Things hadn't been working out exactly how Patricia had planned. Most of the stingers were highly aggressive, and it wasn't hard to get them to attack whatever was placed in front of them. The problem she was having was getting them to do anything else.
There was one exception to this. Little hope was as docile as a house cat. Although she couldn't yet fly, she listened to all of Patricia's orders, attacking what she signaled and sitting passively in front of anything she didn't. She was a model student, a real bug amongst bugs. Patricia smiled at little hope who was perched upon her shoulder. The stinger was so affectionate that Patricia couldn't bear to lock her up during training.
Currently she was trying to get another stinger to make its way through an obstacle course as fast as possible. she focused her mind channeling her kid into a mental connection that passed along the instructions to her stinger. This stinger was named Buzz, as in buzzsaw, not the adorable noise that stingers made in children's books. She was easily the most aggressive of her siblings. Patricia made sure to send clear instructions along with pictures of the stinger passing through a hanging ring before diving down below a bar placed just beyond it.
Buzz didn't seem interested in following these commands, instead hanging from the ring and attempting to sting it to death for daring to be placed in front of her.
Patricia sighed. "Come on buzz. you know what you have to do. just do it." she was starting to get more and more distressed. It had been half a week since training had started, and she had almost no progress to show for it. without thinking she stepped out of the protective netting that separated her from the training area
"Look, all you have to do is-'' she began trying to explain as she approached, but when she was only halfway to the course Buzz shot from its ring and flew directly at Patricia, stinger extended. Patricia raised her hands and stumbled backwards, a cry leaving her mouth. she sent a hasty signal at the aggressive stinger. 'NO'. no sooner had she sent her message than a stinger responded, but it wasn't Buzz. Little hope threw itself off of Patricia's shoulder and directly at the incoming Buzz. She spread her wings and flew for the first time. Buzz diverted from her previous target and tried to position its sting to intercept Hope. Hope evaded the sting and grabbed hold of the larger stinger's abdomen. Now trying to support the weight of both herself and her sister, buzz rapidly fell towards the floor. The two crashed and continued to wrestle to get their stings into position to finish their other.
in a panic Patricia sent and shouted "NO DONT HURT HER!" She was worried about both, but little hope was a higher priority to her. The little insect moved to intercept her larger sister without a moment of hesitation when she realized Patricia was in danger. she couldn't allow her to be hurt.
Little hope interpreted this command a little differently. Having been ordered not to hurt her sibling; she stopped trying to deliver her poison, and instead began to reposition herself until she had managed to secure herself on her sister's back. she pinned down her sisters wings and flapped her own in mocking triumph. After a moment or two of continuing to struggle the larger bug grew still as it acknowledged its defeat. sensing her sister's submission, little hope released her sister and flew back to Patricia before perching on her shoulder. back in her proper place she shook her abdomen at her tamer in a happy dance.
Patricia was shocked. but all the same raised a hand to scratch the little bug between its wings. she stared down at the unmoving Buzz. "why is it that you do what I want but none of your siblings do?" she asked at Hope. not understanding her hope just sat still and watched. Patricia scanned Hope's emotions. What she found was a feeling of satisfaction and pride. "beating your sister made you happy?'' Patricia wondered aloud. "No, that's not quite right. What made her happy was protecting me, and then being praised..." suddenly Patricia felt she understood. "you helped me because you want to be praised. that's why you listen to me not because I compel you but because you want to! all I have to do is figure out what the others want, then they will listen to me too!" she felt a little dumb for having taken this long to realize what she needed was to reward her stingers with something they wanted. So far she had been trying to convince them with praise but most of the stingers didn't care what she thought. "Maybe taming really isn't as easy as I thought." she conceded, but never considered abandoning her chosen course. She had a direction now. and she wouldn't be stopped. "alright let's try this again!"
***
There was more than one way to be a tamer. Some people had the ability to compel certain actions, the best of the best were capable of micromanaging every movement of a beast down to the smallest twitch. Others took a less direct route simply making the beast feel a certain way and anticipating the results. For the first type, the taming process was about familiarizing yourself with the capabilities of the beast's physical body. for the second, it consisted of testing mixtures of emotional impressions and how the beast reacted. There were, of course, tamers that didn't fully fall into either category, often mixing aspects of the two or using entirely original strategies unique to their own abilities.
Patricia found herself in the third category. She was able to send commands, but unable to compel beasts' actions. She could create and send complex emotional signals, but they always felt like someone else's feelings to the beasts. In the end she could communicate and be understood, but she couldn't force them to do anything. she needed to find a different way to get them to listen.
The solution was actually very simple, and something breeders had been doing for ages. how do you get a beast to go somewhere or do something they didn't want to do? food.
Patricia stood besides the obstacle course with little hope on her shoulder once more. Buzz was once again attempting the course, but this time the stinger zoomed through hoops, under bars, through tunnels, weaved through a maze, and eventually landed 4 rapid blows on two targets in the blink of an eye. having done its s
trick, it turned and landed on patricia's outstretched hand. it looked up at her expectantly. Patricia fished in a pouch at her side and pulled out a small chunk of beast meat. Buzz happily accepted the treat and carried it back to her cage.
