Training - Part 2

Looking around, Emmia and Icarth searched for some 'rabbits'. They finally spotted a small animal in the distance with a brown pelt, long ears, and some cute black eyes.

"Is that a rabbit?" Emmia asked for confirmation.

"Yes," Julian nodded. "Now who's first?"

"Me! Me!" Emmia exclaimed.

"Alright then, go ahead," Julian replied holding back a smile.

Emmia dashed forward, stooping low through the long grass. She was filled with excitement and wanted to prove herself by catching one of those cute rabbits.

While Emmia moved closer to the rabbit, Icarth turned to Julian and said, "Gramps you didn't tell her what was the rabbit's gift."

"Oh? It must have slipped my mind," Julian smiled lightly. Nova shook his head and trained his attention back to Mia so that he could intervene if things got bad. Not that Julian wouldn't interfere, Nova just preferred to do so himself. 'I guess I would look cool saving her too...' Nova pondered.

As Nova was trying to figure out how he could score some more points as the twins' cool uncle, Emmia had gotten as close to the rabbit as she thought she could.

Observing the rabbit, she found that it was bigger than she thought. Reaching to her shoulders, the rabbit was comically large as it was fluffy. Slightly getting distracted by its fur, Emmia's thoughts drifted to how it would feel. 'It looks so soft, I wonder how it would feel....no I need to bring it back first!....but, one feel wouldn't hurt right?' Slowly Emmia's intentions shifted from capturing the rabbit to petting it.

Readying herself, she jumped as hard as she could.....and miraculously landed on the rabbit.

Julian felt his eyes almost pop out. Since when did these rabbits let themselves get caught so easily? While Julian couldn't see very clearly, Nova could see everything that was happening. Nova didn't know whether to be impressed or astonished at the sight of Emmia nuzzling into the rabbit's fur.

This continued for a couple of seconds when finally Emmia remembered her objective. Sensing the change in intention, the rabbit finally moved. Speeding up, the rabbit started to run at a breakneck speed. Gripping its fur, Emmia tried to hold on, but in the end, the rabbit started to zig-zag, finally throwing Emmia off.

"Woah!" Emmia shouted, shutting her eyes as she neared the ground. But the feeling of hitting the ground never came. Instead, she found herself in a warm embrace. Opening her eyes slowly, Emmia saw that her uncle was holding her. Nova gently put and patted her head to alleviate the fright that she had just gone through.

Emmia was disappointed in her failure. She was so sure that she had gotten the fluffy rabbit. But in the end, she had failed by getting thrown off.

"Well Mia, do you know what you did wrong?" Julian asked gently.

Shutting her eyes, and thinking for a while, she answered "I didn't ask you what the gift of the rabbit was." She also added slightly embarrassed, "I also got lost by how fluffy it was."

"That's rig-" Julian paused. He started at her in amusement before continuing, "You should always gather information before you do something. Even if I didn't tell you, you should've tried to find the information yourself before you jumped at the rabbit. If Nova or I weren't here, you would've gotten hurt."

Emmia nodded a little sullenly, and added, "thank you, uncle Nova."

"Your welcome," Nova smiled.

"You'll do better next time Mia," Julian encouraged seeing her downcast mood.

"Mmm," Emmia said trying to feel better.

"Ica, you're up," Julian said.

Now that it was Icarth's turn, he started walking through the long grass just like Emmia. Travelling slowly, Ica thought, 'The rabbit is too fast for me to chase, I'll need to catch it off guard. Like Mia but just better.'

Unbeknownst to him, his body was sinking lower and lower. His hair started to elongate and softly wave in the wind. His nails and teeth slowly sharpened becoming weapons that could be used to fight.

'Uncomfortable,' Ica thought before dropping to all fours. Feeling much better he went back to his mission.... no back to his hunt. His pale red eyes started to sparkle dangerously as Ica neared the rabbit.

Icarth sniffed the air, his already sensitive nose becoming even more perceptive. The wind was blowing softly, rustling the grass and carrying the rabbit's scent to him. Icarth was in the perfect position to pounce.

Drawing as near as possible, he gathered all his strength in his legs and leapt, just like Emmia, and landed on the rabbit. Not getting distracted, he sunk his claws into the rabbit.

Feeling the pain the rabbit started to freak out. Accelerating as fast as possible, it tried to shake off the small predator on his back.

Unfortunately for the rabbit, Icarth had a much better grip than Emmia. Digging his claws as deep as he could, Icarth held on. He felt his blood pumping through his veins, the air rushing past him, the vulnerable warmth below him, and the scent of fear in the air. His eyes glowed before Icarth obeyed his instincts and bit the rabbit's neck.

But in the end, Icarth was still a four-year-old, no matter how much his inborn instincts helped him, he didn't have the strength to bite through the rabbit's neck. Getting a mouth full of fur, Icarth tried to dig deeper but to no avail. The rabbit had reached its top speed and gave a violent zig zag to throw off Icarth.

When he couldn't hold on longer, Icarth let go and flew through the air with a great trajectory. He was slightly disappointed that he couldn't get the rabbit. Due to the speed of the rabbit, Icarth was still in the air when he realised that he wasn't getting teleported back yet.

Whirling his head towards his grandpa, he only found an encouraging smile. Instead of panicking, Icarth grinned. A bestial smile adorned his face as a fresh excitement rushed through his veins.

While hunting the rabbit was exciting, this was a different challenge. And Icarth just needed to figure out a way. His grandpa wouldn't give him an impossible challenge as evidenced by the fact that both he and Mia were able to at least jump onto the rabbit.

Fully giving in to his instincts, Icarth did what he felt he should do. Turning his head rapidly, Icarth checked where he would land. Confirming that it was a patch of grass, he then extended his limbs as much as he could to slow his fall slightly. Approaching the ground, he tucked in his limbs and finally hit the ground with a thud. Making sure to roll, tumbled through the long grass for a few seconds before finally stopping. Laying on his back, Icarth checked his arms and legs and found that they were all fine.

With his ears buzzing and heart still rapidly pumping, Icarth whooped at the top of his lungs, all the time grinning. He had never felt so alive in his life up until now.