Corbie had returned home to the plains with a little time to spare before lambing, so she had taken the time to place the meat supplies she'd brought in the supplies, and taken the sledge back out. It wouldn't be long before it was too warm and melted the ice that temporarily "glued" the sledge together, so she might as well get some more use out of it. To that end, she had taken up the rawhide collar that went around her chest and shoulder and set off with it to collect wood. She didn't often choose to have a fire, usually only when she needed it to dry meats, boil something, or something like that. But when she did, she wanted to have a readily available supply of sticks small enough for her to snap in her jaws - which, since they could break femurs, meant they could be pretty large, but she preferred not to spend all her time chomping up wood for a fire, so a lot of what she usually collected was fairly small. Living on the grasslands though, meant that she didn't have a ready supply of wood that size, or any size. She might not have time to restock during lambing, and a fire might very well come in handy for warming chilled lambs, so she took the sledge off to the nearest supply of hardwoods, which was the small grove in the emerald valley she always visited. Luckily with her small needs she never did end up taking enough to deplete the supply before it could rejuvenate itself.

Stepping out of the rawhide collar and leaving the sledge where it was for the moment, Corbie stepped up to the first tree, a sturdy maple sapling, and began working to snap it some of the branches off where they met the trunk.

Life was at a standstill in Aerie and Deus was as guilty as the rest of them for allowing such complicity to come over them all. He was an Abraxas wolf, born and raised to further God's mission and see his family returned to their throne in the heavens... and yet he'd allow himself to grow fat and lazy. He had taken Danta's death hard, and nearly lost himself in the process. Change was hard, and so he chose to start small. For one, he'd need to build up his densite. Over the last year he'd alternated between his own hastily dug hole in the wall, to bedding down in the grass outside Riva's greenhouse during the Long Night, and then finally curling up outside what was once his sister's. He needed a real home with strong bones, like his. He'd decided on a location in the ravine, near to Danta's old one but still distanced from his family in a symbolic action of independence. What he'd need first was some wood, to both add reinforcement to the internal structure and to function as a set of stairs up into the entrance for his much-smaller companions, who finally were nearing adulthood. He considered simply harvesting from the ravine itself, but decided against it. The wood there belonged to the pack as a whole and he had no intention of taking from the trees that in part helped to provide for them. He hoped as well that if he moved further off to collect the materials, he might find a color of bark that stood out more when used aesthetically outside his den. Asmodeus was an Abraxas, he did not hide in the shadows camouflaged, he wanted his individual home to stand out as unique as he himself was. As an afterthought, he considered the possibility of over-achieving, of bringing home a variety of thing, gangly branches that could be paired well with the ravine's multitude of vines to create a variety of traps. Laying these traps throughout the territory would aid in protection, would provide food for the growing pack, and would prove he was ready to put the effort in. The walk to the nearest woods was, well, long. Longer when one drug a cart behind him, and longer still when that cart was spilling over with the limbs of dogs who had decided to volunteer themselves for the ride. North of their home was a sparse series of deserts, and by the time he'd reached the emerald valley he'd begun to regret coming this far at all. It was only the distinct look of the maple trees that kept him from turning back there and then, and he trotted up toward the cluster of woods to where another was harvesting the trees. "You think that big guy has enough to share?" Deus asked with an easy smile, disconnecting himself from his cart and giving it a soft kick to wake up the sleeping canines within. "Speech"

Corbie glanced up from her task to see another wolf approaching, pulling a cart. Presumably he was here to harvest wood as well, to fill the cart, and his question bore out that assumption. She dropped another branch into her own sledge and nodded to him as she bent another branch with her paws to begin the process of breaking it away. "Yes, this grove should be able to -" She stopped as he bumped the wagon with his paw, disturbing the contents and drawing her attention to them... Corbie's heart just melted at the sight of the slumbering, gangly young dogs tangled up there, and her paws paused on the slender branch as she gazed down into the cart with a particular soft expression reserved for young things. "Oh my goodness, they are so adorable."

