Stavanger Bay percee scan

@Charon

She hadn't gone back to the Heartwood in days, busy as she was exploring the coastline. It wasn't everyday the little magpie made the trek all the way down here, so she figured she may as well make the most of it — like a little holiday of sorts! Already, she had mentally mapped out a portion of the seashore but it seemed to stretch on forever. Her memory couldn't keep up and would forget entire parts so the bird ended up travelling in circles for hours. Not that she minded (or even realised).

The sun was beginning it's descent as Shiv found herself nosing her way through the sands of a curious bay. The scent of wolves was thick here, indicating a pack. She was secretly elated, hoping to perhaps stumble across their cache. In the meantime however, she was content to shift through the beach, curious about what sort of delicacies the coastline had. She had a craving for meat again.

With a sudden, happy shriek, Shiv zeroed in on a crab who had dared to poke it's head out of the sand. The bird exploded into a fury of feathers and squawks as she flapped about where the crab had appeared, hungrily snapping her beak. The poor creature never stood a chance. Just as soon as the magpie had spotted it, it was suddenly in her clutches, speared upon her beak as she merrily continuing her strut along the shoreside, looking for a place to enjoy her meal.

The young adventurer Charon Ostrega trotted along the line where the dunes mixed into the coast, sheltered by the trees of the forest beyond. He loved the ocean, for its waves could provide play for hours upon hours and there was a variety of wildlife along the coast. At night, the stars would be extra visible here, and when you looked out across the ocean, you could see really, really far! All things a proper adventurer liked, so it was no coincidence that the young adventurer found himself along the shoreline today.

He noticed a crab on the beach, quite a distance away. Charon pressed himself to the ground as he watched the critter from the dunes, biding his time (or perhaps just gathering courage, because crabs could be really mean and painful if one approached them from the wrong angle).

Suddenly a bird swooped down with loud shrieks. Initially, Charon pressed himself against the sandy tall grass in the dunes further, flattening his ears and watching what happened, because it was quite the noise. When he saw the bird take the crab, Charon came from his hiding spot and ran towards her, following her. Perhaps he hadn’t risked his feathers for the crab, but he’d been watching it, and he felt indignant that it had been taken from him. “Wait! That’s mine!” shouted Charon as he ran. At 3,5 months of age, Charon’s body was growing rapidly, which showed in his awkwardly lanky body as he galopped after the bird.

A young voice suddenly cried out behind her and Shiv cocked her head with a startled chirr, before turning and looking over her shoulder. From behind the sand dunes a wolf had suddenly appeared — a teeny-tiny wolf with the most curious markings Shiv had ever seen. His size also piqued her curiosity. While the magpie had never come across a wolf pup before, she had a feeling this was one. Juveniles of any species seemed to just look like miniature and out of proportion versions of adults. His gait, too, had the trademark awkwardness of a juvenile.

With an entertained warble, the bird turned completely to face the young male as she waited for him to reach her. Bending down, Shiv pinned the crustacean with a foot to release it from her beak and then hopped upon it, even though she had no fear of it escaping — it had been speared right through it's middle, after all. "No. Is mine," she announced loudly, reaching down to tap the crab with her beak.

The bird stopped as he shouted at it, which Charon was pleased with. Usually they would just take off and fly away, and he would never get a chance to argue his case. The bird said that it was her crab after settling down and sitting on top of it. Charon eyed the crab and then the bird before he said, "Well, I saw it first! So it's not yours, it's mine!" He didn't really care that she was the one who had done all the work at killing it and had been there first; he'd been the one who had seen it first and he was going to kill it himself (or, more likely, would have gotten mauled a lot before drooping off in defeat).

After a short pause, Charon added, "How d'you do that anyway? Can you teach me?", seemingly completely forgetting his feud against the crab-stealer. He didn't know how to kill crabs, though he had tried many times over the course of his young life. It always ended the same, except for that one time when he had found one that was already dead. Some would say that meant it didn't count, but Charon would disagree and say that he had bravely slain the feisty crab single-handedly, with risk of his own life, and... Well, anyway, he hoped that the bird would be able to teach him her Super Ultimate Spear Attack so that he would stop getting pinched in the nose five times a week as he tried to master slaying crabs.

