Mæva walked awkwardly through the snow with the turkey hanging from her jaws, its large body dragging on the ground as she walked. It was quickly becoming her favorite bird to eat. Her golden eyes scanned through the mangrove forest til she found a nice, dry spot. Shaking the snow from her coat she settled down start plucking the turkey. Flipping it over she delicately worked her jaws over a few feathers from the tail and pulled sharply. She set them down in the snow but the wind started to come up. "Ack, no!" She reached out and snatched one of the feathers, letting the wind take the other. She needed these for a project. Mæva glanced around then spied a rock, carefully she worked the rock over the stem of the feather.

Trotting back to the bird she opened the creatures breast, plucking out little feathers that she didn't care to keep and digging her jaws into the breast to reveal the meat below. She hoped to dry a bit more of it or in this case maybe she should try to freeze it? Could meat be frozen? Could you eat it afterward? She wrinkled her nose. Maybe that wasn't the best idea, she wasn't sure. Though she still wanted more jerky for her travels.

They boy had missed a bit of his meandering way and so he was out and about. He intended to bring something home for Twig as an apology for being so surly as of late. Growing brought hormones and he wasn't entirely sure how to deal with them yet. His voice had been deepening. He was getting furrier. His legs were getting longer. His body was filling out. It seemed as though, as soon as he'd come back to Abaven and had let Twig take care of him, everything within the young wolf righted itself. Now if he could just get a handle on his weird emotions...

Padding along, a little gust of wind blew. A few feathers came out of nowhere and one smacked him flatly right in the eye. Beat grunted and shook his head. The big feather had fallen and he put a paw on it. Where had it come from? Just then, he saw a wolf rise, move around a bit, and then duck down once more. Head tilting, he picked up the feather between his teeth and moved forward.

Coming upon the scene, he saw a young girl plucking a turkey, but she was having issues holding onto the feather. He had just begun to open his mouth to say something when she began to eat. Closing his lips together once more, the black and white boy frowned. Should he interrupt her meal? Should he wait?

Mæva licked some of the fat that had been left between the skin and the breast. She wasn't sure you could dry big globules of fat like that. Working her teeth under more of the breast meat she pulled off a few more strips to set on her rocks. As she did she heard paw steps and looked up to see an older boy standing there with a turkey feather in his mouth. "Oh! You caught the feather. Nice catch, you can keep it if you want." She glanced at the turkey and thought for a moment. "Do you want some meat and feathers for decorations and stuff? If you want to help I'm happy to split the kill 50/50." She bent her head down once more toward the tail of the turkey pulling out a few feathers before trotting over to the rock she was wedging them under to keep them from blowing away.

Thankfully she saw him so he didn't have to wait very long. The girl said that he could keep the feather and Beat just stood there, a little confused. When he saw her go to the stone and place feathers beneath it, he moved towards it and placed his feather there as well. Bashfully, he admitted, "I don't really know what to do with feathers." His head tilted slightly. "What are you going to do with them?" Moments later she said that the feathers were for decoration and he nodded slowly. Turkey feathers weren't very pretty, but maybe other people found them nice to look at.

Being invited to help, Beat decided to do so simply to have some temporary company. He'd spent too much time alone in his life. Settling on the other side of the turkey, the boy began carefully plucking the feathers. He trapped them beneath one striped foreleg. Only when he amassed a decent pile did he take take them all in his mouth and carry them to one of the heavier rocks. There, he put the feathers beneath the rock. "How are you going to carry all of these home?" Settling back down, he began plucking some more.



"Chatting." & 'Thinking'

Mæva worked happily along, her fangs latching around feathers as she jerked her head back to pull them free. She worked steadily, grabbing clumps of the feathers here and there. She spat suddenly, as she got a mouth full of mostly down. "Bleck! Well, I'm hoping to make some decorations for the entrance to my den. Maybe a few other things. I just have to see." It had all started as she'd tried to skin and prepare the hide of a turkey like a rabbit and that certainly hadn't worked the way she'd wanted.