The stranger was amicable and Deus stepped closer as she continued to break branches off the tree, reaching his own paws up to bend at one of the branches. It was thin and slender, unsuitable for any sort of structural support and he frowned as it bent easily against his weight. This would not work for his intended plans at restructuring his den. His thoughts were broken by her soft womanly gushing, and Deus couldn't help but grin as he turned to see what it was she was referring to. The puppies were stirring from their sleep, clambering over each other to exit the cart and giving sleepy stretches as they observed their new surrounding. "Yes, a gift from my uncle. Lately they've been my entire world, silly things." Snapping the slender branch off from the tree, he tossed it past the dogs. "Fetch." He mused, a grin on his maw as the puppies raced for the branch. He thought back to the predicament at hand, testing the strength of the next branch with his paw and finding it was as bendable as the last. More suited to a snare then to anything concrete and structural. It was not why he'd come here, but perhaps he could make the most of it regardless. He still needed enough slender twigs to fashion into his network of traps, and surely any young hunter would rather come home with a cartful of traps then simple aesthetic embellishments. Seeking out the most flexible and lengthly branch, he continued on. "My name is Asmodeus, do you live around here?" "Speech"

Corbie shook herself slightly to draw herself out of the spell of adorableness the puppies had cast over her as he sent the gangly pups off chasing a stick. She gave the stranger a smile. "I can see why they would become anyone's entire world. Sweet little ones." She sighed wistfully after them, then used her fangs to cut through the broken fibers still connecting the branch to the tree as she considered. She got to spend a lot of time around babies the last couple years with the lambs, but there was something special about babies that resembled your own species so closely. But she could not take the time to raise any sort of baby like that, neither pups of her own or more companion pups, when she was running the flock and the bees alone. Maybe in the future, she wouldn't be doing this alone, and she could devote the time to having a family of her own. "It's a pleasure to meet you, Asmodeus," she said once the branch fibers had parted and she'd spat out the bark. "I am Corbie. I live a few lands over, on the grasslands. I haven't seen you around, did you have to travel far?"

The woman - Corbie, her name was - was clearly enamored by the puppies, and Deus couldn't help but keep his soft smile in reply. There was something about children that brought out the best in others, he'd yet to meet a wolf that was not softened by the presence of a young one, his stoic uncle included. The pups raced to catch the stick, clambering over each other hurriedly until the largest of the two eventually came out the victor. With a prideful strut she carried the branch back to the cart and placed it down like a prize, her tail wagging frantically. Her brother simply huffed in indignance, glaring over at the stranger. Deus caught the stare, and laughed. "Oh no, you've offended him." Deus mused. "Don't worry buddy, you're not little at all." Continuing with his collection, Deus tore down a third and final slender branch. Collecting the other from the base of the tree, he moved to place both of them into the cart with the heavily chewed one that had been the puppy's toy. "I live south of here, a pack called Aerie." He replied conversationally, examining the branches with his paws. A snare had not been something he'd crafted in years, not since Aureus had first taught him the practice. How did it go again? First he'd need to strip the branches of bark, he thought, and so he got to work working his teeth down the branch and spitting the leavings out over the cart's side. "On the grasslands a few lands over?" Deus spoke up again after a moment, brow furrowed in thought. "Did you come from Fireside? A shame they disbanded." "Speech"

The puppy's glare only brought a smile to Corbie's face, though she hid it by turning her head toward Deus instead. He told her he was from a pack called Aerie, and she nodded to that, though when he asked if she was from Fireside she changed it to a negative. "Oh, no, I'm not from Fireside. I live by myself - I'm from the grasslands on the opposite side. I suppose I'm not sorry they disbanded, though," she said, thinking back to her guardian's scars in distaste. It was the darkness in the Imperialis family that had let to his terrible injuries during the volcano's eruption, well before he had found her. "But it's always a pity to see packs fade away," she added diplomatically. Deus didn't necessarily know anything about the family who had run that pack - she couldn't blame him for thinking with fondness of them.

