Oh Beehave!

Skælingr skirted around the edge of the prairie, eyeing the larger prey animals as they moved about grazing. He and his wife had split up so each could gather what they needed. Needless to say she'd be looking for herbs and Skælingr… well, he wasn't quite sure what he was looking for. His mind was on crafting and so he looked mainly at the trees for any specific kinds of wood he could make use of. He also kept an eye out for residual clay beds. Pots seemed to be popular so he felt he could never have enough of those. And of course there were crafts that involved animal parts though for anything large he'd need Ragna's help. In some ways it was a shame they'd split up but at least they planned to meet back at the den by noon.

Skæ started off his day hunting rabbit, more for meat than anything though he did take and skin the rabbit to keep the hide on hand. He could use it to make a small pouch later if he still had enough sinew cordage left. He made a mental note to get more, that would mean deer hunting with the missus. The prairie was alive with the sounds of spring. Birds were singing loudly and numerous bugs were joining the concert. It was nice to walk through a land so full of life. The prairie was a beautiful patch of land, he had to admit. The fact that it was teaming with flora and fauna only doubled the beauty of the place. It was kind of surprising that there wasn't a pack already here. Spring flowers were blooming all around him in dozens of colors and the sweet smell was enjoyable. Maybe he should pick some flowers for Ragna. Granted he didn't know what was a healing herb and what was just decoration or even poison but he did recognize some of the flowers that she used.

Skælingr headed over toward some flowers but as he walked he picked up another sweet smell on the breeze that wasn't quite what she expected from the flowers. It was sweet in a way he didn't really intend to eat and his first thought was that it was from some sort of flower that he wasn't familiar with. Now that would be a great gift for his wife!
Skælingr paused and scented the air, trying to pick up what he was smelling and finally he got a good hold of the scent and started following it. It took a bit to start following it. Skæ carried on with where she was going. It was a nice day to just go and follow the scent.

He figured the source of the scent had to be close by judging how strong the smell was. That was good. He did have a small fire going not far off and he didn't want to let it to far out of his site. Starting a brush fire was the last thing he wanted to do. He had a ring of stones around the fire and he had dug up the earth for several feet around the ring to help insure it wouldn't get to wild. At least the day was calm, there was barely a breeze but if it suddenly started to get windy he'd need to be able to turn around and head back quick so he could douse the fire in dirt. If worse came to worse there was a river not too much farther but he was limited in how much water he could transport. It just wasn't ideal.

The smell led Skælingr to a nearby tree and there in a knot on the tree was a swarm of bees, buzzing about. Honey! That's what he was smelling. Skælingr hesitated to go closer. He didn't really use honey for anything but he wondered if his wife would like some. Ragna always seemed to know the healing properties in simple things he often considered useless. While he might not care much for honey, though, he did find beeswax particularly useful. Of course he didn't really have anything to carry it with him. Hmm… what to do, what to do… Skælingr continued to debate when suddenly he noticed there was a lot more buzzing around his head. A second later he was stung on the left hip and he helped, jumping forward in surprise. He hadn't been that close. Skælingr took off at a run with the bees in hot pursuit.

He raced over the prairie toward the fire, his head dipping down to scoop up one o the branches that had yet to be broken down, without stopping his run. He quickly stuck the branch in the fire so the leaves caught fire and smoked heavily. Whipping his head around he started swinging at the bees, aiming more to get the smoke in their vicinity than to swat any particular bee. He had to be careful with his swings as well, making sure not to swing so hard he extinguished his own flame as well as making sure the flames weren't getting too far down the branch.

Skælingr moved in a calculated manner, his ears sharply listening for any buzzing and then his head moving in that direction. He whipped left, then he whipped right, making sure to spread the smoke as best he could. Time seemed to move slowly but in reality about a few minutes the bees gave up and headed back to their hive. Skælingr waited a bit longer before he dared to put down his flaming stick. Knowing he couldn't set it there in the grass he carefully tossed it onto his fire. Ragna would give him crap to no end if he some how managed to catch the prairie on fire.

With the flaming stick taken care of Skælingr flopped down to take a quick break before going back on the hunt for more crafting supplies. Hopefully he’d have better luck this time.