So we’re doing this

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"So we are doing this instead of hunting why?"

Scott huffed at Mae's question, stopping and dropping the large grass basket onto the forest floor.

"Because you can barely walk in a chosen direction and you drop the knives so much that Amelia won't let you carry one on you. Which is double bad since that means you don't have a means of defending yourself and even if you did you would probably end up hurting yourself"

Mae stared wide eyed as Scott launched off into a stressed out angry rant as he paced around in the small clearing hammering wooden pegs into the ground and a few in the tree that they were near. 

Once he hammered the last peg into the ground he grabbed the net out of the basket he was carrying and hooked the loops on the edges of the nets around the pegs. Carefully placing a stick in the ground with a bag of night berries tied to one side which was just barely heavy enough to suspend the net. 

"Sorry, I'm just stressed about us being able to catch enough to last the next four seasons. There isn't much that grows in the cold seasons, there's also practically no animals present and with there being so many extra mouths that cant help with hardly anything, it gets to me sometimes."

"It's fine, I understand. Maybe when we get back I can train with a different weapon. Something harder to drop. Maybe a bow like ava?"

"Maybe , that does seem like an easier weapon to hold, I'm not sure though we can ask Amelia. Let's go back and finish setting out these traps. I've also got to mark them on the map"

The pair walked back to the crater grass baskets in hand. When the pair returned to the crater there were four more large grass baskets packed with nets and pegs, there was one basket flipped upside down which was odd. The pair stacked their baskets off to the side. Mae then walked over grabbing a packed grass basket as Scott upturned the flipped basket, revealing a circular wooden board with an also circular sheet of parchment pinned down. 

Upon closer inspection the parchment was a map centralized around the canyon. You could even see the village mapped out to the west. 

"That's the map?"

Mae asked, poking her head over Scotts shoulder watching as he carefully measured out and marked two points on the map in pencil.

"Uh yeah, hang on, I'm just marking out the traps we've already set up. It looks like Amelia has set up a few as well"

Scot pointed at a few other points marked on the map. They were marked in three different paint colors, three in orange, five in peacock blue and one far to the north marked with a shimmery pearl white paint which stood out against the slightly tan parchment.

"Why are they marked in different colors?"

"Different traps are built to catch different animals, there's honestly no one size fits all because of how different all the animals are. Now i wont say that on occasion a naepa trap wont somehow catch a kirae but that doesn't mean a kirae won't escape and leave us with a shredded net."

Mae nodded along to Scotts explanation, scanning over the map as he spoke. Her eyes landed on the one pear white dot off to the far north of the map. 

"What's that one"

She asked, pointing at the small dot.

Looking away from his work, Scott followed her finger and chuckled.

"She's not ever going to stop is she?"

"Who? Stop what?"

"Amelia is who and stop with those traps."

"What's that trap for?"

"That is a trap for an imak, nobody has ever caught the little buggers and everyone wants one."

"Why's that?"

"Well first they are tricky little buggers, they have two big buck teeth up front that can munch through anything. Seriously the little guys can rival beavers with those teeth. Anyway their teeth can cut through anything, plus they have a big ploof of fur on the end of their long tail that they use to brush away their paw prints as they hop away"

Mae nodded, still unsure as to why anyone would want to catch one.

"Do they have something special that you guys want? Why does she want to catch one?"

"Oh, because these things are adorable, when we were younger, elder Maya actually had one. She said she tamed it when she was young. Unfortunately she was very young when she tamed the little guy so she can't remember how she tamed him."

"That makes since I guess"

Scott nodded silently and placed the map back on the ground. 

"Well let's get moving"

He said as he replaced the upturned grass basket and stood. Grabbing a packed grass basket himself and leading the way back into the forest. 

"Let's place these four traps before the sun sets, this place isn't fun at night."