Yang stared at the ceiling as she laid in bed, the sun peeking above the treetops. It was earlier than she wanted to be awake. But the stress of losing Bumblebee still loomed in her mind and made her unable to sleep too well. The coach was going to kill her for middling performance when she was their star. What was she supposed to do while she waited for Bumblebee to get out of the shop? The independence she’d worked so hard to attain was now gone…

  Tears rolled down her cheeks and she buried her face in her hands. She was so stupid for crying over a bike. It’d be repaired. It’d be fine. But it still didn’t help the sense of loss. She’d felt more devastated when Summer had died, but this felt almost on par with it somehow… She’d worked her ass off to be able to afford that bike… She wanted to curl up and cry all day, but that wasn’t her. Plus, she couldn’t shirk her sports practice that morning. It was technically optional, but she would never hear the end of it if she missed. And over an inanimate object at that.

  She laid for a while until she smelled breakfast cooking. At least Taiyang hadn’t foisted it on her after the devastating loss. What was he cooking? It didn’t smell like any of the usual suspects…

  Hm.

  She got ready and headed downstairs, blinking when she finally placed the smell. It was her favorite, a hashbrown egg bake with homemade hashbrowns. He often did it with the premade stuff but making it from scratch…

  Too bad she wasn’t planning on sticking around… It was always so special when he made it from scratch… But she would grab something from one of the diners before cross country practice started.

  “Sorry, Dad; I’ll see you later.” She poked her head into the kitchen, the dashed out the front door. She turned to grab Bumblebee from the driveway, only to freeze. Despair rose in her throat and she sprinted away from the house. Her duffle bag thwacked against her hip as she did so. Damn it, damn it, damn it… She wanted her bike back so badly. She wanted her full independence again… That bike meant everything to her…

  And now she hated herself for abandoning her father too… He was making that specifically for her to make her feel better… But she was already halfway to the train station… It’d be cold by time she got back… What would be the point of going back now…? He would’ve put so much love and care into making it for her and she’d utterly abandoned him. Gods, she was the worst daughter in the world. How could she leave him when he was trying to take care of her? And she wouldn’t be back until evening.

  She trudged her way to the train platform. She could have sworn she’d seen a tumble weed pass through. She had the entire thing to herself. How was it so dead on a Saturday morning? This place was usually hopping… Then again, could she really complain too much? Better than being shoved up against the sides of the station, barely away from the yellow lines.

  She buried herself in her scroll until it came, and she settled down in a seat. Now where to have breakfast and what to eat? There were plenty of great places near the park where she practiced. Or maybe somewhere new? She pulled up the map and tapped on a Mistrali restaurant. Huh, the’d be different than their usual Valian fare. They offered breakfast too. Not a bad way to start off an extremely shitty day. Try something new and get over herself before practice.

  The train ride was relatively quiet as people piled into the car one by one. While she waited, she pulled out some paper strips, making some small lucky stars. A little girl looked at them with wide eyes and she smiled. “Pretty,” the girl said.

  “Oh, I’m sorry about her. She’s—” Yang shook her head at the mother who tried to interrupt.

  “Nay, it’s no big deal.” She put the starts in the girl’s hand, her pink eyes shining. “I have a little sister. It’s really not a bather.” The girl may only be five or six. Ruby was a lot older, but she didn’t mind kids. It did unfortunately impact the thousand stars but seeing people smile was worth it. “It’s just paper and it’s not hard to make more.” She smiled at the woman who looked put off but nodded.

  “Well, thank you, then.” The woman turned away and Yang’s stop chimed.

  She hopped off the train and followed the instructions on her scroll to the restaurant. As soon as she entered, though, she knew she had picked the wrong place.

