It was a bit of a trip to get out here with her youngest boy, but she was throughly enjoying all of the time she was getting to spend with her newest litter. She never wanted to feel as if she was pushing off responsibility onto Avacyn and Saracyn when it came to tending to the pack, but her oldest children were naturally beginning to step into the roles that they would eventually hold and she was finding less and less that they needed to come to her first before acting as the leaders they would one day become. It left her more freedom to just be a mother and she was fully taking advantage of that fact unapologetically. She and Malico could have done this out in the stone steppe fairly easily, but why do that when she could take him on a bit of a field trip?

She carried a pair of bags that slung across her back that carried some supplies for the project she had planned for them and occasionally would have Malico ride on her shoulders as well whenever the young boy got tired or if they were crossing over some more dangerous terrain–or if he simply wanted to of course. She knew from experience that pups grew all too fast so the days of getting to carry her boy would go too fast as well so she was going to enjoy every moment. When they got to the Redbud Nook she stopped and found a small clearing between some trees and went to slip off the bags she was carrying and let down Malico if he was riding on her back. "This seems like a good spot," she said as she began to pull out some supplies including a long length of rolled up ropes and a couple of pails along with a few sharp spikes of metal. Looking around the clearing a bit, she pointed out a spot between two trees. "Alright, first things first! We need to dig out a hole on the other side of these trees. I'll get it started and then you can help me load up the dirt in these pails so we can carry it away and make it look natural, okay?"

"Manea Mendacium"

The boy is utterly amazed at just how absolutely gigantic the world really is. Today, his mother is taking him on a field trip and Malico could not be any happier. While the trip is long, and he does get tired, his mother is more than happy to offer her back as resting place. When he is hoisted up, Mal will use his time up high to view the world in a brand-new way. Wide eyes scan every part of everything that they pass and he often pokes his mom so that can ogle at things together. He is resting on her back when she comes to a stop in a clearing between some trees and he slides to ground with practiced easy when moves to help him down.

Quickly, he springs up to his paws, tail wagging happily as he inspects the objects that she pulls out. Of course, he knows that they are going to be hunting but he doesn’t quite understand what all this stuff is for. Manea looks around but Malico keeps his eyes on her lips, catching the words his crystal clogged ears might miss. As she finishes speaking, Mal happily exclaims, “‘K! How big are we going to make it?” As he listens for his mother’s response, the pup trots over to the designated area and starts digging. At first, he just digs, enjoying the feel of the dirt against his paws but, with his mother’s guidance, he is able to focus his efforts.


"Malico Mendacium"

Manea smiled at her son's enthusiasm to get right to work and they went together over to the trees she had pointed out. Malico immediately began to dig while asking how big they were going to make this hole. She joins him, clawing her way through the top crust and piling up the dirt off to the side. "It doesn't need to be very big, just big enough to hide our stakes in and wide enough to trip up any prey that come through here. The rope should do a pretty good job of catching their legs and making them fall, but if they manage to jump over the rope then this pit should make sure they fall down." She certainly had a preference for a more direct approach to hunting, but traps were a valuable tool when hunting larger prey alone. It was one of those things that she wanted to show her children the proper, safe way to do things rather than letting them follow her and Alastor's reckless example.

Once they had a couple of decent sized piles, She reached over for one of the pails and handed it to Malico. "Scoop up the loose dirt and dump it off in the bushes over there so they don't give away the fact that there's a hole here," she instructed him, letting him take the slightly easier task like she continued to dig out a trench-like hole that spanned the length of the gap between the trees and was a couple of feet wide. Since the ground was still cold and hard and a bit difficult to dig through she didn't want to waste a bunch of time making the hole very deep and luckily for their purposes they wouldn't need it to be. Once she was done with digging, she helped Malico with getting the last of the dirt out of the way and then went to fetch the pointed metal stakes. "We want these fairly evenly spaced along this hole, but not too close to the far edges. We only have three of them so we want them to be where our prey is most likely going to fall if they land in the hole." She gestured toward the hole and asked, "Where do you think we should put them? You decide and I'll put them in."

"Manea Mendacium"

As Malico digs, he enjoys the feel of the dirt against his small paws. The smell of earth permeates the air, filling his nostrils with each turn of the dirt and deep inhale of air. Ears twitches in the direction of his mother, pulling in the information as she speaks. Eyes dart up to watch her mouth so that he can catch the words that he misses while nodding in agreement. Tongue lolls happily out of the side of the mouth as he works, getting his coat nice and dirty as he ‘accidently’ flings dirt every once and while. Yeah, it means that he will get a dreaded bath when he gets home but that just makes the pup all the more determined to enjoy this trip to the fullest.

