It was a very long walk for someone with such short legs, especially with all the snow around, and she hadn't quite gotten around to considering just how she would get her bounty home when she was done... She should have asked Ghoul if she could borrow his caimans. As it was, her two new friends bounded along beside her without too much care, her zorilla matching her bounding frolick, and the honey badger all but plowing a path ahead for them, grumbling all the while (poor girl was probably wondering how she got suckered into helping out these nutjobs).

Finally, the snow gave way to sand, the beach snow much shallower due to the massive king tide that had pulled all sorts of creatures up from the deep. In the past, she had used big tides like this one to survive, just scavenging whatever she could from what had washed up, but now? Well, there were more mouths to feed than just her own.

At least her honey badger was sturdy enough to help her do some of the lifting.

As they picked their way through the wrack line, a weathered bit of wood caught her eye, kinda curved like it had peeled off the trunk of a tree. With just a length of kelp, she quickly fashioned herself a sled, bringing the slimy cold seaweed across her chest as they continued to pick their way down the beach. What she hadn't been expecting to see, was a big (well, not big compared to Ghoul, but bigger than her) red wolf, passed out on the sand.

Her zorilla spotted it first, bounding forward with abandon to push against the stranger's shoulder, Cricket following close behind while the badger stepped into the kelp she had left behind and bought the sled along with them.

”Speech”  ’Thought’

It's time to raise the curtain

-304/1500-

She... might have had a bit too much to drink last night.

Rota wasn't sure how or why she had come to this beach, perhaps it was just to watch the ocean rise up to swallow the land before her. Her bastard donkey had bitten her tail to stop her from wading into the frigid ocean, despite her manic laughter at the way the wind whipped the ocean into white caps. She wanted to go home, not back to the mountain that belonged to her brother, she wanted to see their tiny faces again. The violent weather had matched her drunken rage. She wanted to go back to the water, on fire or not. She had had enough of this life.

It was the gulls that called her back, that and something dead smelling pushing at her shoulder. She bared her teeth before she cracked her eyes against the glaring mid-day sun, her low growl hopefully enough warning that the strange creature should just let a sleeping wolf lay there and die. Her fucking head was pounding, her stomach as roiling as the sea the night before. The disappointment of awakening was pushed down by the bile that rose in her throat, quickly scrambling to her feet and moving a few steps away from whatever that small thing was to upend the contents of her stomach all over the sand just a short distance away. There was nothing graceful about the coughing and hacking sound. She was no lady.

Eyes squinting against the unbearable glare of the sun, she turned to see who had dragged her back to this gods forsaken plane of existence. She had to blink a few times to clear her vision. The black and white things smelled horrible but the canine shape with them wasn't much bigger than they were... Her head canted. "Så liten, så högljudd," Her voice was a long suffering sound, laced with a grumble that wasn't quite a growl. "What do you want?"

“Speech”

-635/1500-

Cricket's heart was in her throat up until the other wolf rose and scrambled, vomiting violently onto the sand. She had, for a second thought that she had been washed up in the tide, drowned or something. She couldn't smell the pack scent through the stale alcohol smell, but she was certain someone would be looking for her right? She looked like a wolf should, she wouldn't be run off from place to place like Cricket had before she found Ghoul.

The growl set the tiny girls hackles on end, her tail lifting high and her chin tipping up in defiance. She all but vibrated at the raspy tone the other woman used (forgetting in that moment that she had just thrown up and that was never a pleasant experience). "Oi! We jus' came here to look for fish and thought you were dead. Sorry for caring!" The tiny wolf stomped her paw in the sand with a glare, ignoring the way her own stomach complained at even the mention of food. It had been a long journey after all.

Spinning on her heel she headed back towards the frigid waves, hoping her companions would follow without the need for further direction. Just a little bit out, it looked like there was something large stranded in the shallows. She bounded forward with determination, ignoring the little voice in the back of her head that warned her she just might drown if she wasn't careful.

