[Kallile]

The roar of the falls was so far away, it seemed a distance memory. It was like rumble of thunder from a storm that would never have a prayer to reach you. Here, in this more secluded area of Idalani, were to precious run-off streams and babbling brooks making their ways to the rivers that snaked through the rest of Barakka. Emerald blades of grass littered with tiny gems in the form of newly bloomed flowers. And the clear creek being…muddied?

“Come ‘ere, litter buggers…”

While feminine sounding in all respects (if not a little…how to put it nicely…backwoods? Downhome? Something to those effects.) the figure was not holding the same sort of posture.

Fox-patterened body leaned down over the stream, tails staying tucked down around her to leave her rump in the air. Her torso was pressed against the banks and a fine string dangled from one side of her pearly white teeth. On the end dipped in the water, though no one was close enough to see, was a small rock and an equally small lump of fresh meat.

From their rocky hiding places, crayfish came slinking out; claws and feelers poised to seek and devour the morsel among them. The female lucain gave a slight chuckle.

“That’s it, critters. Come ‘n get it…”

[Jaykobell]

Sikke, Male Lucain [Quadruped]

That is not how he had planned things to go. Absolutely not. And he was very upset that things had turned out the way they had.

He could have sworn Fester had said to turn right past that one city. And yet, here he was, completely lost in wilderness. He really, really needed one of those GPS things. Or maybe he would need to put a tracking device on Fester. Maybe that would make things easier. Who knows, maybe he would be able to get the other to eat the thing, even.

And quite simply, Idalani was not his element. He had agreed to get to the Farmlands because... because why? For no reason, as he thought about it. Fester had just asked for him to come and visit. And taken aback with that enormous headache because of a seemingly endless night of work, Sikke had just agreed so the other would leave him alone. Do not ever do that again, he told himself, frowning, narrowing his unusual purple eyes. Even in his animal form he had glasses, although he did not like this form, but in such a scenery, one would quickly realize that this was the best form to keep to. Would any stray animals come along, he would be able to fight them off with claws and teeth. Would it come to anything drastic such as that.

But for now, one objective: find somebody and ask for directions. Help, however, is something he usually dislikes. Because of his incredibly independent personality, Sikke preferred to figure things for himself rather than asking for help. But in this case, when it came to geography... As much as he hates to admit it, he is very poor when he has to orient himself effectively.

He stalked by the bushes, trying to find somebody quickly. Suddenly he noticed a very distinctive pelt, that of a Lucain (female perhaps? He could see three tails and not two), the fur orange, white, and black, distinctive of a fox. How unusual and fairly interesting. Perhaps this one would prove to be able to help him... But how to approach? Objective number two...

[Kallile]

Oblivious to the stranger behind her, Insima continued to watch her prey. How could she have fish tonight if she couldn’t catch the bait? Well…then there would be no fish and that was all there was to it. A band of baby crayfish were battling for dominance of the food.

That is until the Goliath came out of hiding.

Insima’s bright green eyes widened as she saw the four inch creature come charging out of it’s hole in the sand. She held fast to her tiny bit of string as the great claw grabbed at the lump of meat and pulled.

The thing came flying out of the water and into the air. It all seemed to go in slow motion from there. The crayfish released its hold on the food and did a series of backflips before making a safe landing…

…right on Insima’s back.

Spinning around to apprehend the creature’s tail, Insima was sorely mistaken on her timing. The confused beast hitched a new ride on her nose, making her give off an awful squall.

“You little beast!” She shrieked, whirling around as if she were stuck in a tornado. “Get offa’ me!” Her whirling was quickly drawing her towards the bushes Sikke’s was hiding in—still unaware the male was there.

[Jaykobell]

Sikke watched carefully as the female did her hobby, which seemed to be... fishing, or something in relation to that. Hmm. He knew that, in the art of fishing, silence was a must for good results. But he really did need help to get around the Falls. And, well, unfortunately for others, he cared more about his situation than theirs. The only problem currently was to find a way to approach the other without causing problems or difficulties. His day had already attracted enough of those, quite truly.

