It's a cool, dry day around the elder oak, and Samantha has decided that today is a good day to gather certain fungi, herbs and tree parts. The two mustelid girls are just waking up and getting their rucksacks together in their room 'upstairs'.
Samantha runs through her checklist one last time, and double-checks reserves of some of the herbs to make sure she knows what she has to get and what can be put off if there are any problems.
Acera chitters to Nalae, "C'mon. We can have a picnic too, it won't be all work. And no other chores today. ;)"
Nalae smiles at Acera a bit. "Yeah.." She peers out the window for a few moments, then back to Acera.
Acera blinks as a large orangish crystal rolls out, in the shape of a acorn, "Oh, I never gave that to her."
Acera stuffs it in her rucksack and chitters, "C'mon. Ma likes to get going early fer some reason." and noticing Nalae looking outside she chitters, "Something wrong?"
Nalae looks back to Acera. "Oh, no.. I was just watching the wind." She seems to do that frequently, before going out. "Ready to go?"
Acera nods, "Sure am, c'mon, let's go." as she races down the steps, shouting, "Ma! We're ready ma! Did you remember the food?"
Samantha calls back up, "Yes, I did, all of it."
Acera nods, "Good. I get hungry when you have us walk all over the forest. Right Nalae?" as the little mink finally reaches the ground and looks up for her adopted sister.
Samantha shoulders her own pack, all set and ready.
Nalae nods a few times, having reached the ground rather faster than Acera. "Yeah!" She agrees emphatically, even though her sister tends to eat more than her.
Acera grins, "Lead on ma!" and snugs Nalae.
Samantha smirks, shaking her head, and starts on her way out of the house and into the forest.
Nalae grins. She bounds after Samantha, holding onto Acera's hand.
The forest is in the heart of the semi tropical winter, and many of the trees are bare. However, a light rain last week has promoted some growth, mostly in odd looking fungi here and there. Samantha leads the two towards a very thick part of the forest.
It's a good thing this isn't a hunting trip, the way Acera tries to chatter up a storm, point out stuff she recognizes to Nalae, and pester Samantha with questions about nearly everything.
Samantha has a smile on her face, which isn't visible to the girls behind her most of the time. She answers most of the questions as well as she knows how.
Nalae walks along rather quietly, content to let Acera do most of the talking. She does, though, bring up occasional questions when Acera brings up topics of particular interest to her. Trees, birds, things of that sort.
Acera grins, "So ma, what wily herb do we hunt down first?"
Samantha hmmms, looking at her list. "Probably one of the fungi first. What I'm looking for is a shelf fungus, sticking out from the side of one of the taller trees, that has a bright red band on it but no orange."
Acera sticks her tongue out, "Ugh. Just so long as you don't put it in your stew.". With a nudge to Nalae, "Ok, we're looking for a chunk of tree fungus with a red stripe on it. Careful, they can be vicious. ;)"
Samantha nods. "Try not to break it or let any liquid from it drip on your fingers. If it does, _don't_ lick your fingers. Those things are rather poisonous."
Acera sticks her tongue out, "I never thought a mushroom would be able to fight back. Who's that for, your sister...er, my Aunt?"
Samantha says, "Some of it. But in many cases you fight poison with poison: while by itself it's deadly, in smaller doses it can be used to burn out disease and poison from your body. It's not a pleasant cure, but it's useful for those situations where little else will work."
Nalae grins at Acera, then pads to a nearby tree, searching about them near the ground.
Acera pads around checking the trees, "Any particular kind of tree ma? And how far up."
Samantha says, "Above the grass and brush level, anyway; it should be fairly obvious. And it tends not to be found on pine trees; they're too acidic. A lot of other types of trees, though."
Acera nods, "Hear that Nalae? Go for the trees that have lost their leaves, k?"
Nalae pauses, then nods. "Okay." And she switches to a different tree, peering at the fungi with inexpert glances.
Acera spends several minutes looking around, and chitters, "Nalae, look at that. This fungus has a bunch of neat bugs in it!"
Samantha leans over to take a look.
