People lately had been talking a lot about crafting traps, and that sounded like a pretty cool concept to him. You built something, waited, and got lots of tasty food! It seemed like there were lots of ways to go about catching stuff. Land traps, ocean traps. Traps that killed, traps that didn’t. He had an idea about making a trap in the ocean, but he wasn’t sure how to execute it.

That was okay, he knew just the wolf to call. Standing by the celler of the communal storage, he raised his head and called to Hazel. Assuming that, whatever she was up to, she would be cool to help him put something together and see how it worked.


"Speech"

Some healer had asked Hazel's help pulling weeds in her garden. It was fine, and she knew she should be helping, but weeding was just so boring. The days were getting warmer, and she just wanted to have fun and do things! Weeding... well, it was supposedly a thing, but she was less than pleased with the task. Weeds tasted funky. Really, Hazel was so incredibly glad that she heard Lis calling her name from the Sea's Plain, not far off. She looked to the pale healer, who gave her a nod and allowed her on her way-- thank frick.

Like a bat out of hell, Hazel tore in the direction of her best friend's call. She was getting more surefooted, more agile as time went on. Learning. Getting better, and getting stronger too. Hazel was grateful for that, and for the work that everyone here put into keeping her fed and stuff. As her pointy friend came into view, the girl let go an excited sort of woof. "Ohmygod," it came out as all one word. "You saved me, I got stuck helping pull weeds." She panted lightly, catching her breath after running basically as fast as she could. "What're we doing?" Hazel reached out to halfheartedly swat at her friend with her paws, excited for whatever the rest of the day would bring.

"Speech"

Hazel came sprinting into view pretty quickly after his call. Huffing and catching her breath as she pulled to a stop before him. He snickered at her, and let her swipe at his paws before nudging her back. “Weeding?” he pulled a face. The errands he normally got pulled into were skinning things, organising things, cleaning things… learning the patrols, lessons, lessons, lessons… but weeding sounded pretty boring too.

“We are catching food, for the pack!” he declared, they were industrial little wolves. More likely than not, Basilisk would stuff his face with half of it before it made it back to the den. Considering the amount he ate, it was almost strange he didn’t have more puppy fat. “I was thinking we could make like a net, and cast it into the ocean, and see if we can get some fish. It’ll need a way to close, and something to attract them…’ he said, looking pointedly at her to help him with ideas.


"Speech"

Hazel pulled a similar face, words coming with a dramatic grumble. "I got asked to help and it didn't seem like I could even say no." She was so incredibly glad that Bas had called when he had. She wished she got pulled on more fun chores, and lessons too. There was so much to know, and Hazel needed to learn it all... and she got stick weeding. At least the little, weird healer and her little weird dog-thing were nice, and they had pretty okay snacks. That was alright. But still! Catching food for the pack-- all right! Hazel's tail wagged, front feet tippy-tapping with excitement. Industrious children, they could at least try to be. She was grinning, and ready to do... literally anything. Literally anything and everything was better than the weeding. Hazel had started to fill back out from the too-slight frame she'd had upon arrival to the Armada. Getting settled in, having a home, it really did have a positive impact on the red girl. They'd build a net, okay. She took in the boy's plan as best she could, nodding and considering. "Is there something smelly we can bait it with? Any weird gross organs from last night's dinner?" Something that wasn't really good for them to eat might be good to catch big fish. She considered for a long moment, wondering what they'd use to close the net. "What're we makin' our net out of, anyway?" Right, if it was too heavy for the material of the net, it would probably be... not so good. That was fair. Hazel moved toward the shed, ready to rummage if he didn't have anything in mind yet. "Speech"

Basilisk nodded sagely, knowing what it was like to be pressed into work by older wolves. He opened the cellar door and had a nosey inside while Hazel spoke. “Yeah, I bet we can find something near the smokehouse on the beach” he said as he rummaged through the shelves. He was sure he had seen… there. “There's these spare flax ropes, maybe we could tie them together?” He suggested, dragging a bunch down and tossing it over his shoulder. He had another look at the stores. The scent of the dried meat making his mouth water. Mmm…

Determined not to get distracted, he backed out of the stores and dropped some of the rope over Hazel’s shoulders. “Last one to the beach is a rotten egg!” he yelled, and took off sprinting across the grass and towards the beach. Knowing they would need to take a detour to the smokehouse, he angled his steps accordingly.