She moved to a different sapling next to them so she didn't cause a problem for any one tree she gathered from, and again began to crack branches off. That these were green branches didn't much bother her, since they would have time to season before they were needed to replace what she used. She'd collect more deadwood too, to be sure she had enough. "So," she continued after a moment. "Aerie? What is it like living there? I've never been part of a pack before, so I'm curious."

With the branches peeled, Deus found himself forgetting what the next step to the process was. He'd used snares before, but they'd always been crafted by one of his family's primate companions and then given to him to set. Frowning down at the revealed green beneath the bark, he considered it. Corbie's response broke him from his thoughts, his brow raising in surprise. "No? To be honest I don't know much of them at all. Or, didn't." Never had he really approached his father or alpha and asked for information on the neighboring packs - what did this woman know, that Aerie could potentially use? Did she hold a grudge against the Imperialis, who had for as long as he was alive live on that range? "What were they like?" Deus did not want to seem outright like he was prying, and smoothly moved into answering instead the question she had posed. He chose to keep his cards close to his chest, speaking on pack life itself rather then specifics on how his pack functioned. "It's nice having stability and the security of a home you never have to wander away from. To watch children play and know they are safe from harm because the borders are well kept. And while pack mates drive you crazy sometimes, there's definitely a benefit to the communal aspect, a sharing of knowledge or materials, or even just a shoulder when you need one. I couldn't imagine giving it up and living on my own, you must be a very strong individual to be capable of it." He returned to his branches, remembering the predicament he was in with his work-in-progress snare, and placing his paws on either side of the branch to see if it could curve into a loop. "Hey, do you by chance know how to get these into the proper loops to form a snare?" "Speech"

She was relieved that the other wolf hadn't seemed to know the Fireside pack well. It was always a pity when someone otherwise pleasant chose to associate with those who... Weren't. Still, she shrugged noncommittally to his question. "All i know of them was from before their most recent alpha, when his uncle ruled it. They seem very... Unconcerned with others. Might is right, mercy and kindness are weakness, and those who disagree with them are harassed and bullied."

She was quiet a long moment after he described life in a pack. She found herself longing for it in a way she had never considered. It was odd, to feel like you missed something you had never had.

She was glad at the change of subject, as it had made her oddly melancholy and she didn't think that she would be good company for Deus if they continued in that vein. Instead she set the last bundle of branches in her sledge and moved over to see what he was asking about. "I'm sorry, I don't know anything about that technique," she admitted. "Any time I have made a snare I have used sinew for the loop, and tied a living sapling to it. I'd drape the loop over some grass to keep it open, the rabbit would run into it and pull it off the hook holding the sapling down, and the sapling would snap back up and bring the rabbit in the snare with it." she quickly demonstrated with loose pieces of wood without the sinew snare. "That's really good for places that have a lot of saplings, like here, and it is really nice to have the rabbit held where no scavengers can reach to rob it, but there really aren't trees where I live so I can't use that method, I have to build my own frame for the snare. Is that maybe what you were thinking of?"