Shiv stared blankly at the boy as he contested against her claim. She knew well enough that if the small wolf gave her trouble, she could easily just fly away with crab in tow and finish her meal elsewhere but, so far, she found the pup entertaining. Such strange customs wolves had! How was she supposed to know that because one had seen the prey, it was automatically theirs? What would he do with it anyway? Shiv studied his features with a cant of her head, wondering if wolves first broke open the shell like she did or if they simply ate the crab whole. Now that would be something worth watching. The bird had half the mind to just hand over her catch in favour of watching the wolf try to eat it before suddenly, he instead asked if she could teach him.

With a delighted cry, Shiv hopped once, landing again on the crab and fluttering her wings, overjoyed with the fact that she had another student. First Prima and now this boy! Bowing forward, the magpie gave the wolf another once over, humming to herself thoughtfully. "Wolf not have sharp beak like Shiv," she concluded after a few moments. This could prove a problem if he was to learn how to spear crabs. An idea popped into her mind, then, and she gave another flutter of her wings. "Perhaps wolf can crush crabs!" That would also solve the problem of getting around their tough outer shell — but would the pup be heavy enough?

Omg, the mental image is hilarious of Charon attempting to eat the crab just to prove a point, but having no clue what to actually do with it XD

The bird was probably smart not to get into an arguing match with Charon, for he could be quite stubborn and wasn't likely to give up when he had his mind set on something. The boy was glad that the bird seemed excited about the prospect of teaching him, for he had deemed it equally likely the bird would just laugh and fly away with the prize. Charon didn't really know if crab was any good, but the fact that they were so daunting to catch made him want to try it anyway.

As the bird suggested he crushed the crabs, Charon looked thoughtful. He shook his head and said, "I'm not that strong, so I think I gotta outsmart it instead of trying to force it open by being strong. I'm not like, a strong giant huuuuuuge fighter, I'm a Naturalist. D'you know what a Naturalist does??" Charon arched his neck forward and tilted his head as he looked at the bird, waiting to see if she knew what he was talking about. Without really waiting for an answer, he continued, "It means I know e-ve-ry-thing about naturestuff! Everything! Or, well, I'm gonna, some day." Charon looked at the crab, still trying to wrap his mind around the matter of opening the crab's shell. Life would be so much easier if he had a sharp thin beak, like the bird, rather than a giant squishy wolf-face.

Hahah, probably would look a bit like this!

A chatterbox, this one was. Shiv gave a soft, slightly startled murmur as she struggled to keep up with the boy's ramblings, her small bird brain ticking over as fast as it could. She picked up a few of his words, though, such as Naturalist. She repeated the odd word in her head a few times as the pup stopped and gazed at her expectantly for a few seconds before going ahead and explaining anyway. So, it was like a job? Shiv gave an excited nod of understanding, though still somewhat confused. Her own flock assigned jobs to their members, too! However, they didn't have fancy titles for their job. They also certainly didn't have members who knew all about...nature stuff.

Curious, the bird gave a chirp, pressing him for more information, before realising he was distracted by the crab she was still standing on. Looking down, she gave another tweet before hopping off it, trusting the boy not to suddenly snatch it up and run away. Even though she was sure with his short legs and her ability to fly, she could catch up with him quite easily — though getting it back from him was another matter. Quickly tapping it a few times with her beak, Shiv looked from the crab to the wolf and then the crab again. "Crab have tough shell, can open with beak," she stated matter-of-factly. "Can also open on rock!" Maybe that was the key to solving the poor beak-less boy's problem!

Charon wasn't sure if the whole story about Naturalist things had landed with the bird, since she didn't really respond to it much (with more than nonsense chittering, anyway). He tilted his head in question, and was about to ask if she had understood a word of it all when she hopped off the crab and said that maybe it could also be opened on a rock. Of course, that meant that next time Charon would run into a crab, he'd still try to wrestle it until he'd get pinched a hundred times and never get it anywhere close to a rock.

But this one was already dead anyway.

Completely rude and devoid of manners, Charon grabbed the dead crab between his teeth and started looking around for a rock. He looked at the bird briefly and said, "don't worry, I'm just getting a rock". Or, that's what he tried to say, anyway, but it sounded more like: "Fooowwwfuwwwhoooeee, ayyymmmmwusgogginawock." (Unless stopped:) He started to trot off across the beach to a rock he saw a couple meters away. If the bird would try to stop him, Charon would drop the crab to explain without his mouth full.

