Armando slunk through the tall grass with a short skinny stick clamped between his teeth. When he'd heard there was a firefly catching contest planned for the night he'd immediately gone to work trying to make the catching easier on himself. With one eye on the sky he'd gotten to work crafting and now, with the sun finally below the trees, it was time and he was ready.

The stick he carried had a makeshift and admittedly ratty looking net at the end. He'd taken a thin, bendy stick and turned it around on itself to make a loop and then used very thin grass to make a net around it. The net was nestled into a cut on the end of his stick and then lashed firmly to it.

The whole thing was a bit unwieldy and very nearly too heavy for him, but Armando was hoping the size of the net would help catch more bugs at once than he could using just his paws. Lightning bugs were pretty slow so really, he only needed to be a teeny bit faster than them.

Spying a cloud of lightning bugs, Armando hustled towards them. With a twist of his head he swiped the net after them and then quickly flopped it down on the grass so they couldn't get away. Excitedly he then readied his bag and moved in to collect his bugs.

Perhaps he was bouncing back and forth, but as the night wore on his previous anxieties about being scooped up and taken to a pack or worse slowly dissolved. He'd met a few wolves his own age and that had only washed more of his tension away. It'd been nice to talk to someone his own age again, for a moment the pup was reminded of what it was like to be in a pack...not enough to just go and rejoin one, but enough to at least have him curious about the lacks in this strange land.

As he wandered through the field watching lightening bugs float by and others try and capture them using different methods Sandor was drawn to a peculiar sight. Something he hadn't seen before. Ears came forward and head was held high to give him a good view over the grass. It was...well..he didn't know what the animal was but it was waving a stick around trying to catch fireflies. Eyes widened as he sat back and watched, head cocked to the side curiously. "What...is that?"He'd ask, although really he also wanted to ask what other creature was called..that was rude...he'd wait a bit before blurting that out.

Hungrily the little panda crouched down beside his net and peeked underneath it. There, blinking beautifully in his greed little opinion, was a handful of fireflies. Armando quickly swiped a paw in after them and began to scoop the bugs into his jar one at a time. He had lots of bugs to catch and no time to waste.

He was mid stuff when a small voice piped up. Armando froze and peeked over at the wolf pup - the second to talk to him this night. He looked harmless enough so Armando decided to engage him. “This is a net. I made it to help me catch more bugs and I must say,” he said as he lifted the jar up and shook it so the lightning bugs inside glowed. “It’s doing a fine job so far.”

Aiden was snapping and flailing at fireflies when he spotted the most curious thing. It was... well, he had no idea. It looked kinda like a raccoon, but red... but also the face was completely different. So he truly had no idea. What was more fascinating was the object the little guy was carrying. A stick with a net, he saw the creature slam it down on a group of fireflies. So, a catching device? How was it made? He glanced at his paws; he didn't think that he could make that. So how did this creature?

Trotting over, he paused when he saw the pup. "Hello," he greeted both with a cheerful tone. He glanced down at the jar the creature was holding; damn, it really did make a difference. "How did you make it?" he asked curiously. "Though I doubt these could make anything, I can't even grab the jar like you just did," he grumbled, holding up a paw. In that same moment, a firefly drifted by him, and Aiden gently reached out a paw to coax it to fly into his bag.

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"Speech" "You"

art by risketch

The funny little fox thing would regard him suspiciously at first but then seemed to relax; it didn’t occur to him that wolves would eat little red pandas if given the chance. Never crossed his hungry mind- it had teeth and a pulse, it could fight back…he wasn’t about it. Sandor listened as he explained it was called a ‘net’ and that he was using it to catch fireflies. At first he eyed it suspiciously, could it really work? However, as the little thing held up the jar and shook it the pups eyes widened in surprise. “Cool!” Another would appear in the same moment, saying hello. Sandor grinned and nodded to the other wolf opening his mouth to ask the panda more questions but he was silenced as the other asked the question he wanted to know. How did he make it? Bobbing his head and laughing softly as he held up a paw. A moment later he would also scoop up a firefly and add it to his bag.

“Can you show us how?” He asked, excited as he moved closer, trying to get a better look at the net.

One lone firefly managed to wiggle through his toes and Armando made a mad grab for it. He was doing well so far; while it was far from perfect the net was coming in handy and he thought it safe to say it had doubled if not tripled his success rate already.

Another wolf approached, this one a great deal bigger than the boy. Though he wasn’t the tallest wolf Armando had ever seen, he still was at least triple the little panda’s size and lordie knew how much heavier. Big dude. He was also curious about the net which Armando found relieving. No one on the island had tried to eat him yet and he was due for an attempt on his life.

“Ingenuity, my friend. What my species lacks in strength and size we make up for here.” Armando tapped the side of his head and winked at Aiden. “Also these,” he said while lifting his paws to show off his false thumbs.

“And I would be happy to.” Armando sat back on his haunches, his net held chest level by his front paws so the dogs could see. “It’s more basket than net, really, but I was pressed for time. If I were to make another I’d use horse hair.” He squished the net’s stiff sides lightly and felt them spring back as under his paws. “I started with a thin green branch to make this loop here,” he said, pointing to the base of the net. “Turned it in on itself to make a circle and then bound the ends together with grass.”

Aiden hadn't even thought about eating the red panda; why would he? The creature was innovative and there was plenty of fish, so rather he saw the creature as a curiosity, especially since he was frolicking around an island with a bunch of wolves and other species. Especially because of that net. Aiden squinted and leaned down quickly when Armando held out his... paws? The extra toe there kind looked like his dew claw, except the creature could clearly move it and it was closer to his other toes... which seemed quite useful. Why couldn't his dewclaws be like that? Bleh.

He nodded at the basic instructions, memorizing hwo it would be done. He couldn't do it himself, but maybe if he memorized how it was done, he could later get one made for him. It seemed useful. "What's the difference between a basket and a net?" he questioned curiously. He had no idea what either of those things really were. In the midst of asking, another little firefly buzzed by his nose, and he reacted almost instinctively, leaning forward and trying to snap at the glowing bug to catch it.

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Sandor grinned as the small creature lifted up to show his paws and…sort of thumbs. Brow furrowed as he looked at his own paws. He didn’t have thumbs. His eyes lit up as the panda agreed to explain how he’d done it. Sandor, like the other, watched with intense attention, riveted to the explanation they were given… although it didn’t exactly click that he couldn’t do the job since he didn’t have thumbs. As the other wolf asked what the difference was, he nodded, curious as well. “Can you make more?” He asked, “are they hard to make?” The questions rushed out before he could stop himself. Automatically, he took a long blade of grass and tried to weave it through another, like the panda had said, but he only managed in breaking it in half. He looked at the small creature, confused. Had he done it wrong?