  Faunus filled most of the sleeps. The staff seemed to be exclusively Faunus too. So she was in one of those Faunus meeting places, huh? She’d accidentally stumbled into a few of them like this before. There had to be some sort of pattern, but she couldn’t identify it. There had to be some way these people communicated that this place was like this… But only those in the know would be able to identify it. She had Faunus friends, but she wasn’t sure if they knew about these sorts of places…

  Voices hushed as she entered, one hand in her pocket. Eyes of different types stared at her. Today kept getting worse… She should’ve stayed at home to eat. She hadn’t wanted to be in the house more than necessary. “I…can leave if you don’t serve humans.” She normally would walk out, but she was famished. Walking so much ate up a lot of energy.

  The woman behind the serving counter came over and sniffed in her direction. She had a pig’s snout. Probably could smell a lot more than any standard human did. But, after a moment, the woman shook her head. “I think you’ll be fine here. Only yourself this morning?” She picked up a menu and Yang nodded. “This way, please.” She settled Yang at a small table meant for two. People looked and stared at her as she passed, but she ignored it. This place was meant for Faunus; of course she’d attract attention.

  The letterman jacket didn’t help her blending in, though. Neither did the large duffle bag.

  She stowed the bag under her chair and took the menu. “Your server will be with you shortly.” The woman bowed and returned to her post. Yeah, she really didn’t belong here. People were still casting glances at her. But she ignored it as she looked at the menu, eventually finding something that sounded good.

  She gave her order to the server then delved into her bag, pulling out the paper again. It’d been a while since she’d last sat down to do origami… School starting had put a damper on it like it had for so much of her life. She was looking forward to getting a job to have more consistent hours, rather than be upended every few months.

  Though…

  She sat the half-folded star aside as she flicked open her scroll. The Vytal Festival started in about two weeks… She’d have to decide if she wanted to watch or not. She had no interest in being a Huntress any longer. But watching people spar to test themselves was interesting. Plus Qrow would be around Beacon… It’d be a reason tos tick around. Her father didn’t like them spending time together, but she was almost an adult. He couldn’t stop a lot of her choices no matter how much he wanted to. Only a few more months and she’d be completely able to make all her own choices…

  She went back to the origami until the server brought the meal out. She dipped her head, followed by a small “Thanks.” No need to be rude especially when she clearly wasn’t welcome there. Thankfully, the offered her normal silverware over chopsticks so she wouldn’t act like a complete fool in front of all these Faunus.

  She ate quickly and paid, leaving a generous tip for the server. Hopefully that would help ease the fact he’d served a human in a Faunus-oriented joint.

  With that, she made her way to the park and started doing laps around the track. No need to sit with her thumbs up her ass. She’d be doing a lot more running between cross country and soccer, but she was not a layabout. As long as she kept the pace moderate, she wouldn’t exhaust herself for for her later marathon practice sessions…

  ??

  Yang sat down on a bench next to her duffle bag, sweat pouring down her face. She was exhausted. Cross country was never easy but the Saturday intensives were a whole other level of insanity. She really wasn't sure how everyone survived. The Saturday intensives technically weren't mandatory, but the coach absolutely would downgrade people from their positions and drop them from meets. She honestly didn't mind the inte sit, personally, but she knew most of her term mates didn't agree. Most of them wanted the coach gone, but Yang didn't agree. She wanted to be the best she could be and the intensity helped her improve. She'd been improving at such a massive rate that she really wanted to continue improving and she felt like a softer coach would only harm her improvement. She really wanted to be able to stay on the team as a varsity runner and she wasn't sure if another coach would help her improve in the same way this one was. Though the name calling and humiliation were definitely a step too far in her opinion…

  She slammed back what remained in her water bottle then went over to one of the park fountains and started gulping down water from that. The cross country intensives always drained her something awful. She was honestly getting worn down by how intense Cross Country was. She also had soccer and did martial arts three times a week as well. She loved being physically active but cross country was definitely taking a toll on her. She really wanted to be able to stay on the team and enjoyed the hard pace, but her knees and hips felt weak after she finished with Crosscountry intensives, The extra soccer practice wasn't necessary, but she wanted to be able to keep up her abilities and still be varsity as a sophomore. She just really didn't want to lose either position.

