Fool's Gold Chasm A hop, skip, and a jump

Forward dating to 7/20, a little after midnight. For @Rhaegara
RE: Enera, the noisy grasshoppers are disturbing your sleep

It had been a long, fun day and Enera had initially settled down to sleep quickly, snuggled into her Mama's side safe and sound. Her dreams were of their usual variety - exploring strange new worlds and occasionally walking among the stars. She liked to imagine she met her grandparents there.

Something was chirping, and it's harsh tone finally dragged Enera from her rest. Her ears flattened against her head and she tucked her face into Mama's side in an attempt to block the sound out, but it was no use. She would have to get up and silence whatever it was on her own.

Grumbling, the young girl stomped outside without making much effort to keep quiet. She wanted the Noise to know she was coming. To her irritation, there was no particular source to the sound - at least not at first. Then something landed in front of her and the Noise came from it.

"Quiet!" she barked at it, but the Noise didn't stop. It just stared at her and kept chirping. Enera growled at it. "Stop it!" she said, stamping one paw.

The Noise hopped away, where it rested and continued chirping. Enera growled again - a ferocious sound to her ears - and stalked toward the Noise, crouched low to the ground. When she neared it, she pounced, but the Noise evaded her and hopped away.

Tiny growl still rumbling in her throat, Enera followed.

She was growing so fast, not that Rhaegara should be surprised by that. She was always exploring, and Rhae would pepper in little stories or lessons into the things they had done together just as her parents had done with her. From a young age, she’d held the burden of being the next in line, her parents’ heir… but her daughter did not have that burden and there was a part of her that was quite happy about that. They were settled in next to each other, and Rhae had her eyes closed though she was far from asleep. She never managed to fall asleep until after her daughter was safely in the dream world. She was adventurous after all and Rhae preferred if her nighttime excursions were supervised.

She felt a face tucked against her and she dragged one eye open to look at her daughter… and then she was cursing at the noise. There was a hint of amusement in her eyes, knowing that the noise was grasshoppers, but she said nothing for now. She grew irritated and she started trying to hunt it. Rhae was pushing up onto her paws now, nipping lightly at her daughter’s ear in turn. “Breathe, little Dove.” She cooed softly. “It’s a grasshopper… it doesn’t understand what you’re saying.” She explained as best as she could without going into a lesson about how different animals had different languages.

Enera was deaf to her mama's amusement until she was nipping at her ear, momentarily distracting her from her chase. She looked back. "Grasshopper?" she asked, looking at the Noise. It hopped away again, unimpressed by the attempts on its life from the girl.

Enera gurgled another growl and pounced after it, two leaps taking her the distance. Her paws came down on empty dirt again; the Noise - grasshopper - had slipped away again.

The young pup pursued, hopping just like the Noise and trying to capture it beneath her paws.

Rhae smiled softly at her and nodded at the question. “Yes, Enera, it’s called a grasshopper… and that noise is it’s way of talking.” She explained, watching as Enera growled and went after it again. She couldn’t help but let out a soft chuckle at her daughter, nudging her shoulder a little bit as she started to hop along after the creature. “Grasshoppers are tricky to catch, aren’t they? Do you want to learn how?” She asked rhetorically before she crouched down, watching the creature with her eyes narrowed at it, her voice dropping to a hushed whisper to her daughter.

“If you want to catch it, what you have to do is jump for where it’s going to land, rather than where it is when you’re preparing to pounce.” She explained again, looking to see if her daughter was truly paying attention to her words or if she had taken off as puppies tend to do so often. She could teach, but it was also a skill that Enera could learn on her own and she recognized it.

Grasshopper, grasshopper, Enera sang in her mind as she hopped before Mama drew her attention again. She reluctantly sat up and looked away from her quarry, but she perked up when Mama crouched down.

Enera listened intently and watched, slowly lowering herself to mirror Mama's posture, much like she had Riven's when the stranger had come into their territory. Mama looked back at her, and Enera wiggled to show she was paying attention. She was focused .

"How d'I know where it'll be?" she asked.

