Strength: ten, soak: three
Jul. 9th, 2010 10:43 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
shelbyrouIt is currently 15:22 Pacific Time on Fri Jul 9 2010.
Currently the moon is in the waning New (Ragabash) Moon phase (13% full).
Around the Lone Boulder
At the far end of the clearing, away from the boulder used as the centerpiece of the cub's training, Shelby practices with a sling. Today she's in a cute ribbed tank and cuffed shorts instead of her usual tracksuit, but even still sweat marks her effort. She flings the last stone - it spangs off the side of a cedar and into some underbrush - and deflates, bending to swoop up a water bottle and drink deeply.
Freedom strolls into the clearing, hands in his pockets and a merry whistle on his lips. The latter departs as he gets close enough to call out a, "Hello, Shelby!" while the former remain entirely in place. He's in his usual jeans and t-shirt, which are at least not the most impractical thing he could wear to a workout.
Jacey, as usual, is the last cub to exit the woods and enter the clearing. As she approaches the boulder from the north, she looks toward the other two cubs in idle curiosity. The Galliard looks as she often does, a bit on the tired side but not lacking this time in her youthful exuberance.
With a by-now identifiable rustle of approach, Chandini appears at the clearing's edge a good 30 feet up in the tree branches, moving at speed. she twists around on branch, flings herself to a nearby trunk, back to the trunk of the first and so forth like a decelerating lemur or, perhaps, ping-pong ball, until she's only 6' from the ground and drops the rest of the way and walks out into the bright, hot sun with her face lifted to it as though to the touch of a friend. Whatever injuries she may have taken a week ago in the Revel, they are healed now. "Namaste," she calls generally to the three cubs.
"Afternoon, Freedom," the Fang calls back as she tucks the sling into a pocket and moves to join him. "Have you see Ja- oh, there she is." Shelby gives the Galliard a wave as well before taking another drink and recapping the bottle. "It's finally warm," she adds with longing before the noise of Chandini's arrival draws her attention that way. "Namaste, Chandini. Isn't it lovely?"
Freedom squints up at the sky as he comes to stop. "I wouldn't call it lovely... Hi, Jacey! Afternoon, Chandini-rhya. Do we get to do awesome tree-based acrobatics today? Because that looked like fun."
"H'lo, Chandini-rhya," Jacey calls as she jogs the remaining distance to the boulder. The pair of Ragabash cubs get a small wave and a grin.
Wildfire eventually makes his way into the area, moving at stately pace, eventually coming to a halt at the forest's edge. There he settles back onto his haunches in silence, content to just watch it would seem.
A rather large, solid grey wolf with broad shoulders, corded muscles, and strong jaws. A scar runs across his left eye, though the eye itself is intact. Another pattern of scars suspiciously looking like a bite from something very big can be seen circling around his chest, abdomen, and back as well as a patch of scars on his lower abdomen. Classic lines mark this creature as does a certain bearing in his posture.
"It is lovely," Chandini agrees, smiling at Shelby. "At least to some of us, yeah? It is not very much like India, but it is at least warm. Freedom-bhai, perhaps. So. Is everyone loose and warm from moving already?" She surveys the cubs, and then stops surveying them completely, as the newcomer draws her attention. "A little running will not hurt," she decides. She selects a distant spot of treeline, almost opposite from the place the unknown wolf has settled. "Once out, once back, all in a row, yeah? Ten steps in front, then fall back to the back of the line, next person does ten steps, then falls back. Try to keep the pace as smooth as you can, and do not stop to think, just do." Her tone is warm, but even before the cubs begin to assemble for the exercise she has started to move at an unhurried but efficient pace over to her guest.
Shelby says, "It's not raining, it's not cold. Of course it's lovely!" She tosses her bottle to land at the base of the boulder before turning to listen to Chandini, missing the newcomer's surveillance in the process. "Yes, Chandini-rhya," she agrees with a wrinkle of her nose that probably means 'ugh, running', but she turns to the other cubs with good enough will. "I'll start, because I'm slowest?" Hopefully that doesn't count as thinking, for only then does the Fang turn to lead the way at a steady jog.
Freedom mutters, "I like rain," then falls in behind Shelby, about ten paces back. Ish. Maybe he's not very good at judging distances, but it's an attempt to space himself out as he dutifully keeps to a jog of about the same speed as the cub in front of him.
Jacey glances toward the newcomer as Chandini starts off, squinting slightly. She turns after Freedom takes off, jogging along behind them. She looks over her shoulder once more to look back with a small frown before setting her focus onto the task at hand.
Wildfire listens in silence and continues to watch the cubs follow instructions, watching each one as though building his own scouting report. He doesn't look towards the apporaching Fury, however he does seem well aware of her approach.
Chandini has made her approach on a curve so that she, too, can watch the cubs even while walking away from them. By the time she's a few paces from Wildfire, she says pleasantly, "Chandini Mukti Bhaskar, She Falls on her Enemies Like a Star to the Earth, Ahroun of the Black Furies and child of Rat."
Ten strides on and Shelby glances over her shoulder as if checking her blind spot. Neither car nor Fianna is there so she steps to the side and jogs in place to let the others first catch up, then pass before falling into place behind Jacey.
Freedom takes the lead in turn, picking up the pace only a tiny bit now that he's not watching someone in front of him hold it. He adjusts his glasses as he runs, a practiced motion that doesn't throw him off his stride.
Jacey glances toward Shelby in passing then turns her eyes to Freedom's back. She follows, matching his pace without passing him, until he takes his turn at falling to his back. Once in the lead, the Galliard, too, picks up the pace slightly and continues on the path toward the treeline.
Wildfire simply flicks an ear to the Fury as he continues to watch, though he does reply in kind. Wildfire by Fenris' own voice. Fostern Fullest-Moon of the Get of Fenris. Once beta of the Get of Fenris here under Defiant-Storm. Formerly a child of Wolverine, Fenris, Weasel, Black Unicorn, Wyvern, and Hrafn. Once Alpha of the pack Scourge in these lands. Rited in the Sept of the Sentinel and once and again full member of the Sept of the Hidden Walk, once the Wheel Renewed. Grandson of Gathering-Storm, Skald and warrior of the Great War, himself a great grandchild of Dragon-Thane, Modi during the rise of the Fatherland. It's a long introduction, but it seems to fall from him as easily as the summer's shedding fur.
Chandini watches Jacey move forward to take her place at the front with approval, then turns back to Wildfire and says mildly, "I am pleased to meet you. I know Alphaji has spoken well of you. But if you are here to observe my trainings with the cubs, it would be polite for you to at least look at me as well as at them." Her introduction is very simple compared to his, and she is indubitably younger, but centuries of pure Black Fury show in the line of her shoulders, the light in her eyes. She is easy to read, and what shows in her posture, expression, and voice doesn't seem to be anger. Yet.
Adjusting her pace to keep up with the others, Shelby drops nods in turn to the others as they pass her until she's once again in the lead.
Freedom takes his turn in the lead, and chasing behind the others again in the established sequence. His tendency to speed things up a tiny bit every time he's in the front is fading as the heat continues beating down.
And again, Jacey, after Freedom takes his fall, is back in the lead. Though she stubbornly ignores the heat to some extent.
Wildfire turns an ear, then his head, and looks at the Fury. His gaze settles there for a time, perhaps his own breeding, though not as in-depth as the Fury's, showing, but he then resumes watching the cubs. Trust me, I am watching you as well. It is good to meet you, but I am interrupting you now. He says this all rather honestly, even if his tone is a little flat.
"It was not your powers of observation I questioned," Chandini says, still mild. "And yes, you are." She considers for a moment, then smiles, a startlingly sweet smile, if brief. "Please be my guest and observe us for a few more minutes. On another day, perhaps you will let me know you are coming, and we might even plan something you could assist with if you would like that." Then she turns away, and it is not a curving walk she makes back to the spot near the boulder she and the cubs left from, but a purely joyful sprint. If there could be any question about the pleasure motivating the movement, it would probably be resolved by the series of impromptu cartwheels and the final forward flip with which she arrives, rumpled and smiling, all her attention on her returning students.
"You sped up," Shelby accuses under her breath, panting, as Freedom falls past her on one of the exchanges. When it comes her turn again she deliberately slows - not to the same pace as she started with, but definitely not as swift as they'd been going.