"Speech"

She sighed softly to herself, tail wagging as they browsed the shoulders for anything they might need. Right, if they used the ropes and fashioned them together, that sounded like it would work. "We just gotta make sure that we tie it tight enough that none of the fish get out," Hazel declared, thinking about how slippery fish could be. All wiggly and slippery and stuff... oof. They seemed like they'd be good at getting out of the net, if they really tried, but maybe fish were dumb and wouldn't know they were inside it until it was too late? She could hope. Once it was done being all slippery, big fish sounded like it would probably be tasty. When would it be time for dinner, anyway?

She caught the rope, and did her best to manage the length of it. Why was it so looooong? That's fine. It's fine. The shorter pup was trying to gather herself when Bas took off, and she couldn't help but laugh. "Hey, wait, no fair you have a head start!" Hazel couldn't keep from giggling, though. For as indignant as she pretended to be, the girl really couldn't be upset. Claws digging into the sandy ground, she pushed herself in Basilisk's direction, laughing the whole way.

Stopping was something else entirely, though. With a dull thud she crashed into the side of the smokehouse, falling back in a heap of giggles. At least she wasn't that big and the smokehouse was of sturdy construction... no harm, no foul. Quickly righting herself, she began sniffing around the outbuilding, looking for any discarded bits that hadn't been taken away by predators. Ah-- there. Hazel carefully picked up a chunk of venison lung, wrinkling her nose at the texture. "How's this for bait?" It was yucky, but stinky and iron-y, and maybe fish would like it? What did fish even eat?

"Speech"

That was a good point, though it sounded like work, getting the netting tight enough not to let any fishys out. Or, maybe they just needed to go looking for big fish, right? Better haul that way, too. As he raced to the beach he couldn’t help but laugh at her disgruntlement. Despite it, she was off like a rocket herself. Shooting through the grass behind him close enough that he could hear the sound of her footfalls.

Probably because of his headstart, but definitely also because of his quick pace, Basilisk hit the beach first. Howling in delight as he tore across the sand, shooting right past the smokehouse as he pulled himself to a sudden stop. Panting, and spraying sand as he heard a sudden thud! behind him.

He whipped around, and saw Hazel on her back, the smokehouse shaking just a touch at the sudden impact. Basilisk wheezed in laughter at the sight of her. Especially when she got up like nothing had happened, and began sniffing around. The laughter died away however when she picked up a piece of icky smelling something. Maybe that strong smell would help, right? ”Good find, lets get everything set up!” he said, and the two of them got to it. He had always found they made a good pair, and liked to seek her out to get things done. It was better than waiting around to see if any of his siblings would give him the time of day…

Once the net was ready, he jumped to his feet, and handed the netting over to Hazel, grabbing the icky bait in his own mouth and tying it to the bottom. “Time to fish!” he said, grabbing the other end of the neat, and dragging it over a rocky outcropping near some cypress trees. It was a little deeper here then most places on the shoreline, and they carefully dropped it in. each holding an end. “Should we… wiggle it… or something?” he wondered.

"Speech"

True, they could grab even bigger fish-- that would be cool. They could take in the biggest fish! Did she... did she like fish? Hazel couldn't really remember. That was fine though, she'd certainly be able to try it by the time they were done with their fishing adventure for the day... right? Yeah, that seemed like it would be good enough. What she could tell you, though, was that it absolutely was not fair that Bas got not only a head start, but he had longer legs to boot! Ugh! The brief sting of defeat in their little race is quickly forgotten though, there's fishing to be done.

