It didn't take Bass long to cross the borders of the rapids into the plains, the heat of the sun pounding down on his back. He tongue flopped out of his gaping jaws, panting as he tried to beat his daughter to the best snake hunting area. He spun towards the lake, looking for the large, flat rock that marked the perfect sunning spot for the serpents. Just as he was about to make his way towards it, his paw caught on a rock that was jutting out of the earth. Yelping, his eyes grew wide as he fell downwards, his jaw slamming against the ground. Tumbling, he rolled over himself until he came to a stop, front paws hanging over the lip of the lake. Groaning, he flopped to his side, head spinning. Crap, Piper probably saw the whole thing, didn't she? Still too sore to move at the moment, he waited to hear her laughter. speech

Piper was running her hardest to keep up with her father as they raced toward the plains, but she had a huge grin on her face as her tongue lolled out the side of her mouth. He had a bit of a head start on her so she was struggling to make up ground, but she loved the challenge! Just when she thought she might be beginning to catch up with him, she saw him trip and go tumbling end over end till he almost tumbled right into the lake. She was so distracted by the sudden change that she couldn't stop herself in time, her paws skidding and tripping over the ground instead in her attempt to slow down. She ran right into him, her front paws catching on Bass' side and sending her flying in the same way the rock had tripped up her father. She yelped, mostly from surprise, as she went tumbling over Bass and straight into the water, making a big splash as she got thrown into the water by her own momentum. She scrambled to get her paws under her again, her head darting back up to the surface with a huge gasp. The shock of cool water jolted her more than the actual fall did and she squealed as she stood up, the water almost coming to her stomach when she was standing. She blinked the water out of her eyes, her gaze locking on her father. For a moment she didn't know what to do and then she bust out laughing at the ridiculousness of it all. "Talk" 'Think' "You"

He tried to pick himself up, but before he could Piper slammed into his gut and flew over his head. Bass' eyes grew wide and he scrambled to his paws. Fear coursed through him and he raced after her, hearing her splashing in the lake. All he could picture was her broken body floating on top of the lake, having hit her head on the rocks. He jumped into the water without thinking, landing just behind Sandpiper. He bent down and tried to grab her scruff, but she already stood up. Bass panted hard and looked down at her, as she turned and looked at him. He just looked at her, his eyes still opened really wide. As soon as she burst out laughing, his body relaxed and he took a deep breath. "You scared me half to death!" he said, letting out an uneasy laugh. Shaking his head back and forth, he grabbed Sandpiper by the scruff and jumped up the bank with her in his jaws. Sitting her down, he shook out his fur and flopped to his side. Breathing heavily, he tried to calm his racing heart. "You kids are going to be the death of me, I swear." "speech"

Piper certainly hadn't considered any of the dangers that could have gone along with her falling into the lake like she had, not that she ever really considered those consequences. Her father's panicked expression surprised her, but she didn't think too much of it since he relaxed soon afterward once she laughed at the whole silly situation. She clearly thought it was way funnier than he did. She frowned a bit as he took her by the scruff and pulled her back onto the shore. "Daaaaaaaaad I can do it myself!" she insisted with a pout as they got back to dry land. She shook out her fur and got out as much of the water as she could while he flopped onto the ground. She did feel a little bad for scaring him so much even though she thought he was being a bit irrational. "No dying yet!" she said with a chuckle, coming over to nudge his cheek with her nose. "You have to be my dad for a long time still. Sorry for scaring you so bad." She looked up then, remembering their original purpose for being out here. "Oh yeah! Snake hunting! She hopped up and down, grinning as her tail wagged behind her. "Are we still gonna go snake hunting, Dad? "Talk" 'Think' "You"

Bass chuckled at his daughters antics, his racing heart finally calming itself. She was right, there would be no dying yet. With a mock grimace he flopped to his side, gasping for air. "Can't... make it, you must... go on yourself!" he called, raising a paw to his forehead and he rolled around on his back. "Too... much... silly. I cannot take it!" Bass cried, flopping his head to the side as his tongue hung out of his maw and on to the earth. He stayed still for a moment, until Piper brought up snake hunting. Grinning, he jumped to his paws as his pale tail wagged behind him. "Of course! Follow me," he said, licking the top of her head and strutting off like nothing had ever happened. Walking further into the plains, he dipped low to the ground and waited for Sandpiper to be by his side. Looking over at her to make sure she was crouched down, he cocked his head and listened for the tell tale signs of the slithery beasts. When he heard a faint hiss, he tipped his nose towards it. He couldn't see it yet, so he was unsure if it was one that they would have to stay away from. "Now, before we go pouncing on it, we need to make sure that it's not poisonous or venomous. Do you remember the difference?" he asked in a hushed whisper. Because these plains were riddled with snakes most of the year, all pups were taught to tell the difference in the snakes. He couldn't have young ones getting harmed all the time. Some snakes were very dangerous, and they needed to know how to keep themselves safe. "speech"