She smiled as the boy moved in to help. "I'll pay you back in meat. I'm just trying to section some of it out and maybe get it drying a bit." She hadn't tried setting up a fire here but she had a fire ring farther south she could use if she carried the meat that way. She pulled a few more strips from the turkey and laid them out. There, that would be enough to make a good meal or two of jerky for a short road trip. She licked her lips. "I have a rabbit hide I'm going to stuff the nicer ones in with some of the meat. Then I'll fold the four corners in and grab it in my mouth to carry it. My name is Mæva by the way."

Listening as she laid out her plans for the feathers, the boy merely nodded. He wasn't the decorative sort. A den was a den. Did it need to look pretty? He would never understand girls. They just didn't make any sense to him. Hopefully some day they would. He was already beginning to think that some females were attractive. Hormones and all that.

Spitting out another mouthful of feathers, Beat looked to the girl as she spoke about sharing the meat with him. "Oh, you don't need to. I don't live too far from here." Not entirely true, but the boy wasn't hungry, nor did he want to take the food that she worked for. Plus bird meat was a little... gooey.

Beat began pulling strips of meat from other portions of the bird, careful to try and pull them straight. He laid them aside just as she was. When she gave her name, he didn't realize that they hadn't introduced themselves. "I'm Beat. Err... my name is Beat." Ears flattened a bit as he shot the girl bashful glance.



"Chatting." & 'Thinking'

Mæva examined the drying bits of meat. In some ways she was glad it was winter so there were fewer bugs to contend with and the air was generally dryer. Even so, it was still going to take awhile to dry the meat. The boy said she didn't need to share, stating that he didn't live to far from where they were. "Oh? I didn't know there was a pack around here. Do you like it there?"

She giggled as he introduced himself. "Nice to meet you Beat!" She trotted over to her piece of rabbit hide and pulled it over before using her teeth and paws to start placing feathers on top of it. After each one was added she'd fold part of the hide over to prevent them from blowing away. "There, I think that's enough feathers. Any more you want to add to the pile?"

"Uh, yeah. Abaven controls the plains and the islands nearby. Not very far." He could be home for dinner if he wanted to be. "I didn't used to like it there. I was gone for a long time." Raising one paw, he scratched an ear pensively. He didn't like talking about it, but he also didn't have anyone around that was close to his age. "My parents died. Then my aunt who was taking care of my brothers and me... she died too. I haven't been happy for most of my life." He forced a smile. "Things are getting better though. My aunt Twig is taking care of me while I get healthy again. I'm learning how to hunt and how to fight." He hadn't started the fighting bit yet, but as soon as he put on enough weight, he wanted to try.

Maeva asked if he had any more feathers and Beat nodded. Carefully he collected the largest of the feathers in his mouth and carried them to the rabbit skin that she'd been rolling them in. He placed the feathers down and gave the skin another little roll. They would be held secure until she took them back to... wherever she came from. "Where are you from? A pack?" She didn't smell like a pack wolf. There was a wild scent about her.

"Chatting." & 'Thinking'

Mæva listened quietly as Beat spoke, stating that he was from Abaven which didn't seem to be very far away. She was curious as to why he'd left for awhile but she didn't want to pry. Beat didn't seem bothered by explaining however and she felt a pang in her heart as he mentioned that his parents had died, as well as his aunt. "I'm sorry, Beat. I know a little of what that's like… I lost my mom. But, my dad and my siblings are here now and we have some family I'm excited to meet."

She smiled. "Really? Me to. I hope to be a really successful hunter one day." She was done with gathering feathers and would eat the turkey later. She shook her head in answer to Beat's question. "Nope, I used to be part of a band til we left for here but we're just living as loners now in the south. Well, I better get going. It was nice to meet you and I really do appreciate the help."