  However, she blinked when she felt a tug on her lower Pant leg. She glanced down and saw a skinny dog standing there. Its long for was matted and it was clearly starving. Yang frowned as she looked into the sky-blue eyes.

  This was no normal stray; this was an aura breed. Who in their right mind would abandon an aura breed?! They were stupid expensive. Zwei had cost her about two thousand lien and that was on the low end of an aura breed.

  She got down on one knee, wincing a bit at the pain from cross country. "Hey there. You're not a normal stray, are you?" The dog shook its head and whined. It looked up at the fountain pleadingly. All it wanted was some water. She petted its head then got up and hit the button. The dog hopped up and started lapping furiously at the water, her heart sinking in her chest. Who would abandon an aura breed? Most ethical breeders had return clauses that mandated the dog be returned to the breeder if something should happen. Either they had ignored the contract or gotten the dog from a backyard breeder. They didn't even have the decency to take the dog to a shelter i they just left it on the streets to fend for itself.

  “Are you a boy?” The dog shook its head. A female then... She wasn't really sure what to do with her. This dog obviously needed help, but she couldn't offer much. She had brought Zwei home after lots of discussion with her father and the breeder. She was pretty sure he wouldn't be happy if she brought home a random stray.

  But she also couldn't leave the poor thing here.

  Yang flinched away when she saw something come sailing through the air, then heard the dog whine.

  She looked down and saw a soccer ball sitting there. The dog had gotten down from The fountain and covered behind it. Poor thing. But that had clearly been intentional. That had been too directed to be anything but intentional. The poor dog had obviously been targeted and she was not happy about it. All she was doing was helping the poor thing get some water. Who would throw or kick a soccer ballata helpless animal like that? Only somebody incredibly cruel. The dog had literally done nothing wrong.

  Three children approached and Yang grabbed the ball, then stood in front of the dog. “He!. That's our ball!" one of the kids, a little redheaded boy, said. The trio ran over and the lead, an ashy-haired girl. held her hands out.

  "Can we have it back please, ma' am?" the girl asked.

  "Which one of you targeted her?" she looked down at the dog who cowered behind her. She was beautiful despite the mats. She was a light silvery grey on the main part of her body that slowly transitioned to a slate grey color on her belly and legs. She also had some darker spots on her back. Then there were her sky blue eyes. She had no idea what breed she was, but she definitely seemed purebred.

  "Oh that stupid thing? It's been hanging around for a few weeks." The girl scoffed. "It needs to move on and stop bothering people here."

  "Yeah! That stupid thing is only good for scaring people away! It needs to leave!" the redhead said.

  Yang sighed. These were young kids, maybe six or seven. They probably hadn't developed empathy yet. They didn't understand that animals, especially aura breeds, had feelings too. She would definitely have to teach them a lesson but not harshly. They needed to be shown the intelligence that aura breeds could have. "Have you kids heard of aura breeds before and know what makes them special?" She held on to the ball not going to return it until they hopefully had a change of heart. She hadn't grown up with animals, but her father had taught her kindness and empathy toward them. She hoped she could change these kids 'minds and hearts.

  "I've heard of 'em, but they aren't special. They're just stupid animals," the girl said with a scoff. "Ain't nothin' special about them."

  Yang shook her head. "You're wrong. I have an aura corgi named Zwei. I trained him from a puppy. He's super smart and I can even have fall-fledged covers at ions with him. I just met this girl so Ican't understand her, but I can show you how smart she is. Wanna see?"

  "No. We want our ball back. "the redhead said flatly, "Why would we want to see a stupid dog? Please just give us the ball back."

  "Just watch." Yang turned around to the dog and held her hand out. "Would you mind helping me try to change their minds? I know they hurt you, but you can show them what aura breeds can do. I really want to change their minds and learn to have some empathy for animals. "It was something that was taught and learned as it didn't come naturally to children. She hoped this would change them at least a little.