Freedom pants back a quiet, "Sorry," the next time he's the one falling back to let Jacey ahead. He's definitely not speeding up anymore, with some drag to his jogging as the trio heads back towards the point where they started.
The trio of cubs are on their way back, and by now the three are showing signs of the heat. Not a one of them isn't sweating or panting, those more acclimated to cooler climates fairing marginally worse than the ones use to such heat. But, in spite of sloppy falls and flagging paces, Freedom, Shelby, and Jacey all return to the boulder. Upon returning, it's the Galliard who finishes the last few strides at a walk before front-falling onto the ground and looking ever so much like she plans to never get up again. "Too hot," she pants, forehead pressed to the earth. "Want rain now, please."
By the time the cubs have finished their paces Jacey has made her fall, the Get is gone, leaving silence in his wake.
"Uthanao," Chandini says to Jacey, laughing. "Up, up. When you are tired, walk, yeah? You did that well, and I think we will do that again. Jacey and Freedom, are you drinking water enough?"
"Speak for yourself," pants Shelby, her drawl intensified - perhaps by the heat, perhaps by the exertion. She flashes a smile at the younger girl, teasing, and heads for her discarded water bottle, both hands fanning her face. "I'm just glad we can drink the water out here now."
Freedom blinks. "Was there something wrong with the water before?" He wrinkles his nose. "I'm sweating something awful, so I can't be dehydrated yet. But I oughta start packing more drinks."
Jacey pushes herself up and onto her knees, hands pressing against her thighs. "I don't think I can do that again," she says, though a grin is shared with her fellow cubs. To Freedom she explains, "A couple months ago the water spirits got mad at us and made the water on the Bawn so it didn't make you unthirsty. It's fixed now, though. And no," this next to the Fostern. "Well, I am, but I didn't bring any with today."
"If you are sweating, you should be drinking, yeah?" Chandini says, but it seems to be general advice. "Jacey-behen, have you climbed that boulder before?"
Shelby slides a knowing look over to Freedom but keeps quiet - at least on the subject of boulders. "Wherever I was wet, I looked bloody instead," she adds, taking a moment to swallow and breathe again before setting off along the boulder's longer side at a walk.
Freedom ducks his head towards Chandini. "I'll bring a drink next time," he says, and stretches briefly before finding a spot of boulder-created shade to sit in.
"You too," Jace asks as she looks at Shelby. Then her attention turns to Ahroun and the boulder. "No, I haven't climbed up it before. Wasn't sure if I was allowed and so I never tried."
Chandini smiles beatifically. "Shelby and Freedom, you will please climb all over the boulder, ignoring the path up. I will give you several minutes for it. You may use any form you like, and your goal is to learn it as well as possible. You may work separately, but I think you would do better to work together, yeah? Jacey, come over here--" 'here' being perhaps 20 feet away from the boulder and facing the other direction, "--and spar with me a little."
Shelby tosses Freedom her bottle on her way back and nods at Chandini, though not without a grimace. "Glabro, you think?" she asks him sotto-voice. "Or maybe Crinos."
Freedom catches the bottle, drains it, then climbs to his feet. That done, he frowns up at the rock. "Um. Glabro, I think," he says quietly. "I still find Crinos kinda freaky, but I need to learn them all."
Jacey grins up at Chandini, but it looks a little forced. But she pushes herself up and onto her feet to join Chandini, shaking arms and legs as though to shake off the fatigue. Once in front of the Ahroun, the Galliard hops up and down briefly on her toes, glancing toward the two Ragabash and the boulder.
"It is me you should be watching, yeah?" Chandini tells the galliard, and aims a light cuff at the cub's chin.
"Go ahead and shift," Shelby invites, holding her hand out for the bottle's return. "Crinos isn't... it's not bad, it's just weird. It shouldn't be used for just casual things, either." She shifts as well, swelling up into the near-man. "If you really want to practice, do it all in ~Mother's Tongue.~ She shoots him one of her smiles before turning to consider the boulder from up close, the bottle discarded at its base again.
Freedom follows Shelby's lead in switching forms, and starts a slow crawl up a portion of the boulder, mostly to feel out where the good cracks are. "Muscle is good, but lack of weight is also good, for climbing. Since you're weight-lifting yourself. I'm not really sure how the whole square-root law works on this stuff, but it usually favors skinny, wiry types. With actual muscles, unlike me."
Jacey turns to face Chandini just in time fully catch the cuff full on. "Sorry, Chandini-rhya," she says as she rubs her chin. After giving herself another shake, the Galliard settles into an easy stance for sparring. Fists are up just about chin level, one foot a step ahead of the other and body turned slightly.
Chandini starts with a simple double-strike, right hand in a jab at Jacey's face, left hand an instant later in a more committed thrust toward Jacey's middle. Neither is a feint and both are at a reasonable speed, if perhaps not the best Chandini could do, but neither are hard enough to do much damage if they connect, and neither is so powerful that it cannot be deflected by a good block.
"You know," Shelby observes conversationally as she looks at the rock and occasionally reaches to explore handholds, "I don't know what you're talking about, right? The square-root thing sounds like math. Don't," she adds before he can elaborate, "explain. Please! I hated math. Lucky to get a C."
"Um," Freedom says, and concentrates on the rock for a minute. "--hey, up and to your left, that's a good handhold. What it means is that the heavier something is, the more muscle you need to lift. But muscle is heavy too, so there's sort of a point where more muscle is actually making it harder for you to lift your whole body, instead of easier. That's all. I dunno, werewolf bodies don't really follow natural physics that well, so maybe it doesn't work the same way."
The heat and the earlier run shows on the littlest cub, but she makes an honest effort at deflecting the attacks. Left hand goes high to ride and guide the punch to her face, the Ahroun's knuckes glancing against her cheek. Meanwhile, Jacey's right hand drops in more of a strike, aiming to hit the Fury's wrist.
The strike connects, the ahroun's wrist falls away, and the ahroun herself smiles. Her next strike comes with the edge of her hand sweeping around abot level with the galliard's ear.
Shelby slides a look his way, but stretches to the left to find the indicated hold. "You explained," she points out, nose wrinkling. She just doesn't sound sore enough to be actually upset. "Garou," she stresses the word delicately, "don't do science. That's a Weaver thing." Left hand still claiming the hold, she sweeps her other across the boulder's face, trying to find another while the others spar.
Freedom mutters something under his breath, and focuses on the rock for a while, shifting here and there with one hand or foot and then the other.
Jacey tries to lean away from the attack, but she isn't quite fast enough. The strike lands solidly in a line with her brow. The Galliard retaliates with a punch. She steps in with her right foot, right fist following and thrusting to strike Chandini's abdomen.
Lured in by the sounds of fighting, the red wolf lopes in from the forest. Grudge-Ender slows his pace, the nostrils of his snout flaring as he takes in the scents of sweat and combat. Michael shifts to homid and walk closer to the others, but keeps a respectful distance to the combatants. "Sorry for my tardiness, Chandini-rhya." He says watching the Ahroun in action. "Is it wrong to root against an Elder?" He asks with a mischievous grin. "Come on, Sis!"
"Either give yourself over to dodging," Chandini says, turning sideways along Jacey's outstretched arm and bringing her elbow up for a very pointy - though still not very hard - blow toward the breastbone, "or block. Make your movements smaller once you have them, yeah?" For the moment, she does not acknowledge Michael's arrival, though it doesn't seem very likely she has missed it entirely.
The Silver Fang sends another look over at the other Ragabash, but holds her tongue. Giving up on the hold he found she takes a step back from the rock, turning to give Michael a polite nod. "Afternoon," she calls, before returning her attention to the bouldering at hand.
Freedom offers Michael a sort of smile from his position on the boulder, but at the moment he's much more interested in working out a tricky bit of overhang in glabro form than starting a conversation.
Jacey grunts and winces as that sharp joint finds its mark, staggering back a step. "Yes, Chandini-rhya," she replies. She lifts an arm and rubs it across her forehead then down her face before stepping forward to face the Ahroun again. Michael, it would seem, doesn't gain an acknowledgement from the Fianna. She's focused on the instructor this time.
But Chandini steps back from Jacey, out of sparring distance. "You are tired, behen," she says, and it's not unkind - an observation without criticism, despite her next words. "What we are doing here is not that hard work for the body, but you have let your body's tiredness become your mind's, yeah? So walk a little. Michael-bhai. Namaste. Have you climbed the boulder before today?"
