Pica ducks her head in a greeting before tilting her head, birdlike, to examine the eye catching crimson band. "What.. what be bright red band for?" she chirrups inquisitively. She casts a curious eye to the Strange One before returning her attention to the of-same.

Wide teal eyes squinting with concentration, Pica sifts through the meagre knowledge that she had gained in the few days she had been born, but none came up with the word 'dragon'. And so the next question came to light, as she ambles over to sniff the doe politely. "Dragon?"

SORRY KAOORI, THE TREE HAD IT COMIN' : (

Pica finds that pretending to understand is much easier than trying to get one's head around a fact. She nods solemnly, and with an air of dignity says; "Pica's name be Pica." Formalities over, she hop-skips around the of-same happily.

[does not know D8]
To attention! Her ears flop forwards, and she gives the of-same a isn't-it-obvious? look.
"Pai don't know? Well," she tells the of-same importantly, "Pica comes from her mamma."

Watching the of-same attentively, Pica interpreted a slight flicker of another emotion across the of-same's face as understanding. In return, she did her best to keep control of her attention span and not to look - concentrate! she scolded herself. In answer to the of-same's lilting question, she scrunched up her nose, recollecting her short memory span, and after a few false starts and hesitations managed to come up with a sheepish; "Pica can't remember."

About to continue talking and babbling in a toddler-like way, Pica stops in the process of taking a deep breath, and snaps her mouth shut. "Mama - mama had flowers in her antlers." It had been so long since she had seen her mama that she'd not really noticed how she looked any more, but at the mention of staying with the of-same, Pica's whole posture brightens up and her eyes hold a child-like glee. "Stay..?!"

Pica huffed - she saw her mother as somebody who would protect her, but not somebody to run to willy-nilly. "Pica doesn't need to cling to her mama like other fawns. Like Pica says, Pica is a big girl now." And she does the fawn equivalent to a pout, lowering her ears to flop down and peering up childishly. "Can't Pica play with Pai?"

Pica wriggles with delight - here was a fun of-same! Her mind races with possible games, but the one that really caught her attention was a good game - hide and seek. But more hide-and-scamper-ninja-style. The cheeky fawn really got into the spirit of it - with a squeal of - "hideandseek!" She had dashed off, feathered band flashing.

Pica stifles the urge to giggle madly. She had looped around quietly to decide on a hiding place - right behind Pai. But this was a dangerous spot, so she must be careful. If even one small sound was made Pai would find her immediately. So she stood very still, and tried to quieten her breath and also resist the temptation to peek from under the log to see exactly what Pai was doing. A dramatic pause from the counting... "Ten!"

The game was on!

Ah, no! There was a bug crawling up her side! As silently as possible, Pica frantically twitched her hide in an attempt to make it fall off, and although it did, she felt all shivery after that, imagining bugs crawling into her tail-fluff that she had recently preened. At last, she couldn't take it any more. Cautiously, she lowered her head, squinting in the bright light to inspect her surroundings. No sign of Pai. Scrambling out hastily, she tip-toed to another location - under a dense bush. Here it was dry and provided very good cover, and she was miffed at herself for not finding this earlier.

She stiffened with fright when she heard a sound. Her fur standing stiff, she pokes a nose out through a gap in the branches, only to catch Pai's scent. She withdrew quickly, small frame tensed.

Mentally, Pica does the equivalent of a facepalm. Why did she move so fast? She must've rustled the bush's leaves on the way in, though she didn't seem to have felt it. Suddenly, four brown legs appear through the foilage, and Pica freezes, nearly not even breathing. Had she been found? A shadow falls over the dappling sunlight in the bush as Pai tilts her head down, and Pica is relieved that the dark interior of the bush was hard to see into.

She was would up so tight that she very nearly squealed with surprise at the loud excamation, but turned to jerking her whole body with alarm. Had Pai seen her now? But no, upon hearing Pai talk of birdies and tricks and bushes, Pica feels safer, and edges away from where the sunlight shone through the leaves. Peering through the gap though, gave Pica a boost of confidence. Pai looked puzzled on where she was, and she felt very proud at her hiding skills - after all, she had practised her skills with other of-sames to find out whether they could see her.

[okiedokie. <3 Thank you. ; u ;]

Pica was immensely relieved. She would've been very embarrassed if she had been found in such a short time - the shortest. Seeing Pai's brown legs moving off, she heard muffled speech through the leaves and gave a mischievous grin in the semi-dark of the bush. More time for hidey and seeky! Her ears pricked, she listened until she heard Pai's hooves no more before softly, ever so softly and one carefully placed hoof at a time, inched out of the bush without a sound. No sound at all.