Once they have two decent sized piles of earth, Malico pauses in his digging to do as his mother instructs and takes the pail that she offers. Head tilts slightly as his ears stand tall, pulling the words deep into his crystal clogged ears as she talks. At her directions, the pup barks, “Okay!” before setting about the new task. Paws scoop up the loose earth and transfer it into the pails, making sure to get as much dirt into them as he can before standing to pick up the pail. As he grabs the handle in his jaws and moves to lift off the ground, Mal grossly underestimates how heavy the bucket is teeters sideways.

Eyes widen as he is forced to release his hold on the bucket to avoid spilling his handy work all over the ground as he plops heavily onto his side. Malico springs back up to his paws without a moment’s hesitation, growling low at the rude pail of dirt. Coming to stand behind it once more, the pup plants his paws shoulder width apart and huffs his determination at the bucket. Clasping the handle once more, Mal lifts while sinking his weight evenly into his paws. He grunts in success as the bucket lifts off the ground and he teeter and totters but successfully makes it to where his mother had directed him and easily dumps the dirt.

After a couple more trips, his mother arrives to help him move the last few pail-fulls of dirt. With the area looking less suspicious, Malico stands over their newly dug hole and wags. Manea’s voice pulls his attention back to where she stands with the sharp metal poles. Oh, he gets to decide? With an excited yip, the pup jumps down into the hole and begins stalking around the area. Tail is flagged and waving as he sticks his nose in the ground, getting it good and muddy because he can. First, he picks a spot in the middle of the hole and declares, “Here!” To emphasis his point the pup digs a little groove so that she can see where he wants it.

Without waiting for his mother, he bounds forward away several steps before saying, “And here!” Same as before he marks the spot for her before stepping away and circling back to the middle spike. From there, he bounds the same amount of space in the other direction before declaring, “Here!” With the spots picked out, and marked, Malico moves to begin the scramble back up and out of the hole. The boy’s puppy pudge gets in the way and forces him to slide back down a couple times but hopefully his mom will take pity on him and help.


"Malico Mendacium"

Manea glanced up occasionally while Malico was hauling off the dirt just to watch his progress and make sure he was doing okay, and it took all of her will power not to snicker at his first failed attempt to pick up the obviously over filled bucket. She could have gone to help him, but she wanted to let him figure it out on his own and while just getting a more stable stance to man handle the bucket away wouldn't have been her first choice it did do the job so she couldn't fault him on it. Chuckling softly to herself she went back to her own work and eventually the two of them finished up the hole and clearing out the space quickly enough. That brought them to placing the parts of their trap that would make it dangerous for their prey and she grinned a little at the excitement her son had at the prospect of being able to pick out where the spikes would go.

She sat back with an amused, affectionate smile as he jumped into the hole and began searching around for what he thought would be a good spot. She nodded and chuckled as he marked a few spots with his declarations of where he wanted each spike before coming back over to the edge of the hole–and struggling to get back over the edge. Manea leaned down and gently grasped Malico by the scruff, lifting him up and over the lip of the hole and placing him back on the grass once more. "Alright, wait here and I'll get them put in then," she told him with a quick nuzzle before stepping down into the hole herself, making quick work of digging out a deep enough spot for the spikes to sit in nicely and packing the dirt in tightly around them so they wouldn't fall over.

With that done, she stepped up beside Malico again and began to look around for thin branches and large leaves. "Now we just need to camouflage our trap. Look for any thin branches with leaves or any clumps of brush we can put over it to make it blend in with the grass. You just don't want to use any branches that are too thick or sturdy because then it won't collapse under their weight and they might not fall in the hole at all."

"Manea Mendacium"

Manea takes pity on the struggling boy and gently grasps him by the scruff, easily lifts him up and over the edge. He is deposited in the grass and Malico is quick to spring up to his paws once he is released and turns to wag happily at his mother. She instructs him to wait and he nods, returning the nuzzle with great affection. From where he stands, the boy watches as she moves to deftly places the stakes. It is done swiftly and she steps back up to where he waits.

Instructions are relayed and Mal barks back, “Okay!” before toddling off to the nearest tree to gather thin branches. Luckily, there are several branches on the grass and he picks out the thin ones. Gathering them in his mouth, the boy happily trots back to his mother, long, waving branches bouncing along behind him. Placing them by the lip of their hole, he bounds off to find more things to hide their trap.

After a few trips to the surrounding the trees, they have more than enough to cover the hole and together, they arrange the branches and leaves. With that done, Malico looks up to his mother and asks, “Is that good?” Ears perk to catch the words and try to force them past his crystal clogged cannels.


"Malico Mendacium"