Michael winces as Chandini's elbow connects with Jacey. "Feet like feathers, Jace! You can do this!" He looks to Chandini and then at the boulder with a shake of his head. "Nope. I could give it a try though!" He circles around the sparring partners as he makes his way to the boulder. "Hey Shelby-yuf!" He looks over the other glabro for a moment. "Hey, Freedom-yuf!" He walks over to find a section of the boulder and examines its face to look for holds. "Man...not much here. Certainly not like climbing my tree!"
Shelby tries a few more times to change her body's orientation from horizontally-based to vertically, but either she can't find a foothold or her fingers slip. "Chandini's good at it. So's Freedom." She inclines her head a fraction toward the Fury, then the other cub. "Me? Not so much." Another few steps and she's returned to the spot where she so easily climbed it in Crinos; she stretches up for the clawmarks but disdains to repeat the feat, instead remaining in Glabro.
Freedom has found himself a fairly sturdy spot, and offers a hand down to Shelby. "If you treat it a little more like a really weird ladder, instead of a helpful wall, that might help?" he suggests.
Jacey nods and takes a couple of backward steps away from Chandini. Then she turns and begins a slow perimeter walk around the boulder.
"Nay, nay," Chandini says, waving Michael back to her. "That is not what I asked you. Yahaan, here. And Jacey-behen, here also. The boulder will be yours soon, but not yet. Come and watch Michael spar with me, so that after, you can tell me how his fighting is different from yours." Even as she's speaking, her eyes are resting on Shelby, and she opens her mouth as though to say something more, but then Freedom offers his hand down, and she closes it again, looking pleased. She returns her attention to the galliards. "Yahaan," she says again, motioning them back to her.
Michael seems to breathe a sigh of relief that the boulder can wait another day. He walks back toward Chandini, glancing at Jacey with a smile. He takes off his black shirt and tosses it on the ground. His build is still wirey, but very toned from his months on the bawn. "Are we sparring karate-style like you were teaching us?"
The Fang mouths 'helpful wall' through a smile, gives her latest attempt a look and circles back to where Freedom's offering the help. "Maybe. It was easier when I just had to get up." This time she moves a little left, finding there the foothold Freedom used for his ascent, and manages, after some fumbling, to reach the level of the other Ragabash's knees. "Go on ahead; I'll watch where you go."
Freedom starts laying out a kind of path, looking down repeatedly to make sure Shelby can see where he sets each hand and foot. "Right here on this bit, you have to sort of swing your weight from left to right, so that you have the momentum to get to this grip. It's better if you do it on the first try--" He demonstrates. "--since otherwise you end up with only one hand-grip, and that in a really bad position."
Jacey spins on her toes, turning to face the new sparring match. She approaches, but stays a good and approximate ten feet from the Fury and Get's positions. The younger Galliard folds her arms behind her head, though remains standing to observe.
"This is more what you think is best," Chandini says, smiling, and, as she did with Jacey, starts with a cuff to the head - not hugely telegraphed, not impossible to detect, not at full speed but not too slow, and not hard enough to do any real harm if it connects or be impossible to deflect.
Michael stretches out his arms as he listens, nodding in understanding. He snaps into a loose fighting stance, keeping to the balls of his feet as Chandini strikes. His eyes seem fixed on her shoulders. As the blow comes in, he ducks underneath it. He dashes to the left as his head clears under her arm, but attempts to flash a quick back-kick to her ribs as he passes.
Shelby hasn't a free hand to shoo him onward, but about the third time Freedom checks on her she makes a face and jerks her chin. "You just climb. I'm watching." Watching the swing as well, which causes her to make /another/ face, this one less happy. "Mnh." She glances down, then over, before searching for an alternate path; mutters, "And people do this for fun," into the rock before stretching for the hold. She almost - almost! - misses it, but ends up clinging to the wall with a gasp, glabro'd fingernails digging in.
Freedom says cheerfully, if with shortened breath, "This is fun. About the only kind of PE that is."
Jacey looks toward the north suddenly, a frown furrowing her brow at some sound. Without explaining herself, she drops quickly into lupus and takes off at a run.
Chandini catches Michael's foot and lifts, then holds his foot absentmindedly in the air, half-distracted as she watches Jacey leave. "Accha," she says, musing, still not letting go.
Michael drops to the ground on his hands and kicks with his free leg with a driving kick to the hands that hold him, hoping to get free.
"You're a Fianna," Shelby grunts, as though that makes all the difference in the world. Again she looks for a different path than the one Freedom's chosen, but this time she succeeds in finding something. For a moment both feet balance on a ledge barely wide enough for a mouse, but then she stretches, fingers wiggling, and manages to snag the handhold.
Freedom isn't moving to the top of the boulder so much as he's sort of shimmying around on the sides, working out where the various handholds and useful bumps for feet hang out. "I thought that just meant I'm more inspired by booze and sex than by praise and glory," he says absently, trying a new place for his fingers.
Absorbing the kick to her hands without much expression, though her brows draw together a trifle, Chandini tells Michael, "See, if we were fighting harder, I would lift higher--" she does, though only by an inch or two "--and twist, yeah?" She turns the foot in her hands just enough that the cub's own weight provides torque to twist at his ankle. "Lakin--but--we are not. So probably I should let go." She does. Her mini-dissertation seems quite earnest, but there's an impish gleam in her eyes. "Bas, enough. For now! We will do more soon. Michael, up, Shelby and Freedom down."
Michael flops on the ground. He gets back to his feet as Chandini drops his foot, seemingly embarassed and a little frustrated by his performance. But he gets over his wounded pride easily enough with a calming sigh as he stride over to pick his shirt off the ground and put it on.
Shelby doesn't deign to reply to that, not in the least because she's trying to convince this bit of rock that no, really, it wants to be deep enough for a solid hold. It remains stubborn, however, and the Fang pushes away and drops gladly back to the ground. She casts a longing look toward her empty water bottle, but heads for Chandini instead, wiping an arm across her face and shifting back to homid.
Freedom scrambles down to the ground, dropping the last few feet. "Sparring now, Chandini-rhya?"
"Nay," Chandini says looking pleased. "Accha, how shall this be? Freedom, you are here with me, and you may whisper comments to me if you wish but you may not speak so the other two hear you. Shelby, you stand near the foot of the rock. Michael is going to climb, but he does not know this rock like you do, so he will do what you tell him." She looks from one to the next to the next of her pupils to see if they understand.
Michael shifts to glabro for the additional upper body strength as he walks over to the boulder, examining it. He glances to Shelby with a smile. "Ready as I'll ever be." He says with a slight chuckle.
Sweat-soaked as she is, wiping her other hand across her face doesn't help either, but Shelby gives it a go as she listens to the Fury. She half-frowns at the taller girl -- thoughtfully, not petulantly -- before nodding and circling back to the rock's base. "Go over there," she directs Michael, pointing to the easier side, and the relative path there.
Freedom falls back beside Chandini, pulling himself into homid form again with a brisk head-shake afterward, like a dog shedding water. He grins at Shelby's first instruction, but makes no audible comment, as he was told.
Chandini puts a hand up, one corner of her mouth quivering a little. "Ek," she says, holding up one finger. "Michael, you will limit yourself to doing what you are told. It must be Shelby who tells you if you are to shift. Doh," she says, with a second finger, "Little Sister, this is a different part of your auspice you are studying now. You may behave - and I am having too much respect for your thinking to believe you do not know what is intended - or you may perform your part while I hold you upside down by your ankles, yeah?" There's humor in her voice, but also something which suggests it would be a mistake to think she was joking.
Michael nods as he shrinks back to homid. "Yes, Chandini-rhya." He glances back to Shelby with a smile, possibly thinking how the Silver Fang would perform her task being hung upside down. "You still want me over here?"
Now Shelby's purse of lips has turned petulant, but she nods and murmurs, "Yes, Chandini-rhya," with all apparent obedience. "No," she sighs to Michael, and beckons him back. "You're about my height when I'm in Glabro, so you might as well stay. There's a place to step over there," she indicates it with a flick of fingers, "and a handhold, um, just above your head on the right from there."
Freedom opens his mouth, then shuts it firmly. He goes so far as to clasp his hands behind his back, as if that might help him remember not to step forward with helpful advice.
