Meeting at the training hall

[Coren]

52th of fall Coren was looking up towards the two rather menacing metal claws that reached up towards the sky. He was unimpressed to say the least, in his opinion the metal that was used in the construction of those supposedly imposing claws could have been used in more useful things, like tools that could have been used to help rebuild avanthal last season, or weapons and armor that could have been used to arm the icewatch against the vicious animal attacks that have been happening these days. But he guessed that was how the vantha mind worked, they couldn't just accept something plain and functioning, they had to add a lot of crap to it and waste a lot of precious metals so it could look pretty. Coren scoffed. He would never understand the mindset of an artist. So wasteful. He pulled his gaze away from the two claws jutting out from the stadium and just leaned against the wall as he waited for sliver to arrive. She had promised to learn him some things about how to survive in the wilderness when they last met. Coren had guessed he was going to need a range of movement for this that he couldn't get in his thick and heavy robes. So he was wearing normal clothes for once, though to compensate for the , in his mind, revealing clothes he had thrown on a few extra layers, including a tunic that had a crude hood stitched on, once more covering his face in shadows, like usual. All in all though, he looked more like an unmarked homeless man trying the hopeless task of surviving on the streets instead of a mage that was rather well off.

[Sliver]

It was a training day at the stadium. The group of Icewatch she was put in with worked on cardio, weapons training, as well as mock battles on the ice. It was a light day comparatively, the training lightening in regards to the increased patrols, but that wasn't as if it meant it was easy. Sliver was sweating and catching her breath when she departed, glancing around for Coren. She jogged slowly around the outer perimeter of the stadium, and did a double take when she caught the figure in the tattered and worn clothing. The only part of his garb that tipped her off to the mage's identity was the hood concealing his face. Sliver waved at him and came to a halt, ducking her head down to check under the hood for his mask just to be sure. "Feeling a bit naked are you?" She straightened and put away a smile. They weren't throwing snowballs today, she reminded herself, they were learning about the wilds. Due to the ban on leaving the city, Sliver knew that her comrades wouldn't allow her to traverse in the Talderan wilderness with the mage, regardless of any relation he might have to the strange creatures appearing and mauling people. The small copse of woods around the Stadium, as well as the stadium itself, provided the next best thing. So that brought her back to her purpose, her purpose, her...why had she done this in the first place? Right, because the mage would love to leave the city but was unable too, while she had every ability to depart from Avanthal, yet had no intention of doing so. She was unsure of where she and the mage stood exactly, it was as if they were not quite friends, but strangers with likenesses tying them together. Regardless of that, Sliver felt the desire to aid the mage, and that was that. She glanced at Coren. "But seriously I appreciate the change of clothing, it will help. Do you have any hunting or tracking experience?

[Coren]

As soon as coren noticed sliver approaching him he stopped leaning against the wall and stood up straight, well as straight as he usually cared to stand anyway. He still had that slump of his in his gait. “Hello to you to sliver.” Coren responded with a roll of his eyes as she tried to get a look under his hood. “And yes its Coren you are talking to if you where wondering.” He said in his usual polite tone, though a hint of amusement was present in it. “No I never had any experience with either hunting or tracking. I don't have any expression in any outdoors or survival skill really. ” Coren responded honestly to the question, he never really had spent a lot of time outdoors or had any will to do so when he had been younger. But now that he had been singled out by the entire city spending time alone in the wilderness was looking quite good to him, especially since winter was coming and the climate would be getting somewhat hotter again, so it would be easier to camp out a while. As soon as the murderous beast problem was solved anyway, mage or not he wasn't going to bet on himself if he was face to facew ith a dire tiger. “At least I don't have any faulty knowledge you need to unlearn me while you are teaching me anyway.” He took a step to the side and pointed to the entrance. “Do we need to go inside for this? Or are we going to practice around those woods.” He motioned to those.

[Sliver]

Sliver glanced toward the Stadium where Coren indicated. It would be a good place certainly, but the woods were where they needed to begin, where she preferred to inhabit. "We'll stay out here for now." Her dark eyes glanced around stepping forward, nostrils flaring. She cocked her head to the side and glanced at the mage. "Do you hear that?" It was a trick question. The only sounds were the faint combat noises from the stadium and a light wind through the trees pulling against the pair's clothing like the eager fingers of a child. The Kelvic had hoped to show Coren some ways to hunt, but already that was becoming a faint scenario. She should have known the woods within the city would have been picked clean of any birds, rodents, or other creatures after the hunters had been closed in. Now the question was, would Coren register the silence as odd as well?

