[Kyrit]

So... there she was, standing around cluelessly even after the Cuniflare had left her standing next to an old fallen tree that was covered in mushrooms working to decompose it. Why did she have to agree to this, why? The place had its own untouched beauty to it, yet at the same time it was screaming danger to her mind. Just from glancing at the area it seemed as though there would be many things to trip over, get her wings caught on, and just flat out get tangled in. He hadn't even left her with a basket either! Weren't people supposed to carry about little baskets on Easter that they could place their found eggs in for easy carrying?

Her eyes scanned the area, looking around for someone else to join her in her trek. If she was going to go in to there and possibly get herself hurt she wasn't about to go in alone. The more eyes the merrier too, since one might think to look in a place that another hadn't. Her first goal would be to find a companion, followed by searching for something that she could use as a makeshift basket.

[Mojave]

Easter! This positively had to be her most favorite holiday- everything was bright, pastel hued, and children could be seen running around with smiles on their faces. She had come to Terrace to join the fun, but her reaction to Terry had not gone well. She hadn't been upset about being hit in the face with an egg, but his constant commentary had quite confused her and she had simply slunk away when his back had turned to her. She knew it was rude, but quite frankly, he kinda scared her. Thus, she had retreated to the edge of the field where the bushes and grass had become an obstacle course to wait and see if she could join someone else.

Luckily, Terry had left the small woman alone near her. Excited, Beltain shifted to her own human form- about five foot nine, athletically built, strawberry blond hair down to her back, pale complexion. Picking up the extra easter basket she had brought with her own, she strode out of the shade of the trees to see if the young woman would like some company.

Hey there! Nice to meet'cha, I'm Beltain. Would you like to use one of my baskets? I don't have a partner for the event and that cuniflare kinda scared me so I came to hide here. What's your name?

[Kyrit]

Not expecting the sudden voice from not far off, Atayura flinched slightly, taking a few seconds before she turned to look at the approaching person through a veil of white bangs. Her eyes caught sight of a woman that was probably a good seven inches or so taller than her and seemed quite the opposite from her, other than the fact that they were both pale. Well, she shouldn't be picky, right? Besides, the woman seemed as though she could be helpful. She was taller, meaning she could reach things Atayura couldn't, and she seemed to be in much better physical shape, which meant that she could climb and do many other things that Atayura couldn't do well.

She looked up at Beltain and then down toward the extra basket that she was carrying. Apparently some people thought ahead. Then again, it wasn't like she had been expecting to go egg hunting today. She hadn't done so in many years since she was very young. She had also done the hiding a few times for the children in the castle, though that hadn't been done in a few years now either with the children grown.

"Oh. Uhm..." She paused for a moment, not quite sure what to say, before continuing with, "It's.. nice to meet you too, Beltain. My name is Atayura, though you can call me Yura if you'd like, or any other nickname. If you don't mind it'd be nice to have a basket to carry eggs in. I was actually hoping I could find someone to search with."

[Mojave]

Yura it is then! She beamed at the smaller woman and happily held the brightest and biggest basket out. She was used to others not responding as passionately as her- after all, she never gave much warning and most of the inhabitants back home flat out ignored her. I'm SO excited, I LOVE this holiday! So where do you want to begin searching? She fell silent as rapidly as she had been talking, smiling like a puppy watches a ball being waved before it's face. However friendly she was, Beltain couldn't tell that Atayura was more fragile than herself, and was making plans of climbing the trees, crawling through the brambles and bushes, and looking under rocks as well.

[Kyrit]

Despite being the smaller one of the two of them, Atayura had a feeling that she was the more mentally mature one. Then again, she had no clue how old Beltain was anyways, so it was highly possible that she was younger as well. Height didn't always mean a thing, especially since Atayura was a bit on the short side compared to most people. Not a midget, but just slightly below average when it came to height.

"Uhm. Well, I've never particularly been that great at egg hunting. Everyone else always got far more eggs than me when we had such celebrations. I suppose we could just... start walking and look about at we go? It's possible that they could even be hidden in the grass with how tall it is in some places." She took the basket gently, seeming to enjoy looking at the colorful detail work.