With a smile, as Fang and Get begin, Chandini says quietly, to Freedom, "I think I will not have you watch the rest, since it will be your turn soon enough. Climb trees, and at the end of each day, think about one thing you witnessed and how you would describe it so someone who was not there would know what they needed to know, yeah? And drink more water." She touches the Fianna's shoulder lightly, in dismissal. "You did well."
Michael places his left foot on the foothold Shelby indicates and reaches up with his right hand for the grip. He remains balanced there, glancing down at her for more instructions.
Shelby flicks a hand at him. "Well? Climb. If you can't find a hold I'll help you." Despite the words, she adds, "There's one for your feet about knee-level, and one for your left about a foot above your head."
Freedom grins at Chandini, and steps back to nod to her. "I'll do that, Chandini-rhya. Thank you for the lesson. And--thank you." He waves merrily to the rock-climber and climber-guider, and heads off for Fun In Trees.
Chandini watches Freedom leave and turns her attention back to the joint rock-climbing effort. She hooks her thumbs into the edges of her jeans pockets and watches.
The Get cub puts his right foot at the knee-level hold. He thrusts upward with his right leg and grabs hold on the crease with his left hand. He examines the rock surface for a moment after finding a small nook for his left foot. Satisfied with his next plan of action, he bends down with his left leg and shoots up to jump and wedge both hands in a nook as his legs quickly find purchase on some small creases. He breathes a sigh of relief. "I really thought I was gonna land on my ass after that."
So did Shelby, if the way she takes a hasty side-step back and away means anything. "Huh," says she, which could mean any of a half-dozen things, places one hand on her hip and wipes the back of her neck with the other. "I don't know how you're going to get out of that, so you're on your own. But I think there's a handhold, um...," she checks by stepping back beneath him and stretching, "a few feet to your right. I think that's the one I used."
"'On your own' is not part of the task, Little Sister," Chandini reminds Shelby, amused. It does not sound as though she has missed that Shelby continued to offer suggestions even after saying she wouldn't.
Michael glances up at the spot Shelby indicates and breathes a sigh of frustration this time. He glances down to try to find a better foot hold to get himself high enough to reach it. He wedges his left sneaker into a crevase. "That'll have to do." Even with is ankle in a weird position, the Get cub manages to push up to grab a hold of next grip. His right leg comes up and finds a groove on the side of part of the boulder that seems to jutt out a little and gets his left leg into a small crease. He wedges his left hand in a crack and hangs there for a moment, examining the rock face.
"Neither is 'jam your hands into the rock, Michael," Shelby points out, looking over her shoulder just far enough to catch the Fury in the corner of one eye. She holds it for a moment before tipping her chin and turning back to her task, once again stepping out of the falling-Get zone. "--That's not the hold I told you to, um. I think that's Freedom's path, and I didn't go that way. You'll have to go back down and over." A long step to her right and she points up. "There."
"But you told him to climb, and if he was going wrong you would correct him," Chandini murmurs. And then, as she points to the new spot, "Good."
A slight growl escapes the boy's lips as he obviously doesn't like the idea of relinquishing covered ground, but he manuevers his way to the right with some effort and grabs the hold with is right hand. He wedges his right foot in another crease and uses it to thrust himself up for another foot hold for his left foot. He seems to be making good steady progress, which calms him down a bit.
The good, steady progress is about to come to an end, for Shelby talks him through the next hold before admitting, "And that's as far as I got." She half-turns to the Fury. "Chandini-rhya? Now what? Should he come down? Or I could go up the easy way and talk him up from there."
"Make a decision based on your best opinion," Chandini says, seriously. "If you think there is a good chance that from above you could see what to tell him, then go. If you think that is only dreaming, then be fair to him and tell him so."
Michael just seems to be relaxing at the moment as the others come to a decision, using his arms only for balance and his legs to anchor himself. "I'll find a way up this damn thing if it's the last thing I do. I didn't get this far just to turn back." Michael says with determination. He glances down at Shelby. "It's your call."
Shelby thinks for a moment before sighing, stepping back again, and beckoning him down. "Come down, Michael. The only way I know to the top Chandini-rhya's said we can't use. I can't guide you through what I don't know, so... come down." She retreats to her empty bottle and collects it without looking back at the others, swishing it hopefully though there's nothing within.
The Get cub breathes out a sigh of frustration as he rests his head on rock face. But he does as Shelby instructs, but probably only because it's part of Chandini's exercise to follow all of her instructions. It takes him some time to work his way back down, and he ends up jumping down the last eight feet, coming to a crouch as he lands. "Not bad though. Thanks for the help Shelby!" He says with a smile. "We'll kick it's ass next time."
A tiny, almost inaudible breath escapes the ahroun, and perhaps a few degrees of tension seeping from her shoulders. She smiles. "You did well," she tells Michael. "Especially at the end. And you," she says to Shelby, "did much better than I think you believe. I am pleased with you both."
"Yes, Chandini-rhya," Shelby agrees without turning, her tone despondent. After a moment she does turn back, hot and dejected, with a wry half-smile for Michael. "Sure. Next time."
"Thank you, Chandini-rhya. That was fun!" Michael says as he stretches out his arms. "So is that the lesson for today?"
"Nay," Chandini says slowly, studying Shelby. "Almost. But before we stop, I would like each of you to try to tell me what the other did well. Shelby, you first."
Shelby takes a moment to think, stepping away from the boulder as she does and more into line with the Get. "I didn't see much of what Jacey did, so I can't really say. Buuuut you just said Michael. Sorry." She shrugs, apologetic, and slides a look over at the other cub, pausing again. "Michael is very... enthusiastic. Fearless, I guess."
Michael beams at being described as fearless. "Well, it was mostly about how much risk I was willing to take. I had a plan for where to put my feet after I made the jump. That, and broken bones mend quickly anyway." He says with a chuckle. "As for Shelby, she did a good job explaining the holds to me. I don't have the best perspective while hugging the rock like that, so it really helped to have a pair of eyes with looking ahead for me."
Chandini makes a very Indian movement which is half nod, half head-shake, and ends up being a sort of equivocating wobble. She looks rueful. "Sometimes," she says, not quite to either cub directly, "I think my students think I praise them for no reason, or just because I think to do so is nice. The things you say are true. Michael is brave, and he has re-learned how to think about risks here--" hand on her own belly "--not just here." Her head. "It comes easier to some than others, and it takes time for us all. But Michael also continued to follow instructions from Shelby even when he thought he could continue without her help. Michael, you should tell me why it is important for a large-moon galliard to go with what a scout tells him, even if he thinks he does not need to. But first--" She looks at Shelby. "Behen. You gave good explanations. You experimented with seeing how much he could accomplish without your instructions, which was not wrong to try and helped you learn to keep that limit closer to yourself, yeah? And when you did not know what to tell him, you said so. You did not make a foolhardy attempt which would have led to trouble for him and possibly also you. You thought well about what you could and could not do, and told him clearly. You are angry with yourself. I am proud of you! I have worked with higher ranked garou who cannot do so well." That corner of her mouth pulls up again. "I do not give praise only because I think it sounds nice. Tell me back what you did well, so that I know you know it."
Shelby is upset, though she hides the worst of it under a neutral expression and a tight jaw. One arm folded across her middle, the other holds her water bottle as though it wishes it were folded as well. "I gave good instructions, Chandini-rhya," she repeats, "and I figured out what instructions I needed to give him. I know my limits, and I didn't push him past what I didn't know."
The boy smiles. "It would be foolish not to listen to our scouts. Information is what wins wars, and they're the ones who are out there in the field, gathering information about the enemy: their strengths, numbers, and weaknesses. To not listen to them would be like fighting blind, which will greatly increase your chances at failure. And failure is just something we can't afford. Not in this war." He gives Shelby a warm smile. "You did great, Shelby!"
Chandini puts her hands together and inclines her head over them. "Namaste, Michael," she says warmly. And then, to Shelby, "I do not know what helps you when you feel like this. Possibly you will feel best if you leave, and that is fine. But first I will ask if you believe me that - however you feel - I am proud of you. Your feelings are yours and I will not argue with them. But mine are mine, yeah?"
Shelby's smile is tight, but she inclines her head to the younger cub. "Thanks, Michael. I mean it: you're fearless." The same smile, same nod is then given to the Ahroun. "I think so. I want to shower, and maybe have some lemonade." Not run? "I'll see you both next week. Gaia watch - and thank you again, Chandini. --Rhya." She heads off from the others at a slow trot, heading for the middle of the bawn and the streams there.
