Welcome to Gaia! ::

The questions made Kicheko smile a bit. He certainly was a curious one! There was nothing wrong with that, of course. Being curious was a good thing. She moved away from the skull again and pawed at one of the vertebrae that had fallen from the spine above.

"Well...they usually don't come too close to shore, so we don't know too much about them. But they usually travel in prides when we do see them off shore. With a brain that big they must be pretty intelligent," she added with a little laugh. "And...well. This one has pointy teeth, so it must be a meat eater like us. I can't say if they're cruel or not, but I'd like to think they're wise and caring. They kind of have that look on their faces...you'll see eventually, since this one has lost its face to the birds and crabs."

Athena stretched, popping in a few places along her spine. Oh, all this work! She'd been picking at the sand for what felt like hours, finding nothing of interest beyond the lions who had showed up. Even Ram had come to help! She offered the pride leader a grin, as she climbed up and sat on the skull. "Seven ribs to go! We're almost done!" The sun, indeed, had risen higher into the sky by now, doing its best to warm them as the waves sang against the shore.

The young lioness let out a puff of air, frowning as she picked at the sand. Bones, so many bones... None would do, in her mind. If she was going to find something to take with her as jewelry, she hoped it was more shells than bones. She glanced at the sky, squinting at the sun. Noon already? She'd spent hours here, picking at a dead animal's bones! She hoped this was worth it. She turned back to it, pawing at the sand again. Not paying attention to where she was going, she soon bumped her shoulder into a rib. Well... Might as well. She dug her claws against it, pulling and tugging until it finally came free. The trip to drag it back to the dens felt no less difficult than the previous one, but when she returned, she felt... Accomplished.

"Make that six ribs!" She jumped off the skull, grinning at the wave- and fish-marked lioness. "Great job!"

((True fact, I spent all day yesterday between Photoshop and Minecraft and... Not much else xd ; SO I looked today, with the last posts I'd seen being the first three on page 3, and "OH MY PUFFIES IT EXPLODED!" lol ))

Kicheko glanced up to the lioness on the skull of the whale and grinned. Six more? Sweet! They were almost done! She watched another get dislodged and decided to do one more rib. They were pretty exhausting to carry and this would be her fourth, but hey, she was a tough gal!

Grabbing another rib, she followed the trail in the sand up to the pile of bones. It was taller than her now so she laid her prize beside the pile before trotting back to the sand.

"Make that four," she said with a pleased grin.

Kicheko could see the light at the end of the tunnel now. Just four more and they were done! Deciding to bring another up, she wiggled and dug at a rather stubborn one until it fell to the sand beside her. Picking it up, she dragged the bone along beside her and to the pile once more.

"Make that three," she said as she returned. Phew, that had been her fifth one! Now she was really starting to feel tired. A nice break after this was in order, then she'd help Rasul build his den.

Deciding to take another break, Kicheko went to rest in the shade of the massive skull. The sand was cooler where it cast its shadow, and she laid down in it to relieve her warm fur. Working in the heat of the day was never fun, but they really had to get this done before the tide came up again. That would obscure the last few ribs and possibly wash them away, now that they'd fiddled with the skeleton so much. She licked her paws as she watched the other lions mill about, finding various treasures in the sand.

Kicheko watched as another rib bone was taken down, and when the lioness returned and called out their new number she gave a laugh. "Ha! Good job!" she called out, grinning at the assembled lions. Man, she was proud of these guys! Some were pride members and some weren't, but they had all come together to help out.

Turning to the skull, she wiggled another one of the teeth and was surprised to find it came out. Sweet! She had wanted one of these!

After her little cheer, Kicheko put her paw down on something rather unsettling. She didn't even need to look at it to know what it was, and instead gave the mermaid's purse a hefty kick with her hind leg to send it sailing towards the sea. Just because they were bad luck didn't mean they had to die, after all. That was probably even worse luck...

Shivering a bit, she poked the whale's skull to see if any more of the teeth were loose. She wanted to make a little necklace or something out of them. Or maybe pierce her ear with one! That would be neat.

After a bit of wiggling and prodding another sharp tooth came loose from the jaw bone. Grinning, Kicheko set it aside with the other she had collected. Ooh, these would be pretty darn cool if she did say so herself. How many of the pride walked around with whale teeth on them? Not many, that was for sure! Shells were pretty but were a bit breakable for her tastes, especially for her profession. Digging dens wasn't a pretty job, but someone had to do it.