Finding Home (Ebony, Kayalee, River)

[Meesh]

Ebony trotted over, pressing a cobweb into the wound. Sure enough, the blood soon enough began to slow down its flow. He flicked his ears at River's comment about the prickle plants. "I forgot about those" he yipped in embarrassment, dashing over to pick one up, gingerly, form its stalk. Chewing it carefully in his mouth. Ow! Prickle! he lifted the cobweb slightly and began licking some of the juices of the prickle plant into the wound. "That should help a bit" he said between licks, pressing in a few of the other herbs as well. Once that was finished, he lay a few more cobwebs on each wound, trusting that the paste made by the herbs and prickle plants would keep them on. "Good as new!"

He padded over to the elk, biting off a piece and chewing quickly to get the familiar-growing taste of herb out of his mouth. "That's a good idea about the skin" he mentioned once he had swallowed.

[Hazelstar]

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[atrb=background,http://i262.photobucket.com/albums/ii113/HanHanBBadE/Kayalee3Mid.png] Kayalee sighed as Ebony fussed over the wound with the cobwebs and the paste from the prickle plants. It's not really necessary, is it? Kayalee asked herself inwardly. Better to be safe than sorry, I suppose. She thought, keeping back another sigh. She stood up when Ebony had finished dressing her wound and padded over to the buck's side. She stuck out her claw tore into the thick hide of the buck, drawing a line down it with her claw. She continued until she had made a slightly square shaped incision, then she peeled the skin off. She laid it down on the ground and chewed off the extra flesh stuck to the hide. "You're right, River, we can use these as sacks to hold the prickle plants when we go back to camp." Kayalee meowed, finishing eating off the extra flesh. She put two prickle plants into the center of the square then bent up the edges and held it in her mouth. "Ike his." She meowed, her tail standing straight up.

[Deleted]

River purred for what felt like the first time in ages, glad they liked her idea. She took a few more bites of the elk, savoring the flavor a bit before swallowing. “I hope no one minds if I lay claim t one of the antlers. I have an idea involving it for my nest.” She had a bit too much fun with thoughts of decorating, she knew, but it was something to keep her occupied that wasn’t violent in nature…mostly.

“When we’re done with the prickles, we can use them for other herbs as well,” she explained after Kayalee’s demonstration. “It never hurts to be able to hold more than a mouthful, don’t you think?”

[Meesh]

Ebony nodded, his eyes flashing with all the new possibilities. "That's a great idea, actually" he meowed in excitement, working carefully to separate meat from hide as he ate. Once he had a sizable amount of hide from the creature's flank, he cut away a square shaped piece of hide, using Kayalee's 'sack' as a guide. He then turned and carefully began plucking prickles from their stems. "This will spare us a lot more trips to and from the den" he commented, placing the plants in a small pile on the center of his hide. "And go for it, River, you can have the antler- Hmm, I wonder if we can do anything useful with the bones" he thought aloud, padding over to sniff at one. "I can't think of anything off the top of my head though" Shrugging, deciding that he'd sleep on it, and come up with some ideas for the next bit of prey, Ebony returned to his hidesack, carefully gathering all four corners in his jaws and lifting his head up in the air. "Hey, this really works!" he exclaimed through a mouthful of hide.

[Hazelstar]

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[atrb=background,http://i262.photobucket.com/albums/ii113/HanHanBBadE/Kayalee3Mid.png] Kayalee lowered her head and put the sack down then padded towards the buck. She began to gnaw at the meat, it was delicious. "We can also use the sacks to carry extra meat to the den." Kayalee meowed, staring at the buck, it was gigantic, the three of them probably ate little over half of it. "The legs can probably be carried without the sacks, but the meat from the chest, back, and so forth should probably be carried in a sack to make less trips." Kayalee mused as she tore another square of hide from the buck. She took the meatiest pieces of buck she could find and placed them in one of the squares. She then padded over to the prickle plants, picked up two of them, and put them in the other square. "If everyone is done eating we should probably head back to camp, fill your belly as much as you can and we can take as much of the rest with us as we want."Kayalee then added, "River, because of your brilliant idea you are awarded with 15 tribe experience." She then bent down and picked up the two sacks and trotted back towards camp.

[Deleted]

River ate her fill and then created her own, slightly uneven “sack”, which she filled with some of the prickle plants the other two left behind.

“Bones are good nest decorations,” River said when Ebony inquired about their use remembering the skulls of prey she had eaten lining her own nest. “Maybe they can form barriers, too, if we want to block something off. Or they can be used as a marker…you’re thinking of medical uses, aren’t you? That I’m not sure of.”

She nodded as Kayalee mentioned carrying meat in the sacks. “They may need cleaned afterward, but I don’t see why not.” Had she just started something major? She dipped her head and let out a small purr as Kayalee awarded her points. “I…thank you.” It was good to be useful. She clawed out another sack and filled it with meat to take back, and then carefully grabbed both sacks and followed her leader back to camp.

[Meesh]

Ebony nodded, placing down his sack for a few minutes. "Actually, those ideas with the bones are good ones too. Let's not take these ones back though, we can always hunt if we need more later. He looked down, his portion of the meat all but finished. He carefully tore off another small strip of meat and padded away from the others a few yards, laying the meat chunks at the base of a small shrug. Ebony didn't know what made him do this, exactly, only that whenever he was eating something particularly large, he always felt a need to leave a portion for the scavengers among the lesser native species as well as any wandering ups or kits that may not be particularly good hunters. It was enough to make a good meal for an aboriginal or two, but not so much that Ebony was depriving the pack of much meat. The elk was more than the three of them could eat in several days anyway.