Currently the moon is in the waning New (Ragabash) Moon phase (13% full).
Around the Lone Boulder
At the far end of the clearing, away from the boulder used as the centerpiece of the cub's training, Shelby practices with a sling. Today she's in a cute ribbed tank and cuffed shorts instead of her usual tracksuit, but even still sweat marks her effort. She flings the last stone - it spangs off the side of a cedar and into some underbrush - and deflates, bending to swoop up a water bottle and drink deeply.
Freedom strolls into the clearing, hands in his pockets and a merry whistle on his lips. The latter departs as he gets close enough to call out a, "Hello, Shelby!" while the former remain entirely in place. He's in his usual jeans and t-shirt, which are at least not the most impractical thing he could wear to a workout.
Jacey, as usual, is the last cub to exit the woods and enter the clearing. As she approaches the boulder from the north, she looks toward the other two cubs in idle curiosity. The Galliard looks as she often does, a bit on the tired side but not lacking this time in her youthful exuberance.
With a by-now identifiable rustle of approach, Chandini appears at the clearing's edge a good 30 feet up in the tree branches, moving at speed. she twists around on branch, flings herself to a nearby trunk, back to the trunk of the first and so forth like a decelerating lemur or, perhaps, ping-pong ball, until she's only 6' from the ground and drops the rest of the way and walks out into the bright, hot sun with her face lifted to it as though to the touch of a friend. Whatever injuries she may have taken a week ago in the Revel, they are healed now. "Namaste," she calls generally to the three cubs.
"Afternoon, Freedom," the Fang calls back as she tucks the sling into a pocket and moves to join him. "Have you see Ja- oh, there she is." Shelby gives the Galliard a wave as well before taking another drink and recapping the bottle. "It's finally warm," she adds with longing before the noise of Chandini's arrival draws her attention that way. "Namaste, Chandini. Isn't it lovely?"
Freedom squints up at the sky as he comes to stop. "I wouldn't call it lovely... Hi, Jacey! Afternoon, Chandini-rhya. Do we get to do awesome tree-based acrobatics today? Because that looked like fun."
"H'lo, Chandini-rhya," Jacey calls as she jogs the remaining distance to the boulder. The pair of Ragabash cubs get a small wave and a grin.
Wildfire eventually makes his way into the area, moving at stately pace, eventually coming to a halt at the forest's edge. There he settles back onto his haunches in silence, content to just watch it would seem.
A rather large, solid grey wolf with broad shoulders, corded muscles, and strong jaws. A scar runs across his left eye, though the eye itself is intact. Another pattern of scars suspiciously looking like a bite from something very big can be seen circling around his chest, abdomen, and back as well as a patch of scars on his lower abdomen. Classic lines mark this creature as does a certain bearing in his posture.
"It is lovely," Chandini agrees, smiling at Shelby. "At least to some of us, yeah? It is not very much like India, but it is at least warm. Freedom-bhai, perhaps. So. Is everyone loose and warm from moving already?" She surveys the cubs, and then stops surveying them completely, as the newcomer draws her attention. "A little running will not hurt," she decides. She selects a distant spot of treeline, almost opposite from the place the unknown wolf has settled. "Once out, once back, all in a row, yeah? Ten steps in front, then fall back to the back of the line, next person does ten steps, then falls back. Try to keep the pace as smooth as you can, and do not stop to think, just do." Her tone is warm, but even before the cubs begin to assemble for the exercise she has started to move at an unhurried but efficient pace over to her guest.
Shelby says, "It's not raining, it's not cold. Of course it's lovely!" She tosses her bottle to land at the base of the boulder before turning to listen to Chandini, missing the newcomer's surveillance in the process. "Yes, Chandini-rhya," she agrees with a wrinkle of her nose that probably means 'ugh, running', but she turns to the other cubs with good enough will. "I'll start, because I'm slowest?" Hopefully that doesn't count as thinking, for only then does the Fang turn to lead the way at a steady jog.
Freedom mutters, "I like rain," then falls in behind Shelby, about ten paces back. Ish. Maybe he's not very good at judging distances, but it's an attempt to space himself out as he dutifully keeps to a jog of about the same speed as the cub in front of him.
Jacey glances toward the newcomer as Chandini starts off, squinting slightly. She turns after Freedom takes off, jogging along behind them. She looks over her shoulder once more to look back with a small frown before setting her focus onto the task at hand.
Wildfire listens in silence and continues to watch the cubs follow instructions, watching each one as though building his own scouting report. He doesn't look towards the apporaching Fury, however he does seem well aware of her approach.
Chandini has made her approach on a curve so that she, too, can watch the cubs even while walking away from them. By the time she's a few paces from Wildfire, she says pleasantly, "Chandini Mukti Bhaskar, She Falls on her Enemies Like a Star to the Earth, Ahroun of the Black Furies and child of Rat."
Ten strides on and Shelby glances over her shoulder as if checking her blind spot. Neither car nor Fianna is there so she steps to the side and jogs in place to let the others first catch up, then pass before falling into place behind Jacey.
Freedom takes the lead in turn, picking up the pace only a tiny bit now that he's not watching someone in front of him hold it. He adjusts his glasses as he runs, a practiced motion that doesn't throw him off his stride.
Jacey glances toward Shelby in passing then turns her eyes to Freedom's back. She follows, matching his pace without passing him, until he takes his turn at falling to his back. Once in the lead, the Galliard, too, picks up the pace slightly and continues on the path toward the treeline.
Wildfire simply flicks an ear to the Fury as he continues to watch, though he does reply in kind. Wildfire by Fenris' own voice. Fostern Fullest-Moon of the Get of Fenris. Once beta of the Get of Fenris here under Defiant-Storm. Formerly a child of Wolverine, Fenris, Weasel, Black Unicorn, Wyvern, and Hrafn. Once Alpha of the pack Scourge in these lands. Rited in the Sept of the Sentinel and once and again full member of the Sept of the Hidden Walk, once the Wheel Renewed. Grandson of Gathering-Storm, Skald and warrior of the Great War, himself a great grandchild of Dragon-Thane, Modi during the rise of the Fatherland. It's a long introduction, but it seems to fall from him as easily as the summer's shedding fur.
Chandini watches Jacey move forward to take her place at the front with approval, then turns back to Wildfire and says mildly, "I am pleased to meet you. I know Alphaji has spoken well of you. But if you are here to observe my trainings with the cubs, it would be polite for you to at least look at me as well as at them." Her introduction is very simple compared to his, and she is indubitably younger, but centuries of pure Black Fury show in the line of her shoulders, the light in her eyes. She is easy to read, and what shows in her posture, expression, and voice doesn't seem to be anger. Yet.
Adjusting her pace to keep up with the others, Shelby drops nods in turn to the others as they pass her until she's once again in the lead.
Freedom takes his turn in the lead, and chasing behind the others again in the established sequence. His tendency to speed things up a tiny bit every time he's in the front is fading as the heat continues beating down.
And again, Jacey, after Freedom takes his fall, is back in the lead. Though she stubbornly ignores the heat to some extent.
Wildfire turns an ear, then his head, and looks at the Fury. His gaze settles there for a time, perhaps his own breeding, though not as in-depth as the Fury's, showing, but he then resumes watching the cubs. Trust me, I am watching you as well. It is good to meet you, but I am interrupting you now. He says this all rather honestly, even if his tone is a little flat.
"It was not your powers of observation I questioned," Chandini says, still mild. "And yes, you are." She considers for a moment, then smiles, a startlingly sweet smile, if brief. "Please be my guest and observe us for a few more minutes. On another day, perhaps you will let me know you are coming, and we might even plan something you could assist with if you would like that." Then she turns away, and it is not a curving walk she makes back to the spot near the boulder she and the cubs left from, but a purely joyful sprint. If there could be any question about the pleasure motivating the movement, it would probably be resolved by the series of impromptu cartwheels and the final forward flip with which she arrives, rumpled and smiling, all her attention on her returning students.
"You sped up," Shelby accuses under her breath, panting, as Freedom falls past her on one of the exchanges. When it comes her turn again she deliberately slows - not to the same pace as she started with, but definitely not as swift as they'd been going.
Freedom pants back a quiet, "Sorry," the next time he's the one falling back to let Jacey ahead. He's definitely not speeding up anymore, with some drag to his jogging as the trio heads back towards the point where they started.