Suddenly, the boy started forward, plucking the crab up without any warning and Shiv was afraid he actually was about to steal it. Instead, he gave a muffled explanation and began walking away at a casual trot. Fluttering out of the way as he strode past, the bird watched the wolf warily, quickly following after him with her own swagger. She ended up realising on her own that he was simply carrying the creature over to a nearby rock, at which the magpie gave a happy squawk and took to the air, flying over the boy and landing next to the rock.

Giving it a few taps with her beak, she confirmed it's efficiency as a crab-shell-opener with a swift nod before looking up to the freckled wolf pup. "Shiv use rock sometimes," she explained, pausing as she tried to translate her thoughts with her basic grasp of the wolf's language. "Some prey hard to open." Sometimes she used them for bones, too, at least the ones she scavenged from kills that wolves or coyotes made. "Put crab on rock," she then commanded the boy, giving an excited squeak before jumping into the air and landing as heavily as she could, loudly saying, "then smash!"

Charon’s tail involuntarily wagged a few beats as the bird joined him at the rock and continued chattering. Charon didn’t think he’d ever met anyone who was as chatty as this bird, and he sort of liked it. The bird said that Shiv used rocks sometimes too, and Charon wondered who Shiv was. Maybe it was a different wolf she knew. He put the crab down as he reached the rock and looked up at the bird. ”Who’s Shiv? Is that another wolf you know?” he asked, thinking out loud. ”I’m Charon, by the way!” He wasn’t sure if she cared to know, but maybe if the bird was going to tell epic tales about him some day like she was telling of this Shiv character, then at least she’d know what his name was.

The bird explained how he should go about it. Charon had his doubts if smashing his body into the crab on top of the rock would really work; he imagined that he would hold it between his teeth and then throw it at the rock, and it would smash into a thousand smithereens, but the bird obviously knew a lot about this sort of stuff, so he decided to listen to the expert instead.

Charon picked the crab up again and put it on the rock, as instructed. He gave the bird a last thoughtful glance, betraying his seconds thoughts, and then ran away from the rock, creating a small distance between himself and the rock. His tongue poking out in concentration, Charon lowered himself to the ground as though he was stalking actual prey, then propelled himself from the ground and into motion, running towards the rock and jumping at the crab.

”Oomph!” Charon grunted as the crab hit him in the stomach. The pup and the crab both flopped into the sand on the other side of the rock, after a sad but comical display where Charon tried to grapple onto the rock to save some of his grace, but only ended up looking sillier as he crashed into the sand on the other side of it. The crab flopped down next to him, as unopened as it was before. Charon shook his head and looked at the dead crab, which seemed to be mocking him, with disappointment in his eyes.

The boy stopped just before the rock, turning to the bird and asking a most peculiar question before introducing himself as Charon. Fluffing her feathers slightly to show her dismay, Shiv titled her head, giving an unhappy gurgle. "I'm Shiv," she replied, baffled by the wolf's assumptions, despite the fact that she had given no indication that she had been talking about herself. At least she now knew the boy's name.

Charon then placed the prey upon the rock as she had instructed and she watched on eagerly, her shock about the mixup of names seemingly dissipating into thin air. This was much more exciting. Her stomach began to rumble in anticipation for the imminent meal, even though she would most likely share it with this wolf. She wasn't sure how much wolves actually ate but the boy was still small — he wouldn't eat all of it, right?

The doubt in his glance over to the bird went unnoticed and she gave him a nod of encouragement, before staring in confusion as he then walked away from the rock. What was he doing? The rock was that way. Why wasn't he doing what she had instructed of him? The flurry of questions remained in the magpie's mind, though, as she watched the pup in fascination. He readied himself, then ran straight at the rock and seemed to try and bellyflop onto it. What a strange, strange wolf. Fluttering over to his side as he tumbled over the rock after desperately trying to find a footing, the bird gave a shrill, disapproving caw. "Stupid wolf!" she said loudly. "Not like that!"

Charon dizzily looked around, but it didn't take long before Shiv's disapproving caws came. He didn't like getting called stupid and Charon glared at the bird as he got up and shook the sand out of his fur. "Well, you told me to do it, stupid bird!" he snibbily said. "You made like a hop that suggested I should do it like that!" Charon rolled his eyes, but felt better now that he had called Shiv stupid, as though that automatically made him non-stupid.