  The dog continued to shake, the whites of her eyes showing. She cowered for a few more moments until she slowly walked around Yang. "Good girl." Yang looked at the kids. "So you know how dogs can be trained to follow commands and do tricks?" The kids nodded. "So with normal dogs, you want to do commands one at a time. You can't give them multiple a tone time."

  "Okay, so?" the girl said, folding her arms.

  Yang grinned. "Watch this." she paused. "Okay, girl, circle to the right five times, do three play bows, speak, shake your head four times, raise your left paw then right paw in that sequence three times. Then circle to the left four times." The dog was clearly taking it all in and stood there for a few moments before breaking into the sequence of commands. Each movement was slow and deliberate, but she executed each command in the sequence after about five minutes. After that, she went to cower behind Yang and the fountain again.

  The kids all looked at each other, eyes wide. "Woah," the girl said. "That's crazy! I didn't know dogs could do that!"

  "It's specific to aura breeds. Normal dogs can't count like that or take on such a long string of commands. But what do you notice about her?" Yang motioned the kids over but kept them at a distance. The dog continued to come-and tried to make herself as small as possible. She had her tail tacked between her legs and stared up at the kids, whites of her eyes showing. Yang knew that whale eyeing in dogs wasn't good, but she wanted the kids to get a good look at what they had done. She felt bad for putting extra stress on the poor dog, but they needed to see the consequences of their actions. The poor dog had just been getting water and had been attacked in an awful way.

  The girl frowned. "She looks scared. But how can a dog be scared? They can't think or feel anything."

  Yang shook her head. "Do you kids remember how she yelped when the ball hit her?" They nodded. "That was her feeling pain. Why wouldn't she feel pain in your minds?” She seemed to be getting through to them which was good. She hoped this would be a good life lesson for them. It was hard to be patient sometimes. but they were young kids; she couldn't be too mad at them since they were still learning. She hoped this lesson would stick with them and their parents wouldn't override this lesson. It was the parents' fault for teaching their kids to not think highly of animals…

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  “But my mom said animals are stupid and can't feel anything," the girl said.

  The redheaded boy nodded. "Same."

  "Have you guys ever had cavities filled?" They all nodded. "Know how your mouth feels droopy and funny afterward?" They nodded again. "That's something called anaesthesia. In the case of cavities, it's just used in a small area. They do that because it'd really hurt if they didn't numb you. It'd hurt pretty bad. But the dentist does that because they don't want you to hurt during."

  "What does that have to do with dogs?" the girl asked.

  "You know there are doctors for animals called vets, right?" The kids nodded. "Well, vets use anaesthesia for animals too. That way they don't hurt during and after surgery." It was more complicated than that, of course, but she was trying to keep it simple for the kids. They didn't need to know further details than that. She was just trying to make it clear animals could feel pain. "And you guys take painkillers when you get a scrape or something else happens to make you in pain, right?" They nodded again.

  "I broke my arm once..." The blue-haired girl who had remained silent until now finally spoke. "It hurt a lot and the doctor gave me medicine from the medicine place. The normal staff didn't work cuz of how bad the pain was."

  Yang nodded. "Vets do the same for animals of all sizes. From cats to horses, all of them can be prescribed—er, the doctor can give them medicine from the medicine place for their pain." The kids all frowned and looked at the dog.

  "We're sorry," they said in unison. The dog blinked and raised her head, though she continued to shake and whale eye.

  "We didn't know," the ashy-haired girl said.

  The redheaded boy nodded. "Yeah! You wanna hangout or somethin'?"

  "Aneta kids interested in soccer?' Yang asked. They all nodded. She grinned. "I'm on my school's soccer team and I was going to do some practice in a bit. I could teach you some stuff." She wanted to take some pressure off the poor dog. She still hurt from the cross country intensive but she needed to distract the kids from the dog. She'd been abandoned and had only wanted water then was assaulted by some kids. They were polite, so it wasn't like they were bad kids; they had just had parents teach them something that was unfortunately pretty terrible.