As he tried to come up with an effective plan, Sikke's focus was broken as he heard the other shriek. He blinked slowly and craned his neck as he tried to get a good look on the scene. His eyes immediately noticed the little thing on the Lucain's back, and it seemed to be bothering her. Now what was that...? A fish...? It looked like a little shrimp, but considering Sikke rarely went outside, he had no idea what it could be beyond "a little shrimp." And he did not particularly care, either. That would be more around Fester's interests, not his.

When the other spun and dashed for his spot in the bushes... Well, his first reaction was just to move to the side until he'd reached a safe spot that was a safe distance from Insima. From there he just watched the scene unfold, the shrimp against the Lucain. How strange. Was it always like this in the "outside" world? He simply sat down where he was, curling his tails over his paws and observing with watchful eyes. He definitely preferred his shrimps frozen and ready to cook...

[Kallile]

Finally her spinning seemed to get the better of her, causing Insima to either fall or willingly flop onto the ground. The true reason for her now horizontal position was hard to pin point, but that was the least of worries right now. He nose was throbbing and she had to get the blasted beast off!

Throwing up her paws she grabbed the slimy thing between her paws and gave a solid yank. The crayfish wriggled and threw up its claws to try and gain ground somewhere. It failed time after time, but kept trying.

“Now yer mind!” She yelped out happily, somehow managing to find the string that had fallen out of her mouth. Holding fast to the hard-shelled shrimp, she lassoed the tail tightly and took the other end of the string back in her mouth.

“Whoo-ee! Fish fry, here I come!” She exclaimed, tail now wagging furiously. It was then she noticed an unusual amount of brown in the forest…shaped like one of her own kind. Blinking at him, she tilted her head enough so that it allowed the crayfish to crawl around like a leashed mutt.

“Well howdy there. Been here long, stranger?”

[Jaykobell]

Staying true to his character, Sikke made no effort to get involved with the other, and simply watched the scene from the sidelines. His tail tips twitched now and then as the female tried to yank the little shrimp-like insect away from her nose. He lifted an eyebrow at her rather barbaric method to get rid of it, but he made no attempt to suggest another solution. It did look fairly hurtful. He had heard that the muzzles of Lucain (and quadrupeds in general) were quite sensitive.

Meanwhile, he got to hear the female speak... and speak in a fairly... interesting way. What kind of... accent is this? he wondered, frowning with curiosity at this strange way of speaking. Considering he hung out with no one save for his siblings and occasionally one of his parents, he had never heard any of those "accents" from the "outside" world. So not only was the scene he had just watched extremely unusual to him, but this type of speech used by the other Lucain was even more unusual.

As he focused on the accent of the other, by the time he was done analyzing it, the other had wrapped the string around the tail of the shrimp, and the little thing strayed around like a lost animal held by a leash. That was yet another strange thing displayed by the female. Why... put a leash to a... shrimp? Were you not supposed to eat shrimps? Hmm. Again he frowned, his purple eyes narrowing to slits. How strange, how very strange.

“Well howdy there. Been here long, stranger?”

He had been too distracted by the shrimp to realize Insima had talked to him. "What?" is what he replied first, taken aback and unable to fully understand what she was saying. He was not used to accents. "Howdy"... he imagined meant something along the lines of "how are you"? But then how did it fit in the sentence? Or did it mean simply hello? Ah, this would prove to be quite a challenge all in itself... Eventually he blinked, putting on a casual face, though without a smile. Just a simple, casual expression. "Ah. Er... howdy," he started with, awkwardness in his voice, which was, overall, fairly calm, if not a little distant. "I happen to be... lost," he said, the last word emphasized with a slight edge of anger as he narrowed his eyes again. How he hated to admit defeat. That didn't answer her question, though. "I have not been here very long, no," he replied afterwards, unmoving from his spot. As he replied, he couldn't help but to notice the little shrimp again, and he was reminded how unusual this was. "Why have you attached a string to a shrimp?" His endless curiosity won. Again.

