Since Jelin needed a little time to fully recuperate before he could grant a name again, Scar agreed to wait awhile before evolving.  In the meantime, Jelin focused on teaching the focus through the mornings with Ainselth and through the afternoons with intense lessons.  Although he claimed to want her to learn what he considered the basics within ten days, he actually felt reasonably satisfied after the eighth.

The afternoon of the ninth day he spent the afternoon questioning her about everything he had taught to test her and determined that she had learned what she needed.  The next stage was a bit of an experiment since he didn't want to be the only one teaching all the time and figured that different perspectives could help guide better.

For the afternoons he started having Wings, Claw, or both help train her in what he had called positive and negative perception.  Claw was good at perceiving things and Wings was good at making people not perceive things.  From their time together, the sis fox even managed to guess that Wings' biggest strength was deception, which he considered close enough to accept as a correct answer.

Scratches and Clare were also pretty easy for her to figure out.  Scar she seemed to be having trouble with but had come close a few times.  Zaer was talked about enough during her party that the guesses of territory guardian, generalist, and knowledge strengths also got a pass for being close enough.  Her biggest problems seemed to be with Mel and Claw.

Claw kept a straight face and said nothing for each guess, regardless of how close it came, which caused a whole lot of second guessing.  Mel was almost the opposite in her reactions but caused a similar problem, as she would giggle at every wrong guess.  The poor fox got so frustrated at the two and how hard it was to try and guess that she even forgot about Scar.

Jelin didn't make it any easier as he kept her constantly learning and training.  They ran Conk's Course a few times and she even started to come close to matching him several times.  When she was only a few days shy of thirty days from being trained by him, he had a meeting with the big fox as per their agreement.  He sent the sis fox off to hunt in the morning with Wings and gave Ainselth a day off so he could have a solid chat.

He and the big fox decided to wait another thirty days on the full agreement and stay in the restricted terms.  The little fox had gotten a little better with her other sister gone and her having been terrified but she still had some issues and couldn't be fully trusted alone.  After checking on some more minor details about how the sis fox had been taught and trained before, Jelin also managed to convince the big fox to agree to being part of the final test of his training.

After they had settled the agreements portion of their talk, they took a little time to chat.  Jelin ended up admitting that he had found that his link might boost evolutions in some ways.  The big fox, stunned as she was, returned the trust by letting him know that in two growth stages they would have to be more careful about picking evolutions because the way they worked changed a little.  It was from that that the way she was taught and had taught her sisters came about.

They digressed into some small talk after that and then Jelin excused himself for lunch and planned to return afterwards.  As he went to where they usually ate lunch, he talked to Wings through the link to hear all about how the sis fox had done on the hunt.  From what Wings was saying, he was pretty happy with her progress.

When they arrived with the prey and made the lunchtime call, Jelin took the fox over to the corpses and had an impromptu lesson on biology to show her how the actual insides of the average creature worked.  He was able to show her how muscles worked a little better than when just talking and explain more in depth on the theory that someone could predict movements based on muscle movements.  It wasn't exactly just a theory since Claw supposedly actually did it but Jelin just couldn't do it.

After lunch was over and eaten, he announced to the fox that he had prepared a bit of a surprise for her in a way while the rest of the  girls gave her a wry smile.  Only Wings looked a little excited since she would finally get to see someone go through something similar to what she had done.  They all moved towards the fox area and this time Jelin stopped a little short of entering to wait for the big fox to arrive.

While he waited with the sis fox, the rest of the girls quickly found the largest nearby clear space with decent room and started forming a wide circle around it.  When the big fox finally arrived she had the little fox sit on the outskirts of the circle and entered it before sitting down and waiting.  Jelin gently pushed the sis fox into the circle as well and made his announcements.

<This is a friendly little fight.  No killing, but we can heal everything else.  I'll have to ask that you limit yourself with no attacks to the mind for this fight but otherwise you may fight as you want.  As for you, try to remember what you've learned and trust it without second guessing.  Otherwise, go all out.  Are you both ready?  Then, begin!>

The big fox charged almost immediately and the sis fox barely managed to dodge, getting her shoulder lightly clipped.  During her dodge, however, she managed to land a decent return attack with one of her claws.  Both stopped momentarily in surprise as they looked at the small red lines on the big fox's side.

The sis fox seemed to gain a little confidence and began to go on the offensive.  Although every attack from the big fox hit, most were dodged enough to barely be scratches.  The sis fox, being on the offense, wasn't hitting quite as often but the hits she did land tended to be full hits that did some obvious damage.  The big fox seemed to occasionally have some trouble as she would occasionally take the chance to retreat a little and shake her head clear.

The fight finally ended with the big fox pinning her sister's neck to the ground.  Jelin announced the end of the fight and walked up with Clare while smiling at both of them.  The big fox stepped back and seemed to have a pretty happy and proud face similar to Jelin's.  He looked down at the sis fox and saw her looking up with at him with some frustration and disappointment on her face.

<What's that look for?  You don't seem very happy, right now.>

<I lost.  Of course I'm not very happy.>

<Oh?  Have you ever won against her before?  Did you really expect you could beat her?>

<Well, no, but I thought your training was supposed to help even if it didn't feel like it.>

<Ah.  Let me ask this then.  Have you ever before even been able to wound your sister?  Her most powerful abilities might have been restricted but do you think that other than that she even had the leeway to go easy on you like she used to?  I see realization is starting dawn on you.

You did barely any training other than a few hunts and a few races through the course with me.  You spent most of your time just learning new things and how to put them into practice.  You haven't gotten stronger or faster through evolution, have had no real chance to build up muscle strength or improve you stamina, and other than all the rapid learning you had to do you spent most of your time lazing around with us and having fun.

Yet, in one month of training, you've managed to hit the unhittable, hurt the invincible, and persist for several minutes in the face of attacks from one of the most powerful monsters you've ever know who outclasses you by far in power.  Yes, she was restricted, but how can you feel disappointed at that kind of accomplishment?  Miss Big Sister?  Your thoughts and evaluation?>

<I can't comment on whatever training you went through, only the results.  I'm quite proud.  Obviously, there is still room for improvement but the training was definitely effective.  I held true to the restriction but otherwise did not hold back against you.  Even though I worked harder than I ever have to defeat you quickly, I had a difficult time and was forced to even consider going against my restriction to achieve victory.

I have never before had to use that much effort to win against you while training you myself.  There is no dissatisfaction to be found in the results of your training thus far.  Stand and be proud that you have borne upon me not just one but multiple wounds as I fought with all the strength I could.>

<A solid evaluation.  Thank you.  So, with that I now declare that your basic training is over.  There is only one final piece to discuss a little later.  Otherwise, you should take some time to celebrate a little.  Spend a little time catching up with your sisters if you want.  If not, then maybe walk around and ease your mind.  We'll talk about the last part this evening.>

Clare had finished her healing of both of them so Jelin waved as he turned and walked away with the girls.  Since they were already all together after lunch, he made the decision on the spot to work on the territory.  He sent Scratches to collect whatever tools and implements she had that could help with digging and walked to a spot near their home.

<Zaer, this was the spot we decided to start the tunnel, right?  Oh, over there?  Got it.  Okay, let's see if we can do this even slightly right.  We want to dig down at an angle about like this so the slope isn't too steep and difficult to traverse in that direction.  Any plant stuff we find as we dig will go on one sheet while any other things, even rocks, will go on another.  Let's see how far we can get before evening.>