He looked at the crab and picked it up again. It was swiftly becoming his arch-nemesis, for even in death it managed to hurt him. Since he didn't want to argue with the dumb bird and get more faulty methods from her, Charon decided to try his own method (which was probably the very same method, but if it was, then Charon thought she hadn't explained it very well).

Charon lifted his head, the crab still between his teeth, and then smashed the crab into the rock. A couple of pieces of shell cracked off, and Charon let go of the broken crab to look at the damage and see if any of the edible pieces were in sight yet, or if it needed another smash.

Equally as offended as Charon spat back a reply with a roll of his eyes, Shiv ruffled her feathers, bouncing up and down slightly as she was prone to do when angered. She briefly wanted to fly right up to the boy's ear and give it a sharp nip but she didn't want to risk him taking off with the crab. Although there were plenty other sources of prey along the beach, this creature had been quite a find and she wasn't keen on letting some snobby pup steal it away from her — even if it did mean she had to share it with him.

In truth, the boy had gotten the method half right. What Shiv had meant with her hop was for him to use his forepaws to smash it onto the rock but, obviously, the silly wolf had misinterpreted her words. Shiv had thought her teaching was impeccable — and she still did. It was her pupil who was at fault.

Disgruntled, the magpie waddled back over to the other side of the rock, watching as Charon picked the crab back up and fitted it between his teeth. With a swift movement, he then brought it down upon the jagged edge of the rock, little bits of shell breaking off with sharp cracks. Forgetting her anger, the bird gave a happy flutter of her wings and bounced forward to inspect the damage. "Yes, yes, good!" she commented, as if Charon's first failed attempt and their little spat before had never happened. While some parts of the shell had splintered, it looked as if it would need another good hit before they would be able to get at the meat. Looking up to the silver boy, Shiv gave a nod. "Again," she directed.

Charon looked at the shell and was glad that the bird was finally praising him now, rather than telling him off for being stupid. Shiv said that he should do it again, and while Charon saw some of the meat he decided to trust the expert (otherwise he probably would've cut his sensitive nose on the edges of the shells while trying to pry out the meat).

The youth nodded at Shiv and grabbed the shell between his teeth again. Charon held it high above his head and then threw it at the rock again, causing more pieces of shell to fly off. He trotted over to where the crab had landed and carefully started to paw at the insides of the crab, not sure what to do with it now or how to get it out now that the shell was cracked open.

This time, the pup followed her instructions correctly and the bird watched on eagerly. She admired the power wolves had in their jaws. Where she would have taken ten minutes to pry open the shell — bit by bit with repetitive stabbing motions — the wolf had it open in two single smacks against the hard rock. Throwing the creature downwards, Charon successfully opened the crab's shell. Shiv watched in wonder as it rebounded off the rock and spiralled through the air, little bits of red shell flying in all directions before it landed with a soft thunk in the sand.

She hurriedly followed the boy and the two hungry creatures studied their prey. A white paw suddenly entered Shiv's vision and she cawed loudly at it, bouncing back as Charon begun to try and get at the insides. With a click of her beak, the magpie attempted to shoo his prying toes away, making to waddle in between him and the crab and use her nifty beak to finish the job. Where wolves had strength, she had deftness. "Charon not have beak, have clunky paws," she told him, looking back at her companion and glancing once at his toes again before leaning forward and chipping away the rest of the crab's shell, exposing the white flesh underneath.

His paws did not seem much use, and Charon allowed the bird to herd him away from the crab while she chipped the last sharp parts of shell away to expose all of the flesh. "Yay!" cheered Charon when her job was done, and he came closer to look at it. When Shiv mentioned he had clunky paws rather than a handy beak, Charon sighed dramatically and said, "I know, right? I wish I had a beak like you! That would be sooo handy!" Sadly, he had no such thing, so it was hard for him to do handy-beak-things.

Charon stayed at a small distance while Shiv was near the crab. He knew it was sort of her crab, and since he had developed a bit more respect for the bird since they first met five minutes ago, Charon tilted his head and hesitantly asked, "... Can I try it too?" He hoped that Shiv would let him, because he had never actually tasted it (just gotten pinched in the nose a million times) and, considering how often he had suffered to get here, he really, really wanted to give it a try.