[Kallile]

Twisting her black tipped tails around behind her, Insima continued to watch the stranger curiously. Though, it seemed, not as intently as he was watching her. So she let the “staring contest” go on for a moment as she listened to him stumbled a little around his returned greeting. Strange boy—must be a city boy. She felt a slight tug at the string in her mouth and gave a slight jerk of her head to yank the crayfish back towards her. The watery little insect lifted up it’s wide open claws in protest.

“Ya’ll ain’t lost.” She said with a coy grin that could only mean mischief. Poor dear—so driven by directions. What was it with city types and their need for direction anyway? “You’re right thar.”

A “hmm?” followed quickly as she looked down the string to the crayfish as if noticing it for the first time. Shrimp? At least he had some sense—she’d only seen the city-dwellers eat the pink, beheaded versions. At least he knew they didn’t always look like that; to be looking on the bright side.

“This ain’t no shrimp—this here’s a crawdad. Ugly little bugger, t’ain’t he?” She poked at the small creature with a claw to receive a few snaps of the beasts claws. “How else am I supposed to keep ‘em from slitherin’ away? Can’t catch me any fish if I ain’t got the bait they want.”

[Jaykobell]

At first he had thought the other had not heard him. Why was she simply staring back? Had he said something wrong, or something like that? Obviously that Lucain spoke his language, so either she had not heard him, or she had not payed attention. He wondered if it would be necessary to repeat his situation to her now that she seemingly paying attention to him. Sometimes people just do not hear you. He was about to do just that when the other spoke in that strange almost-moon-language accent, and Sikke's reaction was to frown, and he kept that expression on his face until he had finally decoded Insima's comment. Which he found to be fairly unhelpful. "It is precisely because I am 'right here,' as you say, that I am lost," he replied, his tail tips twitching lightly as he spoke, his voice calm. He was not one for games and pranks, specially right now; but if he indeed was, his voice did not let it show.

And then the conversation turned around to focus on the shrimp -- which, apparently, was not a shrimp, but a crawdad. Hmm. It really did look like a shrimp to Sikke anyway. It was small, had a shell, had a tail, and had pincers like a shrimp. Although, he had to admit, shrimps did not have pincers; but he knew lobsters had pincers. Then again, lobsters are much bigger than those crawdad shrimps. Hmm. Had he been by himself, he would have probably mistaken these for shrimps. You obviously had to know that stuff about seafood to be able to tell the difference. And that female seemed like someone who did know that stuff. Hmm. "I see," was all he replied when Insima explained it was not a shrimp. "It does look like one," he added, fitting that in just so he did not look too stupid for not realizing the crawdad was not a shrimp. Losing was another thing he really, really disliked. As for being ugly, Sikke did not reply. Not a lot of things in this world were considered "beautiful" anyway. "It is as it is," he simply said after a moment.

He watched as Insima poked the crawdad and when she explained her logic behind putting a string around a piece of seafood. Hmm... was she trying to explain fishing? He had not actually witnessed the activity, but he knew of it. "Is it what you call... fishing?" he asked, narrowing his eyes as he thought about this. "I thought fishers used worms," he added afterwards, remembering something about using rods and worms when you fish. Why use a crawdad if you could use worms, then? Using worms would be easier; and less painful, if you think about it.

And if you bothered to think about it further, he had completely strayed from his first objective. Which was to find his way around these Falls, and not to make conversation with a female that liked to walk shrimp-like seafood insects. How very mocking of life...

[Kallile]

With the crayfish reigned in for the moment, Insima was free to fully focus on the male before her. After, of course, she traced the strings line back with her eyes, blinked, and refocused on him. It was quite obvious that she was in no rush to do…much of anything. Even talking to what some would call a “handsome” male before her.

