[Kyrit]

Her last visit out to Idalani hadn't gone so well. Tayal recently heard the news about a so called egg hunt. A scavenger hunt if you will. Supposedly some were fake, but some were also supposed to hatch in to actual eggs. Having packed up her small wagon, the likes of which she'd attached a belt of sorts to in order to strap to herself for better carrying. It almost looked like a horse dragging a wagon, though on a much smaller scale and with a human dragging it instead. She had cleared a small area out and boxed it in specifically for any eggs that she might find during her trip. There was also another new section - water bottles. Traveling Tengel one would need a lot of water.

Tayal paused for a minute now, resting under the shade of a tree as she brushed brunette locks of hair out of her face.  She'd chosen the portal to Tengel Rainforest, and sure enough she'd ended up in the humid jungle, sweat running down her face almost instantly. Honestly, she wouldn't be too disappointed if she didn't manage to find any eggs. During her searching she planned on setting up a few small traps - nothing all that large. She'd learned from her trip to Idalani that bringing too many things with her could turn... disastrous.

She'd set a few traps already, yet found no eggs. Her latest trap was placed at the base of the tree she took a break under, nuzzling it down between some of the roots were a small creature would be more likely to get caught.

[Jaykobell]

Abigail was still on her quest to find a place to call her "home". She'd travelled to a few places, but the world was a large place. She was far from being done exploring the world, of even a part of the world. This time, she'd stumbled all the way to Tengel Rainforest, which was similar to Roraldi, yet fairly different. The trees here were huge, and Abigail liked the looks of that. It gave the area this feeling of hugeness and grandeur.

She stepped around the trees and smelled around, trying to get accustomed to the smells and the feeling of the ground. She eventually found a huge tree, with huge leaves hanging all over the branches; little did she know that someone was currently relaxing by the same tree, but the trunk was thick enough that the panda couldn't bother to see if something or someone was on the other side of it.

Curious, Abigail climbed her way up the tree, scratching up the bark in order to get higher and higher, up until she could reach one of the branches. It wasn't all that high from the ground, so a fall wouldn't be fatal, but it would probably hurt still.

She balanced herself on a branch, heading slowly for the huge leaves that were sitting on the branch. Her idea was that the leaves were literally sitting on the branch, so one could step on the leaves without falling; it would be like stepping on a rug while there was the wooden floor underneath.

Unfortunately for the panda, it didn't quite turn out that way. The moment she let her guard down and let her entire weight down on the leaf, she felt her paws meeting with basically nothing and simply falling down, down and down. While she tried to hang onto the leaf, her claws quickly sliced through it, causing the red panda to fall down on the ground with a loud and panicky shriek.

At least she hadn't landed on any trap, right?

[Kyrit]

All around her, Tayal could hear the sounds of faint scratching, twigs snapping, bird calling, and many, many other such sounds as the rainforest bustled with life. With all the typical noises about, it was hard to tell that anything was exceptionally close unless it rain right in front of your eyesight. The sounds of a trap snapping - on her finger to be exact - kept the woman from noticing the scratching noises that came from close by as the red panda did her best to scurry up the tree.

Tayal gave a small wince and properly reset the trap, the likes of which didn't have enough force to do any amount of actual damage to her appendage. It seemed so sudden though when the most terrifying shriek pierced through the air and everything else seemed to go silent again momentarily. In fright, the woman tried to move quickly, causing the trap to once again clamp down on her hand. She herself gave out a small squeak of a scream, followed by the flailing of her hand with the fright that something might have been biting her.

After realizing it was just the trap, she calmed down enough to pull it off her hand again and look to see what screamed. It wasn't long before her eyes fell upon the poor little red panda, probably far more scared than she herself was from that nasty fall. She began to cautiously walk toward her now, keeping her movements slow for fear of scaring the little thing.

[Jaykobell]

Falling down had been hard enough, but it was worse when Abigail heard a scream coming from right next to her. Immediately, the red panda skittered back onto all fours, hackles raised and belly tight against the ground. Considering all the things that could be found in the jungle, she certainly couldn't be careless.

But when she bothered to look around her, she noticed a bunch of wild traps and other such things, but among everything, she also noticed a human woman. Watching her wave her hand about and then unclamping the trap, Abigail stared with wide eyes. This woman was oddly familiar, but the panda couldn't quite figure out who she was.