But it was a much different story in Pica's head. Don'trundon'trundon'trunstaystillstaystill... etc. Her hyperactive nature only allowed so much though, and it very much proved that she took this game very seriously. Clearing the last few leaves, Pica shook herself out before scampering ninja-style behind tree to tree, peeking out before every advance in the diraction Pai had been going. She was nearing a very fat birch tree, and Pica felt secure. So far, none had called out her name, and the birch would provide a good hiding place at the base, covering in ferns and moss as it was.

SQUISHY SNUGGLES! Except now Pica's being covered by Pai-fluff.

Creeping closer, Pica begins to feel slightly uneasy - Pai had been gone for a long while now. But she shook it off - The bigwater had a lot of hidey places, so that's why. Crouching down, Pica makes sure that her body cannot be seen from any of-same coming back from the direction of the pond before wriggling forwards on her belly to conceal herself under the fern fronds, occasionally poking out a head to sniff at the air. Was that Pai's scent? Was she coming back already? Shrinking down into the ferns, the small fawn curls up tighter and shuffles closer to the base of the fat birch.

A soft tap of hooves on the ground - Pica froze as four brown legs entered her limited field of vision. So Pai had been hiding too! Mentally, Pica deemed Pai a worthy opponent in hidey and seeky - not many would have used such a clever way to lure her out of her hidey.
Pica stiffens with alarm as Pai takes steps backwards, becoming very worried when she didn't seem to stop - but she does. And one hoof is temptingly close. Stifling a giggle, Pica pokes out one slender leg to tickle the fur on her leg (sounds weird...) before withdrawing it hastily.

[nightnight! <3]
All Pica managed was a squeal before Pai snapped down on the ferns with surprising speed, tearing away a clump of her cover. Caught red hooved - Pica attempted to draw her fore leg closer to her body, but there was no more room, and she admitted defeat. She crawled out, shaking out her fur as she did so before nuzzling Pai happily - "Dunno!" And it seemed quite obvious that she didn't care either way, except for the fact that it was fun.

rofl you gave me a good laugh tonight. |D

Calida - Yeah, it was quite a crowd, lol.

Kimi - lmao, Isobel's going to be so confused with all the adult figures in her life saying opposite things xD "BUT PHAI, MIRIAM SAID I COULD!"

Waning - Haha, I get that a lot : P

PIKACHUICHOOSEYOU Niriya -

Phaios chuckles quietly, bending down to nose the fawn on the head as she's nuzzled. "You're a pretty good hider!" She drops down into the ferns so she's a little closer to Pica's level. "I used to be a pretty good hider, too, where I came from. I'm not as good here, though, since I'm shaped different." She wonders in the back of her mind for a moment if Pica was one of the deer who'd come from another world, too, but leaves it to the fawn to bring it up on her own; she's well aware not everyone here liked where they came from, and sees no reason to risk upsetting little Pica for no reason.

The doe snorts as she tries not to laugh at Pica's question. "Not as such, no... I had wings and bushier fur that changed colors when I wanted it to, so I could match the ground just right so no one could see me. And a pointy nose and sharp teeth, and a long tail. No one could find my scent unless they were next to me, and I could walk so quiet - with soft paws - you'd have to see the grass move to catch me." Her eyes are distant and wistful, though she's still smiling; the downgrade had been rough, though her species' skills weren't always as necessary here as they had been there. "They called our kind 'The Hidden,' because we were so good at it."

NO >/ *stubborn*
AND NOW THERE'S TOO LITTLE OF IT, MORO, YOU JERK.

Sleep well xD

Phai sighs wistfullly. "Yeah, me too." Being a deer was alright, but there were certainly days she missed her old self. "But I bet if you practice really hard, you'll be almost as good," she encourages the tiny fawn, "and you can be the Hidden Deer." Yes, she sucks at making up names.

An amused smile crosses her lips. "Not bad... Here." Heaving herself to her feet, Phaios crouches slightly and stalks forward with a few slow, cautious steps. "See how the grass isn't quite solid all over? There are little patches that are thinner. Step in those, and put your hoof down slow, toe first so you smooth the grass down instead of crunch it." She eyes the fawn for a moment, wondering if she could manage steps big enough, especially in the taller grass. Ah, well.


[Ahmg hiding in the tree, rofl. Pica kills me. That deer Phai's next to in-game is dead, by the by, lol. And I'm about to hit the hay - test tomorrow ;-;]

^lmao, you win a prize


ALL the cookies!

[Pica was scared by Pai's lack of reaction you see. D8 She'll be back to hide away to peer at the poor deer. You can go 'hit the hay'. <3 Pica'll keep you company with them tests.]

Aha! So that was how you could move much more silently - Pica was just used to putting down her hooves slowly, but this technique - this would let her move much faster and more silently! Regarding Pai with something akin to awe, she attempts this technique, delicately placing one tiny hoof after the other, though, wincing when she hears a slight frussh of grass against her hooves. "..Pica's getting there!" she 'frowns' in concentration.