“You ain’t never lost if ya know about where ya are.” She remarked back, the spark of mischief gone from her eyes. Seemed like she was trying to match his level of emotion (or lack thereof) for whatever reason. Maybe to get into his head, maybe just because she could. The reasoning that may be there, if it was there at all, was hidden very well.

“And if’n ya know about where you are, then there’s no way you can be lost. Life’s no fun if there’s not a little detour, ya know. So…welcome to yer first detour.” Well, she couldn’t say for sure it was his first detour—but he certainly made it seem that way.

“Worms are nice an’ all, but they only draw in the small fries that ya’ hafta toss back after ya catch ‘em. No good eats on ‘em.” She lifted her head a little to bring the crayfish into the air, twirling and fighting with the strong at it’s rump madly.

“Now these…these are what the big’uns love. But they’re always a’hiding, see? So the big’uns can never fine ‘em. Kinda like hidin’ the cookie jar from a kiddie. So ya bring ‘em into the open, and ya got yerself a fine dinner later on.”

[Jaykobell]

Again he frowned when Insima turned the situation around concerning the "I'm lost here!" issue. Either she was lost herself, or she had no idea how to give directions, or something else. The only hints that indicated how impatient Sikke was getting were the twitching of his tails and the frowning of his face. Whether he did it consciously or not, Sikke had the habit of frowning deeply whenever he was wrong or upset, but he also frowns whenever he is thinking, be it about the situation he is in, or about something completely unrelated, and the latter was often the case at hand.

As he listened to Insima, however, he had to admit her logic... had some truth to it. Indeed, he knew where he was: Idalani Falls. Technically speaking, in theory, he was not lost. Albeit, he managed to find a way around this situation by spotting a specific word in her speech: detour. His own logic proceeded to link detour with direction, which progressively lead to orientation; and after putting some thought into it, orientation turned into disorientation. And that was the word he figured was the right word. "All right. Let us say I am not 'lost' per se. I know this is Idalani Falls, however; this is not the destination I had aimed for. I am, then, in theory, not lost but, rather, disoriented," he explained, finding his speech to have taken a fairly long time to reach its conclusion.

"So it is, indeed, fishing," he repeated after Insima was done explaining why she was not using worms. While she had not confirmed officially that her current activity was fishing, she had not denied it either; and as such, Sikke figured he had been right. And after his comment... the other started to speak in a long string of words. So long, he had to focus to make sure he could catch every word (especially with this accent of hers). He frowned again, but said nothing. He was, incidentally, used to talkative people; his sister was one of those people. Considering he did not particularly care about people, he did not care if they wanted to talk or not. Most people, he had come to realize, simply wanted to vent, simply wanted to say things. And considering he was someone who never divulged whatever others might say to him, his sister had taken a habit of venting at him. So he was used to people who could not keep their tongue tied.

Incidentally, he usually had no feedback to give. And this case was no different. "I see," was all he replied after Insima was done talking, but as he thought about it some, he figured that, once again, her logic did have some truth to it. The bigger the bait, the bigger the catch. "Interesting metaphor." What an... intriguing way of thinking, one had to admit.

[Kallile]

Seeming completely perplexed by his long, drawn out sentences, Insima stared back at him with narrowed, confused eyes for a moment. Now….what? Sure, he made it seem so simple as the words rolled off his tongue, but the lady found herself having a hard time following it. “Ye got more problems than being disoriented with talk like that, city boy. How do’ya expect good folk to talk to ye?”

The term was tossed out there freely, though not outwardly meant as an insult. No—Insima did like the idea of what cities usually had in them; hustle and bustle and all those fancy gadgets could keep a person busy for a lifetime. No—all that fascinated her, though she never held a whim to actually go and give it a try.

“Speakin’o that…” She began, taking a few steps closer to him in examination, dragging her bait along with her. “what brings a fancified man such as yerself out here in the middle of my neck of the woods anyway?”