Deus absorbed her observations on how Fireside had once run, a small tingling of upset flaring in his chest as he considered how a stranger might give a similar short-form explanation to Aerie. The woman was quite a pleasant one to be around, but clearly even she had limits on how much she could politely accept. Were there uninformed wolves out there who looked upon Aerie similarly? Who labeled them - and him, by extension - as unconcerned with others, believing in might over kindness, and bullying and harassing those who did not follow their faith? He frowned, suddenly disturbed by the train of thought. Those who could not accept the ways of an Abraxas wolf simply did not understand what it was to be of divine pedigree, he told himself, forcing the negative feelings away and returning his focus to the gentle wolf with whom he was sharing the day. As she was glad for the change in subject, so was Asmodeus. He gave her a soft apologetic smile as she admitted not being able to follow the technique, a chuckle rumbling in his throat. "Honestly it's been a long time since I've tried to snare anything. My uncle taught me before he died, but I was so young. Maybe I'm misremembering the basics of it." Flicking the slender branch aside with his toe, he turned to her. "Your technique sounds like it might work, and I do have many trees in the ravine where my pack lives. I can imagine how it would work with a sapling, but I'd be grateful if you could show me how it works with a frame." Trading knowledge was something Deus knew was done often throughout the world, and not often for free. He continued, dipping his head respectfully. "I would of course be willing to pay you for your time, I'd just need to make a quick trip home to pay whatever your price may be." "Speech"

"Oh, you don't have to pay me anything. I'm more than happy to help." Corbie waved away his offer of payment. She thought it was bittersweet and admirable that the male was trying to continue to use what a long-passed uncle had taught him. It felt like... honoring the uncle's memory, something that greatly appealed to a woman who had so few memories of family who had passed. She did the same with the drinks she made, following in her mother's footsteps.

She poked through the wood she'd gathered for fires - she hadn't intended them to be used for snares, but perhaps he'd be willing to trade the slender branches he'd cut for the thicker pieces she'd be using. She took enough for two snare frames, and carefully pulled six pieces of sinew from the twist that formed the harness of her sledge.

She passed half the supplies to Deus. She figured the best way to learn was to do, so she'd grabbed enough to demonstrate while he also built one. The valley was crisscrossed with rabbit trails, along with other small game, so it would be a very practical lesson. "Ok, so you want to start with the two forked sticks," she said, pawing at the thick y-shaped sticks. "Get them into the ground as well as you can on either side of a rabbit trail. You want it to be pretty sturdy so it can't tip over or be pulled out. She demonstrated, pushing and twisting one of the sticks until they were in the ground quite a ways, then moving about two feet away to do the same to the other one on the other side of the trail, leaving enough sticking out of each of them to be much taller than a rabbit.

Deus gave the woman a grateful smile as she declined payment, moving in to watch as she demonstrated the technique beginning with the frame. The valley was home to many prey animals, and it was clear rabbits moved through this cluster of maples frequently. It did not take much observation to determine where they were most likely to emerge from on their next trip through to the water, and once he'd finished watching her demonstration he moved off to a second trail with the pieces of wood she'd offered. "They must be forked?" He asked, as he worked them into the ground. It made sense if they were laying out some sort of working of vine across it, but finding forked sticks would be more difficult then simply splitting the end of one with a tooth might be. Deus was an avid learner - he had to be, to fully realize his goal of growing into a worthy Abraxas specimen - and questions came with the territory of being a student. Once one stick was wedged securely in the dirt, he moved on to the next, working it carefully opposite of the other so the two bordered either side of the rabbit trail. "Speech"

He asked a good question, and Corbie gave it some thought instead of moving immediately to the next step. "It could work to split the top, but the pressure on it might cause it to continue to split all the way down, so you wouldn't be able to reuse it. If you use sinew above and below, it might stop it from splitting..." she said thoughtfully. "But a forked stick might be better to use. Here, see, this is where the pressure will come from." Before she began she stuck two of the pieces of sinew into her mouth, then she grabbed the longest, thick stick and placed it on top of the two forked branches. Two more sticks, each a bit less than half the length of the top stick, she jammed into the ground near the center of the top stick but rather far forward of it, right on either side of the rabbit trail, then leaned each of them back towards the forked sticks to lean against them, forming a triangle between the straight stick, the forked stick, and the ground. Taking a piece of sinew out of her mouth where it had been getting steadily soaked, she tightly wrapped the wet sinew around the place where all three sticks on the one side met. When dried, the sinew would hold them tightly. She did the same to the other side, then with her mouth freed of the sinew she spoke again. "See, the center stick is going to hold the snare itself, so when the rabbit is caught it will be pulling down and maybe away, and the center branch will put a lot of pressure on the sticks holding it up. I think you could put the stick in a split in the uprights if you put sinew below it to stop the split, and sinew above it to keep it from bouncing out when its got something pulling on it, but you'd still need to figure out an attachment point for the diagonals too. These diagonals here," she indicated the shorter sticks that formed a triangle with the forked sticks, "they help a bit with keeping the frame straight and giving it rigidity. You can see that it also forces the rabbit straight down the center of the path, which is where we're going to put the loop, so they can't just happen to go to one side or the other and miss it."

