Golden Glade Don't let them make the horse noise

Eshe was not a particularly social young girl. Since settling in the Glade, she had found herself more and more enjoying spending time on her own. As little as she had appreciated being uprooted from the Hollow and moved to the other side of the planet, she'd eventually found contentment in exploring this new place. There was quite a lot to see--trees, flowers, streams, riverbeds and thickets and grottos and more. Eshe was doing her best to systematically explore every inch of the place, and this was something she preferred to do on her own. Or with her daddy. But usually on her own.

Today, she was following a line of ants. They'd caught her attention as she was trying to find a place to bury the awesome pinecone she'd discovered. They were carrying something... And it was big. After dropping her pinecone and tucking it up against a rock, Eshe had turned to pursue the little creatures and soon discovered that it was a cricket. What was more, it was being carried by a single, tiny ant! Fascinated, Eshe padded lightly after them, curious now to see where the little ant was going to take the cricket, and also to see how long before it would get too tired to keep going.

And that was how she ended up crossing paths with Quixote, someone she knew by name and sight but not for having spent any significant amount of time together. She actually didn't even notice him at first, as intent as she was following the ants. But eventually, she caught sight of him out of the corner of her eye and froze, startled by his "sudden" appearance.

"Oh! Um. Hi Mister.. Cotey," she said, fumbling her words in her surprise.