  They all perked up and grinned as well. "Yeah!" with that, Yang took them over to the soccer field and started playing with them. They were pretty decent for their age and were definitely active. They broke up into two pairs with one person on goalie and one person on offense. Of course, she was way more skilled than the kids by sheer virtue of being older and way more experience. Yang cut back on how well she normally performed to give them a fighting chance. This was just a fight game with some kids', there was no need to go all out and destroy some kids' confidence in a friendly match. They were clearly having a good time which she was glad for. She also taught them some moves they could practice and have fun with.

  At about six. she rolled everything down and had them stop. "All right, kids: I need to get home. But I had fun today." Yang grinned. Sometimes laying with kids could be a ton of fun. Not having to be hyper competitive for once was nice. She could sometimes lose sight of why she loved playing, batter solo practice sessions and times like this reminded her of why she loved to play.

  "Can we play again with you sometime, ma’am? "the blue-haired girl asked.

  "I'm here pretty much every Saturday until it gets too cold, but I'll often practice even when it's cold. But I need to get home and eat dinner." Saturdays were always late dinners due to her practicing, but she didn't mind... usually. Today she was absolutely famished because of the entire dog incident. The kids had impeded on her lunchtime but she didn't want to stop to eat lunch and potentially curtail their enthusiasm for the lesson as well as soccer.

  The boy smiled brightly. "I'm Navid!"

  “I'm Mai!" the ashy-haired girl said.

  “I'm Kirsten," the blue-haired girl mumbled.

  I guess I'll see you next week, then." Yang smiled at them and they all ran off. They really weren't had kids; they were just misinformed.

  The smile disappeared, though. as she looked at the dog. She hadn't left and simply laid on the ground to watch them. She walked over to the dog and sat next to her, "I can't believe somebody would just abandon an aura breed like you. You seem so sweet. I'll take you home with me, but I can't guarantee my dad will let me keep you. If not, maybe you could help me find your breeder? I'm sure they'd be willing to take you back."

  The dog gave a small nod and struggled to her feet. She was so weak… Yang hoped Taiyang would let her stay. But she was certain a breeder would take their dog back as long as they were ethical. She hoped this wouldn't be a backyard breeder situation. "I don't want to keep calling you a dog or the dog so how about.. Trinity ford name?'' The dog considered for a moment and then nodded. "Let's get some more water and then head to my place." They stopped by the fountain again where target Trinity drink to her heart's content, and then got on the bus, then the train home.

  By time they arrived back. it was nearly seven thirty. She normally would've been back by now. but with having to take public transit. She didn't have much choice. She wasn't looking forward to having to face her father with Trinity in tow, but she simply couldn't leave the poor doghehind. She really wanted to keep her, but she had no idea what Taiyang would say. There would be the grooming bill and then probably net bills a. She wasn't sure if Tai Yang would be willing to foot those sorts of bills. Zwei was a healthy, young dog, so they hadn't really needed any vet bills beyond the yearly checkup and initial vet assessment. Well, he had needed neutered, but that was the most costly thing so far.

  She opened the door and saw Ruby at the piano, scribbling on her tablet. She plunked at some keys. in her own little world.

  Taiyang sat in the living room, watching a movie. He turned around in his seat with mouth open to say something, but he stopped dead when he saw Trinity. Trinity shied and stood behind Yang. She whale eyed again and trembled. He sighed. "I can see why you brought it home."

  "Her, Dad. She was an aura breed abandoned by someone a few weeks ago. Some kids were tormenting her and I taught them an important lesson about animals." She sighed. "If I can't keep her, I understand. She has to have a breeder, so the breeder may take her back if we can find them. I couldn't just leave an aura breed on the streets like that. I can't imagine why somebody would abandon an aura breed like this."

