After the meeting, Orca was angry, regardless of what logic her dad saw in attacking Abaven- even if it was training or with out negative intent, it upset her and the youth chose that time to make the most out of her new found freedom. Orca stomped loudly through the forest with her companion trotting along next to her…albeit much quieter. “I mean, how can he just do that? Just agree to fight our friends! What if Beat is there?!” She asked, shouting though she knew she didn’t need to. Her anger was clear to any that were following or stumbled upon her. ”Beat will be fine.” He replied, but her companion didn’t know what to say to the other parts, he knew little of war and fighting among his kind was never done mildly.

“It’s stupid! Valkyrie’s gotta be up to something right? I mean, why else have us fight our friend?” The youth would stop dead, “Wait. What if she attacks them after?” She looked at the snow leopard, wondering his thoughts; her feline companion would sigh and look at his wolf pup friend. ”She might. She might not. Just wait and see, Orca.” He rumbled softly, nudging her gently. She worried too much. Orca would huff and then continue on her way, only to stop a short ways ahead. Ears came forward as she saw the body laying ahead, it was a decent sized buck, antlers jutting up into the air.

The mention of predators at the meeting had Orca’s fur rising, glancing to her companion, she moved closer. Nostrils flaring, but there was no blood… not like she expected, instead, it seemed like the deer just… collapsed. Orca would poke it, though its chest didn’t rise and fall and it smelled dead, she couldn’t help it. The youth half expected it to jump up at her touch, but its form was cold and stiff.

The girl would smirk, “grab a leg or something…I’ll get it by the antlers. Lets take it to Song, he can teach me about it.” The feline would look at her as if she were crazy, but would shrug and grab the front leg as she took the antler. Together they would begin dragging it the distance back to the ship. Orca would have to stop repeatedly, they’d left mid evening, but they did not get back to the ship until dawn. The sun was just cresting the horizon when she and her companion finally came to a stop at the hole in the hull that Song used. Orca barked once and then plopped down tiredly. Her jaws hurt, her muscles were twitching and aching from extended use- her companion in a similar state as they waiting for Song to find them. Even with multiple long rests through the night, they were exhausted.

Song emerged from the den that he shared with Kirsi, that fact still managing to make him smile as he stretched and trotted towards his workshop. The two of them moved slow, but they were still close. He might have spent all day with her if he didn’t think he’d drive her crazy with his actions. Kirsi was independent, and he knew that she needed to embrace life outside of him as he needed to do about her. He couldn’t become co dependent either, so he focused on his work.

Dawn broke and Song was readying his supplies for the day, he hoped to maybe help some of the pack to choose their weapons for the coming raids. He didn’t have any strong feelings towards his alpha’s actions, but he wasn’t completely at sound mind with how high a price he was paying for the man Kai. It was a decision made long before Song joined though, so he didn’t vocalize an opinion that didn’t matter.

He certainly didn’t expect to hear Orca’s bark as she approached the workshop with a massive deer. He hurried from his place to help her drag the things closer before he greeted her or asked what in the world she was doing. Once they had the creature at the door he looked to the young girl. ”What is this Orca?” He chuckled, amused and proud at her tenacity.

Orca hadn’t waited long, Song came out to help with the deer, but Orca barely had the energy to get up let alone help drag it. Her companion remained where he was- unwilling to move the few feet just to be closer to Orca. He was exhausted too. When Song looked at her, speaking with a chuckle, the youth managed an awkward grin. “It’s armor.” She explained shortly, before looking at it again, “well…I hope it will be.” She backpedalled, looking at it again. The drag to the boat had been hard, not just on her and her companion, but hopefully the small tears and mud wouldn’t affect its usefulness too much.

“It took us all night to get it here. Is it useable?” She asked, looking from the carcass to Song once more. He’d mentioned previously that anything was better than nothing and to her it didn’t seem in terrible condition plus it could be good meat for the pack to eat on before the stupid raids.

Orca was exhausted, he could see that very plainly. He wondered how far she had dragged the carcass, but her intentions for it seemed obvious to him. She explained to him she wanted to make it into armor. Song couldn’t help but beam at his student, she was learning and now she wanted to hone her skill further. She mentioned that it had taken them all night to get here, and she seemed worried she wouldn’t be able to use it. Song shook his head. ”No, you did very well. This will work perfectly.” He told her proudly as he returned his attentions to his workshop and the tools they’d need to process the carcass. ”Have you learned how to skin your prey, Orca?” He asked as he grabbed two skinning knives from their places.

To her relief her mentor would beam proudly at her as she explained her reason for bringing it to him. His reassurance that it would work perfectly was quite relieving for the girl, and for her companion. She breathed a heavy sigh of relief, but even though exhausted there was still excitement in the youth- and a thirst for knowledge. She would happily absorb any knowledge Song was willing to teach her. The youth couldn’t explain how happy she was that he had offered to be her mentor at the meeting, although he didn’t have much choice- that is, if she had anything to say about it. The determined, headstrong youth would not take no for an answer.

Song would turn away for a few minutes, talking to her as he returned. He’d bring out a set of knives that she stared at curiously. “No…I haven’t.” She answered, almost reluctantly. She didn’t want to disappoint her mentor.

They could make quick work of the deer, he’d probably do better showing her first and then passing on the knives. She seemed to pick up quickly after being able to visualize her work. Song wasn’t disappointed in her reply, in fact if she said anything he else he would have been surprised. ”That’s fine. You can learn now.” He encouraged her as he positioned the deer. ”Alright, take this knife,” He actually took the blade. ”And we’re going to start at the end. We wont need the leg skin so we’re going to cut here.” He explained ashe showed her. ”And then the other leg. Now we need to join the two cuts behind the thighs.” He continued to show and explain. ”We could cut up the belly now, but i personally like to just unroll the skin from the carcass first.” Song quick demonstrated how to do just that. Before he knew it the while fur was up and around its shoulders. ”Same with the front legs. The head is the hard part. It’s got such nice antlers.. do you want to keep them for your armor?”

Orca’s fatigue was quick to wear off as Song agreed to explain how to skin the deer. She grinned eagerly, watching as he positioned the deer, noting how he did so for future uses, she would assume it was the same for all animals. Then he began speaking, when he mentioned taking the knife, she started to reach for it, only to stop as he started a new motion and explained which end to start with and where to make the first cuts. Orca nodded, shifting so that she could follow with him and get closer looks as he made the cuts on the hind legs then the cuts up the thighs of the deer. She’d nod as he explained, absorbing the info, and even trying to help tug on the hide as he worked it up to the shoulders. When he asked about the antlers she would grin and nod. “Yes, they’d make good defensive weapons, right?” She asked, she wasn’t sure how she could use them offensively... “Song…is it possible to have them on top of my head….like they are on the deer? Like….what’s his name with the horns?” She asked, she didn’t know the name of the wolf in Winterfell that had horns, but surely Song had seen them. Maybe she was missing something and it was possible.

Orca didn’t hesitate to get in the carcass with him and work the unprocessed skin. The pair of them made short work of the cape, and he figured both of them would be eating well the next few days. Her question was hesitant, but she had excellent ideas. He nodded proudly. ”With a little work I think they could be used as a weapon.” He told her as he mused over the possibilities and showed her quickly how to dekin up to the skull. ”Since you want the antlers we’ll need to keep some of the skull plate. Take off the whole hide and we’ll put them back on after treating the skin.” He helped her complete the task before returning his attention to the skull. ”Alright, be careful, but if you twist just right the skull plate will come off and we can craft it into a type of helmet we can attach to the cape. Think we should sharpen the antlers?”