When said woman started walking towards her, however, the panda got nervous. If the woman owned all these traps, Abigail sure didn't want to end up as a furcoat for some rich lady. Slowly, she stepped back just as the human would step forward, still crouched down in that same position with her hackles raised and her belly flat on the ground. "You... Are you going to catch me?" she asked in clear human speech, the words flowing fluently as if the panda were a human, herself.

[Kyrit]

Her feet stopped moving the moment the red panda spoke. Such a creature was... exceptionally rare, but a talking one? That was a once in a lifetime sight, even if talking animals were common around Evelon. It was just the fact that a red panda wasn't a common animal around, and those that were tended not to talk. Well, not English at least. Animals all obviously had some sort of language, but it just typically wasn't one humans used. Tayal had seen a red panda once before - specifically a talking one out on her trip to Idalani. This... this was the same one, wasn't it? Such a long distance for such a small creature to travel!

Instead of continuing to walk, Tayal crouched down and held out a hand, as if giving it as a peace offering. She sure as heck wasn't going to try to grab Abigail with that hand. The trap might not have been able to break the skin, but she was sure after having it hit the same fingers twice it'd bruise for sure. "I don't plan on catching you. I do plan on catching something! But I'd assume not you. My traps are rather small. And all harmless to something your size. Actually, truth be told the vast majority of them are harmless. Or... well, some might cause minor pain. My hand's agreeing to that. But I mean they don't kill! Or even break flesh. Usually. I mean, if something small enough was unlucky enough... But I haven't come out here to purposely kill anything...." Oh boy... there she went. She'd realized she'd started rambling, so eventually her words started to taper off.

[Jaykobell]

Even though she was used to being around humans, that didn't mean that Abigail wasn't wary of strangers. Much like a parent would teach a child, her human friends had taught her that strangers could be especially villainous, especially since she was a rare animal. Some people would probably cheat or do terrible things in order to catch something as uncommon as a red panda. Because of that, Abigail was always wary of strangers the first time meeting them.

When Tayal crouched down, Abigail inched back just a little, trying to quickly read the woman's intentions. But this was a peaceful gesture, wasn't it, among humans? She could remember her friends doing this sometimes, especially with dogs and cats. As if drawn by her natural instincts, Abigail inched slowly forward, curious at the hand displayed by the human woman.

Her words a little more comforting than her actions. The panda could relax knowing that the woman wasn't approaching her with the intention of capturing her. Abigail had no interested in being stuck in a cage or a house with no freedom of her own.

As the woman continued to speak, the red panda got a little more comfortable, even if more confused, as well. The woman was going on, and on... and on... and on some more. Abigail eventually dropped the defensive position and simply frowned questioningly at Tayal, her expressions being extremely human-like despite her being an animal. "I... see. I know what these are, you don't... have to explain. Er... but what are you trying to catch? And why?" Was she trying to catch an animal? And if so, wasn't that... cruel, to the animal she wanted to catch?

[Kyrit]

Tayal could completely understand Abigail's nervousness. There were traps in plenty of places nearby already set up, some pretty obvious and in quite plain sight. There probably weren't, currently, any that she could fit in sitting out right now. Well, unless she squeezed herself in. She'd seen quite a few creatures stuffed in traps because they wanted the bait badly enough. As Abigail started to question her though, she realized the answers weren't going to be easy.

"Well..." she tried to start out, hand slowly falling back to her side as the human girl fully sat down. "Uhm... I guess that's a difficult thing to answer..." Truth be told, she wasn't exactly sure what she herself was trying to catch. It would be cool to catch a Moonling, but for one she had no bait they'd like and for two they'd probably be able to just phase out. There were also the Mossdogs that roamed Tengel, but she definitely didn't have a trap large enough for one of those. That'd require a tranq to put the animal to sleep after spotting one or something. Most people didn't know exactly what all animals lived out in Tengel, so she herself wasn't sure what all she'd catch - if she caught anything.