That done, he turned and padded back towards the others. picking up his sack as he passed by it. "Lts go" he mumbled through the hide, flicking his trail before padding towards the direction of camp.

[Hazelstar]

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[atrb=background,http://i262.photobucket.com/albums/ii113/HanHanBBadE/Kayalee3Mid.png] Back at camp, Kayalee placed both the sacks on the ground, She picked the meat out of the sack she had used for the meat and carried it to the prey pile. She gave the pile a once over, is was enough to keep the small tribe for a while, but they would have to hunt more and more with the impending winter coming along. She nosed into the pile and picked out a mouse that smelled off, it must have been in there for a while. She padded a few yards from camp and buried it, she hoped this would keep the ground fertile. She padded over to her sack with the prickle plants, then glanced over at Ebony. "Where do you want these?" She asked, not sure what to do with them.

[Deleted]

River nodded at what Ebony said and carried her sacks back to camp, where she deposited the meat on the prey rock. She considered it for a moment. There was quite a lot of it, if the rest of the elk could be factored in, and it never hurt to have a lot, but she worried about it going bad before they could get to it all. Kayalee must have wondered the same, because she looked through the pile and buried a rodent that smelled rotten. Setting her sack of prickles by the rock for now, she padded after the tribe leader. “By any chance, do you know of a way we could preserve the meat so it’ll last longer? I’d like to hunt us a decent stockpile without worrying about it wasting on us.”

[Meesh]

Ebony nodded his thanks when he saw Kayalee carrying the prickle plants over. "I'll show you" he padded over to the small next he had dug for himself between the tree roots. Underneath a crevice made of two of the roots, a small hollow was neatly dug in, with little shelves dug in different place. It was large enough to store a sizable amount of herbs, but not so deep that an Absonding would be uncomfortable snatching herbs from. "I'm going to store some herbs here for the coming winter. I'll sleep right next to them, so my body heat should keep them from freezing when winter comes. The prickle plants should go here" he indicated lightly with his nose, leaning forward to deposit his own small stockpile. A few herbs were already stored in various crevices, but not nearly enough, Ebony considered, to last them the winter. He would have to remedy that soon.

River padded over, and asked Kayalee a question about rotting meat. Ebony frowned. He hadn't thought of that. "It'll be easier when the snow comes- we could bury it in snow or ice to preserve it - but as for now...I'm not sure. Could we put it near the water? That would keep it cool, but I'm not so sure how edible soggy food is"

[Hazelstar]

Kayalee followed Ebony to his herb storage area an stared around at the different shelves for herbs, he was right, there weren't nearly enough for the impending winter. Kayalee carefully placed he prickle plants where she was directed to and then turned and padded from the small cave and towards River. "I don't know..." Kayalee meowed, then turned to Ebony. "That idea might work, but I'm not sure soggy food would taste very good in the long run. If we can find some river rocks in the shade that are slightly out of reach of the water, it may work." Kayalee pondered, "But then again it may just be a lost cause." She sighed.

[Deleted]

River dropped her sack of prickles near Ebony’s nest, leaving it to him to figure out exactly where each plant went. She moved surprisingly comfortably in her new form, but she didn’t want to risk underestimating her size and knocking everything out of place. Considering he slept here and they were dealing with prickles, that would be…especially bad.

“I’d rather not eat soggy food,” River responded. “Unless it’s food that’s meant to be a bit soggy, like fish. Even that, I prefer died out a bit.” She thought for a moment. “River rocks would work…we could gather a whole bunch to put in the shade and then rotate them out as the ones working to cool the food start getting warm.”

[Meesh]

Ebony nodded his thanks and went to work quickly stacking the prickles. It didn't take that long- there weren't that many- but Ebony, too, worried about misplaced prickles falling everywhere. A thought occurred to him and he picked up his forgotten makeshift leather sack, unfolding it carefully and wrapping the prickles in it. He returned the now-wrapped bundle of prickles to its shelf. There. now, even if it well, Ebony would get nothing more than a facefull of elk fur.

"I think our best bet is with the river rocks" he called once the shelving was complete, climbing out of his nest and settling by the other two. "Let's see if we can set up something now, then we can drag the meat over later. It'll be fine as it is for a little while anyway"

[Hazelstar]

Kayalee began padding towards the stream. "hopefully we can find some good river rocks." Kayalee meowed uncertainly remembering that the stream sported only small pebbles. She looked into the stream, the large amounts of water making her flinch slightly. Ugh. She couldn't wait to get out of this occult form. she peered around, she saw a nicely sized rock which was buried in pebbles. She put her paw in the water and brushed away the pebbled then stuck her muzzle in he water and pulled the rock out. "I think this will work." Kayalee meowed, shaking her pelt and splashing everyone in a nearby radius.

[Deleted]

“The prey rock still works for storing the meat,” River sad as she padded along behind Kayalee. “We can put the river rocks on there as well, surrounding the meat or piling on top or whatever. Maybe the river rocks will cool the prey rock down as well, which will really help.” She thought for a moment. “I know Ebony wanted the elk bones left where they were, but I could use some of them to form a structure around the prey rock and then drape some leaves or vines or something along the top and sides so it’s always shaded. That might help some. What do you two think?” She had been considering doing something similar with the antler for her nest, so she could have a little privacy as she slept.

River nudged the rock a little ways away from Kayalee, keeping it in the shade. She shuddered as she approached the water. Odd…it hadn’t affected her like that before. Well, too bad, she had a job to do. She stuck her paw in the stream, fishing out another rock and adding it to their collection.