Mæva squared her shoulders and continued to pull with Geira's help, dragging the corpse of a bighorn sheep into the shade. Not that the vultures had that much trouble picking up the scent. They landed nearby and watched the struggling yearling. Already the corpse had been picked and pecked at, most of the entrails had already been consumed.

It was a yearling male and so Mæva wasn't quite sure what had killed it but one of the legs was broken. Whether that was done by a predator or a simple accident it was hard to say but either way she wasn't keen on letting such an opportunity pass by. Her caracal companion leapt for the vultures with a snarl, sending them scattering back into the air. Mæva was hoping to dry some of the meat as well as harvest the horns to use as a container. The hide was pocked full of holes and she wasn't sure that was worth salvaging. The meat she could do but did they have the energy to keep fending off vultures? As for the horns… she had no idea how to get them off. It looked like a terrible lot to chew through.

Red trotted along, his gaze slowly sweeping across the desert lands. He was looking for crafting supplies, anything would do. Pretty stones to polish, soft metals that could be worked without smithing, feathers, quills (his own being closer to hedgehog bristles meant that they weren't removable and were therefore not a convenient source of quills), bones... well, anything really. While he acted as a hunter for Valhalla, crafting had always been his true passion and he'd developed his hunting skills specifically to support that habit, but some things couldn't be obtained by hunting and others were simply easier to just pick up where they'd been abandoned by other hunters, so it didn't hurt to go on these little collecting missions to see what he could find. He had a set of saddlebags slung over his back to tuck his finds into, and his tools were rolled up into a hide that was simply laid across the saddlebags to be more easily accessed without needing to wriggle out of the saddlebag setup in order to get to them. Among the tools were firemaking supplies and a serrated blade he'd attached lengthwise to a leather pad for his paw so he could - with a great deal of effort - saw through larger wood to build better fires. A coticule whetstone he'd been able to find in the rubble of an old mine waited beside it, ready to sharpen the serations at need. He'd used the serrated blade to cut pieces out of large bones or interesting chunks of wood he wanted to bring with him as well, so dragging it around certainly was worthwhile even if he never had to build a fire.

He lifted his eyes to the horizon at the sudden flurry of vultures taking flight and hesitated a moment before changing his direction to where they had taken off from. A small figure seemed to be struggling near where they'd been, and he was concerned.

Getting closer showed a young wolf, probably not even a year old, struggling to drag a bighorn along with her. The vultures, or some other scavenger, had obviously already been at the body, but she seemed determined. "Excuse me, miss. Could you use an extra set of paws to help you with that?" he asked her, modulating his voice gently to not startle her if she was the fearful type - though the fearful type would probably not be battling vultures for their would-be meal.

Mæva leapt over her kill and snapped viciously at one of the vultures, sending it soaring up into the sky. She knew it would be back. They were unlikely to leave her alone as long as she had this kill with her. Her head jerked up as a voice reached her and she saw it was a man with an odd assortment of items hanging off his body. She glanced at the kill then back at the man. "Yes, actually. I'm willing to split it for some help. I was hoping to dry some of the meat and take one of the horns but I'm not sure how to do either of those things. Especially, with these vultures hanging around." A his alerted her to Geira who swatted at one of the vultures, her claws managing to catch it in the head, sending it hopping away.

Red tilted his head with open interest at her professed plan for the sheep. "I'd be more than happy to help. Were you planning on sun-drying or smoking the meat? Smoking would keep the flies... and probably these vultures..." he added, snapping at a brave one himself to drive it away as he came closer. "Smoke would likely keep them off the meat long enough to get it preserved." The girl had already dragged the sheep into a shady area, so Red pulled the rolled hide off his back, then shrugged out of the harness holding the packs. He really needed to get actual saddlebags and a harness built to fit him, instead of the makeshift things he'd been using. It would be so much more comfortable. The vultures had retreated to a more comfortable distance with the presence of another wolf, but he had no illusions that the sneaky scavengers would stay gone. Hopefully the girl's cat would keep any of the braver birds at bay until they could get what they could salvage from the battered kill. With one eye on the sky, he set to unrolling the hide to reveal the tools with an amused flourish.

Mæva kept her eyes on the vultures but her ears focused on the man's words. "Well, I was planning on sun-drying them but only because that was the only way I knew how. How do you smoke something, can you show me?" She was intrigued by the possibility of drying the meat while keeping away flies and vultures.

She bounded toward one of the vultures and caught its wing. It squawked and hopped off. "Do you know how to get the horns off one of these sheep? I'd like to keep them but I'm not sure how to get them off. Do you just have to chew?"