[Mojave]

While she had been waiting for someone to come along, Beltain had been surveying the area to get a feel for the place; she wanted to be extra helpful to anyone who let her join them. In her studies, she had pretty much labeled the grass as the hardest place to search since it was so high and you couldn't just peek around. This lead her to a thought about using her nose, but since nobody was around to answer her, she figured she'd just hold on to that thought.

Yeah... I noticed that too and, well.... do you think it would be cheating if I used my nose? Afterall, Lucain and other canines do have the best sense of smell! She smiled hesitantly, unsure of how Yura would respond to such an idea- it could be counted as cheating since you were using senses other than sight. Of course, if Yura didn't have a problem with it, she might be able to help in her natural form too...

[Kyrit]

Oh? So Beltain was a Lucain? Atayura had not seen her before or during her transformation, so he had no clue as to that the other woman was a wolf in human's clothing so to say. "Hmm... Well," she started, looking back in the direction that the Cuniflare had left in, "Terry didn't say that we couldn't use a sense of smell, or at least I didn't hear him say anything of the like. I would assume that it would be fine to do so since he did not tell us we could not. I don't think it's a common thing to do during an egg hunt, but it'd definitely be helpful."

Her gaze shifted toward the towering trees, caught within thought for a moment. Maybe she should use her animal form at some point as well. She disliked doing so because it meant everyone being able to see that she was a freak that was held together with bits of metal here and there - more so than they could see by the fact that most of the feathers on her wings were metal rather than real. If they needed to get a good aerial view though she could always resort to doing so.

[Mojave]

Brightening, Beltain fist pumped the air, Alright! I didn't hear anything about that either, so hopefully we won't get disqualified. I'll be right back! Self conscious, she skipped into the undergrowth again to change forms, re-emerging as her bright lucain self. She ran almost sideways, tails windmilling behind her and skidded to a stop before Atayura, butt in the air and barking playfully. Let's do this!

Standing up properly, she happily put her nose to the ground and began her work. It was a little difficult, since she hadn't recently taken the cuniflare's scent, but she did remember what color his smell had been, so she stuck with that. By the way, I forgot to ask, but what's your natural form?

[Kyrit]

Watching Beltain's tails thrash about wildly with her rump held high, Atayura couldn't help but allow a small smile to tug at her lips. It was something that was rare to see from her, a smile that is. It wasn't that she was a sad person, but she just didn't express her emotions all that well most of the time. Seeing Beltain in her animal form made her think of what it would have been like having a puppy as she grew up. R'cai had never been that fond of animals though. He had let them keep a few Mr. Wilsons, but it was odd to own a bird when you... were a bird in a way.

She began to follow behind the Lucain, gaze slowly scanning back and forth to help make sure that no hints of where an egg might be were passed over. Upon hearing the question her eyes locked on the other for a moment before turning away and responding, "A Corbine. I suppose most people call our particular coloration.... a Marrow Corbine? Though I suppose in reality we're just abnormal Corbine really."

[Mojave]

Oh wow, I'v always thought you guys' colors were a lot prettier than the normal ones, though! The black ones kinda creep me out like they'll peck my eyes out if I look at them for too long.

In her excitement with the conversation, Beltain stopped paying as close attention to where she was aiming her nose, and as she paused to smile at Atayura, she knocked over the tower of a crayfish nest. Angered, the small crustacean scuttled out of it's lair, but seeing nothing to pinch, it back pedaled into the opening, ready to pinch the intruder at the first sign of return. After giving Yura a smile and a tail wag, Beltain put her nose back to the ground, still not noticing the crayfish home she had damaged.

At sight of a huge, black, sniffling monster, the crayfish responded- it's giant pincer latched onto Beltain's sensitive nose. With a high pitched whining yelp, Beltain jumped straight into the air and backwards, the crayfish still holding onto her nostril, waving about wildly from it's offensive appendage. This movement further injured her nose, and when she landed on the ground again, she quickly laid down, tails tucked between her legs, and rolled onto her back, hoping the tiny creature would unlatch itself once it touched ground as well. Ow, ow, ow! Oh my god please let go! Her voice faded out into a high pitched whine, breaking into small yelps of pain as the crayfish's grip tightened and loosened.

