Neverwinter Forest And what's he going to do, borrow a cup of sugar from Satan?

He wasn't too far from the den -- a good shout would call him back, but he was within the realm of free reign that his mother allowed. But he heard something! And thus, had frozen. Something big was moving about and it sounded a little different than a wolf. Kid or not, he was good enough at paying attention to how big something sounded.

And this? This thing was huge! A giant shadow maybe twice -- no three times bigger than dad! It moved differently, carefully but not quietly. Differently. Deer didn't usually come close to the den for obvious reasons, and though he'd been told about what other sorts of things lived nearby, this seemed like some sort of fantastic beast, not reality. And so instead the boy gawked at the distant, mysterious creature. If he had a functioning brain cell right now he'd call his siblings to look too but right now, nope.

possible thread, count me in : )

nüwu was near the den too when she saw it, just a little more distant from the beast than the child. living on an island until now, and young too, she hsd never seen such a thing- and halted in the path she had been on to stare. her gaze flickered down to the puppy- caught in the same awe as her- but she didn't want to miss this moment by greeting him. she crouched herself low to the ground and observed the deer, trying to keep her nervous breathing calm, and all the while wanting to understand how something could live and exist in a way so different than herself.

The deer paused, sniffing the air. Ciaran gawked longer, shuffling forward a moment but pausing again. The deer twitched an ear, stepping forward again, another brief pause to snip the end off a tall tuft of grass and started forward again, moving leisurely through the wood. It was a particularly birdlike creature in comparison to the gangly pups that watched it. Did it deem the pups not a danger? Had it not noticed? Well, Ciaran certainly didn't know!

It started to move out of sight, and that was about when he finally looked around to see if his siblings were nearby. But who he saw wasn't someone he recognized. But no matter! He gave her a smile, then galumphed along forward again to follow after. It was big and a little scary but he wanted to see more.

the deer moved in a way so elegant: every step of its long legs reminded her of wobbling reeds shaking in the wind, but the creature was so stable atop its stilts. it leaned down to bite at grass. nüwu was intrigued, and sniffed a strand of grass beside her own paw- was that edible? but there was little time to think on that, because the enigma was moving away again. finally the boy looked back to her with a smile, which nüwu easily returned, having to still her dark tail that wanted to wag on its own. the younger led the way, and the girl followed, trying to keep her steps light and delicate (which was hard, when they were trying to keep up!) luckily the deer didn't move at a high speed when it wasn't being confronted- thus it had not gone far from them. nüwu spotted it a few yards away- farther than they'd been last time- but she was too nervous to risk approaching it that close again. if ciarán wanted, he could go on without her! the sandy girl pushed herself into some foliage, peeking out curiously to watch the ungulate graze.

Ciaran was far more foolhardy -- certainly couldn't be called bravery, he didn't know any better. He could hear the girl somewhere behind him, but he kept going forward for another few yards, coming to a halt out in the open, tail wagging. He was probably ready to play. Or at the very least he was going to oogle the deer more.

Speaking of, it had stopped and looked back, ears wide and alert. A pup was not a threat, but other wolves might be. But it did put it more on edge. Here was this great beast stock still before them. A beat passed, two, then off in the distance somewhere beyond the youths, something moved (perhaps Aibreann trying to figure out where her son had wandered to), the shuffle of a branch. A snort, it spun and sprung off into the underbrush. 

Ciaran's tail stopped wagging, he did continue a couple of steps forward, but he certainly hadn't been prepared to chase. He was just sad that it was gone. Now what?

nüwu watched with awe as the boy moved beyond her, closer to the great beast. she had no thought to tell him not to, or worries that it might run off- she was simply curious to see how near he could get before they would have to scamper after it again. a sudden rustle caused her ear to tilt sideways, and then emerald gaze shifted back to the creature- who made an odd sound before leaping away. nüwu scurried into the opening, thinking she could pursue, but already it was far off, and her legs were still quite stubby. in all the excitement she'd nearly forgotten her friend, now she turned back to him with a slight unintentional frown. what was that!! she exclaimed, tail beginning to beat against her legs. could this child talk? she couldn't exactly remember when she started to speak, but she knew kids weren't born talking- sotiris proved that. even if he couldn't... the girl thought they could find other ways to entertain themselves about the experience they'd just shared.