"If anything, the traps will only pose a minor irritant to anything caught in them. Just a small setback in their daily life." It seemed as though she'd finally started to figure out how to word everything. "I'm not catching anything to kill or even bring back with me. Right now I'm here on a survey, as well as an egg hunting event. I'm looking to see what sort of animals live in Tengel, specifically to see if I can find anything that's undocumented. I'll record sizes, weight, genders, and lots of other information. Probably get a blood sample of a few things too if possible. There's food in the traps, so anything caught should be fine since the traps will only be out for a day anyways. And after I finish with all that they'll be release to continue their lives."

[Jaykobell]

Abigail tilted her head at Tayal, confused as to why this would be a difficult question to answer. She hadn't set traps for nothing, had she? What would the point be in that? Just a waste a time.

She sat down as well when Tayal did and waited patiently for the human to answer her question. When she explained what she was here to do, Abigail blinked and her expression changed from curiosity to understanding. "Oh! You're sort of like my friends, then. You find things and you take notes on them," she answered as she started gesticulating with her arms and front paws, just like a human would. "They study things and they take notes on them, and when they're done, they let whatever it is go." That was basically the same thing, right? Except her human friends were doctors and researchers, and not animal catchers. "I think it's fine as long as you let them go and don't kill them." That had been her main concern, really, but now that Tayal had assured that that wasn't her intention, the red panda was relieved.

There was something else that caught her attention, however. "You also said you're an... egg hunting event?" Abigail hadn't heard about anything like that, so she tilted her head and raised an eyebrow at the human, confused.

[Kyrit]

Well, at least the confused had been sorted out. Well, sort of. Abigail still thought of her as more of running around catching animals than as a researcher, but at least Tayal didn't know it. If she had known there would probably be some long winded ramble about how it's impossible to research something without sometimes catching it to get to know it better. The small creature would be spared the talk for now, as Tayal gave a nod of her head and simply said, "Yeah, that's pretty much it. I have tons of notes of animals from everywhere I've been. Well, I don't have them all with me, but I have them none the less." For a moment her eyes shifted over to her little wagon, the likes of which was leaning against the tree so it wouldn't fall over while not tied to her waist.

It seemed as though the little panda had a new question though, one that was about the other reason she had come to Tengel today. Giving a small smile, Tayal gave a nod. She looked at the wagon again but quickly realized she'd yet to find a single egg yet and thus had nothing to show to help explain. "I guess... It's sort of a human thing. Though I've heard of a few animals participating in it as well. It's a yearly event related to a holiday that many human enjoy celebrating - Easter. Usually parents boil eggs and have children help decorate them. Then they go and hide them on Easter but they tell the children that the Easter Rabbot hid them!"

She had many different hand gestures while talking about the odd event that had grown so popular over the ages. "Often times though parents also just buy plastic eggs. I guess some are concerned about all the mess dying eggs could make. Those they tend to fill with candy or something for the children to still want them. Anyways! I heard about an egg hunt that was world wide! Or well, covering the two well known continents at least. It's crazy to think someone had the time to hide eggs over two vast continents. Most of the eggs for this hunt are fake too. They said you could turn them in for points or something. Details I don't know well."

She gave a wave of her hand when talking about about not knowing the details well, since Tayal honestly hadn't given them much attention at that point. "They did say a few eggs were really though and that they'd hatch in to something! So I'm hoping I'll be able to find one or two of those in order to study whatever pet is born from it."

[Jaykobell]

Abigail watched curiously as Tayal explained the egg hunt she was participating in, tilting her head this way and that as she listened to the human's explanation. Despite being an animal, Abigail made facial expressions like a human and acted more like a human than an animal. Obviously, the ability to use the human language was the most obvious trait, but her face also showed more expressions than a normal animal's, and she used her arms and legs in ways similar to humans. Needless to say, she had no trouble understanding Tayal.

"Ohh... I've heard about Easter. You eat chocolate!" she answered as she clapped her paws together once, as if enlightened. "But I've never painted eggs or tried an egg hunt..." It's not like her friends ever really did anything fun, so to speak, since they were people of science and weren't really interested in doing anything that didn't relate to amazing breakthroughs or scientific experiments.

"And over the whole continent, huh...?" she mused quietly, looking up at the sky, hidden by tall trees and huge leaves. "That sounds really hard." She tilted her head, a little perplexed. Could you really find eggs all over the two main continents? What a challenging game.