[Kyrit]

Atayura hadn't known any other Corbine before, or at least not one that she could remember from after having gone through so much in her childhood, so she couldn't say if she liked her own species or not. The only person she had gotten to know all that well who was of a species even slightly similar was a peculiar Garudor. She had seen many Garudor soaring through the skies, yet she had never seen one with similar plumage to him. Distracted by these thoughts, Atayura didn't notice the nest until too late as well. There was no harm in her missing it, but had she seen it she could have possibly saved Beltain a great deal of pain.

She had to resist the urge to clamp her hands over her ears in order to drown out the wails of the Lucain, as she knew that she was in pain and doing so would do nothing to help her. Atayura bent down next to her, hands outreached and trying to figure out a way to calm Beltain and get the crayfish off. "Calm down. I know it hurts, but you're just going to aggravate it even more." With one hand she reached down and grabbed the crustacean's free cheliped while trying to gently, as not to harm the crayfish or cause further damage to Beltain's nose, pry the claw open.

[Mojave]

Try as she might, she couldn't contain all of her cries as a continuous high note escaped past her closed lips. As Yura reached down, Beltain tensed and her body curled further into a fetal position and away from her. Used to abuse and bullies, her instinct to protect herself over took her common sense. She had a feeling Yura wouldn't purposefully hurt her, but then again, they had just met and that hadn't stopped some of the more violent inhabitants back home. Ignoring her instinct to flee, managed to keep her head in relatively the same position, if turned a little away. She kept her belly rolled farther away from her companion, however.

At the touch of a second threat, the crayfish pinched tighter, bringing forth a sound like a screaming hiccup from his victim. Seeing this other adversary going for his main weapon, the crayfish released the first to pinch the second, however, the movement was impeded by the fact the thinner and sharper part of the pincer caught in the nose of it's first assailant, causing a small cut before he managed to release her. Pinching rapidly, it aimed for the hand that was close to his pincer.

[Kyrit]

No harm would come to Beltain from Atayura. Well, not any that was on purpose at least. Obviously there was possible pain that could be caused because she was trying to remove the crayfish, but that was meant to help and not harm. It just... Didn't exactly relieve the problem at first. It wasn't like she was going to put more pressure on the claw to purposely cause more pain though. She grimaced at the latest sound brought on by the increase in pain but didn't falter in her efforts.

The moment that she realized the crayfish had let go of Beltain's nose, Atayura gave her hands a thrust in hopes of tossing the crustacean aside and out of the way before it could clamp down on anything again. She was hoping that if she threw it far enough it wouldn't come after either of them again, though if she wasn't fast enough it might catch her instead.

[Mojave]

If the crayfish had possessed the intelligence to speak, he would have been spewing profanity as his claw missed the other girl's hand and he went flying through the air. Still pinching his claws together, he landed in a puddle of water, where he immediately started swimming toward the edge to build himself a new home.

Upon being released, Beltain rolled to her feet and promptly moved a good five feet away from Atayura and the crayfish. Tails still tucked against her belly, she watched Yura throw the offending crustacean out of the way, her foreleg applying pressure to her injured nose, checking to see when it would stop bleeding.

Thank you so much! .... That really hurt.. stupid thing. She mumbled the last bit under her breath, mentally cursing herself for not paying attention. Even if it had ripped her nose clean off, she wouldn't have blamed the crayfish as it had been her fault.

[Kyrit]

Thankful that the crayfish did not come back for one of the two of them, Atayura stood up and watched it swim away. She looked back over at Beltain, watching the poor thing cower as she tried to get her nose to stop bleeding. "No, no I'm sorry. I'm sorry I wasn't able to get it off without it hurting so much. Is there anything I can do to help you?" She had no clue if her nose would stop bleeding on its own or if they would need something to help cut off the bleeding, so she started to look around. It wasn't like she carried bandages around with her all the time after all.