Patricia shook her head. "It was really that easy." to be sure it hadn't been so simple, she had started by sending images of small chunks of meat moving through the various obstacles one at a time, rewarding them with each trick. but after a while she had removed the meat from her instructions, and by then the stingers associated listening to her with the treats she offered. they learned to listen to all her instructions and when she sent feelings of happiness they would return to her to receive their reward.
Patricia turned towards the line of cages, and put her hands on her hips. One week remained before the start of her tournament. It was time to choose the final six that would make up her team. two of the spots were easy, Buzz was the largest of the stingers even if smaller than average. She couldn't puncture a carapace in a single blow, but with repeated strikes she had a good chance of overcoming another bug's defenses. The second was Little hope. even if she was the smallest she had enough agility to turn her size into an advantage, plus she was the best at executing Patricia's commands.
The remaining required more thought. She decided to bring flicker, the fastest of the stingers and only a little bigger than hoped, as well as Tox the stinger with the strongest venom. The last two spots were harder to decide on. She decided to go with Crabs, who was middle of the pack for pretty much everything but wasn't bad at anything. For the final choice she went with Blister. he was good enough in venom potency, and had passable agility. What made him stand out was his precision. The jabs he delivered always landed exactly where Patricia commanded.
The final line up was little Hope, Buzz, Flicker, Tox, Crabs, and Blister. she set the six stingers to one side. The remaining six would receive only enough training to give them the exercise they needed to remain healthy. she would need them later if her plans went well.
her team would now receive more specialized training. "this part is going to get a bit more expensive." Patricia grumbled.
***
Patricia walked through the beast market. everywhere she looked there were beast catchers, butchers, breeders, and specialists of all kinds. Patricia pointed things out as she walked. "over there is an egg dealer. He usually sells water attribute eggs. breeding water beasts needs special equipment, so he's always a popular stop for tamers." Little hope sitting in her usual place shifted her head in the directions Patricia pointed. She didn't really understand what her master was telling her, but she liked listening anyway.
Eventually Patricia found her way to her first stop. "morning uncle!" she chirped at the old man sitting inside a stall.
"don't you have your apprenticeship? it ain't your day off." the old man asked suspiciously. His stall was small compared to most, with baskets of small webbed eggs, and several cages containing buzzing insects. bug catching was usually dismissed as a hobby for young catchers to gain experience before moving onto more exciting beasts. her uncle disagreed. he knew the best locations and strategies to secure eggs and specimens of every bug available in several days journey from the city. he never failed to bring in an interesting haul. he occupied a comfortable niche within the market, selling basic beasts to young breeders and tamers, and exotic insects to more experienced and discerning collectors and insect enthusiasts. Though his prices were only slightly above the norm, the consistency in quality was unparalleled.
"I'm on leave, I'm preparing for my individual studies conclusion!" Patricia informed her uncle with pride.
he grunted his acceptance, but Patricia could tell he was proud of her making progress in her work. "Well what do you need? you didn't just come to chat with an old man did you?" he asked dryly.
"you know I love chatting with you uncle!" she asserted. but when her uncle continued to stare at her without saying anything, she broke and hesitantly admitted. "I need a Beetle beast. something low tier with good defense and little in the way of offensive power."
he smirked down at her. "That's what I thought." He turned and took out a beast about the size of a human head. it was curled into a tight ball. "this here is a roller beetle. when threatened it curls into a ball and tries to roll away down slopes. on flat ground it just sits like a dumb rock and waits for its attackers to get bored."
Patricia looked interested. " I haven't heard of these. they probably don't see alot of action in the arena, do they?"
"you're right about that. about three decades back there was a burst in popularity where breeders tried cross breeding them to add some offensive options to their extreme defense. Most failed and the craze died out. one breeder managed to cross them with toxic centipedes and managed to give them a pretty nasty bite." he grinned thinking of the old days. "They saw some use in the arena then but their strategy of getting in one good hit before curling up and waiting for the poison to act didn't make for good viewing. the arenas began dissuading people from bringing the toxic rollerpedes to arena fights outside of specific 'no limits' tourneys, but they were outmatched pretty badly in those." his eyes sparkled. "I still know a breeder who keeps the species going as a hobby, if you're interested."
Patricia considered it. their strengths were similar to her own stingers, but substituting defense for speed. she eventually shook her head "i don't think I need anything like that. the regular roller beetle should more than do, I think."
"Alright kid, I'll get this one in a cage for you and you can pick it up once you're ready to head home." he said.
"thanks! how much?" she asked, pulling out her coin pouch.
"No charge, consider it my contribution to your project. I have to admit you got that stinger well tamed, she really seems to respect you alot." he praised her.
Patricia felt herself swelling with pride. compliments from her uncle were hard to earn but always came from his heart. "thanks uncle! Her name is Little Hope!"
her uncle looked at her blankly before letting out a sigh. "You really have no sense for marketing do you kid." he shook his head. "Get out of here you're scaring off my customers. good luck kid."