Shiv smiled inwardly at the pup's cheers as she finished chipping away at the crab. It's flesh exposed, the bird felt instinctual hunger gripping her tiny brain, urging her to just take it and run but she was largely aware of the wolf behind her. She wasn't sure how much a wolf could remember of it's childhood but stealing away one's food was a surefire way of making an enemy for life. Plus Shiv had no idea how big the boy would grow up to be. She'd rather be on most wolves' good side — they provided the carrion she survived on, after all.

At his sigh and lamentations about not having a beak, the bird gave a smug chortle. Ah, he was learning. Soon, he'd realise birds were much, much superior with tasks that couldn't be handled with brute strength. Nodding in agreement to her own thoughts, the magpie then stood back and admired her handiwork, fragments of the shell scattered around their feet. She glanced back at Charon as the boy tentatively piped up, before bending down and dipping her beak into the squishy flesh, taking a few goes to get a good grip of a stringy piece of meat and tearing it from the husk.

With her portion of the crab, the bird then bounced away from it, allowing her companion to his fair share. She gave a nod to him and then eagerly tore into the bit of flesh, savouring the tasty seafood snack. "Wolf usually eat crab?" she questioned in between mouthfuls.

Shiv leaned down to get some of the meat and then nodded at Charon. He wasn't sure if that meant he could get a share, but took a step closer to the crab to see that there was still some meat inside. With his clunky and awkward paws Charon drew a part of meat towards his mouth and carefully chewed on it. It tasted a lot different than anything he had ever tried, and Charon had a questioning expression on his face while he chewed, frowning as he considerd whether or not he liked it.

"This tastes funny," Charon said with his mouth still full, while still considering whether it was better, worse, or just different from rabbits. "Do you eat this all the time? Or d'you also eat bunnies and stuff?" They probably didn't eat deer and other large prey, because it would take like a Thousand birds to bring down a deer, Charon figured, but maybe they hunted smaller meatsy prey, like rabbits or squirrels.

Shiv paused as she watched the pup try the crab, awkwardly scooping the meat out with a paw before placing it in his mouth and chewing on it thoughtfully. With a piece of her own portion still hanging from her beak, the bird studied him as he ate, intense in her gaze as if she were a chef awaiting a critic's appraisal of her dish. He indirectly answered her question, and Shiv tried to figure out if he liked or hated it.

Chortling in response to his questions, the magpie sucked down the last of her piece of the crab. "No rabbit," she said with a shake of her head. "Much too fast." It actually wasn't too often that she was able to taste seafood delicacies, since she rarely made the trek to the coast. However, she enjoyed it immensely — both the taste and the unique hunting challenges the creatures provided. "Berries, bugs, eggs," she listed, canting her head as she tried to think of everything she ate. It wasn't much, really. It made her wonder how similar her diet was to the wolves'.

"Also take meat from wolf kills!" she added proudly, despite the fact that she had just admitted that her kind stole food from their hunts. Not that they took too much, anyway.

The mental image of a flock of Shivs chasing after a rabbit was pretty funny. Charon still couldn't decide whether crab was better or worse than meat. Some of his chews, Charon thought it was worse, but others it tasted considerably better (maybe just because it was different). Charon ended up concluding that it was simply different, not better or worse, though he didn't share this conclusion with Shiv.

"You can eat berries?" said Charon, interested. He had eaten bugs before — that's how he started practising hunting — and he knew eggs could be eaten (though he'd never had any himself), but he had never heard of edible berries. Charon curiously asked, "What do they taste like? I should maybe try them sometimes." Naively, he figured all berries were more or less the same, just like how all meat was, while tasting different from other meat, edible. He didn't even consider that there might be poisonous berries.

Charon grinned when Shiv mentioned that she ate meat from wolf kills. Instead of being offended by her thievery, he was pleased because he'd found something that wolves were better at than birds. He didn't respond further, instead perking ears up and awaiting Shiv's answer about the taste of berries eagerly.

Shiv nodded in response to Charon's inquisitive question about berries. She was surprised the young boy hadn't known they were edible. Did they not have berry bushes along the coast? They were a delicious way of satisfying one's sweet tooth. Though, in winter, Shiv had found some had hardened and were near impenetrable by even the sharpest of beaks — as discovered by her meeting with Prima. She was tempted to find some frozen berries for Charon to learn the hard way, but decided against it, figuring she had already played tutor enough for one day.

