The sun is overhead the thick forest canopy as the two little mustelids settle down to digest their lunch. The griffin who has fallen into their lives is still sleeping off the rough walk home on three legs in a small shelter built with a tarp against the main cabin built into the base of the great tree.
Acera mmmfs and is resting on her back as she looks at the clouds between the branches and burps, "Ma really knows how to cook fish, doesn' she Nalae?"
Nalae nods faintly. "Yeah," she mumbles. She didn't each much of her lunch, leaving it to Acera to finish up, and has been rather preoccupied with worries about the injured bird-thing.. "It was good.."
Acera tosses a pillow at Nalae, "Gotcha! So, what'cha wanna do today?"
Nalae wrinkles her nosepad at Acera. "Dunno.. maybe we could go for a walk or something.."
Acera ooofs and rolls onto her stomach, "Or for a swim. :) You didn't eat much at lunch. You feelin ok?"
Nalae fidgets. "I don't like.. that thing... y'know? I'm feeling okay, except for that."
Acera wrinkles her nose but nods at her adopted sister, "She's still buggin ya huh? Don't worry, ma won't let anything hurt us. Why don't we head down and tell ma we'll go wading. Whatcha call a compromise. ;)"
Nalae nods a little bit. "Okay.."
Acera stretches out and grins, "C'mon. We can talk to her some more too if ya want. Let's go." At which she slinks out onto the ladder and zips down the tree trunk.
Nalae expertly scales down the tree's bark, and waits at the bottom until Acera arrives on the ladder. ;)
Acera chittttters annoyedly at Nalae, "I'm gonna tie your paws next time. Then maybe I'll get down first."
Nalae giggles at Acera. "You're just jealous," she says, grinning and ruffling her friend's fur.
Acera hmmmfs, "And ya won't race me in the river. No fair. ;)"
Nalae giggles at Acera. "That wouldn' be fair! I wouldn' reach the finish line b'fore drowning!"
Picasso slowly wakens to the chittery sounds of the local language
Acera grins and snugs, "Yeah, that'd be no fun. Oh well. Hey, ma! Where are ya?"
Samantha leans out the kitchen window. "Right here."
Picasso stretches her wings out slowly and the tucks them against her back. Though her leg is still pretty sore, she feels much better this morning.
Acera bounces over to the window and chitters loudly, "We're gonna go wading in a bit. Is that ok?"
Samantha nods. "Just don't go out too far."
Nalae walks along with Acera, grinning over at her.
Acera grins, "I won't drown Nalae ma. She's not like my brother. ;)"
Samantha smirks. "That's like saying the moon isn't like the sun."
Acera blinks a bit, "Whatever ya say ma. C'mon Nalae."
Nalae blinks as well, but shrugs softly and takes Acera's hand.
Picasso isn't sure where everyone is going but decided to tag along
Acera and Nalae pad off to the nearby river, not noticing they've got an extra person tagging along. The young mink chitters, "We'll stay along the edge, K?" as she walks into the now comfortable water of the river.
Picasso hobbles along as best she can on three legs.
Nalae nodnods.. as though she had to be told. She hasn't ventured into the deeper waters since being swept downstream to here so long ago..
Samantha hears something odd padding by, and looks out to see the gryphon tagging along. She whistles loudly to try and get her attention.
Picasso looks back at the sound of the whistle.
Acera splashes Nalae, making a bit of noise as she grins.
Nalae hrmphs, and splashes Acera back!
Samantha leans out the window, and tries to waves the gryphon back this way.
Picasso tilts her head and walks slowly back toward Samantha.
Acera looks over Nalae's shoulder and sees the griffin walking about.
Samantha disappears from the window.
Nalae still hasn't noticed the griffin. Odd, since she seems to usually have pretty sharp senses... She continues splashing and kicking water at her friend as the worries of the past few days begin to melt away in play.
Acera eeeps and dives in under the surface in the shallows and nibbles at Nalae's toes.
Samantha reappears at the front door.
Nalae eeeps, giggling! She hastily backs away from Acera!
Picasso moves to lean down and cheek-nuzzle Samantha in a friendly manner.
Samantha chirrrrs. "Good morning."
