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“Laesara, come here.” Mal gestured and Lae, obediently, followed him to peer into the rattling cage. “See here?” said Mal, “This is a successful trap.”

Laesara looked between the bars at the glowering, lithe beasts within.

They look so strange... long and thin, too long for their legs Laesara thought, noting their sour little faces and tiny paws.

“What are they?” she asked, staring back at them as they writhed and struggled against the bars of the cage.

Malesmech gave her a funny look. “They're silx, Lae. Haven't you seen 'em before?”

These are silx? She had only ever seen them from afar, brief glimpses of them before they grabbed something and darted into hiding. “I know what they are.” she protested, “I've just never seen them close like this...”

It was clear that they did not want to be so close. They hissed, baring their sharp little teeth at her. They're very mean. she thought, taking a step back, They look so cute from afar... When she'd seen them at the cabin, she had wanted to hug their long, round bodies and stroke their soft-looking fur. Here, she could see the long bodies and soft fur, but she could also see the little sharp claws and teeth they bore, and the wrath with which they shook their trap.

I don't want to pet them now.

“All right, kid,” said Mal, tapping the cage. Lae looked up at him, “Do you know what to do with them now?”

“I think I do.” said Laesara, honestly. She knew that trapping was hunting and hunting was killing and she had been with Mal when he had made the traps and set them in the woods around the abandoned village. This was the first time they had gone out to check, and this was her first trapped animal. Pair of animals she corrected herself: there were two silx trapped inside.

“Well, seeing as this is your first trap, I'll demonstrate for ya.” said Mal jovially. He gave the trap a slam, startling the silx inside and stunning them. Quickly, he reached in, grabbing one of them and picking it up out of the cage by it's scruff with one smooth motion. “First, you kill it. Don't want it to suffer, do you?” He grabbed it and, with a single harsh motion, twisted its head. The resulting sharp crack echoed through Laesara's whole body, and she shuddered as the beast went limp. “You gotta do it quick, and if yer strong enough you can do it like this and break its neck...” he took the dead silx by the tail and slammed it, headfirst, against a tree, “Or like this and break its head. Or you can just slit its throat or stab it – that works for most everything. He set the dead silx on a nearby stump. “Second, we collect the rest of 'em and bring them back if they're small. If they're big, then we clean 'em there and bring the parts back. Showing's better than telling, and I'll show you if we've got one. I'd show you with this one, here and now, but I'd rather have a bunch for you to practice cleaning on so we'll just carry this one...” he tied it onto a rope on his back, “for now.” he gave Laesara a level look and then slammed the cage down again, grabbing the other silx out of it and offering it to Lae. “But first lesson's first, girl. You're turn. Kill it.”

Laesara took it gingerly, nearly dropping it.

It's heavy! she thought, staring at it's stunned form. Heavier, certainly, than she had expected from its light steps of before. She realized that she was holding a living animal in her hands, a small creature with blood and bone and sinew. She knew she had to kill it, and she hesitated, uncertain.

And then it began to move, wiggling slightly as it came to. Startled, Laesara yelped and swung it into a tree. It's head hit the side of the trunk with a soft thud and it went still. She stared at it, shocked at what she had just done.

“Good girl... Lemme make sure it's dead...” said Mal, taking it from her and breaking its neck for good measure, just in case. He tied it onto his string of small animals, grinning at her. “Congratulations, kid, you've just done your first trap. Now show me you saw how to reset 'em.” he said.

Laesara reset the trap, a little numbly but successfully, and they were soon off to check the rest of their traps. The wild-raised have no room or time to grieve for her lost innocence, and so, as the trapping expedition drew on, her monumental act of killing was soon lost to normalcy.

(806/2400)

Later into their hunting trip, Laesara had been allowed to set a few traps by herself.

One was a dunkel trap, baited with a bouken they had trapped before. It had been alive and struggling in it's bait-cage when she had left it, but it was now dead and bloodless, drained of it's vital fluids by a dunkel.

At least it attracted what it was supposed to attract Laesara thought, unhappily, as she took down the ruins of her trap, It caught it too.