It was true, they made a good team. They were able to get things done, and Hazel liked his company. Really, there was nothing better than getting to spend time with her best friend. It didn't matter what they were doing, as long as they were together. Heck, even if they were doing chores, time passed quicker and they got things done faster when they worked together. Or... well, was it actually faster? The amount of messing around they did would leave that much up for debate.

Carefully, she inspected the net as Basilisk secured the bait. Wow it really... did not smell good. Hazel wrinkled her nose as she tested just how firmly it had been secured to the net, adding one more knot for good measure. Couldn't have their bait coming off, right? That, and she didn't really want to touch it again once it was all briny with seawater. Together, the carried the net to one of the deeper areas of shoreline, tucked away in the shade of the cypress trees. Hazel was sure she'd seen fish here before... would there be any today? Carefully, she held up her end of the net, peering into the water. "If we wiggle it, it'll make the bait look more alive." The red and pale pup made to shift the edges of the net, wiggling it just a little. "At least if the fish are dumb enough to fall for it." She looked up to Bas with a grin.

"D'you think the water is deep enough here?" Hazel canted her head to the side, considering the depth at the shoreline. Was there a way to get deeper without having to actually swim? If they were swimming, how would they hold the net? Hm. The girl scowled to herself as she thought.

"Speech"

As Hazel began to wiggle her end just a little, Bas moved to copy her. At first, totally out of sync with her movements before he got the timing right. And then the net was swishing in the water like something alive and - hopefully - interesting. “I dunno, fish are pretty dumb, arne’t they?” he mused back.

After a moment of waiting, Hazel asked if this spot was big enough, and Bas understood the sentiment. Just because it was one of the deepest spots by the shoreline, didn’t mean it was all that big. He looked around them for a moment, furrowing his brow. “That Cypress that’s fallen over just out there. We could swim out to it, and throw the net off the side of it?” he suggested, turning bright blue eyes to his friend. At her agreement, he hauled on the net, dragging it back up. Rolling it as he did. He tucked it over his own shoulders, being the biggest of the two. Luckily, they weren’t going too far out. He stepped into the water, and began to wade out to the Cypress.

"Speech"

Well, Bas wasn't wrong. Fish were pretty dumb, after all. They managed to get the timing synced up after a little trial and error, but still... hm, why didn't they seem to be enticed. Maybe this wasn't deep enough for the fish to approach. Hazel considered for a minute, and then gazed to the downed tree that was in the water. They could swim out, yeah. Okay, that sounded good. After a moment of thought and peering out to see just how deep it was, the red and pale girl nodded. Yeah, it wasn't over her head, she could handle that.

"We can toss it off the side of the tree and catch the biggest fish!" Hazel declared, her eyes alight. Yeah, they could catch the biggest fish, and that would be so incredibly frickin' cool. She waded after Bas, taking careful steps so she didn't stir up too much silt. Careful steps, but not quite hesitant ones. No, she had to at least pretend to be confident in the water. As it grew deeper, it got colder too. "Brr, why's the water so cold, it's summer," it wasn't really a complaint though. Nothing was going to repel Hazel as she moved into the deeper waters. Shoot, was she going to have to admit that she only kinda knew how to swim? The water was getting deeper as they moved out toward the fallen log.

"Speech"

‘The bigger the better, right?” Basilisk asked with a grin, wiggling his eyebrows at his friend as he started to wade. The water was cold up his legs, and he grimaced at the feel of it. Moving quickly. “Maybe it's too sheltered here with the cypress, or needs a warmer day. But it's pretty chilly, aye? Think it’ll be even colder after we get our fish?” he asked with an amused snort.

He climbed up on the fallen cypress, and offered the shorter girl a hand up when she reached it a moment after he did. They huddled together on the tree for a moment, with Basilisk leaning against Hazel. Right… let's get this thing back in there…” [/b] He said after a moment, pulling the netting off his back, and offering her a side of it. Together, they slid it back into the ocean. The slimy bait still tied in place.

It wasn’t much longer after that they began to see shapes of fish in the ocean before them. He cast big, excited eyes over at Hazel. It was working!

"Speech"