Her logic made sense, and Deus nodded along with the explanation, watching once more as she demonstrated further technique - this one, much more complex. The angle of the sticks intrigued and confused him, but in combination with her explaination and the knowledge that what they were building now was a frame, he was able to follow along. The wetting of sinew in his mouth was a new one as well, and he shuffled forward to retrieve a few pieces from the pile she had separated for him and mirrored her, letting them soak in his cheeks while he worked on the rest. First was the stick at the top, and with the understanding that the specific trait of the forked branch would make the trap reusable, he easily accepted the requirement. Carefully he placed the longest of the branches across the top to be held between the forks, stepping back before he continued to make sure the core of his frame appeared to be placed in the correct position and of an acceptable size. With the basic square built, he moved onto her triangles, replicating them to the best of his ability so that each stick provided the structural integrity for the trap as well as a guide away from any holes the rabbit might want to squeeze through. Once that was set, he spit out the mess of sinew, grimacing slightly. "An acquired taste, I hope?" He mused with a grin, approaching the frame with careful paws and beginning to wrap the wet sinew where she had indicated. "This could be done with vines as well, I assume? They're in more plentiful supply back home then prey animals are." "Speech"

Corbie grinned at him. "I'd usually soak them in a container of water, not my mouth, so I don't know if the taste ever does grow on you. She took the last piece o sinew up as she considered his question. "I think for the frame vines would probably work, but it wouldn't be white as study. Cordage might work better but it takes some time and effort to make it so that'd be something to think about. The noose should definitely be sinew or wire though." She took that opportunity to pop the sinew into her mouth to wet it again - yeah admittedly it didn't taste great - and when she took it out again it was pliable. Twisting a slip loop in one end, she held it up so it draped over her paw. "You want a really big knot where the snare would be very tight to a rabbit's neck. Big enough that it would be hard to pull it through this loop, but not so big it would be impossible." She demonstrated, then fed the free end of the sinew threw the loop until the loop rested against the knot. "When the rabbit jerks on the noose, it tightens past this knot and then it can't loosen again even if they stop pulling, so they can't escape it." She knotted the free end of the sinew around the top branch of the frame so it was centered, then spread the noose open more so it gaped open wide.

She stepped back and surveyed it, satisfied. She didn't think she really had the time to wait for the results of their snares to come naturally, but she did want to know they held up. "Should we save time and give them a test run by frightening some rabbits through here?" The Best way to use snares was to set them and leave, letting the snare do all the work,but driving game into them was a viable, if less relaxing, option too.

The snare was nearing completion, the last step being the hardest yet - the noose made of sinew. Corbie seemed to have seasons of practice with the particular technique, and Deus knew his work would not be nearly as clean or precise. It was a lesson however, and if his noose could not hold the rabbit in it's death throes then he'd have shown a fault in his work that perhaps the kindly woman could help him to overcome. He wet another long strand of sinew, passing it back and forth within his cheeks to encourage it to absorb the liquid faster so he'd not have to suffer so long with the taste. Spitting it back out into his paw, he settled down in the dirt to begin to work the knot as instructed. It required both his paws as well as his teeth to figure out how to slide the rope between itself properly, the puppies having fallen back asleep in their cart before he could beckon them over to assist. This would be easier with a primate companion, Deus thought as he worked, though eventually he'd come out with a noose looking similar to her own. Hopefully it would hold as well. Deus placed the sinew noose in the wooden frame just as Corbie had, gently manipulating the loop to gape widely to prepare for the first rabbit who would be chased through it. He stepped back, observed the construction with pride, and then turned to the monochromatic woman with an easy smile. "I think that's a wonderful idea." He agreed. "Hopefully between both our traps, we'll get lucky at least once." "Speech"