  "I can't either. We can keep her for now. If we can find what breeds he is, he might be able to find her Kennel club and breeder list. Although I wonder if she's chipped... That would make things a lot easier. I know the chip would be linked to her previous owners, but if the breeder kept records. we might be able to call around to different breeders to see if we can connect with them." Trinity shook her head and moved closer to Yang. "Huh? You don't want to go back to your breeder, girl?" Trinity shook her head again. "was it a bad place? Were you confined all the time before you were bought? "she shook her head again. Yang sighed. It wasn't the hardest thing to communicate with an aura breed, but it was hard when one couldn't understand how they spoke. She could understand Zwei perfectly since she'd had him so long, but it would take time to fully understand Trinity... if she stayed here that long. Something was clearly wrong, but she had no idea What, It was hard when all they had were body language and yes-or-no questions. "Or do you not want to go back to your family and have them possibly find you?"

  She whined and nodded emphatically. Well, that answered that question. "They did bad things to you, huh?" She whined and nodded again. Poor girl. She seemed so sweet and gentle. "And they dumped you, right?" Another nod. "Would you rather stay here?" Another nod and whine.

  Taiyang sighed. "Well, there are procedures for this, Yang. It's not like we can just keep her. For now, though, why don't you eat and then chill out? There's no need to stress ourselves out tonight. We can see about taking her to the vet tomorrow to see about a chip. I'll see what the procedures are for reporting astray dog. It's late so I'll see about it in the morning."

  Yang smiled. "All right Dad. Thanks."

  "No prob, kiddo. You can feed her too.Just be careful. I'm not sure if dogs can go into body shock the same as humans if they've not eaten in a while."

  Yang winced. It had clearly been a while since Trinity had eaten with how skinny she was, Honestly, She hadn't even thought about that. "Okay. Trinity, I'll get you some food but only a little bit. I know you're hungry but if you eat too much, it could cause you some serious problems. I don't want you to have issues, okay?" Trinity whined but nodded. Yang's heart constricted in her chest, but she really had to watch out for Trinity's health. She knew people that hadn't eaten in a while could go into a type of shock from suddenly having so many nutrients flood their body.

  She went into the kitchen and saw Zwei standing there, head tilted. "Huh? So the discussion wasn't wrong and neither was my nose... There is another dog in the house."

  Yang nodded. "this is Trinity. She was apparently abandoned a few weeks ago. Dad is going to look into what the proper procedure for stray dogs is. She'll at least be with us tonight. Can you help her for tonight?" He gave a small bark and wagged his tail. "Trinity, this is Zwei, my boy I've had for about a year now. He's another aura breed and will treat you well, I promise." Trinity whale eyed again but nodded.

  Yang set about cooking a small meal for Trinity and put it down for her. "Go slow, okay?" It was a tiny meal. not even a third of what Zwei ate, but she didn't want to potentially send Trinity's body into shock. She nodded miserably while she slowly ate.

  Yang popped her dinner into the microwave and heated it up. She sat at the table and started doing some research. Okay, it was called refeeding syndrome and dogs absolutely could experience it. Feeding small meals of increasing size over time was the best way to handle it. If she could keep Trinity. it was going to feel so bad to feed Zwei more than her, but they couldn't risk Trinity going into shock. She didn't want to harm the poor dog more than she'd already been hurt by her previous family. She really didn't understand why anybody would abandon an aura breed. It just made no sense to her. Animals in general were sensitive, but aura breeds were especially so. They literally had the same intelligence as humans and Faunus.. She didn't understand how somebody could buy an animal, abuse it, then dump it on the streets as if if were a piece of trash.