But the girl came over! He wagged his tail as she did. Who was she? Obviously not one of his siblings, but then again he also didn't really know his big siblings who lived here really either. They pretty much stuck with each other and their parents.

Now, at her question, Ciaran was no Einstein -- he was a little kid, even if you excluded the fact his dad wasn't the sharpest tack around either -- so he didn't connect the deer with food and all that. BIG! was thus his very educated response. But that wasn't too helpful, was it? Uhm. I 'unno. Not umm. Bad? A thought and then quietly, Tree head. Maybe just thought deer = abstract chunk of meat, not a big moving thing. He wasn't too sure about that though.

big, and tree head, he called it. she blinked dumbly at him, mouth slightly open as if she wasn't sure what to say to that. big animal, she agreed after a moment with a thoughtful nod, with trees on his head... he was scared, of us. she pointed out curiously. they were both so small... and she wondered why they had the power to frighten such a mighty creature. she wished he would've stuck around longer. i'm not scary, she huffed with a little frustrated breath, eyes narrowing before she looked to him, right?

That did seem to be a pretty reasonable summary of everything. He didn't know any of the right words, but hey.. He could go ask mom later and she'd figure it out and tell him. That was how that sort of thing worked! I wanna find 'nother. Maybe not now though. Later. 

But at her question, a playful smile, I 'unno, are you? It was all a joke obviously (or so he believed was obvious at least). I'm Ciaran! And so with a wag of his tail, Who're you? Because she was obviously not from here. There were those other wolves staying here, but he hadn't really met many of them (he was lazy).

me also, she agreed with a faux-scholarly nod, wondering if there were any back home on the island. his obvious joke- as obvious at it would be to most- was not a sort of joke she'd heard before, and though she was not offended, his smile didn't spread to her maw, and she simply blinked. hi, ci-a-ran! she sounded out slowly, smiling, my name is nüwu jiang. the line her mother had taught her, which she recited so formally each time. from the island, she added, though unaware if he knew what an island was or not.

Blink blink. Why no joke back, huh? Why not? His tail paused wagging as he tried to think about it. It was supposed to be fun. But then she introduced herself and changed the question so stuff wasn't quite so awkward. It did raise another question though. Whut's the island? Head tilt. It was unclear if it meant the as in the only or what. Or maybe the only islands he knew were the sort of little ones that formed in the middle of creeks. Certainly not the scale that she'd reveal.

um... how to answer that? it was sorta difficult to describe something that was just home to her, a place she'd known all her life. it's like here, kinda, but it's has water all around it, so you always see the ocean. she decided. the as in the one, the only, to her, certainly. nüwu didn't even know how vast the world was; she certainly didn't realize yuèlóng was just one of thousands of islands. it's home, also. something she missed.

But as a pup who had only lived beneath the trees, the concept that the ocean was a big body of water rather than the name of a particular object, proper noun style. The Ocean could be a big hill or something. How come so much water? There was the fact that little kids didn't exactly always ask questions that had obvious answers. Asking why something existed was uh... Probably above Nuwu's pay grade as a slightly-older-than-him coincidental babysitter-of-the-moment. Hopefully his cute cant of his head would make up for the fact he was pretty dumb about the world beyond Neverwinter.

he tilted his head, wondering why the ocean had so much water. well, that sure stumped her. maybe because it kept raining all the time- but then again, they kept drinking the water too, right? but even with the rain, that didn’t explain why it had more water than anywhere else. her head started to hurt trying to understand it. ”i dunno,” she sighed, frustrated more with herself for not understanding it than the question. if anything, she would save the question for later and ask her mother- she seemed to know so much about the sea, and maybe nuwu could bring an answer back for ciaran, and learn something too. the two fascinated themselves with discussion about this concept for a while longer, before nuwu eventually grew sleepy and said her farewell to go nap somewhere, and dream of the sea.