Acera pops up behind Nalae and chitters, "Hey, we forgot our floating floor. It's back by the house."
Nalae ohs! "You wanna go out on that again?"
Acera nods, "Or I can pull ya along as I swim maybe?"
Nalae hms. Given the option of the two, she'd definitely prefer having the raft. ;) "Nah, let's go get the floatin' floor.."
Acera blinks, "I meant pull the FLOOR along while I swim, silly. You can ride on it. ;)"
Picasso waits to see what Samantha wants.
Nalae giggles. "Oh! Okay.."
Acera smirks and pads towards the cabin, "C'mon. We both need to carry it."
Samantha rubs Picasso's 'cheek'. "You shouldn't be walking too much on that leg. Or sneaking up behind the girls."
Nalae nods, following behind Acera.
Picasso shows that she has the injured leg tucked up against her body. She's not putting weight on it.
Acera smirks, "Race ya to it!"
Samantha nods, then turns to watch the younger ones running up the hill.
Picasso hears them coming and waits.
Acera starts slinking up the hill, moving pretty good on land for a mink.
Nalae bounds along after Acera, keeping pace with her friend.
Acera chitters and looks behind her as she races, and lumbers right into Picasso's side. The small mink barely makes an impact.
Nalae skids to a halt a considerable distance from the big bird-thing, watching it warily.
Samantha chuckles, shaking her head.
Acera looks up at Picasso from where she's sitting.
Picasso's wing feathers pad her pretty well so the impact isn't that great. She can't help but laugh at the look on Acera's face. It's a rather strange sound.
Samantha smiles and says, "You should be more careful to look where you're running."
Nalae jumps at the abrupt noise from Picasso, and hisses to Acera to come back where it's safe...
Acera blinks, "Did I hurt her?"
Samantha shakes her head. "No, I think she's laughing."
Acera chitters, "She's got a funnier laugh than Ankhl does. Hey, does that mean she's laughin at me?"
Samantha says, "Well, laughing at what happened more than at you."
Picasso catches the feeling of fear and quiets down. She lightly brushes Acera with her wing tip making sure she's ok.
Acera hmmfs and looks back at Nalae and starts slightly as the feathers brush her. Her fascination with flying overwhelms her and she reaches out to stroke the wing.
Nalae fidgets worriedly, watching the others at the tree.
Picasso holds her wing still so the scurry-foot can examine it.
Acera chitters happily as she brushes the feathers and grins at Samantha, "Are ya sure I can't get a pair of these?"
Samantha shakes her head. "You're enough of a terror on the ground. I suppose it's possible, but it would take a fair bit of magic to make it work."
Acera looks back at Nalae, "Then I could fly with Nalae."
Nalae has clambered up into the upper branches of a neighboring tree to the house, and is watching the action from above..
Samantha says, "I expect you could."
Acera sighs as she looks at Picasso, "My friend seems to think you eat people like us. You don't, do ya?"
Picasso while she doesn't understand, eating is definitely on her mind as she hasn't had anything to eat since the crash landing. She tries to project the idea of hunger to Samantha.
Samantha hmmms. "Well, she is hungry, but not for you, anyway." She frowns. "So what do you eat, anyway?"
Picasso knows she's been asked a question and assuming it's in regard to what she sent earlier projects images of the herd animals her kind liked to hunt and fish.
Samantha hmmms. "Acera, we still have any of those fish left?"
Acera blinks, "Some yeah. Nalae didn' eat much. I'll go get em."
Samantha nods. "Good. Our guest is going to need a fair bit of food at her size to heal properly."
Acera gets up and pads inside the cabin and comes out with a wooden bowl of baked fish and a bowl of water. She's having troubles balancing them both as she staggers over to her mother and the griffin.
Samantha quickly walks over to take the bowl of fish.
Acera ers, "Here ya go ma."
Samantha takes the bowl of fish. "Thank you, Acera."
Picasso smells the food and her stomach rumbles a bit.
Acera puts the water bowl down and carefully pats Picasso's wing once more before churring, "Ma, I think I'd better go with Nalae for a bit, K?"
Samantha nods. "Good idea. I'll see you two when you get back."