There was no question of his intended destination—obviously something not ranked very highly on Insima’s ‘important questions to ask’ list. Well…couldn’t know where you were going if you couldn’t tell anyone where you were coming from, now could you?

“…Metaphor?” She asked quizzically. “Now don’t go using no fancy English terms on me, Slick.” Apparently, going without names had caused her to create one for him. She knew roughly the intended meaning, but she never really focused much on applications of things like that. Language was supposed to be expression of a person, right? Well, Insima intended to exercise her self-expression very openly.

“It’s just a sayin’, nothing fancy.”

[Jaykobell]

Well, people had said that you always had to be careful when you were talking to strangers. You never know; maybe they do not understand certain words, or certain accents, or certain sayings. He narrowed his own eyes when Insima stared back at him with a confused look. Should he try to explain his reasoning another time, then? He was, again, going to do that when came the female's reply. "Pardon?" was his own answer, the reply accompanied with a raised eyebrow and a paw drawn to his chest in surprise. What was she talking about. And you expect "good folks" to understand you with that strong accent? was what he wanted to reply back at Insima, but he figured the comment would be uncalled for, despite the right Sikke had to mention it out loud. Instead he frowned and dropped his paw back down.

And as if the first comment had not been enough, next came the female approaching him -- and she got a little bit too close. Sikke's reaction was to simply get up and step back, craning his neck backwards towards his shoulder blades. Was there a need for her to get this close? They were not friends, not even acquaintances; they were strangers. And you do not invade a stranger's personal bubble just like that. Sikke stepped a few steps back before sitting down, again at a reasonable distance from the female. He then narrowed his eyes and kept a watchful eye (or both?) on the female in front of him. How very... invading. "I apologize to say that that is not of your interest," he replied, unwilling to talk of such things with a stranger. "All I am willing to tell you is that my destination is Sekudui Farmlands."

And he was not even done with his reply that the other was already going at another issue. Just how fast were those "outside" world people? He barely had enough time to say anything. Or was he just slow? Usually he does not have to reply back to those that are talking to him, while in this case, he could not get away with staying silent. "... Slick?" What... now? A nickname? What kind of... friendly behavior was this? By the deities, she was worse than Fester, and if not worse than Astarte. And they were difficult enough to bear with.

He could not help but to grimace at the nickname. You do not give such names to strangers. To your friends, perhaps, but not to strangers; which was actually what Sikke was to Insima: a stranger. "If you would... not get so friendly," he commented, the grimace eventually giving way to a frown. How very different. "We are not friends... And nicknames are for friends, not for strangers."

Sikke was suddenly reminded why he did not engage conversations with outside people.

[Kallile]

Insima made a small noise that seemingly meant absolutely nothing at all. She titled her head a few times towards Sikke like a bird might while watching a worm. Interesting…very interesting. “Ye see, thar ye go again. Just say ‘what’—this ain’t no fancy restaurant out here where you need all those manners.”

She chuckled as he stepped away from her. He was quite darling—like a little fawn meeting someone other than his mother for the first time. Despite the growing irritation he had to be feeling, Insima seemed in quite a good mood about the whole ordeal. Though at the mention that she was not allowed to know why he had ended up here, she too frowned just slightly. Bashful, huh?

“Why didn’t ye say so earlier!” She chirped at him, plopping herself down before him which bait-line still twined around her bottom canine. An odd action, considering her words indicated that she might know the direction he needed to travel in. Seemed, however, that she was not going to make things that simple. She kinda liked this little fawn-boy who had stumbled upon her—he was different.

This idea of him was only reinforced by the rather disgusted look he gave at hearing her choice of names for him. She chuckled a little—a sound some considered unbecoming to a lady—and flipped her tails rather playfully behind her.

“Yer right, we t’ain’t friends.” She replied, raising up again and moving closer and a little to the side of him. “But like it ‘er not we are acquainting…so it’s either the new name or yer gonna haft’a tell me yer own.”

