OPEN archaic kinds of fun

[KNOX.]

One thing that was certain among the Departed was their lack of food sources post-earthquake destruction. They may have had their chances to get their fill on the deceased, but they didn't last forever either. There were the crabs and fish, but those were finite and with the strain of supporting an entire island without moderation or other options would deplete them much quicker than anyone would really think. It was a very important issue to address.

Knox may have gathered a few mental notes throughout the last few days as she tried to think of ways to help where she could without having to go across the ocean and encroach on other land. During this, she of course continued her duty of planting seeds where she could, always careful to keep partial pathways clear from becoming too overgrown in the future. She was seeing the benefit of more earth elementals each time she went about it, if they could regrow faster than the single winged fox and some seed-planters it would speed up the process of returning standard prey to the island. She just might have to go poking around for one herself to bring back after all, double the amount of work they could get done....that was a concern for tomorrow, perhaps.

In all her seemingly random wandering and planting, she occasionally came across the annoying clucking of the junglefowl that inhabited their island. It was a surprise how many survived, Knox thought to itself as it sat and observed them for several minutes. A group of three birds had been scratching at the dirt and dead foliage, pecking around as they unearthed bugs. The maned lioness luckily had a fair fill of food beforehand because she was not desperate enough to eat a bird, no their feathers caught up all in her teeth, the bones tended to be just splinter dangers for her soft mouth.

What did catch her attention, though, was the neat 'nest' of eggs that sat just beneath the trunk of a fallen tree. Those were certainly edible even in an unfertilized form, that much she had learned. Curious, she moved forward and stuck her snout in the small gap, pushing forward enough to grab an egg. Closing its mouth around the small thing, the lioness backed out to be met with an angry squawking as one of the fowls jumped at its legs attempting to peck a hole into the large feline. Knox growled, low and deep, opening her mouth just enough to escalate that to a quiet roar that scared the stupid bird away from her. 

Biting into the egg, the shell fell away easily and the viscous liquid inside spread across her tongue. It had...an interesting taste, but it wasn't necessarily bad, either. She crunched the shell up and swallowed it all. With that test done and more mental notes taken, she decided on a plan that could help expand their sources of food. Over the next hour or so, she gathered materials in one of those trusty nets and carried it along into their cave system. There was then the matter of finding a good cave to set this up in, which had the maned lioness uncharacteristically very indecisive.

[METEOR]

METEOR

Meteor left the Doctors’ Caves with a slight frown and too much on his mind. While Meteor hadn’t actually talked with the prisoner (Kane seemed content to ignore Meteor, and Meteor really didn’t give a fuck about engaging the captured labor for conversation), he had talked with Xanti. The cheetah’s report had been thorough (mostly translations of Vale insanity speak, some observations from Xanti post-elemental insanity) and communicated the situation perfectly. Progress was being made, but not fast enough.

For now, there were still enough crabs on Coconut Island. But that would not last forever.

While Meteor calculated all this, he spotted Knox with her nets and her own distracted look in her eyes. He walked right past her, then realized how weird that was, and doubled back. Despite his hooves, the lion trotted silently to catch up with the lioness.

“That’s an interesting collection of materials.” Meteor nodded to the net and its contents. His voice was a bit confused, but mostly curious. Knox had an idea in her head, hadn’t she? Requiem and Vayu knew they needed some goddamn innovation.

His frown mellowed out into a more relaxed neutral expression. Sometimes, he forgot that the cannibals weren’t just automatons who would only do work when explicitly told to do so. They all were motivated to survive, too, and—while he considered it his responsibility as pharaoh to ensure they didn’t collapse into hunger-induced anarchy—that meant they could be trusted to behave in regards to their survival.

Except for narcissists like Viper, of course, but Meteor still hadn’t decided if he should eat that idiot.

“Clearly, you've got a plan for that net and those things. Let's hear it.”

[KNOX.]

Initially, Knox hadn’t even noticed the other lion walking right by her, still running through decisions in her mind. How to best house them, how to corral them, how to feed them. Would containing them cause the population to grow with some semblance of sustainability or would the flock eventually die out. If they got the birds used to their nests being disturbed, would they fight back less when gathering their eggs. 

The maned lioness hummed, head turning toward Meteor as her thoughts broke momentarily. She glanced at the mentioned collection beside her, dead grass and feathers wrapped in cloth pieces she often used, rope and vines, twigs and sticks of varying sturdiness and size. Interesting was absolutely a fair word. And a plan she certainly had.

”The annoying birds outside,” she started, then thought to clarify. ”The non-sentient red ones, not Vale. They seem rather simple even for non-sentients, and resilient. Enough for a surprising amount to have survived the recent devastation. Their eggs are edible either way.” It looked back toward a cave it had in mind, one with more natural shelving in the walls. ”If we manage to create a space where they comfortably replicate the way they live outside, we would have easier access to them. It wouldn’t be a lot to start, but over time even the smallest contribution to more variety of food and its source would help while the land replenishes.”

Her orange gaze returned to the Pharaoh, ”I only need some time to create that space, and help from others to capture enough of those birds to make it a worthwhile endeavor. We keep ours here, and the rest remain wild to eventually cycle back into the island’s food chain.”

