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Saei grinned, teeth glinting behind the grass. The effect went somewhat marred by a couple gaps, his milk-teeth slowly coming out to make room for the real ivories. He missed his fangs on one side, but Uncle Kynin said eyeteeth always came back better. Didn't much matter here, tho'. There was no way they'd bite this beast into submission. Not one this big.

The yaotl had escaped the ranch during a storm the other week. Papa and even Grandpa had been too busy wrangling everything else to go after it in the days following. When word came back to the ranch on its whereabouts, it unfortunately found two little boys with more wild ideas in their heads and feet than good sense. They'd decided on the spot to race off into the marsh with rope and sticks and track the wayward critter down, maybe even bring it home.

As Huajiu had been spending time with Mama (very important, leaving 'Jiu Mama-time), they'd decided to leave a note. Had he been there, he might have put some caution into their heads, remembered how much trouble these gave even Grandpa. It wouldn't have stopped the boys as three any more than two, but they might have been more careful about it...

Off to grab the yowtel yaotl. Be back ina bitsies. Love you!
Tathy, Saei

It wasn't so much that this pair couldn't remember things. They clearly did in many instances. The trouble seemed that their excitement often outweighed the wisdom of experience. And there were so many things to rouse exitement in over-clever children. But like his sibling, Saei saw nothing wrong with this very reasonable plan. It was his own plan, and mostly consisted of running off saying 'Let's goooo!' until they ran into something interesting. Normally, anyway.

This time a few more bits had attatched themselves to his most effective plan. For one, they hunted a specific interesting something, one that left large divots with its feet. Made the tracking part easy enough when it didn't cross the bigger rivers. For another, they weren't out to fight it. These were eager boys, not stupid. A yaotl would just step on them and that'd be that. No, they were out to bring this beast home. But to do that, they needed to observe it, figure it out. Tathy and Saei could handle that much.
Right?
Right.

They'd stopped at a riverbank to check the far shore for great earth-rending tracks. That and to take a breather. It'd been around an hour so far. The tanned boy knelt in the mud, stick in hand and rope coiled ovef his otherwise bare torso. We're gettin' close. Doesn't seem like they're hurried tracks. That snapper nest is moved, so I wonder if it's gonna turn for anything? Like food, maybe? ...Wonder what it eats?

As he mused, his brother's thought struck, wound around, and soon flowed out the other side mostly unchanged. "Dunno. Chiri might make us take it out an' be her ship when she finds out." The triplets loved their cousin. No question. They did not always love being conscripted as her minions for whatever game she played this week. ...Even if they often wound up having fun despite themselves.

Thin shoulders bobbed in a shrug. He took his handful with a nod, and got to crunching. They'd need their strength here, had to keep snackin'. Couldn't stop and cook anything anyhow. "Think it's a compliment? Chiri's smart. Knows we're the best. Tethys' gets too timid unless somethin' threatens his keldari. An' Ultear knows the best hidin' spots already."

The stick he bore scratched carelessly at the mud on the riverbank. Occasionally, Saei looked down at it, considering or scratching changes to one of the lines. Soon he had a rudimentary map doodled up, complete with a blobby yaotl on one side and two stick people on the other. "Yup. Think he'll be in the next lake. The hill just a little ways yonder'll dip further down than usual when we gain it. Might be sunnin' himself at this time of day. Or else just startin' to? Dunno, I'd wanna watch 'im for a bit."

Neither triplet seemed afraid. If Saei was anything at the moment, it would be curious or excited. His teeth kept flashing from his smile, a bad habit on the ranch. Most creatures saw that as a threat, ater all.