Deus was quick to agree with her idea, probably wanting to test them right away too rather than wait and see what happened. If there was a problem with the frame or the noose better to find out now rather than when you were depending on the meat from the trap. She slipped around the trap to follow the rabbit trail, thinking there was likely to be a warren on the other end of it away from the water. Sure enough, the scent of rabbit was strong, and at this time of day many of the rabbits were out cautiously nibbling at the grass and the flowers. Corbie signaled back to Deus that she'd found them, then swung wide around the warren to come from behind it. They would need to be between the rabbits and the warren when they started them running, or they'd just go to ground. She crouched on the other side of the warren, waiting for Deus to get wherever he was going to position himself. "Do you want to chase or guard the warren?" she asked in a whisper. One of them would need to stay behind to discourage the rabbits from just looping around and doubling back towards the warren while the other kept them running towards the water. Hopefully at least one or two would take the trails and go through the frames hoping to lose the wolf by going through something too small for it.

The wolves split off down the trail in search of the prey, but Corbie had found them first. Deus caught her signal and moved in close, crouched low beside her much smaller ear so they could speak without spooking the rabbits. It was a question he'd not expected, but hearing it made immediate sense. Someone would need to keep the warren from being the easiest accessible escape route. "I'll stay behind, you're smaller, more nimble, and have a better chance at directing them the right way." He replied after a contemplative moment, keeping his voice low. It helped as well that Deus was brighter colored, larger by a large margin, and much more intimidating to look at compared to the woman. If the rabbits had to choose between the two, they'd be much more likely to choose wherever Deus was not. "Speech"

Deus caught up quickly and had crouched beside her. He had good reasoning for her going after the rabbits, so she nodded quickly. She waited for his signal, then when he indicated he was ready, she leaped the warren and came down in a crouch on the other side.

The rabbits scattered.

Some of them froze rather than run, but other had taken off in zigzagging bounds away from the wolves. Corbie immediately gave chases for the ones that were moving in the right direction. This wasn't the ideal way to hunt rabbits if you were actually hunting them, because the little creatures were fast and cornered much more easily than a wolf so more often than not it would win in this kind of race. All it had to do was double back on its path and the wolf would overshoot and lose time, time that the rabbit would use to get into a hole where the wolf couldn't get it. This time though all she had to do was keep it going in the correct direction - this one was on the path to one of the traps. it was more difficult than she'd expected just to keep the one going, though, she didn't know how she'd get a second one moving the right way too. Maybe Deus being there behind her would spook a second rabbit onto the right path to catch the second trap.

Deus gave his signal and Corbie shot forward, leaping the warren effortlessly and falling into a practice pursuit of a rabbit who had spooked the correct direction. Deus moved quickly to cover the entrance to the warren, watching as the majority of the remaining rabbits froze or fled in the entirely wrong direction. Corbie's was already headed off toward the snares and Deus knew the rabbit would be stupid to double back now with the woman hot in pursuit. His staying guard at the warren was no longer serving a purpose, and so he leapt forward and to the side, to urge another one onward toward the snares. The rabbit seemed to realize his frozen stance was not fooling anyone and shot off through the grass, with Deus hot in pursuit. He stayed a ways back from it, knowing he did not have the agility to manuever it as easily as a more lithe wolf might, and prepared to jump to either side of the rabbit's flank should it decide to veer the wrong way suddenly. "Speech"