The trio of cubs are on their way back, and by now the three are showing signs of the heat. Not a one of them isn't sweating or panting, those more acclimated to cooler climates fairing marginally worse than the ones use to such heat. But, in spite of sloppy falls and flagging paces, Freedom, Shelby, and Jacey all return to the boulder. Upon returning, it's the Galliard who finishes the last few strides at a walk before front-falling onto the ground and looking ever so much like she plans to never get up again. "Too hot," she pants, forehead pressed to the earth. "Want rain now, please."
By the time the cubs have finished their paces Jacey has made her fall, the Get is gone, leaving silence in his wake.
"Uthanao," Chandini says to Jacey, laughing. "Up, up. When you are tired, walk, yeah? You did that well, and I think we will do that again. Jacey and Freedom, are you drinking water enough?"
"Speak for yourself," pants Shelby, her drawl intensified - perhaps by the heat, perhaps by the exertion. She flashes a smile at the younger girl, teasing, and heads for her discarded water bottle, both hands fanning her face. "I'm just glad we can drink the water out here now."
Freedom blinks. "Was there something wrong with the water before?" He wrinkles his nose. "I'm sweating something awful, so I can't be dehydrated yet. But I oughta start packing more drinks."
Jacey pushes herself up and onto her knees, hands pressing against her thighs. "I don't think I can do that again," she says, though a grin is shared with her fellow cubs. To Freedom she explains, "A couple months ago the water spirits got mad at us and made the water on the Bawn so it didn't make you unthirsty. It's fixed now, though. And no," this next to the Fostern. "Well, I am, but I didn't bring any with today."
"If you are sweating, you should be drinking, yeah?" Chandini says, but it seems to be general advice. "Jacey-behen, have you climbed that boulder before?"
Shelby slides a knowing look over to Freedom but keeps quiet - at least on the subject of boulders. "Wherever I was wet, I looked bloody instead," she adds, taking a moment to swallow and breathe again before setting off along the boulder's longer side at a walk.
Freedom ducks his head towards Chandini. "I'll bring a drink next time," he says, and stretches briefly before finding a spot of boulder-created shade to sit in.
"You too," Jace asks as she looks at Shelby. Then her attention turns to Ahroun and the boulder. "No, I haven't climbed up it before. Wasn't sure if I was allowed and so I never tried."
Chandini smiles beatifically. "Shelby and Freedom, you will please climb all over the boulder, ignoring the path up. I will give you several minutes for it. You may use any form you like, and your goal is to learn it as well as possible. You may work separately, but I think you would do better to work together, yeah? Jacey, come over here--" 'here' being perhaps 20 feet away from the boulder and facing the other direction, "--and spar with me a little."
Shelby tosses Freedom her bottle on her way back and nods at Chandini, though not without a grimace. "Glabro, you think?" she asks him sotto-voice. "Or maybe Crinos."
Freedom catches the bottle, drains it, then climbs to his feet. That done, he frowns up at the rock. "Um. Glabro, I think," he says quietly. "I still find Crinos kinda freaky, but I need to learn them all."
Jacey grins up at Chandini, but it looks a little forced. But she pushes herself up and onto her feet to join Chandini, shaking arms and legs as though to shake off the fatigue. Once in front of the Ahroun, the Galliard hops up and down briefly on her toes, glancing toward the two Ragabash and the boulder.
"It is me you should be watching, yeah?" Chandini tells the galliard, and aims a light cuff at the cub's chin.
"Go ahead and shift," Shelby invites, holding her hand out for the bottle's return. "Crinos isn't... it's not bad, it's just weird. It shouldn't be used for just casual things, either." She shifts as well, swelling up into the near-man. "If you really want to practice, do it all in ~Mother's Tongue.~ She shoots him one of her smiles before turning to consider the boulder from up close, the bottle discarded at its base again.
Freedom follows Shelby's lead in switching forms, and starts a slow crawl up a portion of the boulder, mostly to feel out where the good cracks are. "Muscle is good, but lack of weight is also good, for climbing. Since you're weight-lifting yourself. I'm not really sure how the whole square-root law works on this stuff, but it usually favors skinny, wiry types. With actual muscles, unlike me."
Jacey turns to face Chandini just in time fully catch the cuff full on. "Sorry, Chandini-rhya," she says as she rubs her chin. After giving herself another shake, the Galliard settles into an easy stance for sparring. Fists are up just about chin level, one foot a step ahead of the other and body turned slightly.
Chandini starts with a simple double-strike, right hand in a jab at Jacey's face, left hand an instant later in a more committed thrust toward Jacey's middle. Neither is a feint and both are at a reasonable speed, if perhaps not the best Chandini could do, but neither are hard enough to do much damage if they connect, and neither is so powerful that it cannot be deflected by a good block.
"You know," Shelby observes conversationally as she looks at the rock and occasionally reaches to explore handholds, "I don't know what you're talking about, right? The square-root thing sounds like math. Don't," she adds before he can elaborate, "explain. Please! I hated math. Lucky to get a C."
"Um," Freedom says, and concentrates on the rock for a minute. "--hey, up and to your left, that's a good handhold. What it means is that the heavier something is, the more muscle you need to lift. But muscle is heavy too, so there's sort of a point where more muscle is actually making it harder for you to lift your whole body, instead of easier. That's all. I dunno, werewolf bodies don't really follow natural physics that well, so maybe it doesn't work the same way."
The heat and the earlier run shows on the littlest cub, but she makes an honest effort at deflecting the attacks. Left hand goes high to ride and guide the punch to her face, the Ahroun's knuckes glancing against her cheek. Meanwhile, Jacey's right hand drops in more of a strike, aiming to hit the Fury's wrist.
The strike connects, the ahroun's wrist falls away, and the ahroun herself smiles. Her next strike comes with the edge of her hand sweeping around abot level with the galliard's ear.
Shelby slides a look his way, but stretches to the left to find the indicated hold. "You explained," she points out, nose wrinkling. She just doesn't sound sore enough to be actually upset. "Garou," she stresses the word delicately, "don't do science. That's a Weaver thing." Left hand still claiming the hold, she sweeps her other across the boulder's face, trying to find another while the others spar.
Freedom mutters something under his breath, and focuses on the rock for a while, shifting here and there with one hand or foot and then the other.
Jacey tries to lean away from the attack, but she isn't quite fast enough. The strike lands solidly in a line with her brow. The Galliard retaliates with a punch. She steps in with her right foot, right fist following and thrusting to strike Chandini's abdomen.
Lured in by the sounds of fighting, the red wolf lopes in from the forest. Grudge-Ender slows his pace, the nostrils of his snout flaring as he takes in the scents of sweat and combat. Michael shifts to homid and walk closer to the others, but keeps a respectful distance to the combatants. "Sorry for my tardiness, Chandini-rhya." He says watching the Ahroun in action. "Is it wrong to root against an Elder?" He asks with a mischievous grin. "Come on, Sis!"
"Either give yourself over to dodging," Chandini says, turning sideways along Jacey's outstretched arm and bringing her elbow up for a very pointy - though still not very hard - blow toward the breastbone, "or block. Make your movements smaller once you have them, yeah?" For the moment, she does not acknowledge Michael's arrival, though it doesn't seem very likely she has missed it entirely.
The Silver Fang sends another look over at the other Ragabash, but holds her tongue. Giving up on the hold he found she takes a step back from the rock, turning to give Michael a polite nod. "Afternoon," she calls, before returning her attention to the bouldering at hand.
Freedom offers Michael a sort of smile from his position on the boulder, but at the moment he's much more interested in working out a tricky bit of overhang in glabro form than starting a conversation.
Jacey grunts and winces as that sharp joint finds its mark, staggering back a step. "Yes, Chandini-rhya," she replies. She lifts an arm and rubs it across her forehead then down her face before stepping forward to face the Ahroun again. Michael, it would seem, doesn't gain an acknowledgement from the Fianna. She's focused on the instructor this time.
But Chandini steps back from Jacey, out of sparring distance. "You are tired, behen," she says, and it's not unkind - an observation without criticism, despite her next words. "What we are doing here is not that hard work for the body, but you have let your body's tiredness become your mind's, yeah? So walk a little. Michael-bhai. Namaste. Have you climbed the boulder before today?"
