(here I am now!)
'Sweet, we'll go fish now, meet you at 20, and we'll all be right with food and such.'
'Oh, you have a funny look about you. Is there something on my muzzle?' Duchess licked her mouth to try and clean herself while Moxie looked up at the wolf in confusion; why was she looking down on her friend like that? She decided to leave now, and headed straight for the stream. It was easier to head there with directions, but already Moxie could smell the fresh water flowing through the forest from miles away.
'OH, wait dear, let me catch up!' Duchess ran after her, and immediately started to run out of breath.
'Oh dear… perhaps some fishing will get you some exercise.' Duchess looked in disappointment.
'Oh no, not exercise, not fishing. Why can't I just play in the water and sleep in a nice warm cave full of guinea pigs to trip over instead?' Moxie gave Duchess a comforting lick, and soon both came to the stream, with a surprisingly large amount of fresh, fat fish. 'Ah, Moxie, look! Fine finned fellows for us to swallow down! Oh, if only we had a fire and some oils and herbs. Herbs are just greens, surely I could just forage for those instead? All I do is bite off the leaves and presto, flavour, my darling!' Moxie just smiled as she started snatching her batch. Duchess looked on, then hesitantly decided to do the same, rather decently for she had lessons from Moxie before.
Sofie watched the cats leave and twitched an ear, “Ok, well let’s go. Maybe we should split up. I’ll have Riverpaw come with me, Haze and DK (if you find time to join hopefully) can go together, while I’m assuming Lia would like to go alone? Or would you prefer to join us?”
(Good, how was your holiday?)
(Fine, what about your's)
Looks at Sofie and shake my head walking away into the forest
The calm atmosphere seemed to relax both the pets in this exercise. With all the sounds of the river flowing, the trees rustling and a clearing showing the bright, blue stars in the indigo ocean-like space of the night sky, it felt rather safe to sleep right there and then. Duchess thought they were going to fish for longer, but Moxie soon left the bank and started grabbing twigs and branches. Duchess soon realized the plan and placed all the caught fish into a pile, then made towards Moxie to help out.
Their plan consisted of weaving a rough, but rather strong basket so that all the fish could be delivered. The basket would hopefully be used for more foraging or even a shelter, thought Moxie, so she did her best to reinforce it with strong, wide leaves. Soon, both the basket and fishing was complete, with the pair coming back to the clearing earlier, hoping there was someone else who found something too.
Sofie walked closely to Riverpaw, examining every little hole that seemed suitable enough for a den.
“Riverpaw, I’m not sure what will work or what won’t. I don’t usually sleep in a den unless I need to hide, and even then I’m only looking for ones that will barely allow me into it. Nothing here looks like it would work.” Sofie frowned and continued to walk forward.
The deeper Sofie had gone into the forest, the darker it had become. Vines crawled up the trees and the sun could barely be seen between the leaves above. Suddenly, Sofie got an idea.
“What if we make a den?” She said, whirling around, “I know that has already been mentioned, but there was really nothing around. We could take these vines back and make a shelter, or maybe even make hammocks up in the trees!”
Riverpaw listening closely, examining the trees. She didn't like the idea of sleeping off of the ground but vines and some big leaves would work well for a hidden den. "That sounds good." She said to Sofie. "I-I, um, I'm good at making dens in hills and hollow trees back in my home. If we can't find an empty spot, w-we could always dig one out, too?"
“Sounds good…” Sofie said, suddenly remembering her parents. She shook the thought away and began to collect vines. They would need quite a few for reinforcement and for the larger animals such as DK (his dragon form), Haze, and herself.
Riverpaw did what she could to help; vines were rather difficult for her to pull from the trees and the bigger leaves they needed were too high up. Instead, she found a big, bowl-shaped leaf and use that to collect smaller things in. She took some soft shrubbery and ferns, pulled free any loose vines and leaves that she could reach, and she took a bunch of colorful flowers, making sure to pat dirt over the holes of every plant she uprooted.
Sofie looked at Riverpaw’s work and smiled, “You really do care for the earth don’t you? I’ll get all the things up high and you can work down low?”
Sofie didn’t wait for a response and flew into the trees. She found much bigger and broader vines up where the sunlight was stronger.
Riverpaw smiled shyly, not realizing that Sofie had been watching her, then tossed another small mouthful of ferns into the pile. She paused in her task when she saw a familiar plant she often used for healing. She didn't want to think that any of her new…buddies…would get hurt that badly, but it was very possible considering none of them really knew this place or its dangers. Glancing at Sofie and making a mental note to keep an eye out for more healing herbs, she took a few of the pale red flowers and leaves from the stem and put them with the rest of her collection.
Sofie tugged viciously at the thicker vines, but they held. She kept pulling and even attempted to rip them with her teeth and claws. It took her a while to saw through one end of the vine and realizing that it wasn’t worth the time, she began to descend. One of her wings, however, got tangled in the thick vines.
“Ack!” Sofie hissed, trying to cut the vines. She sighed and began to claw her way through the plant material.
"Oh, gosh!" Riverpaw yipped as she trotted over. That looked like it hurt. "Are you okay?"
“Yep!” Sofie called down to Riverpaw, a vine between her teeth.
Sofie finally managed to untangle herself and she leapt from branch to branch down to Riverpaw. She still the held the thick vine between her teeth.
“Here’s one vine and one vine is all I’m going to get from up there. The vines are too thick and strong, I think they might be parasitic.” Sofie dropped the vine and stared at it angrily for a moment.
Riverpaw had had her fair share of parasitic plants back home. She leaned down to sniff at the vine, then stuck her tongue out a tiny bit and pushed it away. "Bleh." Luckily for them, it didn't seem like these particular plants were sentient like the ones her sister dealt with… Great, she thought, now she was worried about there being sentient plants in this forest.
Sofie smiled and looked over at the pile of vines and scattered plants, “Do you think that’s enough to hold us all up? I wouldn’t mind sleeping on a branch if there aren’t enough vines to make a hammock.”
Sofie carefully pulled all the vines together with her paws while she talked and stepped back to look at the tower of plants. “That’s a lot to carry back.”
"Yeah…" Riverpaw muttered. She tilted her head side to side a few times, tucking one more small flower into the pile. "But, a-at least we have a lot to work with?"
Some of the vines were cut down and a trail of paw prints were leading the opposite way. Some of the bushes were missing to and other healing plants are gone.
“Yeah, you’re right.” Sofie replied thoughtfully. She began to lay vines over her back and tucked a couple under each wing. The pile was only halfway gone when she had finished. Putting a final vine in her mouth Sofie nodded in the direction of the clearing.
“Mphs gmph.” She said, hoping Riverpaw would understand.
