For the Turtle Festival in
Poor Karkaros's festivities are spoiled by the over-exuberant Soolee

"So I was thinking," continued Soolee.

"Mmff..." mumbled Karkaros, the thick-billed raven/jaguarundi the adults stuck her with to keep her out of trouble. They'd thought maybe the teenager, grounded as he was in the traditions of Twistoult, might keep the youngster out of trouble. The only thing being kept from was Karkaros fully enjoying his spoils. The crazy fool nattered on so much about nothing, her words were as irrelevant noise as the ocean beating against the sand. Instead, he focused on the egg pile deposited by a late mother turtle (still laying eggs as he ate, it didn't get any fresher than this!)

"I was, was thinking that we all have such a good time here, yes?"

"mmf," he shoved another eggs into his enormous beak.

"Why don't we just gather up the turtles and keep them in a, in a pen why don't we with a little water on the side for them to swim in and then we collect the eggs year round like a, like the humans do with their sheepies and doggies and such like."

"fmmm."

"Then we'll have eggs always, and we can share them with the rest of the tribes always and eat them always and never fight over food and stuff again. And we can make good use of the turtles too, and eat them and maybe they can pull things and I bet the shamans would love a few more bowls and I rather think they'd make good pets too if only you spent a little time training them so would you help me out and collect some then? Cuz I haven't got the strength to pull all these turtles but you're big and strong and not too old like the grownups to think I'm a nutter, like you're still clever like a kid, ok? So you'll help me, swear on Vizel and Mordicam and the other thing?"

"mmhmm" Ooh, he'd found a big egg, especially juicy.

"Awesome now stop eating and collect the rest of the eggs."

"mmmhmm," he munched another.

Soolee, now realizing he was ignoring her, blistered as he consumed her dream. "KARKAROS! you SWORE on the GODS!"

"huh what?" Blasphemy shook the older male out of his lunch time daze.

"You just promised on the gods to help me collect turtles."

"You daft? I'm not missing the goods to help you collect turtles!"

"Fine then," sniffed Soolee, "get struck by lightning or branches or whatever. I'm sure Vizel-"

"Vistle."

"Yeah Vittle will be real happy with you, breaking a solemn oath like that."

"Ugh, fine. But you're on your own after I give you back to your parents." grumbled Karkaros.

"Oh no, Karky," Soolee beamed, "the elders said you were my partner ALL festival LONG!"

This was almost enough to make Karkaros lose his lunch. Almost.

Curse his religious devotion, it was almost enough to make him consider agnosticism.