Fox In the Hen House

Shuule was up bright and early the next morning, not typical for her as she rarely had a reason to bother. She laid in the coils of Set for a while, waiting patiently for him to wake up, but the snake was dead to the world. Patience wasn't her strong suit, and she finally started to shake him, even poking him in his eyelids until he shuddered awake with a hiss. He should have waited until today to tell her his plans for dinner, he thought with a groan.

"Wake up or I'll find another spouse" Shuule chirped, starting to crack open a few large nuts she had stored, to eat before her adventure.

"Good," Set yawned, turning into his half-beast as he couldn't help responding to her threat. Shuule shot him a death glare, but kept busying herself with her breakfast.

"Where are you going to get salt?" She asked, picking up her conversation virtually from where they left it when she fell into sleep the night before. Set gave her a sideways glance, and then shrugged. She waited, ears pricked, for a moment before she determined he was playing one of his moods, but she had gotten quite used to his posturing.

"Well whatever. If you can't find any, I can show you some herbs that will add flavor. My mom learned this from the city when she visited once. Nobody else in my village really believed her but it's not bad."

Set slithered over to kiss her on the head. "don't worry. I'll be back in a few hours. Shift to your fox or I won't go." He was already taking a major risk leaving her to travel a few miles, especially without his mark on her to help him find her if something were to happen. But he also knew it was important to find salt.

"And don't travel outside our area. If you can't find your birds, I'll catch them when I get back." He started to move past her to prepare to leave, but he stopped short, and turned around to make eye contact. "I mean it. Please. The Rootless have been moving out about every other day. If I smell one in the area, I won't leave. But don't stray far, and -"

Shuule let out a low growl, but she was eager to get her game going for the day, and she transformed into her red fox before he finished asking her a second time.

Without another word, Set also shifted into his full serpent, nodding at her as she wagged her tail. Shuule was quick to exit after him, and seeing which direction the snake slithered low into the brush, she followed at a distance. She could be impulsive, but she wasn't entirely a fool; she knew Set would stop if he scented out a beastman that she didn't, and she also knew that most would move away when a massive, strong feral snake was on the loose.

The downside was that her prey also had fallen silent, so after letting Set move out farther in the distance, the fox crouched down in the brush, looking upwards, unmoving. After what felt like forever, she heard chirping and blustering from a few trees over. Softly, she stepped her four black paws over to the tree. Up above her was a nest hidden in the broad leaves, a colorful bird roosting on top it. She grinned - she would not be able to climb the tree silently enough to catch this shortwing, but she could flush it to the ground and it would most likely have eggs. Bursting up the trunk, she did just that, and as the bird crashed to the ground squawking, Shuule was overjoyed to find the nest full with seven palm sized eggs.

Bringing the eggs down was going to be a hassle, and after thinking it through for several moments, she used her paws to pull two edges of the next together, biting them with her teeth to create sort of a purse with the vines and twigs the nest was constructed with. Gingerly, she edged down the trunk backwards, and managed to get her treat down in one piece. Proud of herself, she took her prize back home, head held high.

Shuule continued this way for hours, with more success with actual birds through the day, stalking through the woods, pouncing on her round, loud prey and bringing them back home to her cave. She wished for efficiency she could have just slaughtered the birds and thrown them in a pile in the jungle to deal with later, but she knew such a game would attract wild beasts and beastmen alike. By the time the sun was turning the corner towards evening, she had trotted home with twelve birds and fourteen eggs; possibly overkill, but Set was massive and could eat a lot. She wasn't even sure how many birds it would actually take to make him full, figuring he was going to eat something else on the way home to fill the gap.

Before she went about processing the birds, Shuule jumped into the water below her home. The water was decreasing in height daily, but it was still refreshing, especially on her fur. Paddling around, she was starting to worry about Set, when she became aware of the forest floor rustling in the distance. It was easy to tell when it was him by the long drawn out sound of his body through the brush, rather than footsteps. She took one more dive under the water, and as her furry head came back up for air, a shadow blocked her from the sun, and with a thud, a leather pack bag was dropped on the bank in front of her.

Shuule sputtered water while shifting instantly. "My bag!" she shrieked with joy. And before she could exclaim anything else, a bow and a quiver full of arrows was sat next to the bag, with a lighter clank.

Not being able to contain herself, the naked girl leapt out of the water, gripping the bow and checking it over to see how much damage had been done to it. It was a crude, wooden bow with sinew as the string, but it had held up being tossed, rubbed off, or rolled off her horse. Her arrows did not fare as well, some of them with the back ends broken off, but overall she assumed she would never see her weapons again.

Set had come back with his find in his half-snake in order to carry it, and he tilted his head, looking at her curiously. He had no idea what this thing was, but he had found it with the bag and assumed Shuule would want it. "The salt is in the bag," he reminded her, unsure if it had registered that he had not only found salt, but indeed found her salt store she had taken from her village.

"Thank you!" Shuule exclaimed, standing up and hugging him, naked and soaking wet. Set immediately became as stiff as a board, and grunted.

"Go inside and get changed. I'll clean and skin the birds."

Unphased by her own nakedness or Set's awkwardness, Shuule nodded, heading up the rocks and waving her hand behind her. "Don't touch the eggs, I have a plan for them," she ordered.