Michael winces as Chandini's elbow connects with Jacey. "Feet like feathers, Jace! You can do this!" He looks to Chandini and then at the boulder with a shake of his head. "Nope. I could give it a try though!" He circles around the sparring partners as he makes his way to the boulder. "Hey Shelby-yuf!" He looks over the other glabro for a moment. "Hey, Freedom-yuf!" He walks over to find a section of the boulder and examines its face to look for holds. "Man...not much here. Certainly not like climbing my tree!"
Shelby tries a few more times to change her body's orientation from horizontally-based to vertically, but either she can't find a foothold or her fingers slip. "Chandini's good at it. So's Freedom." She inclines her head a fraction toward the Fury, then the other cub. "Me? Not so much." Another few steps and she's returned to the spot where she so easily climbed it in Crinos; she stretches up for the clawmarks but disdains to repeat the feat, instead remaining in Glabro.
Freedom has found himself a fairly sturdy spot, and offers a hand down to Shelby. "If you treat it a little more like a really weird ladder, instead of a helpful wall, that might help?" he suggests.
Jacey nods and takes a couple of backward steps away from Chandini. Then she turns and begins a slow perimeter walk around the boulder.
"Nay, nay," Chandini says, waving Michael back to her. "That is not what I asked you. Yahaan, here. And Jacey-behen, here also. The boulder will be yours soon, but not yet. Come and watch Michael spar with me, so that after, you can tell me how his fighting is different from yours." Even as she's speaking, her eyes are resting on Shelby, and she opens her mouth as though to say something more, but then Freedom offers his hand down, and she closes it again, looking pleased. She returns her attention to the galliards. "Yahaan," she says again, motioning them back to her.
Michael seems to breathe a sigh of relief that the boulder can wait another day. He walks back toward Chandini, glancing at Jacey with a smile. He takes off his black shirt and tosses it on the ground. His build is still wirey, but very toned from his months on the bawn. "Are we sparring karate-style like you were teaching us?"
The Fang mouths 'helpful wall' through a smile, gives her latest attempt a look and circles back to where Freedom's offering the help. "Maybe. It was easier when I just had to get up." This time she moves a little left, finding there the foothold Freedom used for his ascent, and manages, after some fumbling, to reach the level of the other Ragabash's knees. "Go on ahead; I'll watch where you go."
Freedom starts laying out a kind of path, looking down repeatedly to make sure Shelby can see where he sets each hand and foot. "Right here on this bit, you have to sort of swing your weight from left to right, so that you have the momentum to get to this grip. It's better if you do it on the first try--" He demonstrates. "--since otherwise you end up with only one hand-grip, and that in a really bad position."
Jacey spins on her toes, turning to face the new sparring match. She approaches, but stays a good and approximate ten feet from the Fury and Get's positions. The younger Galliard folds her arms behind her head, though remains standing to observe.
"This is more what you think is best," Chandini says, smiling, and, as she did with Jacey, starts with a cuff to the head - not hugely telegraphed, not impossible to detect, not at full speed but not too slow, and not hard enough to do any real harm if it connects or be impossible to deflect.
Michael stretches out his arms as he listens, nodding in understanding. He snaps into a loose fighting stance, keeping to the balls of his feet as Chandini strikes. His eyes seem fixed on her shoulders. As the blow comes in, he ducks underneath it. He dashes to the left as his head clears under her arm, but attempts to flash a quick back-kick to her ribs as he passes.
Shelby hasn't a free hand to shoo him onward, but about the third time Freedom checks on her she makes a face and jerks her chin. "You just climb. I'm watching." Watching the swing as well, which causes her to make /another/ face, this one less happy. "Mnh." She glances down, then over, before searching for an alternate path; mutters, "And people do this for fun," into the rock before stretching for the hold. She almost - almost! - misses it, but ends up clinging to the wall with a gasp, glabro'd fingernails digging in.
Freedom says cheerfully, if with shortened breath, "This is fun. About the only kind of PE that is."
Jacey looks toward the north suddenly, a frown furrowing her brow at some sound. Without explaining herself, she drops quickly into lupus and takes off at a run.
Chandini catches Michael's foot and lifts, then holds his foot absentmindedly in the air, half-distracted as she watches Jacey leave. "Accha," she says, musing, still not letting go.
Michael drops to the ground on his hands and kicks with his free leg with a driving kick to the hands that hold him, hoping to get free.
"You're a Fianna," Shelby grunts, as though that makes all the difference in the world. Again she looks for a different path than the one Freedom's chosen, but this time she succeeds in finding something. For a moment both feet balance on a ledge barely wide enough for a mouse, but then she stretches, fingers wiggling, and manages to snag the handhold.
Freedom isn't moving to the top of the boulder so much as he's sort of shimmying around on the sides, working out where the various handholds and useful bumps for feet hang out. "I thought that just meant I'm more inspired by booze and sex than by praise and glory," he says absently, trying a new place for his fingers.
Absorbing the kick to her hands without much expression, though her brows draw together a trifle, Chandini tells Michael, "See, if we were fighting harder, I would lift higher--" she does, though only by an inch or two "--and twist, yeah?" She turns the foot in her hands just enough that the cub's own weight provides torque to twist at his ankle. "Lakin--but--we are not. So probably I should let go." She does. Her mini-dissertation seems quite earnest, but there's an impish gleam in her eyes. "Bas, enough. For now! We will do more soon. Michael, up, Shelby and Freedom down."
Michael flops on the ground. He gets back to his feet as Chandini drops his foot, seemingly embarassed and a little frustrated by his performance. But he gets over his wounded pride easily enough with a calming sigh as he stride over to pick his shirt off the ground and put it on.
Shelby doesn't deign to reply to that, not in the least because she's trying to convince this bit of rock that no, really, it wants to be deep enough for a solid hold. It remains stubborn, however, and the Fang pushes away and drops gladly back to the ground. She casts a longing look toward her empty water bottle, but heads for Chandini instead, wiping an arm across her face and shifting back to homid.
Freedom scrambles down to the ground, dropping the last few feet. "Sparring now, Chandini-rhya?"
"Nay," Chandini says looking pleased. "Accha, how shall this be? Freedom, you are here with me, and you may whisper comments to me if you wish but you may not speak so the other two hear you. Shelby, you stand near the foot of the rock. Michael is going to climb, but he does not know this rock like you do, so he will do what you tell him." She looks from one to the next to the next of her pupils to see if they understand.
Michael shifts to glabro for the additional upper body strength as he walks over to the boulder, examining it. He glances to Shelby with a smile. "Ready as I'll ever be." He says with a slight chuckle.
Sweat-soaked as she is, wiping her other hand across her face doesn't help either, but Shelby gives it a go as she listens to the Fury. She half-frowns at the taller girl -- thoughtfully, not petulantly -- before nodding and circling back to the rock's base. "Go over there," she directs Michael, pointing to the easier side, and the relative path there.
Freedom falls back beside Chandini, pulling himself into homid form again with a brisk head-shake afterward, like a dog shedding water. He grins at Shelby's first instruction, but makes no audible comment, as he was told.
Chandini puts a hand up, one corner of her mouth quivering a little. "Ek," she says, holding up one finger. "Michael, you will limit yourself to doing what you are told. It must be Shelby who tells you if you are to shift. Doh," she says, with a second finger, "Little Sister, this is a different part of your auspice you are studying now. You may behave - and I am having too much respect for your thinking to believe you do not know what is intended - or you may perform your part while I hold you upside down by your ankles, yeah?" There's humor in her voice, but also something which suggests it would be a mistake to think she was joking.
Michael nods as he shrinks back to homid. "Yes, Chandini-rhya." He glances back to Shelby with a smile, possibly thinking how the Silver Fang would perform her task being hung upside down. "You still want me over here?"
Now Shelby's purse of lips has turned petulant, but she nods and murmurs, "Yes, Chandini-rhya," with all apparent obedience. "No," she sighs to Michael, and beckons him back. "You're about my height when I'm in Glabro, so you might as well stay. There's a place to step over there," she indicates it with a flick of fingers, "and a handhold, um, just above your head on the right from there."
Freedom opens his mouth, then shuts it firmly. He goes so far as to clasp his hands behind his back, as if that might help him remember not to step forward with helpful advice.