"Sweet, juicy, berries are," she cawed, dancing excitedly from one foot to the other. She paused in her antics then, staring at the pup with one wary eye. "But not all berries. Some do not like to be eaten, no." As if she were implying they were sentient, but Shiv simply meant that some came right back up again if she ate them. She did not like those berries. Though, perhaps wolves' stomaches were not as delicate as hers? "Red berries are Shiv's favourite," she continued, bouncing her head. "Grows on logs!"

Sweet, juicy berries. Charon made the mental note to look only for sweet, juicy berries, and not other kinds of berries. And some berries didn't like to be eaten. Giggling, Charon said, "Of course they don't like to be eaten! Bunnies don't either but we still do!" Then he continued to listen as Shiv told him about red berries that grew on logs. Charon nodded, mentally noting and repeating in a quiet mumble, as though to memorise what she had said, "Red berries on logs, okay." He would have to search for those berries and give them a try sometime.

Growing a little tired, Charon said, "Thanks for teaching me about crab-cracking and berries, Shiv. I'm gonna find those berries sometime. Do you live around here?" He asked because if she did, maybe he would see her around again. If she didn't live around here, he would look rather the fool shouting 'Hey, Shiv, over here!' to every magpie he encountered.

A flicker of confusion entered Shiv's eyes at Charon's giggle. Was...that why she had thrown those berries up? Were they simply resisting her eating them? Her tiny brain whirred at the thought, struggling to comprehend how berries were like bunnies before the freckled boy caught her attention again with a quiet murmur. She glanced up, not even realising her gaze had drifted to the ground as she pondered.

At his question, the bird clicked her beak together happily before bowing forward. "Charon make good pupil," she replied. Despite their rocky introduction, their encounter seemed to work out alright in the end. Charon had learned a few things and Shiv had herself a new friend (at least, he was a friend in her eyes). Throwing her head back, she looked up at the darkening sky, the clouds streaked with purples and blues as the sun sank further behind the horizon.

Softly, the magpie hummed with slight worry, not realising how late it had gotten. She would soon have to find somewhere safe to rest for the night. One could never be too careful around the coast, especially with all the sea eagles and gyrfalcons hanging about. Turning back to her silver-furred friend, she shook her head. "Shiv live in Heartwood! Out in the Flatlands!" She wasn't sure how often the boy travelled — what with his short legs and all — but she was excited about the prospect of one day maybe showing off her forest to him.

Charon was pleased when Shiv said that he was a good student. He'd actually learned a thing or two from the bird, which, considering he'd always thought that birds were priviledged — for being able to fly — but pretty dumb, was rather a surprise to Charon. The youth looked forward to seeing Shiv another time, if there'd be one.

Shiv sadly didn't live here in the Bay, but in a place called the Heartwood, which in turn was in a place called the Flatlands. Charon had no clue where it was, which squelched his enthusiasm a little. Why did all the cool wolves — and birds — live so far away? "Oh," he said, unable to conceal his disappointment. "Is that far? I haven't been very far from the Bay yet. But maybe you could come visit again sometime? Or I could ask Ragnar and Thistle if they'll take me sometime." There was a smidgeon of hope in his voice, even though he wasn't entirely sure why he wanted to see the bird again. Maybe because amongst all the non-cool birds, having a cool bird as a friend seemed pretty... well, cool.

Shiv felt her own face fall (though, visibly it didn't change much at all), as the boy was seemingly disappointed with where she currently lived. If she didn't love the Heartwood so much, she would consider moving to the coast, it had so many interesting places to visit and the wolves here were most fascinating! Unfortunately, her natural predators also called this place home and the Heartwood was safe from both them and the wild weather that she was sure was hard to escape from when it blew in from the sea.

Offering a sad warble in response (though secretly elated that Charon expressed an interest in seeing her again), Shiv gestured in the general direction of where the Flatlands lay, out beyond the forest that bordered the Bay. "Much days flight," she said unhelpfully, as wolves judged distance by walking, not flight. That thought didn't occur to her, however. She whistled at the mention of some new names. "Friends?" she inquired about them. "Charon can come with all! Shiv show off Heartwood, much to see!" She paused for a moment, tilting her head, before continuing with a nod. "Shiv will visit Charon again." One day, perhaps when he had practiced his crab-hunting skills more.