Heron Lake Plateau et j'ai fait une trêve

Dusk settled across the plateau, a signifying sign that she needed to retire and head for home. The day had been slow and yet productive—Phoebe had found the young growth of plants returning after a long winter all along the fringes of the lake. She had muddied herself once again and dried only to muddy herself again, and inevitably she had given up with the task of trying not to dirty herself. It really wasn't all that bad either, she supposed, but it made the task of at least cleaning up a bit more of a chore.

It wasn't really worth coming back to a subtle, disapproving stare from anyone.

A narrow stream would do for the task and what better than one close to home? Or at least the home that she deemed within the confines their family held, a fair swath where she could easily find her mother or father, and at least one of her siblings at almost any given point. She had given them the slip earlier, feeling the necessity to stretch her own limbs and busy her mind, and only carried a passing thought for the chance that one of them would get the drop on her now.

A branch cracked somewhere in the brush, a distant sound that disturbed her thoughts for a moment. A drink caught in mid-pause, her tongue between teeth, and she eyed the growing darkness with a note of disdain. Man, if it was @Owen or @Vasa about to creep up on her, they had just dropped the ball. Then again, she wondered briefly if maybe it would be @Kite trying her damndest, and feigned interest in the sound swiftly thereafter.

It was nothing, nothing at all; she had nary a thing to fear or worry over.

tags are for visibility.

The branch was probably something else.  Right now Vasa was the antithesis of stealth.  She'd already used her stealth and clever quotients for the day managing to partially dig out and partially trick a nice plump woodrat into becoming dinner.  It probably took more effort to do than energy it was going to provide but hell, it was cool that she did it, right?  So people hunted birds or deer or rabbits or sometimes fish (she guessed), but people left the wood rats alone.  She had to go dig this thing out of its base and then grab it before it scampered off into the foliage.  Maybe part of the reason nobody bothered was because she'd had to go across the border into a more well-forested area than the plateau, but eh.  Whatever.  She caught a thing, worship her.

In all honesty, she wasn't sure if she wanted to bring it back to show off her handiwork or just eat the damn thing.  If she brought it back, there was the chance she'd be forced to share, and she wasn't always about that life.  Besides, it wasn't like woodrats were huge.  It was a nice snack and not exactly the most common one.  And she was hungry.  But it wasn't like it was going to walk away, so she could take a detour.  It just so happened that the place she was deciding to stop for a drink was already occupied by Phoebe.  Cool, that meant she'd at least get to see what Vasa's hard work had dredged up.  Though it probably didn't look like much -- nor was Vasa the picture of cleanliness herself, still with plenty of dirt (and who knows what else) on her paws, and the odd twig and leaf stuck in her fur.  Vasa was also not really the picture of elegance -- too cool to care was more her style, especially if got amusing responses out of people.  She set the woodrat down, then stepped forward to get a drink.  Yo, was her only word for now.  Totally hoping that Phoebe would ask what she'd caught or what she'd been up to, but in case she didn't she'd try to pass it off as just gotta get a drink first, obv.

The rustling of the brush picked up; her hackles rose subtly as she finished off her drink. And then there was the answer to the question that had concerned her: Vasa. A quiet breath left her as she relaxed and drew in the sight of her sister... and of what she had found. The acrid tinge of blood was unmistakable, but the creature snared between her jaws was, well, meager. Maybe that wasn't a fair assumption on her part either, it was certainly more than the mice they caught from time to time in the old weeds as they fetched their grain.

”Vasa, hey,” she said, offering her a smile. ”Where'd you catch that at?” Tentatively, she took a couple of steps towards the woodrat; beyond the smell of blood, she could smell the dampness of its fur and its faint musk. She hadn't seen too many of them hanging around the plateau, but then again she didn't really do much in the way of looking, either. She wasn't the master hunter of her siblings either, even if she could hold her own.

Vasa raised her head as Phoebe inquired, licking the water from her lips before vaguely indicating off over her shoulder behind her.  Across the river in the forest.  It had built this huge den that I had to bust up to get it.  It was like a mountain just for that critter.  She didn't have a big enough sample size to be able to tell one woodrat from another -- maybe there was another lurking about, or not.  For its size, it had been a heck of a lot of work, but at least Vasa was proud something came out of it.

Whether or not she was the best hunter... Well, who knew in reality.  Asking her would provide a pretty biased answer because she would confidently assure anyone that she was the best at everything.  You didn't get to be as cool as her by being a slouch, after all.  Vasa tipped her head, with her own question, Have you seen one of these before? Don't think I've seen 'em around.  Certainly they'd remember giant mounds with medium sized rodents inside.  Okay, sure, there were like.. Gophers and probably the odd ground squirrel or something, but nothing that left such an obvious mark.  Sure, it wasn't like termite mounds in the Serengeti but they weren't hard to spot.

Naturally Vasa's quarry was not something so easily found in their midst; Phoebe had often wondered how much the forests beyond the brim of the plateau changed with the seasons, but she did not stray. Tempting as it may have been, her trips into that great beyond had never been alone or without some blood relative chaperoning. The edges of her expression crinkled when her sister touched on this but she said nothing—Vasa would do as Vasa did, just as the rest of them.

