Time had passed since Chiara had began training the new members Katyusha. Her first few days consisted of training in the river where Chiara taught her about using her mind in facing a hard enemy, a test Kat quickly mastered. For days the pair met at the river, each time Chiara throwing a pebble blindly into the river. Each time Kat shove her way into the rushing water, fighting the current and finding the stone. She proved a fast learner and found the stone quicker each time, making the warrior secretly proud. Now with that training behind them Chiara decided to brush the dust off an old hunting move her original pack used. Living in a pine forest many wolves took to the low branches of the trees to stalk their prey. Most deer never looked up, so it was easy to drop in on them. It required strength and cunning though, for any rough movement would send needles, pine cones or bark down and ruin the stalk.

Today Chiara lead Kat to the forest that bordered the lake. Many pine, birch, oak and maple grew there and would make a good mix of trees to learn to climb. Kat would need all her strength to master this, but the rewards would mean a silent wolf who could surprise most any enemy. Walking into the forest Chiara came to a large pine, its branches starting from five feet from the ground. Looking over her shoulder for Kat the fae quickly bunched her muscles and lept up, landing the branch easily. Using grace and a soft touch she hung on without much movement. Then quickly sh lept higher and higher, sending not a single needle to the ground. Looking to the ground she could see Kat about fifty feet below. "Your next lesson begins now. Learning to use all of your environment can mean you have a advantage on any enemy. Use the rocks, trees, ground and everything to your advantage. Now, come to me and try to not shed any needle or pine cones. They will give away your position." She smirked, sitting in the crook of a branch to wait.

As the time passed Katyusha could feel the training working, and her strength growing with each brutal test. For what felt like endless days Chiara would meet the new hunter at the river, tossing pebbles in and making the fae recover them until she was certain she would drown if she tried again. Yet each day the fae returned for her training, always making sure to arrive early for what was surely just another day of torment and torture, but her commitment was unwavering, she could feel it working, and had no doubt of Chiara's techniques.

Today however was different; Chiara had taken her not to the river, but instead to a part of the forest she was fairly familiar with. Having hunted this area many times, and come up relatively successful Katyusha was very familiar with this part of the pack, and as the two walked, she couldn't imagine what Chiara had planned, although she did notice that she kept looking up, and knowing her it wasn't outside of the realm of possibility she expected Katyusha to catch a bird out of the air....

Once Chiara stopped at a tree, only giving the fae a short glance before bounding into the branches Katyusha's eyes would go wide slightly, quickly retaking her relaxed posture, pretending she didn't mind while muttering softly under her breath "She really isn't going to be happy until I'm dead." she sighed, nodding quickly at her instructions before calling up "Yes Ma'am." she replied.

Slowly Katyusha would look around the branches, picking one she thought would be easiest to reach and bunching her muscles, leaping up to the branch. Once she felt the hard wood under her the fae would try to catch it with her paws, falling back so she was just hanging on by her front paws, body curling under her to attempt to work her way onto the branch, before loosing her grip and falling to the floor hard. With the rough impact the fae would knock the wind out of herself, panting lightly to regain herself as she pulled up to her paws "Ouch..." she grumbled to herself, glancing up at the tree again, half expecting Chiara to laugh at her, and half expecting to be yelled at.

From her perch Chiara watched Kat's first failed attempt at climbing the branches. It wasn't an easy process and the fae would have been astounded if she had gotten it on the first try. "Jump and land with multiple feet on branches, it lessens the weight and makes for stable footing. Then keeping moving, moving with the tree to limit motion." She called, perfectly content fifty feet up in a pine tree. As a pup she and her sister frequently climbed trees, often racing to the top of springy birch, grabbing the top branch and leaping off. Because the tree was soft wood it went with their weight, singing them down gently before springing back upright. It entertained the pair for hours and many time their mother would come out past dark to find them. Such fond memories, too bad it wasn't long after those days that life changed.

"Always visualize the next three branches you will go to with a back up in case one breaks. You need to plan ahead while climbing or you could get stuck or fall." She warned, shifting her wight a bit on the branch.

Katyusha nodded softly and looked up at the branches, taking a deep breath and jumping up to the branch, trying to get all of her paws on the branch and feeling the firm wood under her, quickly the fae jumping up to the next branch, landing it quickly before moving to leap up to the next, her paws slipping out from under with the lunge, eyes going wide as she fell from the branch, bouncing off two others before hitting the ground hard, a loud 'oof' leaving her as the wind was knocked from her lungs again, a loud huff following as she pulled herself to her paws, stumbling a little and looking up to find her branches again.

Once she had found her branches the fae would jump up to them again, bounding from one branch to the next, making up 6 branches this time before missing the next one and falling all the way back down, slamming into several branches and bouncing down the tree until she hit the ground with another loud 'Uhnf', only to pull herself up and try again.