She could tell her daughter was eager to simply chase, but Rhae much preferred to make a lesson out of this. She was wholly focused on her words, and the woman smiled at her daughter’s question with a soft hum. “You know by knowing which direction it’s going.” She explained, though she realized her explanation was rather poor. “You’ve chased it before… and you know the direction it hopped… it wouldn’t change direction because the direction it’s going has been working.” It wasn’t quite that simple, but it was simple enough for her daughter to follow at such a young age. Really, it became something of an instinct one had while hunting.

“Listen, Little Dove.” She cooed softly, pressing her own ears forward in example as she listened to the chirp of the grasshopper off in the distance, sinking low to the ground as she narrowed her eyes and watched. “And when you feel it’s right in your bones… pounce.” She emphasized, though she made no motion forward. This was not a task for her. This was for her daughter to do.

This is what I get for rolling the die...

Enera continued to watch her mama closely, only glancing aside when the grasshopper chirped again. She strained her ears forward when Mama did, eager to show that she was learning. She thought hard about where the grasshopper had been going, and wiggled her butt again, tail thumping against the ground as she wagged it.

At the word 'pounce', excitement overtook Enera and she flung herself forward in quite possibly the worst pounce she - or anyone else - had ever performed. She didn't launch herself high enough in the air for the landing she was positioned for and instead ploughed into the hard dirt, momentum carrying her forward even as her paws struck ground and Enera flipped butt-over-teakettle and rolled what seemed a long way before coming to a rest.

She sat up, ears back as she shook herself. "Ouch," she complained.

I rolled a 1...

(This post was last modified: Aug 05, 2021, 12:42 PM by Enera.)

She noted that she had her daughter’s full attention, a wide smile cracking her features. She truly was blessed to have the child that she had, watching as she eagerly set herself. The word pounce caused her daughter to leap into action, watching with a hint of amusement when she ploughed into the dirt as she fought back a soft chuckle. Oh, it would certainly take some time, but she had little doubt that her little warrior would get the hang of hunting eventually. She moved forward, nudging her softly before lightly running her maw over her fur for a moment.

She sat back up and complained and she let out a soft but caring laugh. “Did that hurt, Little Dove?” She asked softly. “That’s okay… sometimes learning hurts. What matters is you get up and try again… come on, Little Dove, you can do it.” She encouraged her daughter to try one last time to take this annoying grasshopper down as it chirped once more, almost taunting now.

Enera's eyes were stinging, but she was tough. "It didn' hurt," she lied with a sniffle. The pads of her feet hurt where they'd dug into the pebbly ground and slid, and she leaned into her mama's care, but she was tough and she was fine. She shook mama off after a minute, and blinked up at her.

Learning hurts, Enera repeated in her head, carefully filing that away. The young girl wanted to learn; she liked learning, but she didn't like hurting. But... if that's what it sometimes took... "Okay," she said with a short nod. It was okay to be hurt sometimes.

Enera gave the grasshopper a dubious look, but with a quick glance at Mama she settled into position once more, shifting as she watched the bug hop again. Her eyes narrowed. She was going to get it this time. Absolutely. She squeezed her eyes shut, then opened them, looked at the grasshopper, and pounced without thinking about it any more.

She was probably just as surprised by the faint crunch beneath her paws as the annoying grasshopper was by it's sudden demise. Enera sat back in shock, looking at the crushed insect and the smear of green on one of her scuffed paws. She wrinkled her nose and looked up at her mama. "Gross."

She was proud of her daughter. She certainly had the mettle necessary to make it in the world, it just needed a little bit of fine tuning around the edges was all. She knew that she was fierce just like her mom, or at least like Rhae liked to believe that she was that strong. Sometimes it was okay to hurt, and sometimes hurting was necessary to learn. If Rhae hadn’t been pushed on by her own parents after falling and scraping her paws, she never would have been where she was today.

Her daughter did what was hard: she got up and kept trying. She was determined and she watched as she pounced, grinning as she landed right on top of it and Rhae heard the crunch. “Very good, Little Dove.” She cooed in praise as she nudged her softly. “It is a little gross isn’t it? Why don’t we go wash your paws off in the stream?” She encouraged, knowing they could get some real food after, because her daughter had certainly earned some kind of treat. "I'm so proud of you, Little Dove."