With a smile, as Fang and Get begin, Chandini says quietly, to Freedom, "I think I will not have you watch the rest, since it will be your turn soon enough. Climb trees, and at the end of each day, think about one thing you witnessed and how you would describe it so someone who was not there would know what they needed to know, yeah? And drink more water." She touches the Fianna's shoulder lightly, in dismissal. "You did well."
Michael places his left foot on the foothold Shelby indicates and reaches up with his right hand for the grip. He remains balanced there, glancing down at her for more instructions.
Shelby flicks a hand at him. "Well? Climb. If you can't find a hold I'll help you." Despite the words, she adds, "There's one for your feet about knee-level, and one for your left about a foot above your head."
Freedom grins at Chandini, and steps back to nod to her. "I'll do that, Chandini-rhya. Thank you for the lesson. And--thank you." He waves merrily to the rock-climber and climber-guider, and heads off for Fun In Trees.
Chandini watches Freedom leave and turns her attention back to the joint rock-climbing effort. She hooks her thumbs into the edges of her jeans pockets and watches.
The Get cub puts his right foot at the knee-level hold. He thrusts upward with his right leg and grabs hold on the crease with his left hand. He examines the rock surface for a moment after finding a small nook for his left foot. Satisfied with his next plan of action, he bends down with his left leg and shoots up to jump and wedge both hands in a nook as his legs quickly find purchase on some small creases. He breathes a sigh of relief. "I really thought I was gonna land on my ass after that."
So did Shelby, if the way she takes a hasty side-step back and away means anything. "Huh," says she, which could mean any of a half-dozen things, places one hand on her hip and wipes the back of her neck with the other. "I don't know how you're going to get out of that, so you're on your own. But I think there's a handhold, um...," she checks by stepping back beneath him and stretching, "a few feet to your right. I think that's the one I used."
"'On your own' is not part of the task, Little Sister," Chandini reminds Shelby, amused. It does not sound as though she has missed that Shelby continued to offer suggestions even after saying she wouldn't.
Michael glances up at the spot Shelby indicates and breathes a sigh of frustration this time. He glances down to try to find a better foot hold to get himself high enough to reach it. He wedges his left sneaker into a crevase. "That'll have to do." Even with is ankle in a weird position, the Get cub manages to push up to grab a hold of next grip. His right leg comes up and finds a groove on the side of part of the boulder that seems to jutt out a little and gets his left leg into a small crease. He wedges his left hand in a crack and hangs there for a moment, examining the rock face.
"Neither is 'jam your hands into the rock, Michael," Shelby points out, looking over her shoulder just far enough to catch the Fury in the corner of one eye. She holds it for a moment before tipping her chin and turning back to her task, once again stepping out of the falling-Get zone. "--That's not the hold I told you to, um. I think that's Freedom's path, and I didn't go that way. You'll have to go back down and over." A long step to her right and she points up. "There."
"But you told him to climb, and if he was going wrong you would correct him," Chandini murmurs. And then, as she points to the new spot, "Good."
A slight growl escapes the boy's lips as he obviously doesn't like the idea of relinquishing covered ground, but he manuevers his way to the right with some effort and grabs the hold with is right hand. He wedges his right foot in another crease and uses it to thrust himself up for another foot hold for his left foot. He seems to be making good steady progress, which calms him down a bit.
The good, steady progress is about to come to an end, for Shelby talks him through the next hold before admitting, "And that's as far as I got." She half-turns to the Fury. "Chandini-rhya? Now what? Should he come down? Or I could go up the easy way and talk him up from there."
"Make a decision based on your best opinion," Chandini says, seriously. "If you think there is a good chance that from above you could see what to tell him, then go. If you think that is only dreaming, then be fair to him and tell him so."
Michael just seems to be relaxing at the moment as the others come to a decision, using his arms only for balance and his legs to anchor himself. "I'll find a way up this damn thing if it's the last thing I do. I didn't get this far just to turn back." Michael says with determination. He glances down at Shelby. "It's your call."
Shelby thinks for a moment before sighing, stepping back again, and beckoning him down. "Come down, Michael. The only way I know to the top Chandini-rhya's said we can't use. I can't guide you through what I don't know, so... come down." She retreats to her empty bottle and collects it without looking back at the others, swishing it hopefully though there's nothing within.
The Get cub breathes out a sigh of frustration as he rests his head on rock face. But he does as Shelby instructs, but probably only because it's part of Chandini's exercise to follow all of her instructions. It takes him some time to work his way back down, and he ends up jumping down the last eight feet, coming to a crouch as he lands. "Not bad though. Thanks for the help Shelby!" He says with a smile. "We'll kick it's ass next time."
A tiny, almost inaudible breath escapes the ahroun, and perhaps a few degrees of tension seeping from her shoulders. She smiles. "You did well," she tells Michael. "Especially at the end. And you," she says to Shelby, "did much better than I think you believe. I am pleased with you both."
"Yes, Chandini-rhya," Shelby agrees without turning, her tone despondent. After a moment she does turn back, hot and dejected, with a wry half-smile for Michael. "Sure. Next time."
"Thank you, Chandini-rhya. That was fun!" Michael says as he stretches out his arms. "So is that the lesson for today?"
"Nay," Chandini says slowly, studying Shelby. "Almost. But before we stop, I would like each of you to try to tell me what the other did well. Shelby, you first."
Shelby takes a moment to think, stepping away from the boulder as she does and more into line with the Get. "I didn't see much of what Jacey did, so I can't really say. Buuuut you just said Michael. Sorry." She shrugs, apologetic, and slides a look over at the other cub, pausing again. "Michael is very... enthusiastic. Fearless, I guess."
Michael beams at being described as fearless. "Well, it was mostly about how much risk I was willing to take. I had a plan for where to put my feet after I made the jump. That, and broken bones mend quickly anyway." He says with a chuckle. "As for Shelby, she did a good job explaining the holds to me. I don't have the best perspective while hugging the rock like that, so it really helped to have a pair of eyes with looking ahead for me."
Chandini makes a very Indian movement which is half nod, half head-shake, and ends up being a sort of equivocating wobble. She looks rueful. "Sometimes," she says, not quite to either cub directly, "I think my students think I praise them for no reason, or just because I think to do so is nice. The things you say are true. Michael is brave, and he has re-learned how to think about risks here--" hand on her own belly "--not just here." Her head. "It comes easier to some than others, and it takes time for us all. But Michael also continued to follow instructions from Shelby even when he thought he could continue without her help. Michael, you should tell me why it is important for a large-moon galliard to go with what a scout tells him, even if he thinks he does not need to. But first--" She looks at Shelby. "Behen. You gave good explanations. You experimented with seeing how much he could accomplish without your instructions, which was not wrong to try and helped you learn to keep that limit closer to yourself, yeah? And when you did not know what to tell him, you said so. You did not make a foolhardy attempt which would have led to trouble for him and possibly also you. You thought well about what you could and could not do, and told him clearly. You are angry with yourself. I am proud of you! I have worked with higher ranked garou who cannot do so well." That corner of her mouth pulls up again. "I do not give praise only because I think it sounds nice. Tell me back what you did well, so that I know you know it."
Shelby is upset, though she hides the worst of it under a neutral expression and a tight jaw. One arm folded across her middle, the other holds her water bottle as though it wishes it were folded as well. "I gave good instructions, Chandini-rhya," she repeats, "and I figured out what instructions I needed to give him. I know my limits, and I didn't push him past what I didn't know."
The boy smiles. "It would be foolish not to listen to our scouts. Information is what wins wars, and they're the ones who are out there in the field, gathering information about the enemy: their strengths, numbers, and weaknesses. To not listen to them would be like fighting blind, which will greatly increase your chances at failure. And failure is just something we can't afford. Not in this war." He gives Shelby a warm smile. "You did great, Shelby!"
Chandini puts her hands together and inclines her head over them. "Namaste, Michael," she says warmly. And then, to Shelby, "I do not know what helps you when you feel like this. Possibly you will feel best if you leave, and that is fine. But first I will ask if you believe me that - however you feel - I am proud of you. Your feelings are yours and I will not argue with them. But mine are mine, yeah?"
Shelby's smile is tight, but she inclines her head to the younger cub. "Thanks, Michael. I mean it: you're fearless." The same smile, same nod is then given to the Ahroun. "I think so. I want to shower, and maybe have some lemonade." Not run? "I'll see you both next week. Gaia watch - and thank you again, Chandini. --Rhya." She heads off from the others at a slow trot, heading for the middle of the bawn and the streams there.