She plopped down again, half paying attention to Sikke and half paying attention to the position of the sun. “’Cause ye ain’t got much time to get where yer goin’ a’fore the sun goes down. So, let’s get a lil friendlier. I’m Insima.”

[Jaykobell]

He frowned at Insima's comment about simply saying "what" and to drop the formal manners. How can one, such as Sikke, who was raised with them, simply dismiss them for the sake of a casual conversation with a stranger? He did not think about his choice of words; he simply thought of the words and said them. There was no "timeout" for him to think of the proper style of speech for the specific situation. He had a speech pattern, and he stuck to it, quite simply. "I have been brought up with such an... accent, you could say," he replied, trying to keep his nose from curling up in disdain when Insima got down and closer. How simply... strange. "I shall not modify my speech to please the other to whom I am talking with. There is no need to." He was not asking Insima to change her accent, was he? Well, he would not drop his "manners," either, then. It was but a fair trade.

At the mention of the sun going down soon, Sikke frowned even more and looked up at said sun. Indeed, if he did not press on, he would most likely not be able to reach Fester's home in time before the night, and Sikke knew how upset Fester's host could be when someone would wake him up. Either Sikke reached Sekudui Farmlands before nightfall, or he found a place to stay for the night. He truly desired to avoid the latter; looking back at Insima, who seemed to be only paying half-attention to him, he figured that, if he wanted to reach the Farmlands before nightfall, he would have to get... friendly.

He sighed and settled down, thinking about a way to approach this without getting too friendly. "My name is... Sikke," he started with, his tail tips twitching as he spoke. What was this, a playground? From the looks of things, both of them had already gotten past the age of kindergarten; why play this little "friendly-friends" charade? He had no idea what to say, or what to continue with. What kind of conversation do strangers do? He never talked to strangers, and he never listened to the talks of strangers. However, from what he could grasp from Insima, she would most likely be extroverted enough to keep the conversation going. "If we could move on quickly..." he added after a moment. "I wish to reach my destination before the night falls."

[Kallile]

Insima was still watching Sikke with a sort of innocent delight. This stranger was a riot! It was, truth be told, the first time some city folk had actually stopped and had an extended conversation with her and she delighted in every moment of it. Then she realized he had been talking. “I recon’ I can accept that. Just sounds weird, is all.”

The rather mused answer came out more lucidly than her other comments, showing that there was something else on Insima’s mind. It wasn’t too hard to find, her eyes kept drifting down to the crayfish as her brows furrowed; something like she was making a terrible decision about it’s fate.

“Sikke?” She replied at the same instant her newly alert eyes raised up to look at his own purple ones. The simple giving of a name seemed up there with the ‘most exciting things that happened today’ list and she grinned broadly. “Well, it’s a pleasure meetin’ ye then, Sikke!” She almost sprung forward, moving to place a paw over his in a type of Lucain handshake.

The action recoiled as quickly as it had gone in motion, and she suddenly took a few steps back. Twirling the crayfish a time or two in a full circle before her, she released her hold and sent the little creature sailing back into it’s watery home with a small ‘plop’ as it submerged again. “Be back fer ye later, nasty little bugger!” She called after it as she bounced back up to Sikke’s side, trying to move him without exactly touching him in the direction she wished to go.

“Ye ‘tain’t got nothin’ to worry about, Sikke. I can smell those farm critters from miles away—we’ll be thar in no time!” His name seemed to spill out of her mouth often. Hey, it wasn’t often she actually got names of those she was talking to, and she was going to let this name roll off her tongue as many times as it wanted to. “Since we’re bein’ friendly n’ all now…what’sa guy like ye doing headin’ to the farms? Not ‘xactly made outta concrete and pretty stones, you know.”

By this, of course, she was referring to the grander building cities held and the materials they were made from. Something Insima dreaded coming her way…and yet was eternally curious about.