Speech // thought // Japanese

Under the great twisted trunks of the ancient oaks, below the withering leaves, a leggy form noses her way through the ground cover. Dark black nose pressed into the leafy debris. The soil was soaked and mushy. Mushrooms had sprouted in the crevices of the fallen logs and at the foot of several trees.

Asahi and Jiro had a plan to find a creature that wasn't typically elusive. When she wasn't looking for one she'd happen upon it now and then but now that she was hunting for one she couldn't find one! How dumb was that? They weren't particularly speedy or anything! She nosed again in the undergrowth, flipping over large swaths of wet leaf litter.

She glanced at her brother, Jiro, to see if he had found any clues. She rounded a large fallen log and looked inside, but still nothing. A chattering raccoon scolded her from within the darkness of the rotting log, but no sight or smell of the slogging shelled creature. A turtle shell would make an excellent bowl for mashing herbal pastes or mixing spices together. Would he have better luck?




187/1500

While Jiro may not always agree with his father, he was more than happy to always be there for his siblings. When Asahi had asked him to help her find some turtles so they could utilize their shells as bowls, he didn't hesitate agreeing to her plan. Hunting turtles would be easy. He'd hunted them before. Well, rather, happened across a few of them and snagged them before they could crawl their way to safety. Which for a turtle was hard to find when a wolf was smart enough to flip it over and find its soft spots. Really, he felt bad for the things, but nevertheless, the circle of life must go on!

Nosing through the wet leaf litter a few feet away from Asahi in his own little patch, he was so far coming up with nothing. A few garter snakes and some rodents he wasn't sure of the name of, but no turtles. Or tortoise or anything with a hard shell so far. Feeling the probing gaze of his sister nearby, he turns to look at her with a shrug. So both of them weren't having any luck. He wouldn't be giving up now. They would find one soon enough.

"Maybe we should check the stream?" Jiro offers after a few more minutes of nosing through leaf litter. Tired of smelling the scent of rot and decay, he heads over to the stream that burbles quietly through the oak forest. Taking a quick look around, he thought he might have seen movement around the rocks. Had one of the rocks moved? "Asahi, there!" Jiro calls out quietly, poking his nose in the direction of the stream where he had seen the movement.

wc total: 472 / 1500

The golden koi wolf sighs as her brother shrugs at her. He wasn't having much luck either! How was it when you're not looking for them they're around and easy to catch but when you ARE looking for them suddenly they're impossible to find!

She leaps up onto the log, much to the raccoon's chagrin from inside, and squints along the ground around them from all sides. She turned her gaze back to Jiro when he suggested the stream in their native tongue! She gave him a broad smile and nod. Turtles by water were a bit harder to catch if they were the swimming type, but the stream would be just shallow enough that they might be able to score one before it slipped away!

She slinks down off the log quietly and ambles toward the stream alongside her brother. Her golden eyes scanned the tumbling waters for signs.

He quietly calls her attention to movement and she dusks her head under his chin to align herself with his gaze. She held her breath peering into the overcast fall scene. A tiny little head looks out from under its shell. That was all she needed as she started to creep toward it. Across the stream, her eye caught the subtle movement of another and decided to reorient on that one and let Jiro have a chance to catch the first one.

Her head aligned with her shoulders she stalks toward the second reptile. I was meandering away from the stream, she would have the advantage of surprise and speed, while Jiro would have to catch his quickly before it slipped into the water.

wc 746 / 1500
Speech // thought // Japanese

His call to Asahi had alerted the turtles for a moment, but not enough to send it careening into the water. Instead, the reptile sucked itself within its shell, intent on waiting out the much larger predator. As he patiently waits for his sister to duck beneath his chin, Jiro holds himself as still as a statue. Pale silver gaze upon the shell that practically blends into the leaf litter and rocks around it. He steadies his breathing, tensing his muscles, waiting for her to give him the go ahead. Plus, if there was one turtle, surely there would be more for them to catch as well.