Piper giggled at her father's goofy re-enactment of him dying. "Nooooo!" she cried dramatically, unable to keep herself from giggling at the same time. Their silly antics were quickly forgotten though when she mentioned the snake hunting and her father quickly hopped up and licked her head. She gave her father a huge grin and trotted after him, her tail wagging wildly behind her. No one could ever say she wasn't a daddy's girl, that was for sure. She followed his lead and dropped down close to the ground next to him. She watched what he did closely, taking note of it so she could learn to hunt on her own. She nodded happily and whispered back at him, "Poisonous snakes have fat heads and pointy noses. Non-poisonous snakes have skinny heads and round noses!" She was pretty sure that was right anyway. Had she gotten them backwards? She pondered it for a moment, but no, she was pretty sure that was right. She looked to her father to tell her one way or the other before she looked toward where the hissing was coming from, too excited to see if they could hunt it or not to not look for herself.   "Talk" 'Think'  "You"

He watched his daughter try and copy his lowered stance, and he let out a soft chuckle. Leaning over, he tapped her rump for her to lower it. "Lower your butt," he whispered, nosing her front legs so that she was even closer to the ground. "Remember that we are hunting snakes, which are on their bellies in the grass. You have to crouch even lower, more so than with a deer," Bass noted. His ears swiveled with every hiss, trying to track where the snakes were. He wouldn't want one to get too close to them, not while he was focused on Piper. Every wolf had to keep one ear to the ground during this time of year, no matter what they were doing. His daughter answered his question, and he nodded, a smile spreading wider on his lips. "Yes, but not exactly what I was going for dear. I meant the difference between a snake that is poisonous, and one that is venomous. They may sound the same, but they do two very different things. If you bite it and get hurt, it's poisonous. If it bites you and you get hurt, it's venomous. We need to know the difference, because you wouldn't want to bite into one that hurts you, and you need to avoid the fangs of the venomous ones." He explained. Now, that was enough talk. Usually he didn't bother to be quiet while snake hunting. They were not too fast, it wasn't hard to catch up with the slithering bodies. But he wanted to avoid startling one that would seek to harm them. Seeing the grass wiggle above them, he peeked up and saw that it was a garter snake. They were technically venomous, but their teeth were in the far back of their mouth. Their toxin was not powerful enough to harm a wolf, but it did some damage to a rodent. The only thing was that they gave off a strange odor, which could be hard to get passed. Looking over at Sandpiper, he tilted his head towards the green and yellow serpent, indicating that she should go for it. "speech"

With her father's guidance she lowered her stance even more, nodding with understanding at his explanation. She watched everything he did closely, mimicking it so that she could feel what it was like to hunt correctly. That way she would know what to do later! Muscle memory and all of that. She listened closely while her father explained what he had meant between poisonous and venomous. Her brows raised as she listened, letting out a quiet "ooooooh" and nodding with understanding. She then followed his gaze to the grass in front of them, seeing the snake that he was watching there. She couldn't exactly remember the name of that kind of snake, but she remembered that it wasn't harmful to her. She glanced back at her father, seeing that he was motioning for her to go after it. She wiggled excitedly and focused back on the snake. She kept herself low to the ground like her father had said, practically dragging her stomach across the ground as she crawled. She got as close as she could till the snake spotted her and tried to slither away. She leaped forward then, springing up so that she could press both of her front paws into its body to pin it down. One of her paws missed, but her right paw landed right on its back, near the end of its body by its head. She struggled for a moment to catch a chance to bite it and finish it off with it flailing and trying to get away or turn so it could bite her, but she managed to grab it in her jaws right behind it's head. She bit down till it stopped moving and she let go, blinking down at it for a second. She turned around to look at her father with a big grin, asking, "How was that, dad?!" "Talk" 'Think' "You"