  Yang also looked at the number from the night before. She sent a text. Hey. Sup? Thought I'd check on You since things ended so abruptly. Feel free to call when you get a chance. She didn't want to stress the other girl out too much but she was pretty clearly desperate for friends. Yang didn't to cut somebody that was desperate for friends off. She really didn't want to upset the girl. And she had no idea what Dorothea's number was either. Really, she was surprised how close the numbers were. VA-139-4782-ER, Both used Echo Reach as their communications provider which was interesting and both apparently lived in East glen Ward. The transposition had to have been in the personal user code. that was the only place it could've happened.

  For a while, things were quiet. She didn't hear or feel her scroll go off, but the unknown number sent a text back. Sorry for being a bit late. I was out hunting all day. Would... you still like to call me? She could almost hear the anxiety through the message. Honestly, that girl seemed so sweet and gentle. she didn't understand how she didn't have any friends. Well, if there was one thing Yang was goodat, it was being somebody's friend. She didn't know how long-distance friendships worked, but she was willing to try. Granted, East glen Ward wasn't that faraway. Honestly, she could meet this girl if they ever wanted to have a face-to-face meeting

  Yup. Go ahead.

  Her scroll rang and she picked up. "Hey, wassup? You said something about hunting?" That was definitely interesting. Most people didn't go out hunting due to potentially running into Grimm. Whoever this girl was had some guts. There were other cities in Vale and many outlying villages, of course. so the people in smaller communities often had to survive on their own. Very few people in the big cities went hunting, though; it was always surprising to hear someone did that.

  "Uh yeah. I work with aura raptors at a rescue Oneofoar permanent residents, Sabina, needs to get out and hunt sometimes. She's a goshawk and those are high-strung birds and you can easily screw them up if you don't know what you're doing?"

  "I don't know much about raptors. What does that mean?" legitimately, she had no idea. She wanted to be more clued into what this girl knew about and get to know her. Maybe they could one day meetup. She hoped so. This girl was incredibly sweet and knew a lot about aura breeds. Actually, she may be able to help with Trinity. She had connections to the aura breed rescue; maybe that meant she could help find Trinity's breeder? It was a longshot. but maybe she didn't want to get rid of Trinity. but it may be the best-case scenario for the pup.

  "Well with birds, there's something you can do called imprinting. Basically, you take a baby bird from its parents very Young and get them to associate more closely with humans and Faunus than other birds. With aura breeds, it serves to bond them to their handler closely. They often won't accept another handler unless the handler socialise sand acclimates the bird accordingly.

  "However, you can imprint a bird wrong and screw it up for life. Aura raptors can and will talk like another aura breed. However, you want a generally quiet bird outside of that. They can respond to you, but you don't want them vocal outside of that. It's a baby behavior that basically amounts to begging. The louder the baby, the more likely it is to get fed. The handler has to know how to work past this behavior and most do." The girl sighed.

  "Sabina was one of those cases where she was imprinted wrong. She can and will scream her head off if she stays in her room too long. I'm not sure who thought it was a good idea to give an accipiter eyass to someone who didn't know what they were doing. Accipiter s are highly sought out by Hunters but they're bred in low numbers and have a high price tag.."

  “Why's that?" This was a whole new world to Yang. She didn't know the first thing about aura raptors. Honestly, it was really interesting. "Also sorry if my questions are annoying. It's just not something I really know about and it sounds interesting. "

  “No, it's all right, I'm used to fielding questions. I'm a presenter and do programs in parks and birthday parties. The questions just usually aren't this technical ; I really don't mind answering them."

  Yang nodded. "All right then."

  "So the reason is because accipiters can hunt basically all day. They were called the cook's bird years ago—er, well, goshawks were. They can go pretty much all day, every day. If you were living off grid and wanted a falconry bird, a goshawk would be the best choice. However, accipiters are known for being incredibly high strung and hard to work with; they essentially process at a much higher framerate than humans and Faunus which makes them hard to train. they're a bird only for people with a lot of experience when it comes to training."

  "So how does imprinting impact that?"