[Coren]

Coren nodded, it did made sense, even though the woods where only small around the stadium, it was still a real environment, while the things in the stadium while build to mimic reality still pailed to the real deal. “If you say so.” Coren answered, before falling quiet as Sliver asked him if he heared that. He tried to pick up whatever she was talking about but try as he might, he didn't hear anything at all, at least nothing that had to do with hunting in his eyes. Yes he could hear the faint sounds of people training in the stadium behind them and the faint wind whistling through the snowy trees around them, but for the rest, nothing. “No, I didn't hear anything. Did I miss something important?” Coren questioned his teacher, he was sure he hadn't heard anything. So maybe it was just something her senses where better at picking up.

[Sliver]

Sliver nodded to Coren. She wasn't surprised he couldn't catch on as quick as she, things like this were as reflexive as breathing, the equivalent to him might be not being able to read, as she could not. She raised a hand and gestured. "No birds, no scurrying. Avanthal is teeming with life that is not Vantha, and now it is gone, eradicated because of the inability to leave." She beckoned for Coren to follow her and she walked off into the wooded area, eyes trained on the ground, steps light. If Coren was paying attention he would notice that he was making a great deal more noise in the snow that the wolverine, whose every step was placed with care to make as little noise as possible, disturbing the ground significantly less. After a few chimes Sliver stopped and crouched down towards the ground, and gestured to what just looked like another patch of snow. "You do not have my sense of smell, but it doesn't mean you can't track and see signs of the life around you. Here there was a rabbit." She drew a small circle in the snow around a small indent of tracks, barely discernible against the white backdrop of icy powder. She pointed straight into the trees. "You can see its tracks are close together, it was at rest, but something scared it." She rose and followed the tracks, indicating at points how they were deeper, showing that the rabbit was pushing into the snow instead of just hopping on top of it. Eventually she came to a stop and rubbed the surface of a tree that had a chip of bark missing near the base. "Here the hunter shot and pinned the rabbit to the tree, even you can smell the old blood if you get close enough to it." It was not an insulting statement, just factual. She turned to Coren. "Does that make sense?" In fact it probably did not make sense. For Coren he had just followed the Kelvic through the snow looking at things which may or may not be tracks and came to a tree with a tiny imperfection and no sign of blood. The wolverine was no teacher however, and in fact this action required a lot of patience on her part. She felt as if she was talking to a newly born pup, if she had ever had any perhaps this was how it would be, save easier for they would understand the smells and see what she could.

[Coren]

What sliver said was indeed completely true, and it was something once it was pointed out was glaringly obvious though quite easy to miss. “Yes, everybody is scrounging for anything that they can eat since we can't leave the city nowadays.” Coren agreed as he followed Sliver. He quickly noticed that she tried to keep her footsteps as silent as possible and tried to replicate the same thing. Without much success, with every step he took the snow creaked underneath his feet and even when taking care he kicked up small pieces of snow around him. It was quite obvious he was completely out of his competence zone. After a few chimes of coren both trying to keep up with the faster sliver while trying not to make to much noise she finally stopped, pointing something out in the snow. Coren didn't really see anything until she pointed it out, only then began his mind to see the slight shape of what he guessed was a rabbit paw. Though he could be wrong about that. When she began disconcerting other facts about the tracks and began to follow it without to much trouble he was completely lost. Why did tracks closer together mean it was at rest? How did she even see that those tracks where deeper then the others? He barely even noticed the other tracks, let alone the small indent of the arrow where the rabbit supposedly had been shot. “I get your reasoning, but I don't see the tracks you are talking. It all looks like a bit of bumpy snow in my eyes. I didn't even see half the tracks you where following and the other tracks you pointed out to me.” Coren admitted.