But, it appeared, in the struggle to escape, it had broken free and trashed her trap along with it. She sighed and put it aside. She'd try to repair it later, but she wasn't hopeful. It was badly smashed up by the powerful avian, and likely only good for tinder. She would have to try again later, just to prove she could do it.

The second was a groda trap, little more than a bowl on the ground with a tripwire and a cover. Mal had said that their poisonous mushrooms were good for alchemists, and he knew one that would give them plenty of medicine for a Groda shroom. So, wanting to be helpful, Lae had set a trap for one. From the way the weighted cover shook, she knew she had caught one, but when she opened it to retrieve the groda, it made a mighty hop for freedom and bounced rapidly away. She picked up the trap, devoid now of bait, and resolved to try again. At least this trap had worked, and she would be faster next time in the actual catching department.

The third was more personal and closer to home. She dropped the trap refuse off by the abandoned house they had turned into a hunting shelter and turned towards the tree.

That tree.

The tree from hell. It was quiet now, but Laesara knew – oh she knew – that those little busy tailed monsters were waiting for her. They were fekarats and they scared her.

Which means I have to catch one, kill one, and make it into a stew thought Laesara murderously as she stalked over to check the trap she had made. It was a hanging cage trap, baited with suet and offal and trapped with a pressure mechanism that would cage the little monster until she could deal with it.

She inspected the trap where it hung, wary – always – of the looming tree above with its hundreds of hidden eyes. It was untripped, but the bait was gone. She growled, angrily and swore she could see movement out above her, at the limits of her vision. She made a face and took the trap down.

Stupid clever beasts... she would need to modify her design.

She glared at the tree as she left with the trap.

I'll get them yet.

(1696/2400)

“Ugh... it stinks.” Laesara exclaimed as she tried to work the trap open. The struggling of the animal inside and the muck of the swamp had sealed the trap, and she could not get the beast out.

“Careful, Laesara.” he said, “Watch its teeth.” But the sinuous, scaled creature inside was clearly done with fighting, instead glowering in annoyance as it's resting place was moved hither and thither. “We've almost got it open.”

Laesara glowered right back. “Should we kill it first?” she asked.

“Nah, it's not that useful to us.” said Mal, shrugging, “We get it out of the trap and we let it go. Thats what we're going to do.”

“But...” Laesara frowned at Mal again. Here it was again, this strange concept of willingly letting prey go when they were so hard-caught. “Doesn't it have meat? Aren't its scales useful?” they had set this trap for Rivakka, a creature Mal had said had good scales he could trade for other things. This creature was a Rivakka, and it indeed had lovely indigo scales.

“This one's just a baby.” explained Mal, grunting as he worked one of the cage door's bars free from the muck, “It's scales are soft and it's not full grown.” he wrinkled his nose and gestured, “And tell me you don't want to eat that. Your mother and I raised you to have better taste than that.”

“But... isn't freeing it wasteful? You said we needed as much meat as we could for the winter, Mal.” she said, accusingly.

“And we do... Pull on your end, real hard now...” he ordered, “But we've got plenty, and we don't need more...”

Laesara wrenched on her end and the cage came apart, rotted by the swamp. The rivakka was clearly done with all of this and, with a hiss, slithered off into the water. “But... you said.” she murmured, as the beast slid into the murk and out of sight.

“Aye, I did. But Lae, heres the thing: you don't take too much from the land. If you take and take and take, eventually you run out. Now, see...” he gestured to the slow ripples of the water, “That one's a baby, and it will grow up big and then it will be worth something. It'll make babies, which we can catch when they grow up. So, if you think about it, by releasing this one we make sure we'll catch many more.” he grinned at her, “See?”

Laesara thought she might just get it. Almost. Barely. She nodded. “It would not have been tasty anyway.” she said defensively.

“Right you are.” Mal said, “Fortunately, we've got plenty more food at home so you needn't worry. We've enough to survive the winter, too. Heck, we could go back tomorrow if you wanted.

“No...” Laesara thought of the Faekarat tree, and her unresolved business with it. “Three more days. Like you said before.”

“Fine by me, kiddo.” said Mal, shrugging, “I'm game for anything.”

(2304/2400)