That's why they call me Dr. Greenthumb (Hannah, Dylan)

Having found a large spool of barbed wire with Hannah's and Dylan's help, Josiah led them past the edge of a large cleared area where some sheep and goats grazed. Once they were over another hillock, he walked through a couple of little dales by a winding, overgrown path. The trees became thicker and the sunlight more meager, and the hike took about twenty minutes.

Then they were atop the south face of a hillock. The hill face was well-covered by a canopy of branches, but it was obvious the ground itself had been cleared many times before. Row after row of cannabis plants stretched before them. Most of the plants were at least knee-high, and though the weeds were not yet ready to be harvested, the air carried a subtle, sickly smell of flowering cannabis.

"Trouble with deer is, they sure can jump." He pointed to a tree, and held out an end of the barbed wire from the spool. "Dylan. How far can you get up that oak yonder?"

The older man grasped the wire, then turned to look up the tree. "Not sure. Let's find out." Shrugging out of his leather trench, the detective stretched, jumped up and down a few times, then tucked his end of the wire a few times over-and-under his belt. With the line secure, he started to climb, slowly, but steadily.

"I neglected to ask this last night, Josiah. How do you hunt? Are guns forbidden out here?"

Hannah walked sometimes ahead, sometimes behind the group. She seemed to know her way and as they walked busied herself with ensuring that other patches of growing things on this path were still well tended. Despite the fact that things looked wild there were random plants here and there that could be used for food. When they reached the garden they were heading towards, Hannah found her own tree, across from Dylan's. In moments she'd scurried up to a high enough branch. "You only need to climb this high," She called across to Dylan.

Leaving him to do his climbing she pulled out a ball of twine and held onto the one end while she let the other fall. This could be used as a pulley to drag the fencing up to her height once Dylan had his end in place. They had done this before, Josiah and she, and she was well aware of her part in it.

When Hannah bolted up the tree to show Dylan how high he needed to climb, Josiah jerked a thumb towards her in agreement. "Wrap it around up there about four times. I'll pay out more wire."

As Dylan worked, Josiah paid out from the spool and spoke with an amused tone. "Ah, well. Depends on the prey and the land. My lovely apprentice is a bowhunter and avers that firearms are unsporting and that hunters who use them are unsporting, and other words besides that. Like 'pussy.'" He shot a look Hannah's way.

Then the Verbena went on. "But purity's a fool's consolation. Me, I hunt with my grandpa's side-by-side shotgun on government land - deer at least. I figure if it was good enough for him it's good enough for me. I know if I sold it we'd be able to buy a bunch more land, but I can't bear the thought of it. For fowl I use a pump action and steel shot. I never shoot fowl with lead, and neither should you. But if I go for a deer or wild pig on our property I shoot a 303 rifle, and 22 is legal for most small game. Those damn deer will eat us broke!" he exclaimed, taking the spool of wire to the base of the tree where Hannah had climbed. 

He tied the twine to the spool, then waved to Hannah. "Got it, Han?"

The tree climber nodded at the height level that was suggested, and pulled himself up a bit higher. Dylan was panting slightly by the time he made it up to where he needed to be, but he made it all the same. Reaching down for the wire, he pricked his hand on a barb, cursed quietly, then loosed it from his belt, sucking on his thumb for a second before moving to wrap the line. As Josiah fed him the length, he eyeballed the circumference of the trunk, marked the ending point for the wire, and then wrapped it about, tucking it under and over the loop till it was secured to the tree. He got another prick on his other thumb for his troubles.

The job done, he began to shimmy down a ways, glancing back to see if another line needed hanging, or if his part up in the tree was completed.

"I'll keep that in mind," he responded to the advice on lead shot. "I guess that means that trips to town for supplies aren't completely out of the question. I'll volunteer for supply runs, if no one's holding that post."

From somewhere in the forest nearby, between the house and the location close to the hemp patch where the Dreamspeaker had thoughtlessly placed her shrine to the Forest King, Emma's voice lifted in a frightened scream.

"BREN!!!"

Hannah half listened to the conversation happening across the way. A knowing smile was given to her mentor when he mentioned their little disagreements about the benefit of bow hunting versus gun hunting. She added in her own quiet way. "My tally is higher, thus far." The playful nature of the statement suggested that they'd had this discussion many times before. As Dylan fastened his end, Hannah reached down and grabbed up hers. She was about to answer when the scream echoed through the woods.

Without a word, Hannah scurried down from the tree. With possible danger looming on the horizon the woman was impressively agile. She got to the foot of the tree and took off running in the direction she knew that Emma had gone. She trusted Josiah to get Dylan and follow after.

Josiah said, "Well, shit." He drew a pistol from his jacket.

"Come on down from there, Dylan. Let's see what's cooking."