[Sliver]

Sliver sighed. Of course it didn't make any sense. For a few chimes the wolverine sat cross legged in the snow trying to puzzle out how to explain this. Sure the trail wasn't fresh, but it still seemed to her as if a line had been drawn in the sand, probably because wildlife within the city usually had less reason to be cautious. She huffed and stood up. "It takes time...to see these things." The Kelvic guided him back along the trail, starting from the beginning. Here she crouched down at the first tracks, four close together with two smaller indents directly in front of two slightly longer ones. "Think of a rabbit, their feet. The tracks are faint, but that is because a rabbit is small and light, and we are heavy. But here he was relaxed, the tracks are close because he was sitting not moving, at least not much." She took a couple steps forward and beckoned Coren closer to tracks about the same shape, but a bit deeper and farther from one another. "Now here. See they spread apart. Just like our tracks are deeper when we run instead of walk, so are his. Something scared him and he bolted, but even though his trail is clear, it stops at the tree. "Does...that make sense?" Her words were slow, worried. She was concerned that this second explanation was no better than the first, or even worse, that Coren felt as if she was treating him like a child and would be mad at her. She was no good at this sort of thing, no good at all. Why had she even bothered? The Kelvic's dark brown eyes turned away from the Mage, awaiting his response.

[Coren]

Coren just waited as Sliver sat in the snow in front of him. It was qutie obvious to him that Sliver didn't have any clue on how to teach people something that came naturally to her, another blessing of being a kelvic no doubt. “Seems like it yes, its why we are practicing now aren't we?” Coren calmly replied. He knew from his own experience that teaching for the first time was hard and nerve wracking, so the best thing he could do was just do his best to absorb the information she gave him and stay calm no matter how much trouble she had with conveying the information. If he got irritated it would just make her more nervous and make the entire situation worse for the both of them. He walked back with her to the start of the trail, once more trying to keep his footsteps as lightly and silent as possible, trying not to disturb the trail. Unfortunately that was only a partial success, as he managed to kick up enough snow to cover a part of the light trail without him noticing it. He hunched down next to the trail and listened to sliver as she restarted her explanation. Nodding in understanding as she explained it. He got that part mostly down, it was just trying to deduce why the tracks were as they where and how they could use that knowledge to get on the trail of their prey. He slowly followed Sliver as she went a couple of steps further down the trail. Once more trying to make sure not to disturb the trail. “yes, that makes sense actually. The rabbit made deeper tracks because it exerted more force when its running away, making both deeper indents into the snow and propelling him farther along with each leap.” Coren replied in agreement, a smile underneath his mask as he began to figure out what was required to follow a track, a sharp mind ,a good eye and experience where the only things necessary. And while he was still quite inexperienced he had the first two qualities in abundance.

[Sliver]

Sliver sighed with relief, she was glad something, even this basic of an idea had gotten through well enough. The wolverine stood up, brushing particles of snow off of herself and glanced around. ”It’s hard to show you everything I mean, these are not…optimal conditions.” She scuffed the tracks up with her boot and glanced around. The silence was enclosing upon her ears like some sort of vice that she could not free herself from, trapped in its embrace. It was a wide open space, yet she felt entirely trapped by the limitations of this place and what it meant. The Kelvic snorted, trying to think of some alternative. After a time she chuckled to herself. Of course! Why hadn’t she thought of it before? Without much warning Sliver stripped off her clothes and laid them in a neat pile at the base of a tree. While Coren was probably used to seeing Kelvic of all sorts behave this was around the City, it wasn’t as if she had given any warning to what she was about to do. The Kelvic’s pale skin was covered in puckered and faded scars that cris-crossed a large portion of her body, and where there weren’t scars there lay the black tribal inkings that ran across nearly the entirety of her skin. She was like a walking work of feral art, all different and sure to have some long story behind them. Sliver turned to Coren and smirked, rubbing her arms as the cold set into her flesh. ”I know you aren’t good at this sort of thing, but you’re going to stay here for about five or so bells and I am going to make tracks for you. It should be easier to find me than a rabbit, but I won’t make it easy. Keep your eyes open and pay attention.” With that Sliver exploded in a smog of shining lights and particles that wrapped themselves around her body, expanding and contracting until at last they dissipated to reveal a small furry mammal that looked much like a bear with a light face and stomach, and a tail a bit too long. She snorted at him indignantly, dark eyes boring into him until the mage figured out to face the tree where she had lain her clothes, then Coren would be able to hear the wolverine lumber off into the small copse of woods, leaving him to wait his bells before following.