Nalae pads back over to Acera. Bugs? She's never had any particular fascination for bugs, but.. She peers over Acera's shoulder to see.
The "bugs" are actually small beetles, metallic greens and oranges, and seem to be sleeping.
Samantha hmmms, then blinks. "My goodness. Firebeetles."
Acera blinks, "What're those ma?" as she reaches out to grab one.
Samantha says, "Don't."
Samantha says, "They feed off the fungus, and use the poison chemicals to produce an incredibly flammable oil. They use it to defend themselves; anything that startles them is likely to get badly burned fur."
Acera ewws and pulls her hand back, "They sure are pretty though. C'mon Nalae, lets find some fungus so we can get lunch."
Nalae peers at the beetles for a few more moments. And stores them in her mental filing cabinet under 'things not to touch'.
Nalae says, "Okay!"
Acera pads around and looks up, "Hey Nalae, you can climb better'n me, I think that stuff has a red stripe?!" as she points up a tall oak.
Nalae walks over to Acera and follows her gaze. "Maybe.. I think it does.." She quickly scales up the trunk to get a better look.
Samantha pulls out a small bag and a pair of tongs. "There is a way to get some of the oil from these beetles, though you have to be careful. I wonder what these are doing this far north?"
Acera shrugs, and whispers to Nalae, "She loves this stuff. Do they have the red stripe? I'm hungry."
Nalae grins at Acera, returning with a double-pawful of the fungus.
Samantha carefully reaches out to grab one of the beetles with the tongs, holding the bag up behind it to trap the oil. She picks up the beetle and squeezes it slightly to wake it up, the startled insect spraying out a cloud of foul-smelling oil behind it.
Acera chitters, "Make sure you don't get any of that gunk on your fur Nalae."
Nalae nods at Acera. "And I'll wash before we eat." She pads over to Samantha with the fungus. "Is this it?"
Samantha sets the beetle back down, where it burrows into the fungus to go back to sleep. She looks over. "That looks like it, yes. Thank you."
Acera grins, "So...can we eat now?"
Samantha smirks. "Yes, we can eat now. You set things up while I get a few more of these beetles."
Acera cheers with Nalae.
Nalae grins, and puts the fungus into her sack. "I'll go find some water to wash my hands."
Acera nods, "I'll spread out the blanket. Oh, and I got a gift for ya later ma."
Samantha smiles. "Thank you." She goes back to disturbing the sleep of several beetles before the rest of them wake up and move.
Nalae returns after a minute or two, her paws freshly damp from having dipped them in some nearby stream.
Samantha finishes up what she was doing, and carefully ties up the bag of oil.
Acera grins as she pulls out the bags of food, especially the fish and roasted fowl.
Nalae helps Acera spread the food onto the blanket, grinning. She's hungry!
Samantha sits down calmly at the edge of the blanket.
Acera hands Nalae some fish and fowl and chitters, "Ya bring some for you too, ma?"
Samantha says, "Of course." She reaches over and pulls out one of the wrapped bags which contains several nuts.
Acera 's short, but needle sharp teeth crunch through the bones of the fowl as she happily chows down, grinning at Nalae.
Acera does indeed eat a bit more than Nalae, but both mustelids give away their high metabolic rate as they snarf down their lunch.
Nalae smiles, and tears strips of flesh from her own food, only making an occasional effort to chew (the perils of having nothing but incisors for teeth).
Samantha shakes her head, and crunches down on the nuts and seeds loudly.
Samantha finishes off her lunch. "So, you were saying something about a gift? I have one as well."
Acera nods with a mouthful of fish, as she can't speak.
Samantha says, "Do you want to start, or shall I?"
Acera mrrrfles something through a mouthful of food.
Nalae giggles at Acera.
Samantha folds her arms, and waits for Acera to be finished.
Acera swallows, "You first ma. ;)"
Nalae smiles.
Samantha nods, and opens up her pack, taking out a small box on the top. She opens that up, pulling away some of the packing paper...
Samantha lifts out the little figurine, showing a small mustelid family.
