Dyna smiled softly at the little grasshopper sitting on her workbench. Her chin was resting level with it, and sweat matted her mane to her forehead. She'd been working quite hard crafting new armor until the grasshopper had gotten curious and came to check out what was happening. She'd stopped what she was doing so she wouldn't accidentally hurt it, but it was so cute she couldn't help but rest and watch it. The break was welcome as her muscles ached pleasantly from a hard days work. She only got to enjoy her little friend for a moment, though.
"Dyna! Dyna quick, I need your help!"
She tilted her head to look at the source of the commotion, still a little too tired to fully lift her head. It was a young gardener she'd talked to a few times before, but she couldn't quite remember her name. Sacha? Sasha? Sriracha? "What do you need, uh...."
"Sanha," the doe reminded her impatiently. "There are these BUGS attacking our plants! They're eating everything. I know you have some weird love for them, please come figure out how to stop them!"
Dyna lifted her head at that. Not only were insects involved, which she did love, but it was a little problem for her to solve. Any challenge was a welcome challenge. "Sure! What field are they in?" She almost asked what type of bug, but she knew for a fact the doe wouldn't have an answer for her.
"The western one, near the orchard. Just follow me!"
Dyna did as she was told, quietly wishing her little grasshopper friend goodbye. It waved its antennae at her blankly, not understanding.
Chasing after Sanha when she'd been working all day was quite painful, but she pushed through anyways with the power of feeling needed. The field wasn't far away, so it was at least a survivable trip. Before they'd even reached the edge of the field, Dyna already knew the problem.
"Locusts," she gasped. Locusts were so unpredictable, but she should have had an inkling before now. The year had been so wet, of course they'd be more likely to swarm now. They'd wrecked so much of the field already, but there were still sections that were savable. But how?
"What do we do? How do we stop them?" Sanha asked, sounding more panicked. "They've done even more damage since I left to get you."
Dyna hummed and thought. No scent really deterred locusts, like they might other insects, and there were far too many for her to capture and try to control. "I think we have to create some kind of barrier. Like a covering. OH!" She pranced in a little circle. "I went to the Mistfruit Forest, where the dam was, and there was this net left by the river. I was going to use it to decorate some armor, but it's got this tiny mesh that I don't think a locust could get through!" She turned back toward her workshop. "I'll go get it! Stay right here!"
She dashed off, no longer feeling the ache from working. Her head was buzzing with too much excitement at having solved a piece of the puzzle. She burst into her workshop, stumbling over tools she'd yet to put away, and careened into her stockpile of materials. The net was far down and she nearly created and avalanche getting to it, but with a determined grunt and a tug she freed it. It was maybe not large enough to cover the entire field, but it would certainly cover most of it.
She secured it to her back and ran back as fast as she could. Sanha was frozen in her spot, right where she'd been left, as if the anxiety had kept her from disobeying Dyna's orders. She snapped to when Dyna skid to a halt beside her. "Did you get it?"
"Right here!" Dyna crowed. "We just have to stretch it over, and then secure it down real well so they can't sneak under it. I think rocks would do the trick?"
She and Sanha worked together rather awkwardly to stretch out the long length of net across the field. Dyna had been right about the size, about a fifth of the field was left uncovered, but together they positioned the net in the center so that only the harder-hit plants on the edge were left without protection.
It took what felt like a hundred stones to fully secure all the edges of the net to the ground, but once they were done Dyna was satisfied that they locusts couldn't get in. "We'll have to check it every day to make sure there's not a breach, but I think we did it!"
Sanha breathed a sigh of relief. "Thank you so much. You saved so much of our time."
"Of course. I'm glad I had a solution," Dyna grinned.
