Welcome to Gaia! ::

The clearing appeared empty but for the young foal. And yet gold eyes blinked from one of the trees; standing still, as Alder was wont to do, he was likely to go unnoticed. He wasn’t quite sure what to do about the young foal whom he’d stumbled across a few days ago; the kiokote didn’t appear to be searching for companionship, and Alder knew there were no others around for days. But he couldn’t in good conscience just leave the foal gamboling about; there’d been an increase in caimans, and Alder didn’t like the look of the larger feathered snakes that had been cropping up lately.

With a soft groan he rose from the ground, shaking off leaves. “Good morning little one. Have you caught a lizard?”

“A still lizard is an invisible one – a sentiment I know quite well.” His tail flicked, making it obvious what he was he was referring to. “Someone once said that my pattern suits me because of that,” Alder chuckled, a gravelly sound like one who hasn’t laughed in a while. His gold eyes held amusement staring down at the foal. Youth was so refreshing. “I am Alder, much like the tree. What do you call yourself, little one?”

"Yes, I do enjoy sitting still often - it lets me see the world uninterrupted. Of course, sitting still is much easier when one is older; youth is full of energy," Alder chuckled, nudging the foal. "It's not often I meet a foal as energetic as yourself, would you care to keep an old buck company? We can, of course, walk and speak, as I would not dream of asking you to be still. Perhaps you could tell me about your lizard friend, or whatever you please." The buck turned, a shift of his head indicating the path he wanted to walk, and took a few slow steps to start the walk. It was, of course, no accident that the mossy buck knew the way he wanted to go was a calm one, relatively danger-free; he did not want the exuberant Kiokote plunging headfirst into deep water.