The golden boy tilted his head and listened. As highly as he viewed himself(/-selves?), Tathy and Jiu were the harsher of the trio. Chicken or not, the calm triplet quite liked their young uncle, not least because they could always talk him into playing with them. Ultear was pretty cunnin', him an' his friends. And Kechiri-

A few wisps of cloud passed before the sun. The little smile that usually played about Innsaei's lips faded a moment, digesting their youthful arrogance and suddenly thinking about the whole picture of his family. Especially the ragged hole that'd been torn some years ago. She was part of why the boys understood their cousin, even if they didn't always appreciate. "...Gonna need to be better, once 'Xi comes back. 'Chiri's gonna want us everywhere with her whenever she ain't around."

Before long the clouds passed, and Saei's smile returned, changing easily with the world around him. Tathy's doin' that chatter bug thing again. What'd Jiu usually do with that-? He shrugged and continued to listen. What Jiu did would differ from what his brother did anyhow. His ears twitched, and the blue head of hair whipped back towards the hill. One hand rose, half open. "Sst-!" Their little hissing signal for silence raised, he hoped to listen further. After a few moments, he spoke again, lower and softer. "Do you hear that? Little trilling, not quite birdsong? Only the other birds aren't there anymore."

And from over that hill, the noise grew. As well as the deeper sounds of something big beinnin to move...

"What's an angel? Sounds creepy." He'd been about to respond to the important bits, but the talk had turned all to noise as his priorities shifted. Movement and stillness took precedence here as they scuttled under and around the bush. Saei reached out and gripped his brother's blue shoulder, just to let him know the other was there. The shrub wouldn't stop anything big, but it was dense enough to hide a pair of quiet boys, should they keep still. And from there, they watched.

The yaotl was a critter that they'd never seen. And of a size they'd likewise never seen on land. Thus, when its head came over the hilltop, the blue-haired boy thought it the main body. Like to a giant frog, maybe. As at head rose, and the body itself rose to support it, the claws pulling their quarry along proved otherwise. For all his impulsive nature and lack of filter between thought and action, Innsaei could not be called stupid. His was an inner knowing that he seldom felt need to give over to words. He did not, as in this case, charge blindly at something when that inner voice spoke nothing of victory. Instead it whispered death.

With the angle of its eyes, there would be no escape unnoticed, and certainly no outrunning something that big overland. Not without a headstart. Nothing to be done but wait, and to watch...

That little bit on his grandmother's spiritual framework lodged in his skull, as did many things that went in one ear. Depending on how this went, Saei might well ask her about it later. Assuming he and Tathy weren't about to die, of course. In that increasingly likely event they'd need to wait a while to ask her anything.

This time, he didn't hiss, just reached over and tapped his tan finger to blue lips. They weren't sure how well it could hear, let alone smell. For the moment, he'd laid down his stick and picked up a stone. A decent one came to hand, egg-shaped and palm-sized. This he showed to his brother, pointing to a couple angles off on the hill. Tahy had a throwing arm, and tended to do better than Saei at such contests. His enthusiastic brother put more effort into the throw than actually hitting the target.

More and more yaotl came over the hill, scarred and massive, claws scoring the limestone beneath the soil. It tasted the air again, unsure of what it had smelt. Earthling? Snapper? Fur or hide? This was the beast's territory now, and it needed to establish that...

They'd still likely have ended up in this situation with Jiu around, but he might have been able to recall what Papa and Grandpa had said about this thing. Before right now, that was. As it stood, there was little else to do but to scarper. And better still, the throw might not work for long. Yaotl seemed a whole lot more aggressive than what stories he remembered.

Of all instincts, fear, fight-or-flight, is one of the strongest. Innsaei, so in tune with his body's natural reactions, this was a struggle. Bolting as they dictated led to death, either for his own or sibling-self. Instead, he set them a low pace, taking great care not to rustle the bush overmuch. Just in case, Saei knelt and took up another stone, this to hand to Tathy.

The yaotl, unbeknownst to the boys named Beelzebob, had begun to dig out the hill on which he'd heard that first stone. Two young earthlings would fare far worse than the stone beneath those claws. He might not have seen them as yet, but if they crept away a bit first, they might make for the next hill over...