Aerndis trotted towards home, the sun dipping lower in the sky as she travelled. She glanced behind her, just double checking that her brothers were still there. She'd been so elated that sometimes she thought she was dreaming. So she checked, just to be sure her imagination wasn't taking off. A cool breeze was blowing in from the north but it felt good to her after walking for so long. "It's this way, see that shiny thing in the distance? That's the skeleton." She picked up the pace and bounded toward the metal beast. Grinning she bunched her hind legs beneath her then leapt onto the seat. Turning in place she draped herself over it, peering down at her brothers. "Ok, so what's the plan? What do each of us need to do?" She glanced at Jupiter since he'd brought up the idea of trapping their grandad in his den with something funny.

The trip to their family's lands took them to the edge of evening, but Orion hardly noticed the time passing him by. Being reunited so suddenly still had the young male reeling. He glared at the sun as it sank, worried still that when he woke up the next day it would all turn out to be a dream. Aerndis spoke and his attention was diverted back to the present. His eyes searched for a moment before finally landing on what she spoke of. It wasn't quite the dragon he'd imagined, but it was definitely unlike anything he'd ever seen before. "Woah. I wonder where it came from..." He watched his sister leap up onto the beast's remains and settle herself there. "Ok, so what's the plan? What do each of us need to do?" It was an excellent question, and Orion also turned to his brother to see if Jup had any idea of where to start. Finding a suitable nuisance creature would be a challenge and keeping it contained would be another, but he had faith in their abilities. "Maybe we could dig a hole and cover it with something. Then when the old man shows up he'll investigate and set it loose himself." That seemed like an okay plan, at least at face value. The logistics were still fuzzy, but Orion preferred to cross his bridges as he came to them. No use preemptively fretting. Worse comes to worse they could always just fill the thing with dead fish or something. The possibilities were limitless. "Talk" "Listen" Think

Jupiter's gaze roved slowly between his siblings as they spoke. He wasn't completely convinced either of them knew what they were getting into, but hey, what better way to introduce Orion to the rest of the family? He felt his sister's gaze on him and gave a noncommittal shrug in response to her question while he thought it over. She had started this whole thing; he was merely along for the ride...which was probably for the better. Traps and trickery were more Amadeus' thing than his. Most of the time he was simply the muscle in their schemes so it was kind of a shame his companion had decided not to help them mess with their grandfather. "Not a bad idea. Think one of us should run interference during the set up? He's really good about doing things when you don't want him to and it would be like him to turn up suddenly and ruin everything." He had spidey sense for that sort of thing. "Jupiter"   "Amadeus" ”You”

Aerndis had no idea where the skeleton came from but she imagined it was from some ancient creature. She'd travelled all over Boreas and never saw anything that looked like it might be a living version of the skeletal form in front of her. A shame. She'd love to have seen what it looked like when it was alive. She assumed whatever it was it was some kind of giant bug. Its remnants looked more like an exoskeleton than anything she'd find in her usual prey. Or maybe it was a giant land crab or something.

Aerndis pondered Orion's idea of digging a pit for Valen to fall into. "Hmmm, maybe. It would have to be a pretty big hole if we were gonna fit all of him in it. I'm not sure how we'd disguise it so that he wouldn't notice. He might be too clever for that unless we can distract him some how." She nodded as Jupiter spoke. She could definitely see Valentine showing up before they were ready. "I did have another thought. We could try filling his den with something interesting. If it were frogs or a live thing we'd have to find a way to seal it off. Otherwise maybe we could do some interesting smelling plans… oh… well, maybe not." She glanced around herself at the wintery landscape. Finding some really interesting plants in the dead of winter was not going to be easy. Maybe they'd best go with the hole idea.

Orion had been fairly pleased with his idea, so when Aerndis seemed to seize on it he wilted for a moment. A second later he snorted. Although the idea she seemed to have pictured was much more hilarious in his mind, he agreed entirely that it was silly. But he'd meant something else. "Not a pit for him, just one small enough to stuff a... oh I don't know, like a skunk or something in there. Frogs'd be great too, or anything! Whatever we find first!" He bounded a few paces away from the skeleton. He stopped as Jupiter made a... pretty good point. Interference, right. That made a lot of sense, not like there was an abundance of cover out here this time of year. "Right well, who's least likely to get their ass chewed off if found wandering round his den?" Pointedly, Orion took several long strides further away from the strange metal beast. "C'mon, we're wasting time!" He began trotting away from the other two, leaving Aerndis and Jup to figure it out for themselves. One of them would catch up sooner or later. He briefly shuddered to think at what might happen if the old man happened to stumble upon him, but quickly deemed it a worry to be addressed at a later time, and stuck his nose to the ground. How hard could it really be to find a skunk, anyway? "Talk" "Listen" Think