"I haven't, no," she said after a careful pause for thought. "It's kinda weird." Foreign and yet not so foreign for all the equivalent rodents they had grown up chasing and snaring... and certainly not living in what she could deem a rodent mountain home. The picture conjured up by the explanation was something interesting, but not quite as high as distant mountains. A good sized hill of deterius and other rodent-y things just waiting for a hefty paw to go slinging into it.

"What are you going to do with it? Eat it?" She pressed ahead. "Can we even eat it? I mean, what if it's nasty on the inside," or worse, poisonous, she thought. Seemed unlikely though as she nudged it with a paw and found nothing suspect. Other than a musty odor to linger, she then found that she was less interested in potentially sampling it. "Bet it would make a good toy to play keep away with if you won't eat it," she went on to propose. It would hold up better than any stick they could get their mouths around, or whatever piece of hide found itself clenched.

sorry for the big ol delay. i'm bad.

Oh geez, my turn.  I think when I was doing replies I must have only read the date, not the month. woiejroiwejroiwe

Pause.  Vasa had to think a moment as her sister examined the catch. Umm. It doesn't smell like it's gonna kill anyone or something -- and I haven't keeled over from chomping it, so probably eat it?  But right now it was a trophy, not food.  Something weird and different, and she wasn't sure if she should go around and show it off or if one person was enough or... Yeah.  If she thought about it too much it put her in kind of an awkward place.  

At the idea of just using it as a toy, Vasa seemed a little uncomfortable, Pretty sure I'd get in trouble if it's edible and someone doesn't eat it eventually.  Because chances were, if someone was playing with their food, it had probably been her when they were younger.  Of all the inane childhood toublemaking that typically went on, Vasa probably had checked off everything on the list.  Well, most of it at least.

I could always put it in the cache I guess.  After toting it around to show of, that is.

"Or you could eat it," she said with a roll of her shoulders as Vasa finished off her statement. Either way seemed fine to Phoebe, though she wasn't overly picky about it. And Vasa was right, she didn't seem out of sorts from carting it around, all things considered. So it was probably edible, her fears not entirely warranted given the quarry. It wouldn't have been worth getting trouble for if it went to waste, either.

"Mm, yeah, maybe you should eat it after all. I don't think it's worth Mom and Dad getting mad because it went to waste. Not like there's enough to split between all of us anyway," because it was kind of puny when she thought about it. Not like some hock of vension or whatever else they could pull out of a cache to entice their tastes. She nudged it towards her sister then, as though it would tempt her to finish what she had started.

all good, not like this is a great reply anyway lmao

The whole thing had kind of brought her back to earth.  She had wanted amazement!  Wonder!  But over this short period of time it had worn off pretty fast.  Maybe she would have fared better if she'd crossed paths with Owen -- she could probably think up something that would freak him the hell out and make her feel better about herself.

Yeah. I don't think there were any more in there either.  So I'unno.  Maybe not worth it if you find one, too.  Other than for the challenge, at least.  Still, Vasa had to play it all cool, still, So yeah.  I'll take it.  She scooted the wood rat closer to herself but paused to speak again, You should come with me on some of the trips sometime, it'd totally be more interesting than hanging out here so much.  Not that Vasa suspected her sister would ever do that unless forced.  Well, maybe eventually but certainly not as frequently as Vasa herself tended to roam now that they weren't itty fluffballs.  Actual company she could take or leave, but eh.  Her siblings were just uncool by nature.

It didn't surprise her when Vasa suggested that she come along. It wasn't the first time such a suggestion had crossed her ears or injected itself into her thoughts. It was relatively known that she kept to herself and stayed close to home. But there had never really been the inclination to wander, nothing there to push her entirely over the edge to explore and seek what may have lied outside of their borders.

She had oft wondered why anyone would bother—they had everything they needed right there. Hunters for certain did their roaming, but that was a necessity. She could hunt just as well as another, but it was not her strong suit. No, their mother had ignited in her the passion for plants, for the subtle arts of healing, and she spent her time under the matron's tutelage rather than wander the hinterland. And of course, she spent much time in the company of none other than herself.

"Maybe next time," she said, though safe to say both knew it was a lie.

Vasa's offer was always genuine.  But even if Phoebe didn't come with her (or Owen, or anyone), she was still gonna keep wandering around and being elsewhere at inconvenient times.  That's just how things worked.  Maybe her siblings would surprise her some day...  She found that unlikely.

Still.  Really should.  Just lemme know.  She flashed a devious smile before finally grabbing the wood rat, swinging it from side to side for a moment before readjusting her grip and trotting off to find a spot that vaguely resembled shady.  It wasn't like there were copious amounts of trees here.  If she went through all the effort of catching the dang thing, she needed to properly enjoy her meal.  Even if it might taste a little weird in comparison to their normal meals.

She smiled to Vasa again, serving that as her I will response. It was polite, which was not something she particularly thought she managed well. It paired nicely though with the devious one cast back to her. It was stashed quickly, much like in the way that her sister swooped in to collect her quarry, and then Vasa was swiftly off to somewhere far more interesting than her humdrum sister.

Alone once again, Phoebe weighed her options briefly, and set off for somewhere else herself.