After a few steady moments of harmonious breathing, they see the tiny turtle head poke out from its shell. Confident that the canines were no longer in the vicinity, the beady eyed reptile slides back and continues to mosey around the shallow stream's muddy bank. Jiro smiles down at Asahi for a second, watching as she begins to stalk toward the turtle. His paw lifts, ready to move ahead when he notices her trajectory turn toward the other bank. Another turtle! Perfect! If they both caught their own, they could harvest and have a bowl of their own.

Refocusing on the first turtle that was closer, but positioned mostly in the water now, Jiro lowers himself toward the ground. His elbow nearly touch, but he hovers just enough that his body won't rustle too loudly against the leaf litter. Closer and closer his massive paws draw him until he is only a few feet away. So far, the turtle hasn't noticed, but it is about to slide into the water! It would have to be now or never!

In one swift leap, Jiro sails toward the turtle with jaws open and paws extended. It is too late when the turtle sees him, in a desperate move to save itself, it sucks itself back into the shell instead of slipping fully into the water. His paws crash into the muddy bank, sliding forward as his jaws grasp around the hard shell. Picking it up so that the turtle can't escape, Jiro looks to see if Asahi is also successful. Hoping that his crash land into the stream didn't cause her own hunt to go astray, he washes his paws of mud and returns back to the little clearing they had started in. Dropping the turtle to the ground and placing a firm paw over its soft belly so that the turtle lay upside down, he waits for his smaller sister.

Once she's back, he gives her a proud smile and quick wag of his tail. "If we dispatch and clean them here, we can leave any parts we don't want for the other critters," Jiro starts, taking a seat and pulling his turtle closer to him. In an act of defiance, the reptile pops its head out and snaps at one of his toes. The sharp piercing pain forces a yowl from Jiro, but he doesn't let go. "Pesky thing," he mutters under his breath, using the grasped toe to pull its head out farther so that he can twist it, break the spine, and cleanly pull its head off without much resistance.

"Show me how you clean turtles," Jiro offers another smile to Asahi, looking over to his sister.

word count: 556
total: 1302 / 1500

Silently Asahi approaches the turtle as it toddles over the leaf litter of the forest. On a mission that would inevitably be cut short. Coiling her legs, her elbow tufts just barely brush the ground she pounces on the creature! It makes a mad dash forward but her paws have already pinned it to the ground. It sucks up its limbs into its shell as her attention is pulled to the commotion by the water. She snickers privately to herself to see her brother get all muddy trying to nab his prey.

When he makes his way back to the clearing she glances down at her own catch just in time to see it clamp on the end of her tail. With a swift jolt and pull she twists its neck and the creature's life is gone. Thankfully all the turtle had grabbed was just tail fluff. She picked it up and followed Jiro back to the clearing where he was patiently waiting.

She waves her tail and nods at his suggestion. And freezes as she watches the turtle snap at his toe. She covered her mouth to hide a snickering smile, it was not very Hattori composed to laugh at one's brother's mishaps!! Even if it was pretty funny.

Jiro seemed no worse for wear and when he offered to let her show him how she cleaned turtles she cleared her throat to chase the giggles away and went to work.

With the turtle flipped belly up, Asahi placed her fore claws between the hard belly and the top shell, then braced the top shell with her back paws and claws. She pulled with all her might with her arms up on the belly to separate the belly plates and the round shell. At first, it wouldn't give, but then with a sickening squelching sucking sound the two pieces came apart in a gory mess. Leaving the reptile innards exposed and stretched between the shells.

She pulled the plates away entirely from the shell and left what was on the belly plates to the scavengers, a gift offering to the forest and other critters for letting them hunt.

She started to build a fire and nodded for him to help, "We cook the meat and it will come off the shell easier. Tastes delicious too. We'll put the shells over the fire, add some water, and make it into a thick soup. The bowl will be ready to use once we've had our fill. Want to add any herbs and spices?" She commented and asked with a jovial smile. Her voice was actually stronger than it usually was in the bamboo. It was almost the same volume as a normal conversational tone one would use. Perhaps because she was so far away from anyone else listening, and Jiro was easiest to talk to. It was still a voice with soft and sweet tones.

Speech // thought // Nihongo

484 w
1786 / 1500 wc