"Now listen." Jengo began. "When hunting prey you've got to-"

"Food!" Yukiko exclaimed with joy. An antelope had moved out of the bushes but upon Yukiko's outburst was quick to rush away.

"Ahem." Jengo glanced towards Yukiko's direction. She was like a cub at times like these, unable to pay attention and had an insistent need to giggle at her actions.

"Ha... Ha... The prey plays chase. Silly food." She laughed as if it was cute, as if it was silly and funny and amusing. Which, to her, it probably was.

"It's not wanting to be killed... Please tell me you know what killed means?" The hyena did not seem interested slightly in what Jengo was telling her. When she then proceeded to crawled forward slightly Jengo had to leapt forward to grab her by the neck and yank her back. A single step further and the hyena would have been diving headfirst down a waterfall.

Jengo was making an effort to teach Yukiko to fish. He knew already that because she was a hyena it was going to prove difficult, but add on the fact that she kept giggling the whole time about the "not freezing water" made him cringe. The "Yukiko Experiment" was going to fail at this rate if he could not succeed in teaching her how to fish.

Indeed his experiment was complex. Upon meeting the hyena he made it his duty to see the experiment - fail or not- through to the end. He wished to "teach" Yukiko all the skills she needed to survive. Or at least skills that he deemed necessary. First, he had made it his goal to teach her to speak. When that was through he made the next goal to teach her how to differenate between "food" and "friends". He even explained that some prey could be captured as "companions" although he later regretted using the word "capture" as Yukiko had gone and tried to force a snake to be her "pet". It was a gigantic snake too, and so Jengo had ended up fighting the horrifying beasty while Yukiko laughed about it on the sidelines. Regardless of all her other traits Yukiko knew how to have a good laugh. And sadly for the Cheetah, everything was amusing to her.

The grass was "green snow" which she rolled around in as entertainment. The birds were "feathered hares" in which she chased as they cawed in disgust at her playful nature. The river was "not-freezing-water" and the fish were "swimming food" that she could not catch. Everything had a childish name and Jengo was about fed up with it.

"Now Yukiko, you need to learn this. Or else what will you do when left-" The hyena darted suddenly out of the water to pursue a small klipspringer that revealed itself from the bushes.

"Food!" She cried.

"YUKIKO!!" Jengo bounded forward once again to drag her back. The river was deep over there and he highly doubted the hyena knew how to swim. "Stay here would you! You can eat after you learn this!?"

"Fine." She pouted but was quick to return to the position for fishing Jengo had taught her.

"Now raise your left paw." He began from the top. Yukiko did lift her food but was awkward as she did so. Jengo sighed, "Your other left Yukiko."

"O-oh." She switched position. She hunted rabbits and she hunted hares. She hunted doves and hawks and she had even chased a forest hog around for almost two hours and with triumphant success had managed to bring it down. But she had never actually fished before, for ice was her natural home. In a land void of ice and where life bloomed, Yukiko was finding it difficult to adapt.

"Now it isn't really that difficult. You just need to focus on timing. Timing is everything." He made sure to repeat himself a couple times and ask if Yukiko had heard him. "Timing is everything."

"Timing is everything." She copied him all the while not flinching her changing her expression. She kept still, her eyes on the river and with a lunge forward instead of swiping at a fish with her paw she grasped it in her jaws. "Ook! Ook! I ought it!" She bounced around as the fish struggled in her maw.

"Very good. I suppose that's one way to fish." Jengo rolled his eyes, with Yukiko everything had to do with her mouth. She bit down on sticks, she chewed bones, she even eat by tearing her food apart and swallowing it whole. It was no surprise to him that she fished with her mouth as a hook as well.

"Another check to the list." He mentally scratched it off the check board. That was everything he needed to conclude his experiment, now the difficult part was getting rid of Yukiko without her following him.

He had tried to do that before, leave her in the middle of the night as she slept but the stupid hyena woke up and followed him. It was unbelievable really.

A bird took flight, in which Yukiko barked at it, leaving her lunch to return to the river. "Honestly Yukiko you need to learn to leave those birds alo-." He stopped mid thought. Wait, this was his chance! Yukiko was obsessed with chasing things if he fled while she was busy chasing something she couldn't catch then... "Yukiko. Come here."

The hyena turned and walked closer to Jengo, nearly giving him a heart attack when she tripped and fell on some rocks. But she rose her head, laughed a little and continued walking towards him happily. Tough girl, was she made of stone?

"Yukiko I want you to do something for me." He began, sitting straight and proper. "It's a very important task. If you do it then you'll graduate from beast to wild woman."

"That's good thing?" Yukiko was still oblivious. Her question was not asked with sarcasm as she had not known nor had come anywhere close to mastering the idea of such a thing. Her question was asked in all honesty and purity that a cub or a child might possess. She didn't understand that what Jengo was saying could potentially be taken as insulting.

"Yes, a very good thing." He nodded his head, resisting laughter at her gullible nature towards this. "Now I need you to catch a bird for me."

"Food?!" The idea of chowing down on feathers was a tempting idea. She could hardly wait.

"No, no, you can't eat it, you need to catch it." He should have known he needed to clarify.

"Oh..." Yukiko seemed depressed. As mentioned before she liked eating things. She liked eating lots, and lots, and anything that somehow didn't have to do with consuming food or on the prowl to obtain more food was instantly classified as boring and useless to Yukiko.

"Catch a bird for me, alive preferably. Then bring it her-" No wait she'd drown if she came back here, "over there on that hill. You may eat it then and will be a graduate."

"Yay!" She jumped. "Bird! Catch the bird! Find the bird!" She could hardly contain herself. It was exciting, going bird hunting like this! Jengo was normally, "bad Yukiko." and "No, don't do that Yukiko!" or "You'll get yourself killed Yukiko!" Or, her personal favorite, "Don't eat me!" It was a nice change for him to sudden be enthused by her simple nature and finding joy in things he normally did not. It was... A step in the right direction.

"Yes good! Now go on, we haven't all day!"

"Yes!" Yukiko leapt in joy and turned to run off in her search for a bird. "Bird! Food! Catch it! Then I graduate!" She shouted while her voice disappeared from Jengo's hearing range.

"Well." He said to himself with a chuckle. "Better get going." At that he turned around and began walking in the other direction. Not once did the cheetah think to turn around and look back. He should have.