Less Work For More Food

Fern smiles as the huge pup wags his tail. She gently encourages him through the next steps, reminding the pup that it isn’t about speed but doing a through job. When they are done, the gray girl offers him more praise, saying, “Well done Basilisk! See, not as bad you thought it would be… right?” A chuckle bubbles out as she stands and gathers the items together to stow them in the pack she had. Throwing the pack over her shoulders, she readies to go find a good spot to lay the trap. When Bas questions how she plans to get something to walk over it, she lifts her eyebrows and looks to the inquisitive pup with pride, saying, “Good question Basilisk. Part of setting a trap is placing it where the prey has no other choice then to run through it. Come on, I’ll show.”

With that, the gray girl leads the way in the direction where deer usually liked to graze, her eyes sweeping the area for a suitable place. They approach a gap in a short stone wall with two large trees bracketing the sides of the gap and Fern’s eyes light up as she calls Basilisk over to it, pointing out how the trees will work to help funnel the prey toward the gap. Putting the bag down, Fern fishes out the trap as she explains, “We can force the deer through here and make it leap over the short wall. We will place the trap were we except it to land. Now, help me put this together.”

The pair work together wrapping one of the long strips of leather from the wooden sticks around a thick trunk of the tree and stretch the line taunt. The other line is wrapped around a thin branch of the other tree and pulled as tight as they can get it without breaking said branch. It bows but does not break and the sticks are slotted together. Finally, the braided rope that they had made is attached to the other end of the leather strip wrapped around the branch and the wide slip-knot is laid on the ground under the sticks. When the sticks break, the tension from the branch will be released and the bent branch will fly back up into its normal position, pulling the slip-knot closed in the progress.

Nodding to herself, Fern then directs Basilisk to help her toss some of the loose grass and leaves over the trap to finish their trap. Once done, the gray girl steps back and scents the air, finding a herd of deer not too far off from them. Turning her eye up to the huge pup, she says, “Okay Basilisk! There is a herd of deer close by. Lead me to them.” Her smile is warm as she follows after the aspiring hunter.


"Fern Lark" | "Puff"