[METEOR]

METEOR

At Knox's words of annoying birds with an s, Meteor’s right eyebrow quirked up. Had Vale finally gone fully insane and burst into a murder of crows? Wouldn’t surprise Meteor in the slightest. But, then, why bother with the ropes and supplies? Then Knox clarified. Meteor tilted his head slightly, glanced at the ceiling as his mental image swapped Vale for the red birds. “Ah, the jungle fowls.”

As she continued, Meteor listened to her with a growing gleam in his golden eyes. Huh. He’d been suffering over maps and trade swap ideas in his quarters for hours—days, really—but he’d completely missed the fact eggs are protein.

The thought likely didn’t occur to him because he hated the taste. Raw? Boiled? Scrambled? Sunny-side up? Fuck the preparation, they all tasted like overly warm bubblegum. And then when they weren’t freshly cooked, they tasted like cold slime or lukewarm rubber. He hated eggs. However… he’d rather eat eggs than a fellow cannibal (except for Viper, but Viper hadn’t proven that he was capable of killing to prove his worth or proven he was capable of cannibalism, so Viper was not a fellow cannibal). In Meteor's mind, he'd eat these in order: Viper, then eggs, and then the conversational vipers on Viper Island.

“Excellent plan, Knox.” Meteor refocused to meet its orange gaze. With a slight grin, he nodded at her. “Approved. I have a bit of time now, so why don’t we pick out that cave? And feel free to recruit any paws you need for the setup: increasing our protein supply is the highest priority.”

Meteor glanced at the caves, the nearby tunnels, and a pathway leading down to the Vayu’s sacrificial lava pool. His golden eyes narrowed in thought. “My guess is that we can use either the lava or magic-heated rocks to incubate the eggs. Birds of all types spend too much time sitting on their shelled offspring for it to be anything but required… and I’ve seen those jungle fowls hens lead around a gaggle of chicks, so the jungle fowls seem to crank out eggs faster than they can brood.”
—

[KNOX.]

Something bubbled up in her chest, maybe happiness and a bit of pride in herself that she had come up with something worthy of approval. But of course, she would never throw out a half-baked plan and expect Meteor to agree for the sake of agreeing. She nodded, turning her attention back to the empty caves now. The biggest hurdle at the moment was simply selecting one to get started in and while it wasn't that important in the grand scheme, it was still important enough that she wouldn't just haphazardly start throwing together anything in just any cave. "Some around here stood out, one was a big more spacious than most, another had a smaller opening to make it easier to cage the hypothetical flock in, but this one here I think is the winner. There's spaces in the walls that would be perfect to set their nests up on, I would just need to tie together enough sticks to make ramps for them to easily climb up and down. It would make collection easier, and leave more floor space to account for all their foraging and wandering around." 

She grab hold of her net again and dragged it into the cave she pointed out. Untwisting the twig she used to keep it all together, the materials spilled out onto the ground. It would take more than just this, but it was a decent start. It could start tying together little ramps, and larger pieces of wood would be used to put up a gate at the entrance of the cave just so the fowl didn't flood over into the rest of the lava tubes. That would defeat the purpose of this experiment in the first place.

In the back of her mind, she wondered just how much of the outside they would have to replicate. It wasn't opposed to hauling even dirt in here to give the birds a sense of their outside world, and it knew they at least enjoyed bugs, but realized how much she didn't really pay attention to just what they ate beyond that. That would be next on the agenda. Her ears perked at the idea of incubating the eggs themselves, and she looked back toward Meteor. "That would be perfect. I can absolutely try it." Those birds were like any other animal, continue to breed with stronger mates, you have stronger children. If it could select which eggs to incubate and which to gather for food, they would eventually have exactly what they wanted out of the flock, whatever that would be.

[METEOR]

METEOR

Meteor walked into the cave Knox pointed out. His right ear twitched as he listened attentively, though his gaze swept the room as he circled he walls. Occasionally, he nudged one of the almost-shelves she mentioned with a paw. Yes, he nodded to himself, he saw her vision.

“Assuming the fowl can adjust to torchlight instead of sunlight….” He mumbled to himself. Though loud enough for Knox to overhear, and, perhaps, add to her thoughts on turning this cave into a coop.

His thoughts in order, the lion flicked his tail and turned back to face Knox. “I think you’re right: this would make an excellent cave to test keeping the chickens in. Feel free to claim it. If anyone gives you problems, direct them to me and I’ll settle the score.” He half-shrugged. He doubted anyone would have problems, but every project had its unexpected hurdles.

Then his head tilted slightly as he considered who to direct Knox to for assistance in this project. “If you need a fire elemental, Chernabog, Vale, and Kole are our most reliable. If you need help keeping the fowl healthy, Xanti is available.” His tail-tip curled, then flicked in thought. “You also might want to requisition the hybrid duo to help wrangle the jungle fowls. They’re getting to that troublesome age where, if we don’t start teaching them and redirecting their energy, they’ll fuck shit up trying to be helpful.”