With each attempt Kat made Chiara would hold her breath. Her breath would become deeper with each branch she made it to, and with each fall she would wince and let the breath out. Deciding she shouldn't let her trainee perish so soon the fae stood on her branch and prepared for decent. Leaping from branch to branch the fae lept in fluid movements quickly to the floor in a delicate thump. Shaking out her pelt slightly she walked over to the fae who was ready to try again. "Before you kill yourself watch how I land on branches." She said looking back up in the tree. Bunching her muscles she lept clean on to two branches, her paws spread to share the weight. Her toes were splayed out to add more surface area and her tail was out for balance. Letting her center be low and forward she jumped to another set of branches, being light and fluid, not letting any branches fall or her balance waver.

"See how I divide my center and keep to the rough parts of the branches? Those are the most stable, and the ones closest to the trunk move the least." She called, leaping from branch to branch faster now to make a point. Once she had the motion down her feet barely touched one branch before she went to the next. As if she knew this tree inside and out she spun around the tree, almost like she was floating before coming to land on her perch to watch again.

Katyusha would moved to jump into the tree again before she heard the other's words, ears perking quickly as she gave a slow nod "Okay." she spoke, sitting back for a moment to rest her surely bruised form and watch how Chiara went up, envying how easy it appeared for her..and how badly she was doing at it. With a soft sigh, Katyusha would move to line herself up, focusing on what her mentor had told her to do and crouching low. Once she had her plan the fae would leap up, catching the first branch and pushing on to two more, then a few more, moving a little slower than before. However, she was doing a lot better than the past few attempts.

Once Kat was half way up she would stop, standing rather uneasily on the branches and looking down "Uhm...before I go any higher....how do I get down?" she asked, clearly trying not to get herself killed in this tree, especially since she had never done this before.

A nod was the only sign of approval from the ebony fae as her trainee continued to jump. She was improving well for someone new to this style of climbing and reveled in her determination. At her question Chiara did smirk though. Tempted to tell her to jump or to push her she pushed that idea away. What good was she beaten and broken? "You get down by re tracing your path up. Use gravity to help your jumps down." She called, yawning from her perch. With her legs splayed out she looked like a bird perched up here, but the serenity up here was peaceful and rare. So much of her life was rushed, hurries or strenuous, but up here things were slow and thought out. She could really think up here, the sense made her shut her eyes for a second. The instant loss of sight used to make her loose her balance, but with training she got used to it. That would be Kat's next test, to climb blind, but first she must master this, slow as she was going.

Katyusha nodded slowly at the instructions, pausing for a moment to trace her path up and memorize it, and then jumped up quickly. The fae would try to increase her speed, hopping from branch to branch until she was directly below Chiara, unable to go any higher without risking taking the other wolf with her and sighting a little. With a glance down Katyusha would feel a little shudder go down her spine "We're uhm...pretty high up." she said, clearly nervous about the height, but still at the top with her, willing to push past her fears to master her training, although she had to admit, it was very different at the top of the tree than at the bottom, almost peaceful.

Once Katyusha had a chance to take in the view she would look up to her teacher "Shall I go down and work my way back up?" she asked, fairly certain that's what she would have to do anyways.

As Kat continued to climb Chiara noted her improving even in this short amount of time. This training would give her many skills; facing fears, strength, agility and being clever to use all of nature in stalking. Now as she made her way up and spoke of going down the black fae had to smirk and chuckle. "No you won't be going down unless you fall. Now that you are up we shall start the real training." Chiara said as she jumped higher to branches full of pine cones above Kat. "Study what branches are where so you know where to dodge. When you can dodge pine cones without slipping up here you will feel at ease enough to be able to stalk an attack here." Chiara said, readying herself at a branch to shake it.

Placing her paws on the branch Chiara aimed several pine cones down at Kat, just a few to start. As she dodged the numbers would increase as she learned to avoid them. The pair were only about fifty feet up, a fall would easily be caught by a lower branch. The fall may prove fatal, but the chance was slim if she clung to a branch on the way down. Besides a fall would teach her how to avoid one, sadly it was the only way to learn. Chiara began to shake and three large pine cones flew down at Kat, what would she do?

As Chiara hopped up the tree a little further Katyusha's ears would go back, the pain of her last several falls flashing through her memory as she glanced down at the drop, taking a deep breath and nodding "Okay...let's start." she said, clearly slightly nervous by this training and the height at which they were performing it.

As instructed Katyusha looked around the branches near her trying to memorize they're layout and where the pine cones may fall, taking a deep breath Katyusha would turn up as the first several pine cones began to fall, quickly Katyusha would hop across several branches, one of the falling objects just barely missing her, but so far doing well, not quite as elegant as she had hoped, and seeming a little clumsy as she slipped on one of the branches but still capable of keeping herself in the tree, and alive.