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"Daddy! Can we go fishing today? You promised we could go fishing soon!" The petite, starry-pelted filly was prancing backwards while facing her father, making the biggest pair of adorable eyes at him that she could. Rikki grinned at her and cocked his head. "I dunno, do you honestly think you can hold still that long? And watch where you're going, fuzztail, you're about to-"

She'd just pranced her little backwards bum straight into a tree. With a surprised squeak Nyhali darted forward and under her father's legs, poking her head out between his forelegs to glare at the tree in question. "Hey! I was walking there, stupid tree." Rikki laughed at that. "Come on now, the tree was there a long time before you tried walking through it."

There was a long pause, and then a frustrated, "Humph." Nyhali darted forward from beneath her father and into the field, bounding a bit to try and peek over the tops, then rearing to whirl her tiny hooves at the stuff. "Can't keep me from looking now, can you, grass?" Pleased with herself, she hopped up again, this time spying a familiar face... or rather, skull, across the field. "Pretty lady!"

Rikki followed his daughter into the field, spotting the mare long before Nyhali had finished trying to teach the grass who was boss. She was very pretty, but whether it was the skull she masked her face with or just her demeanor, something about her unsettled him. Perhaps it was no more that remembered troubles from when his father...

The strangled that thought before it had a chance to finish, and for once was grateful for the distraction Nyhali provided by running off toward the stranger. Though perhaps the mare was not so much a stranger as he had first surmised.

"Hi Sauda! How are you today? Tell my daddy to take me fishing, it's gonna rain soon and I heard fish like rain." She turned her pleading little adorable eyes to the mare then, at least until Rikki caught up and nudged the filly with his nose. "I never said I wasn't going to take you, fuzztail, just that I have my doubts you can stand still long enough to catch one!"

He missed his daughter's belligerent tongue poking out at him as he glanced up to Sauda, one eyebrow raised in silent question even before he spoke. "I take it you've met my daughter?" He looked Sauda over a bit more thoroughly, noting all her strange trappings and what seemed to him to be a warning in her red eyes. "I'd have to agree that you are a pretty lady, but you seem more a looming storm than a flower... I hope you'll pardon me for saying so. I'm Erikkeni, though most just call me Rikki."

Whether he was asking pardon for calling her a storm rather than a flower, or for having given the compliment in the first place was debatable. He would do his best to be respectful... even were he not currently with Hoshi something told him Sauda was not one to appreciate flirty males and flowery words.

Nyhali looked very, very confused at Sauda's reprimand to her father, and flattened her ears a bit at the frown he gave the mare. "Fuzztail's not a bad thing, is it Daddy?..."

"Some people use it to insult one another... calling and adult a fuzztail is telling them they're acting like a silly foal, after all." He watched as she thought that over for a moment.

"But... you act like a silly foal all the time. And you didn't mind when I called you a fuzztail..." He couldn't help laughing at that and nuzzled her. "If it was a stranger doing it I probably would mind, but you're not trying to be mean with it, so why would I mind?"

She seemed satisfied with that and examined Sauda's trappings a bit more closely than she had the previous time, and Rikki looked up at Sauda with a very level look. Not unfriendly, though perhaps a bit uncomfortable, it did say clearly that he didn't appreciate her attitude but he would respect her wish if only because he didn't want to argue with someone his daughter had claimed as a friend. "I suppose I should get used to calling her something less childish. She won't be small forever."

Nyhali seemed a bit surprised by that thought. "Is it fun being big?" This was directed at Sauda... since she was the other female here, it made sense to the filly, at least.

Rikki rolled his eyes in affectionate exasperation and nudged his daughter. "Come on, Ny, she has a point. As much as I love standing around in the rain, I did promise to take you fishing." Sauda seemed intent on going whether he would have wanted her along or not... though even with her attitude he really didn't mind that much. She seemed, at least, to have Nyhali's interests at heart, and he couldn't fault that at least.

