Sunbeam Lair Hello? Is there anybody out there?

She didn't know what to make of the creature. It didn't look real, and yet it was at the same time. She squinted at it, curious, yet feigning disinterest at the same time. It regarded her with a flat look, serene beyond measure. That annoyed her. 

You! Strange thing, She demanded of it; it blinked as if woken from sleep, slowly Name. Now.

There was a soft rumble, like thunder, if she knew what that was. Zennyo, Its mouth didn't move, but a deep, masculine voice echoed from it. Her nose wrinkled, but she felt something from the creature that she didn't feel with anything else. Kindred? No disdain (is there a word for that?) She relaxed, blinking at the creature, a smirk on her face. You're weird.

Zennyo is Airi's "imaginary friend" (at least for now). 

Everything he expected for his family has been washed away. He does his part, when he's needed, but his seclusion has been no less obvious. Most times he finds himself wishing to rewind time and undo... something. Something to. and this outcome a little different. He sighs, shifting on the ground he lay nearby. He still doesn't sleep inside unless Asterr is gone but it is not often. However, as they require less of her, he's able to spend a little more one on one time with the girls.

He hears a voice not far from him and his ears shift, standing alert on his head. When he picks his head up, he sees Airi near the den. Ukko lazily picks himself up and trots the several yards closer and keeping his steps loud so not to scare her. When he's close enough, he nudges her cheek gently with a lick. "What did you say, baby girl?" he softly says with a few wags of his tail.

She approached the strange creature, her stick of a tail waggling as she moved, only to pause and turn to her father's voice. She looked back, tilting her head; Zennyo was no longer there. Zen-no; he was heeeere! She whined, a pout warping her face. One of her paws slammed the ground in disappointed annoyance, and she turned up to her father. Yu scaarred 'im, chichi!

Airi is not excited to see him and a frown plasters upon his face. He worries about not being there enough and, while his concern remains valid, the girl quickly explains what he's done wrong. She pouts and then threatens him by slamming her foot on the ground. One brow raises as he watches the little tantrum and as cute as it is, he doesn't like seeing his daughter in distress and least of all caused by him.

"I didn't mean to scare him," he confesses as he turns to look for someone else. There hadn't been a voice or another sound or even a smell lingering in the area to give her claim any steady ground but he goes along with it anyway. "What did he look like? I can help you find him."

Her tantrum worked, and Airi began to relax, her face stone-like as she looked up at him. She frowned in concentration. How to describe him? He was certainly nothing like anything she had seen before; she had no words for him, even for her. Not wolf. Weird. Her eyebrows furrowed.

Airi doesn’t really describe her friend. He can at least eliminate a wolf being a threat to his children but there were also other predators she may or may not have seen. Ukko takes a breath and nods his head, hoping she may continue with describing him. If not, perhaps there is an alternative, “did you see which way he went?”

She looked about her; she was learning that animals left traces, signs of their departure from an area. A smell, a pawprint, a broken stick. She was not yet skilled enough to find all of these signs, but her nose was still working.

Come to think of it, Zen-no didn't smell like anything. Strange. Airi shook her head, Uh-uh!

Airi does not give Ukko much information to work with and for a few seconds, he isn’t sure what to say. If the creature isn’t real, he knows there isn’t a thing he can do, but perhaps she’d seen something else—a rodent or a large bug—and he is left still guessing through the whole process. He nods his head and his darkened orange eyes scan the area. On the other side of the girl is a scuffling of dirt, likely one she made herself, but he uses it anyway: “You see that?” He uses his nose to point and moves closer, lowering his nose as if he were investigating tracking. “Maybe he went this way?”

Her father was obviously confused, to Airi's dismay, but so was she. She had no concept of something being seen and not being real; it was insane to her. She was simply left to follow her father's instructions. He walked towards the marks she made — which she had forgotten about — and Airi followed suit, curious. Mebbe.

He manages to keep Airi’s attention for the time being once she turns and sees the marks left. He wags his tail, urging her to take a few steps forward, wondering if she might be able be able to have her take the lead. The end result of what he’s doing is unclear if she doesn’t know what the other looks like or where he’d really gone, or if he existed at all. There isn’t any information to indicate there is anything there at all. Ukko drops his nose and gently boops her rump with a little more encouragement.

She sniffed the marks, trying to be like the hunters of the pack tracking after a meal, only for her father to gently hit her rump. Airi squeaked with surprise. Yokatta! She pouted, moving forward as her father wanted. 

In the brush, she saw the creature once more. There! She ran towards Zennyo, into the bushes, leaving her father behind. He could catch up.

The girl says something he doesn’t understand but the context is enough. He grins at her response as he moves up closer, watching as she inspects their surroundings and wondering if she might find something on her own. Whatever she is looking for will require her to come up with, as he doesn’t know exactly what is going on. Soon, though, she darts off into the bushes and disappears. He lifts his head and perks up his ears as he calls out her name. “Where?” he follows up with as he comes around the bushes, wondering if she found what she’s been looking for.