Lessons

"C'mon Nile its your turn" called senior orca trainer, Toby as he shoved open the gate joining the show pool to one of the back pools at Northern Waters. Toby loved working with this young female, she was very energetic and had a willingness to learn although her attention span wasn't the longest. As the animal moved between pools, Toby was in awe of how well she has been doing since arriving. After the initial introductions which went well, Nile now spends most of her time with several of the other females and their calves. She has remained separated from the large adult males, due to coming into sexual maturity and the park not wanting any unwanted calves from her. 
Nile circled around the large show pool and stopped just in front of Toby with her head just above the water's surface. She didn't take her eyes of her trainer as she swam, and now she was looking intently at what cues were coming.
"Ok, lets start with some simple exercises" Toby raised one arm up and blew a soft but long whistle, to which Nile spun around and dove deep into the center of the pool. It took only a few more seconds and Nile came surging upwards straight out of the water vertically, held herself up for a couple of seconds before falling back with a splash into the water. 
"Woah! Careful Nile!" shouted Toby as he was showered with spray. Being the trouble maker she is, Nile began spraying more water at her trainer, she gulped in a mouthful and then let the water spray out between her teeth straight into Toby's face. Toby couldn't help but giggle at the young whale's antics, he bent down at the waters edge and began splashing her back. This continued for awhile, but Toby knew he should get back to the training session as much as he enjoyed the play, he had to get back to the task at hand. 
Toby stood up and signaled for Nile to perform a back-bow, to which she immediately swam a perimeter of the pool before popping up out of the water and crashing down onto her back creating even more spray. The did this a few more times before changing the exercise. The last one of the session was on the slideout on the back-stage of the pool, Toby used both hand signals and a whistle to ask the behaviour. Nile responded well to the whistle but definitely needed the aid of hand and arm gestures for her to fully understand what was being asked. There has been talk that due to being born early, she may have issues hearing the whistle so more is done visually to ensure a successful training session. It was only a short 15 minute session, but Toby could see in Nile's eyes that she was getting tired so decided to call it quits for the day and allow her back in with the other whales.

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Trying something new, by adding a small story to my pieces, sort of what was going through my head whilst I drew it. Let me know what you guys think and whether its something you'd like to see more of. (:

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Featuring:
Nile;


(c) :NarniaOrca:

Northern Waters is a fictional facility owned by myself and :Maaliks-World:
Want to see more; click here - nw-aquarium.deviantart.com/

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Stock Image(s):
Water
Stadium seats - found on google.