Acera sniffs, bringing her pointed muzzle a bit closer, while the other hand reaches for her rucksack then blinks, "Oh wow."
Nalae peers in curiously.
Samantha says, "Something wrong?"
Acera shakes her head as she looks at the 'parents', "She kinda...looks like ma, I mean, you know."
Samantha nods slowly. "I know."
Acera looks at the two little mustelid kits and chitters softly, "The smaller one kinda looks like you Nalae."
Nalae looks up at Acera. "You think so?"
Acera nods, "Kinda. When you have your arms down. Thanks ma."
Samantha nods. "You're welcome."
Nalae smiles a little and nods at Samantha. "Thank you.."
Acera seems totally enraptured with the sculpture, and has forgot everything else, including to be hungry.
Samantha says, "And you had...?"
Acera blinks, "Oh, oh yeah. Just a sec ma." and hands the sculpture to Nalae and then digs into her rucksack."
Nalae smiles softly, and examines the sculpture a bit more closely.
Acera finally pulls out something the size of a softball wrapped in a small cloth, and chitters, "Hope you like it."
Samantha holds her hand out, looking closer at the object.
The sculpture is an amber colored acorn, with complicated tracings inside, as if spun from glass fibers.
Samantha lifts the acorn up to the light, looking through it.
Nalae finally looks up, and over towards Samantha to watch her reaction.
Samantha smiles. "Thank you."
Acera grins, "Glad you like it ma. Just don't try and make it dinner. ;)"
Samantha frowns, turning it around and watching the way the light shines through it.
Acera turns to Nalae, "Can I see it again?"
Nalae passes the sculpture back to Acera, being very careful with it. "Here you go.." She smiles at Acera a bit.
Samantha shakes her head, and chuckles quietly. "Don't worry, I have no intentions of eating it."
Acera goes to hold it tighter, then cries out when she feels it shift, and wails "It broke! But I was being careful."
Samantha blinks, and sets the acorn down carefully as she leans over to take a look.
Acera looks very upset as she hands the pieces to Samantha, it's clear the base has popped loose, and inside is a small rectangular piece made out of a smooth substance. To someone unfamiliar with plastics, it's probably pretty strange."
Samantha looks over it. "Odd. It looks like it was built in a couple of pieces and then assembled together, so it should be easy to fix. What's this inside it, though?"
Acera wipes a tear from her face, "I...I didn't break it?"
Samantha shakes her head. "It was built to come apart that way."
Nalae peers at the sculpture, and gives Acera a little comforting snug.
The plastic rectangle has a few bits of metal embedded in one end, but otherwise is unremarkable.
Samantha takes out the plastic, then tries to fit the base of the figurine back in without it.
Samantha hands the completed figurine back to Acera. "There you go."
Acera hands it carefully to Nalae, "Here, you're more careful than I am. What's it about ma? What is that thing?"
Samantha looks it over. "I'm not sure..." She looks at the acorn. "You didn't by chance get this at a little stall in Haven, just by the wall going towards the docks, did you?"
Acera nods, "There was a cat sellin em." as she looks at Nalae for support.
Samantha nods. "Sounds like the same place I got this. How odd..."
Nalae holds on to the figurine, nodding at Acera. "Yeah.." She really can't say much else about the cat. They all look the same to her.
Samantha nods.
Samantha hmmms. "I think we'll be cutting this trip short today... I've got a few things I have to get, and then I'll want to take a closer look at this." She turns back to Acera. "I don't want you to think I don't appreciate your gift; I do. But there's something odd going on here..."
Nalae looks from Acera to Samantha and back again, then back down at the figurine.
Acera snugs Nalae and frowns, "I'll say. Though I gotta admit, I wish everything I broke was made to put back together."
Samantha chuckles quietly.
Nalae gently smiles at Acera, snugging her back.
The odd trio of an older squirrel matron, a young mink and a young marenati make their way back home, a bit quieter than they did on the way out. Samantha isn't the first to realize something is up, but no other figurine has yielded a plastic surprise inside. Samantha, her curiosity and concern piqued, makes plans to figure it out.