Golden Glade Don't let them make the horse noise

He'd stayed out a little late this evening but then again, he'd also left a bit late too.  Things were going well, which was always nice, but they were quiet.  Okay, was he really complaining?  He liked the peace and quiet that finally was blessing him.  Aside from the usual minor worries that occasionally popped up in his mind, his main fret of the moment was wondering what happened to his daughters.  All three were now gone, but at least Vasa had gone out on a mission.  Kite had vanished without a trace, then Phoebe.  He hoped Vasa would have luck finding one or both of them, but he couldn't do much from here other than just that: hope.

In the early darkness, the rain was was the main background noise he heard as he wandered along the border.  He wasn't sure if he'd run into anyone out here, but at the very least he'd make sure everyone living in the pack was safe.  You know, the whole checking the borders for intruders thing, blah blah.  It was usually uneventful. And honestly, as long as he stayed beneath the reaches of the canopy, he might not end up even being too wet.  This place was a hell of a lot better than the plateau.

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.

He wasn't expecting to cross paths with one of the younger members of the path this day -- or at least this close to the edge of the pack.  She seemed to be really entranced by some trail on the ground.  He assumed it was a scent trail, for obvious "ants are very small" reasons.  He did pause his step a moment and she seemed to notice him at about the same time.

Quixote, was his quick correction, but obviously it didn't weigh too hard on him, as he continued right on to something else entirely in the next breath. Found an interesting scent, have you?  It wasn't like he was right up standing an inch from her to be able to see.  He had started slowly walking over so they'd be at a nice conversational distance.  Hopefully whatever she was tracking wasn't fascinating enough to lead out of the territory -- though he wasn't sure exactly what limitations Rannoch and Liffey put on their youngsters, he wasn't going to let one wander on out to the wilderness beyond unescorted if she was determined to go that way.  Chances are he wasn't going to notice the trail of ants unless pointed right at it.

Eshe's ears flattened against her head with embarassment when Quixote corrected her. She knew when she'd said it that she'd gotten it wrong, but she had blanked for too long on the correct pronunciation to do anything about it. She gave him an apologetic half-smile and a wag of her tail, but kept her tongue still. It was okay. She'd get his name right next time.

Her ears lifted again as he asked about what she was doing. He thought she'd found a scent, which was technically accurate, though not representative of why she was following that path. "I'm following the ants," she explained in a soft voice, casting her gaze down to the ground where the tiny creatures continued to march in a line, "They caught a cricket, and I wanted to see where they're taking it." 

Her tone was almost apologetic, as though she thought she might be in trouble for doing what she was. Eshe didn't really think she was doing anything wrong, but still. She didn't know this guy yet. Maybe he got mad at ant chasers.

It really was no big deal to him, and his way of showing it was pretty much just to brush the whole thing off.  Now, this might not be the best approach, but apparently nobody had yet to correct him on it so... Oops or something.  So onward to more interesting things!  Huh?  The ants? His ears perked up (not that it would help his vision) and he moved forward to take a look.  

It took him a second to find the ants in the usual forest detritus, but the cricket was easier to spot moving along as if by some magical force that was actually a parade of smaller, darker insects below. Huh!  So they have!  How long have you been following them?  He looked to Eshe, also curious but not too over-eager.  Qui didn't waiver too much from neutral when you got  right down to it, he just wasn't a super duper expressive guy.  Can't say I've watched ants much -- though I wouldn't recommend sitting down on a nest, that doesn't end well.  Small things were jerks because they were hard to see.

Eshe settled a bit when Quixote reacted positively to her explanation (or maybe it would be better to say he didn't react negatively). A small smile curved her lips as she nodded. It grew wider when he expressed some interest in what she was doing. That wasn't something that happened all that often, at least not with her siblings. That's why adults were so much nicer to hang out with than other kids--they were good at placating her even when they didn't actually care about whatever random thing she'd become fascinated with.

"Umm... It's been a while,"  Eshe replied, scrunching her face a bit as she tried to think of just how long. She'd sort of lost track of time. "I found them back that way, over by the creek," she explained, glancing back over her shoulder in the direction of the distant landmark I just made up, "They've come a long way though, and they don't seem tired at all! I think there's only one ant carrying him all by himself too."

This was what fascinated her in particular, and also why she'd followed it so far. They were hard to keep sight of amongst the detris that littered the earth, not to mention the number of them scurrying along together. It was hard to see if it truly was only one ant or if one or more of the others were helping too.

IDK what your plan is, but I am cool with any of the options I can think of -- editing on a conclusion here, wrapping in your reply, or continuing on 'til the thread has a nice conclusion.  Whatever you wanna do!

Conversations with the other kids in the pack made him pine for when his own were old enough to go adventuring around.  That would be around the corner soon enough.  But back to the ant and its prey!  That's quite a ways for such a tiny bug -- I'd imagine it's gotta be near its home at this point!  I bet if you look ahead a little, you'll probably find their home not too far away.  That or they're really lost.  He looked in the direction the ants were going but spotting an anthill in a forest wasn't exactly gonna be like spotting one of those huge termite mounds in Africa that cheetahs like sitting on.  Do you want one of us to go ahead and see if we can find their destination?

Qui wasn't usually the type to do much speculation about random things on his own (unless it was somehow tied to various ways things could go horribly wrong) so the idea he then suggested was pretty new to himself as well.  Think that'd be like one of us carrying a whole moose all by themselves -- if ants came in wolf-size, pretty sure you'd want to stay away from it, huh?  Just thinking about it was kind of freaky, and he was kind of glad bugs stayed pretty small.  They were like weird little aliens he didn't understand.  Okay, that leap of logic probably was one that Owen would have thought up, except it would have been dyed with, "Oh no we're gonna be eaten by ants!" instead of just curious.

I'll go ahead and fade us out :)

Eshe was pleased that he seemed to be just as interested as she was. She was used to being considered a weirdo by her siblings when she started doing things like this. She could just hear her sister going who cares about ants??? in her head had Sionnach found her at this. Or maybe Sionnach would've been perfectly nice about--I've never actually seen them thread together before so what do I know :D In any event, Eshe nodded eagerly in response to Quixote's proposal. She hadn't thought about moving ahead to acctually figure out where they were trying to get to. She had apparently been content to just follow them for the rest of her life if that's what it took.

Eshe's eyes sparkled with wonder as she considered what it would be like for wolves to have that sort of strength. It made her even more enamored with the tiny bugs. "Huh-uh," she agreed with a shake of her head, "I bet they would hunt us. I don't think I'd like to be hunted."

"Can you go look and I'll keep an eye on them?" Eshe asked, trying to be polite as it felt very strange to be telling an adult what to do. She didn't want to take the risk of losing her ants, and nothing against Quixote, but she didn't know how skilled he really was at ant-stalking. Fortunately, he agreed in stride and meandered ahead while Eshe continued to follow along. It took them a while, but they eventually came upon the ant hill, and then they spent another good portion of time watching the little ants struggling to drag the cricket inside.