Without waiting for a response from Steel, Nova flew ahead to the bridge northwest of the farm. As she expected, several juvenile Cragadiles were sunning themselves on the riverbank. They were easily dispatched with an arrow apiece, right between the eyes. After retrieving her arrows and piling the bodies to be taken back to the farm later, she filled her canteen from the river and sat down to wait for Steel.
After Steel went back to the cottage and grabbed his saddle bag, he flew out the door and looked for Nova. After a few minutes of searching he finally came across here near a pile of several cragadiles. "Woah! What happened here?!"
Nova shrugged. "Cragadiles. These were little ones, maybe two or three years old. We would have to deal with them sooner or later, so I decided that 'sooner' was the better option. Believe me when I say that you do not want to meet one of the adults." She suddenly grinned. "With that in mind, we need to go find the eggs." She opened her map, and showing the various lakes, rivers, and streams that flowed through the area. "Our goal for today is to find and map as many Cragadile nests as we can. They're pretty easy to spot from the air, just look for big piles of loose dirt with drag marks around them."
The bush rustled again, and out hopped a rabbit. "Phew. Crisis averted." Up ahead was a pear tree, and Swipes ran up to it. "Hey, we've been at it for a while, why not take a quick snack break?" She then levitated down 2 pears and tossed one to Dark Blitz.
"Alright, this should be easy then," said Steel as he started to take off. "Let's start going up this stream."
The bushes behind Nova and Steel rustled, but it turned out to be the giant earth-pony, Jeremiah. "I'm a bit slow... thought I'd join you both..."
Nova hesitated. This was a job best left to Pegasi. Then again, the whole point was for the races to learn to work together... "Well... the thing is... we need to..." She was struck by a sudden inspiration. "Actually... you might be able to help us. Do you have any experience with boats?"
"I use to make them for a few people that I knew. Once I even made one for myself. I might know a thing or two..." The large earth-pony smirked.
"Good." Nova dragged a medium-sized wooden boat out of some bushes. "I spotted this while I was dealing with the juveniles. I had intended to just map the nest locations and deal with them later, but it might be better to deal with them now. So... Steel and I will fly overhead and find the nests. When we spot them, I'll need you to help us dig up the eggs and load them into the boat. Just remember to steer clear of the adults, and you should be fine."
Jeremiah nodded. He had dug plenty himself, most of the time, a well placed six feet under. He had got onto the boat, the wood straining under his heavy weight, though it held him. He would follow the others as they flew overhead, using his large, wide hooves to paddle, which did well.
Steel darted up into the sky and started hovering about 10 meters above the ground. "Alright, let's get this show on the road!"
Nova flapped her wings and flew into the air, waiting for Steel to follow. "I want to cover the main river today. We'll start here, and work our way north upstream. That means that the return trip will be nice and easy."
Looking at Swipes then looking at the pear, there was a question about the pear that Blitz had to ask, "So before I eat this, what is it suppose ti taste like?"
Dark Blitz observed it for a minute, "Might as well." He took a bite out of it, the fruit was decent, but he liked it, "Eh, its alright I guess."
"Back in Unicorn Territory, we couldn't grow things very well, because it was high in the mountains. However, there was this one valley me and my brother would sneak off too sometimes, and there were trees of this stuff everywhere!" Swipes said, as she took another bite.
Swipes levitated some of the Pear down into her bag for later. Maybe she'd plant them. "I think we came out far enough, let's head back!"
"Yeah, I guess so," Blitz agreed not really caring what would happen at this point, hopefully his sisters okay.
Jeremiah's large hooves gave him the ability to paddle through the river quickly, stroking his front leg across the water to propel him every so often. He followed Steel and Nova, tilting his hat a bit to get an eye, a bit of his dark grey mane fluttering from the traveling...