”Speech”  ’Thought’

It's time to raise the curtain

-881/1500-

Rota's ears turned back, partially from the ear-splitting pain that ricocheted around her skull when the tiny thing screeched at her, and partially in shame, though she did smirl at the way the smaller wolf bristled and spat like an agitated cat. Her green squinting eyes scanned the delta before them as the tiny thing stomped off, and their eyes must have fallen on the same dark shadow thrashing back and forth in the shallows at the same time. More bile rose to the back of her throat but this time it wasn't the hangover... or maybe it was, because the earth still swayed beneath her paws as she rose off her sorry ass and followed the tiny green thing and her two stinky companions closer to the water. If the little one tried to take down something that outweighed her dear brother alone, well, it probably wouldn't bode well for the small one, and there was something about her demeanor that made the viking want to assist, protect. Was this meeting fated by her dear brother's gods after all? Despite all the ire she flung their way...

Grumbling again as the frigid water bit at her legs, she waded out, quickly catching the smaller wolf and striding past her to circle the trapped giant. "This would be easier with a net... I will drive it to you, be ready." Although as if preempting these words her donkey arrived. She had forgotten she had packed hunting supplies on his back before they had set out from the mountain. Taking one end of the net in her mouth and leaving the other tethered to her companion, she circled the fish, net dragging behind her to cut off any access to deeper water if it managed to free itself from whatever held it in place in these shallow waters. She suspected some sort of shallow sand bar.

The fish seemed to sense its impending doom, thrashing violently enough to break the surface of the sea.

“Speech”

-1218/1500-

Cricket hadn't expected the red wolf to rise up and follow her, even if her steps were a little unsteady, Cricket thought maybe the cold water would take the edge of her hangover. She hadn't even noticed the laden-down donkey hanging back in the sand dunes until it trotted up to its master, splashing water in its wake. It was super cute! If very small and seemed to have the answer for its master's problem the moment the words about a net left her lips. Cricket hadn't even considered that, even though Mac had showed her how to make one and everything!

The water began to roil as the net closed in on the shadow, was it one big fish or a school of smaller ones? The large tail breaking the surface seemed to answer that question for her and as the fish turned to swim back at the net, Cricket pounced, grabbing onto the tail with all her might! It was a strong fish and her feet liffted off the sand, her eyes and nose filling with salt water as it flailed. She couldn't see her new friend the honey badger grabbing the red woman's end of the net, she couldn't see or hear much of anything being dunked first one way and then the other underneath the water, but she wasn't going to let go, no sir-ree. This fish was dinner!.
”Speech”  ’Thought’

It's time to raise the curtain

-1452/1500-

Rota hadn't expected the tiny wolf to lunge so early, her small frame being flopped around and potentially drowned with each flop of the tarpon's tail. Exasperated was about the only word that could be used to describe the vikings expression. When the badger thing approached, she yielded her grip on the net reluctantly, expecting the overgrown rodent to be pulled out to sea with the thrashing of the fish, but the thing was decidedly sturdy, growling and tugging the net ever closer to the shore.

Now free from her task, the heavy woman dove into the fray, grabbing the base of the fishes tail a little further up the body than her tiny hunting companion and heaved back. The combined effort of the donkey, badger and the two wolves quickly had the massive fish beached, all they had to do now was make sure it didn't flop it's way back into the ocean. Rota didn't even have a blade on her, so she stumbled back up to the sand dunes to grab a bottle she had smashed in her drunken stupor the night before. She expertly used the shattered glass to open the things neck, only vaguely noticing they had managed to drag it up the beach and its own flopping had left it in a position Idunn would approve of. She snorted between her pants, the world still spinning around her. “You have many friends to feed, hjärtat? You don't look like much of this would fit in your belly.” Not that she was looking for a meal, but her brother might be a little more forgiving if she returned with something to show for her absence. It was big enough that they could go halves and neither would go hungry.

“Speech”

-1746/1500-

When the rust coloured woman asked her if she had many mouths to feed, her head canted. Insomnia was a pretty big pack but if it hadn't been for her new friend and her donkey, well, Cricket wasn't afraid to admit that she probably would have drowned. Giving her tail a wave to show she wasn't offended by the question, she nodded to the other wolf, "A whole pack, but you're welcome to half, you put in just as much work as I did... Probably even more really but I'd appreciate the extra for my friends..." Her look was a hopeful one, like maybe that would suffice for the other woman.
”Speech”  ’Thought’

It's time to raise the curtain