Acera snugs Samantha then goes over and drags their makeshift raft over to the tree Nalae is hiding up in and chitters, "C'mon Nalae. Lets go floating while ma feeds her."
Nalae leaps from her branch and glides down around the tree in a spiral, finally grasping onto one of the lowest branches, and shimmying the rest of the way down the trunk. "Okay, Acera..." She fidgets with her hand paws a bit before reaching to pick up the other end of the raft.. she's begun to feel a little silly for being scared of the bird-thing, but still can't bring herself to go near...
Samantha sets the bowl out in front of the gryphon, and sets out the water as well.
Acera gives Nalae a snug and chitters, "It's ok. I still kinda feel that way about broccoli." Then picks the raft back up and starts marching down to the river.
Picasso hasn't actually ever eaten cooked food before but is hungry enough not to worry about it and picks up a whole fish in her beak and tilting her head back, swallows it whole.
Samantha doesn't look too put out by this.
Picasso laps some water and proceeds to swallow another fish.
Nalae quietly walks along with Acera towards the river, lugging the raft..
Picasso finishes the meal which, though a small one for her, takes the edge off her hunger. She gives Samantha a light winghug in thanks.
Samantha chirrrrs. "Now, let's see what we can do with you..."
Acera settles the raft in the water and waits for Nalae to hop on. She's got a small rope to drag the raft along with her as she swims.
Nalae carefully climbs onto the raft, sitting down towards the middle of it.
Acera starts swimming and pulling the raft along with her upstream on the slow moving river. She grins, as this is one of the few things she can do better than anyone in her family....unless the bird thing swims too?
Picasso watches Acera and Nalae and shudders.
Acera splashes at Nalae a bit as they glide out of sight around the bend of river that goes behind the great oak, and into the forest.
Samantha looks up at the gryphon, trying to figure out what brought that on.
Picasso resists an urge to follow to make sure the scurry-foots don't get into danger. She'd likely only scare the one on the raft.
Picasso looks down at Samantha and tilts her head as if to ask "Well? What next?"
Samantha waves you along with her, and leads the way down to the river, somewhat upstream of where the children are, at a fairly good fishing spot.
Picasso follows along.
Acera says, "Though over your head in spots. ;)""
Picasso wonders what Samantha has in mind?
Samantha points to the fish in the water, first, seeing if the gryphon prefers to catch her own.
Picasso sees the fish and though this isn't her favorite way of getting food, she feels it's only fair to help since her new friends fed her.
Picasso crouches down on the shore at the edge of the water and leaning down with her longish neck until her beak tip just touches the surface of the water, she waits.
Picasso sees a largeish fish swim within reach and with a quick motion, plunges her head downwards and flips her beak to the side. The fish is splashed up onto the bank along with a spray of water.
Samantha steps back out of the way, then returns with the spear that Acera made some time back. She stands there on the shore, watching closely, then throws it down to spear the fish, catching it.
Picasso sees Samantha take care of the fish so it can't flop back into the water and goes back to wait for another one to swim by. She's not great at fishing but manages to land a number of larger fish. Finally tiring of staying in that position she shakes the water from her head feathers as best she can and backs away from the water.
Samantha spears one more out of the water, knocks out the ones still alive, and pulls all the fish up into a basket.
Picasso turns to see if that is enough fish for now.
Samantha nods. "It's your meal, you tell me what's enough."
Picasso goes over and takes a fish and bites it in half, swallows and eats the other half. She hopes this shows she prefers them uncooked.
Samantha hmmms. "All right."
Samantha looks at the catch, then at your body weight. "We're definitely going to have to step up the hunting a lot."
Picasso is rather tired out from the fishing which surprises her since it really wasn't all that much activity.
Samantha lugs the fish up towards the tree, takes a couple of them, and leaves the rest for the gryphon. "This is going to be interesting... I can't wait until that residue clears and I can get the translation spell working."
Picasso eats her fill and leaves the rest before settling down to sleep again feeling much better.
Samantha sighs, shaking her head.
After a long afternoon, Acera and Nalae float back home for dinner. Nalae continues to avoid the griffin like Acera avoids broccoli all the way until bedtime, where the two mustelids, elderly squirrel, and one confused griffin bed down in their respective spots for the night.