't quite make sense within the context of the other things she had learned about the environment around her so far. How could something possibly be so big that they couldn't learn everything about it? She looked back over her shoulder at the rolling waves, squinting out toward the horizon, and realizing for possibly the first time just how far it stretched. When she was looking across the lake within Ashen's borders she could pretty easily see from one side to the other, but that was very much not the case with the ocean and she could start to believe her mother when she said there was no way for them to now everything about it.

She turned her magenta gaze back up toward her mother as she went on, warning her about how dangerous the ocean could be with all the different creatures that lived in there that could hurt her or how easy it was to drown in the huge amount of water. She figured that was probably supposed to scare her, but instead her mouth dropped open a bit with awe as she took in just how powerful the ocean was. It was way bigger and stronger and scarier than she had ever would have guessed! Now she wished there was some kind of way to be as strong as an ocean, but even with her fanciful puppy imaginings she knew that was pretty far fetched. "What kind of stuff lives in there?!" she asked excitedly, glancing back and forth between her mom and the water while she tried to imagine what kind of things could live in something so big. She had seen fish before in the lake, but if she scaled the lake up to the size of the ocean how big did that make the fish?!

"Rebel Klein"

Venom couldn’t see her daughter as she sat up properly, but she could hear the way her tail thumped against the sand. As mother spoke to child, the girl’s silence would prove a tell at how enthralled the youngest Klein Princess was to the information that she was being given. When a child, especially Venom’s children, was quiet she knew there was either trouble, or their attention was fully wrapped up. Rebel was listening quite intently as her mother spoke. Venom’s intention was not to scare the young girl, only give her a healthy respect for the dangers that the ocean could cause.

Rebel’s curiosity was obviously ignited with her mother’s words, as her imagination went wild she asked about what kind of life forms could live within the ocean. Venom lived much of her life on the archipelago, she had seen many strange and wondrous creatures throughout her life. "Creatures beyond your imagination.” She began, thinking on everything she had seen. "From colorful, small fish to incredible beasts of impossible size. Gentle whales and fearsome sharks, rays and skates that seem to fly instead of swim in the water…” Venom offered wistfully, hoping she helped to satiate some of Rebel’s curiosity. Even if she had already warned her she wouldn’t ever know the full extent of the ocean’s mysteries.

"Venom & Maverick"

Rebel listened with awe as her mother began to describe all of the kinds of fish and creatures that lived in the ocean, her jaw hanging open as she tried to imagine all of these things that she had never seen before. She had no idea what whales or sharks or rays were, but she wished she could see them! Giant things, things that looked like they were flying, fish that were super colorful... It all sounded like a made up fantasy instead of reality but she knew her mother wouldn't tell her a lie in a lesson like this!

"Wow..." she breathed as another grin crossed her lips, her tail wagging and sweeping away sand behind her in the process as she looked back out over the rolling, choppy ocean. It was so incredibly big, even bigger than she could probably ever imagine, but it sounded like it was just full of the coolest stuff! She couldn't want to be big enough to go swimming out there and see all kinds of stuff and find these fanciful creatures that she could only try to imagine and make up in her mind. "Is there a way to like... float out there? It's too big to swim across, right? My legs get tired just walking from our cave to here so we can't swim all over the ocean, right?" Of course the more information she was given the more questions she wanted to ask, finding more and more about this vast new terrain that she wanted to know.

"Rebel Klein"

Venom couldn’t see how well she held Rebel’s attention, but by her silent awe there was an obvious seat edge she was hanging from. Once Venom had quieted the girl spoke with amazement and curiosity. Once one question was answered about the ocean it often felt like five more would take its place. The Empress knew that fact because she had once been in Rebel’s shoes. Her sweet little voice softened for a moment as she thought about what to ask further. Venom was somewhat vague, but there wasn't much to explain until she could show her daughter in person.

Rebel went on, asking if there was something that could be done to float in the ocean. She was very concerned considering how tired she got from the dens to here. Venom smiled encouragingly. "Well, you’ll keep getting stronger every day. Once you start swimming regularly you will find the task easier.” She assured her. "But, there are a couple of ways to see the ocean closer. On Ashen’s old lands the islands were connected with land bridges. You could see clearly into the waters on either side. There were corals and fish you can’t even imagine.” Venom promised with awe. "There is another way, but I’d prefer if you didn’t experiment much until you are a strong enough swimmer that should something happen you could make it back to shore.” She started. "There are rafts and boats that can be fashioned to glide and sit upon the water's surface.”

"Venom & Maverick"