  "For accipiters, it makes them much more prone to aggression and attacking their handler. It's the same for imprint red-tailed hawks. The birds become absolutely fearless when a red tail is imprinted. With red tails, you want a passage bird and for an accipiter, you want a family bird."

  "What does that mean?" This girl was absolutely replete with knowledge and it was crazy she knew so much about birds. They were a lot more complicated than Yang had realised. She didn't think that birds were stupid by any means, but this showed her inst how complicated at least raptors were. There were others like corvids and parrots and only gods knew what else. This girl had the experience and it showed.

  "Passage means a first-year bird that hasn't molted into its adult plumage yet and family birds are another word for the brancher stage. Basically that's when birds have their feathers fully grown in but they aren't fully hardened. The term for that is hard penned. Their parents are still feeding them, but they've left the nest and are starting to fledge. It's the best time for accipiter s because they're not as likely to imprint, but they're at the point where they'd be starting to hunt on their own pretty soon. To them, it's just the natural evolution of their lives."

  "That's super cool." Trinity came over and rested her chin on Yang's leg. Yang started to pet her. "Sorry for the sudden change of topic, but do you know anything about how to handle lost dogs or what to do when you find astray? I found a stray aura breed while at the park. Her family abandoned her a few weeks ago. She's at least staying with us tonight and we'll start making calls tomorrow."

  "A dumped aura breed? How cruel. It's one thing if she were a street dog because, sometimes, random aura breeds can happen, we've picked up feral aura dogs who weren't socialised a fall."

  Yang nodded, though the girl couldn't see." Yeah, she told me she had been dumped. She's way too mannered to be feral. And she told me her family had done awful things to her through yes and no questions."

  "I see. Well, she definitely had to come from a breeder, then. In Vale, the proper procedure for stray dogs is to report Them to animal control within 48 hours and have them scanned for a microchip. Every ethically bad aura breed is legally required to be chipped in Vale. The chip will lead back to the family and the breeder. Breeding is pretty tightly regulated here in Vale, but there are unfortunately plenty of backyard breeders." The girl sighed. "She should legally go back to her breeder, but if she's old enough, the breeder might let her stay with you. It's really up to the breeder, unfortunately. Buyers sign contracts that can be legally enforced if the breeder has the means."

  Yang nodded. "Yeah, Dad had to sign one for Zwei when we bought him a year ago. I wasn't old enough to legally sign since I was only fifteen but I understood the seriousness of the contract." No, she wasn't going to treat Zwei badly and she hoped she'd never have to give him up. He was only a 'Pet' quality dog, but he was fantastic. She loved him heaps and he was such a sweet boy.

  "You already have an aura breed?"

  "Yup, a corgi. He's super sweet. He was going for less than his show-quality siblings but he still cost me two thousand. I got him at three months and did the bulk of my training over last summer like potty training. He already came with some basic obedience but I did a lot more with him.”

  "You sound like a good owner." She could hear the smile in the girl's voice. Yang let out a sigh. "Should I let you go?"

  "Yeah, I think I'm gonna take a bath then go to bed early." She might even sleep in for once. She was in a fair amount of pain. The lack of downtime between the cross-country intensive and her soccer practice was really showing itself. She was going to take a long, hot bath to see if it'd help with the soreness. She just really needed to do something to help with it.

  "Okay. Talk to you some other time then." The call clicked off and Yang put her dishes in the dishwasher, then limped out to the dining room and living room area.

  Taiyang turned around and frowned. "Yang, what's wrong? Are you hurt?"

  She flapped her hand. "Coach just pushed us hard again."

  "Yang, I want to talk about that tomorrow. Butgo have a bath and wind down for the night. We can deal with Trinity tomorrow." Yang relayed what the girl had said and nodded. "All right. If you're still in pain tomorrow, we can see about getting you a massage. okay, kiddo?"

  Yang nodded and hugged him. "Okay. Dad, Thanks." she went upstairs and took a long, boiling hot bath. Then carted upon her bed for the night, thoroughly exhausted.