The filly squealed in glee and bolted off. "BEHIND ME, if you don't mind so much!" After reigning Nyhali in, he headed toward a nearby stream where the water ran fairly deep, but wouldn't be able to wash the filly very far downstream if it did manage to knock her off her feet. "Do you fish much, Lady Sauda?" The title seemed to fit the mare, somehow.

They passed the field and into a short stretch that was full of not-quite trees, but more than mere bushes. Rikki stopped rather suddenly, eyes trained ahead of them and slightly to the side. There was a vine up ahead that didn't look quite right. "Ny, wait here a moment."

He stepped forward and prodded at it with his horn, once, twice, thrice. The third time it finally lurched slightly before starting to slither farther into the cover of the plant it hung from. When it started moving he finally identified it as a small python, between three and four feet long. Not dangerous to them, but it could be useful for a lesson. He closed his teeth carefully on its wiggling form before it got far enough that he couldn't grab it very well and tugged it, with some difficulty, out of the tree. Once it came loose he turned to drop it in the middle of the trail and put a hoof on it. It didn't appear to be hurt, at least not very badly. "See this Ny? This is actually a fairly small one of these kind of snakes. They get big enough that they could swallow someone your size whole, so you need to keep an eye out."

Nyhali peered at it with increasingly widening eyes. "It could swallow... me? Daddy when do I get to be big like Sauda? I don't like all these things that want to eat me."

Rikki chuckled and let the snake go. "When you get there. Everyone grows up a bit different from the rest." Nyhali pouted a bit at that, but continued following when Rikki moved forward again. The water wasn't much farther.

Rikki had turned to walk through the rest of the scrub to reach the stream but paused at Sauda's comments thoughtfully. "Most of the time, unless something is already hungry or irritated, they won't bother you if you don't bother them. Most of the time." He continued forward again, shaking his head slightly. "What I did to that snake was rather rude, but I was careful not to hurt it. There's no reason to run around trying to harm them, or even to be afraid of them, but I wanted Nyhali to be aware of them and what she needed to watch out for. There's probably better ways to teach that sort of thing, but I'm pretty new to this "teaching my young" thing."

They reached the stream and he stopped again before motioning out over the water. "See the fish down there? The little silver flashes?"

yhali moved over, pausing at the edge when Rikki stopped her, and looked. Dark forms drifted around some rocks and a plant that jutted out over the opposing bank and into the water, flashing silver when the light hit them right. "Yes."

Rikki nodded. "All right then, watch what I do." He stepped into the water, walking very slowly so as not to alarm the fish into swimming very far away, although they still scattered and hid. He waited then, for several minutes, and Nyhali was getting obviously fidgety. Just as she opened her mouth to say something Rikki lunged toward the water with his face, snapping his teeth together around a fish's tail. He jerked his head up and turned around to toss it ashore where it landed with a wet slap and started flopping around. "You have to be slow and quiet until they decide to swim out near you, and then you wait for one to get in range for you to grab."

Nyhali stared at the fish with wide eyes, and then up at her father as he stuck his horn back into the water to wash it off. The end had stuck into the river mud a bit when he dunked his head in. "Daddythatwassocooldoitagain!"

Rikki snorted and shook his head. "Nah-ah. Your turn. You're the one who wanted to learn." He glanced over to Sauda. "Unless you'd care to try first?"

After the look Sauda gave the fish flopping on the shore Rikki took the hint and nudged Nyhali into the stream. "Remember, you have to be quiet and patient." Keeping one eye on his daughter he shifted a bit closer to Sauda, his expression turning a bit sheepish. "Um... you're right. I haven't been teaching her very well. Thanks for setting me straight."

Nyhali chose just a moment after that was spoken to dunk her head in the water, though she missed the fish entirely and got a mouthful of mud. She jerked her head up and spat it out, making a face. "Daddy!" Her expression turned into a bit of a pout as mud dripped off her nose. "I don't think I like fishing, Daddy..."

Rikki stifled and amused snort and moved over to comfort his daughter with a gentle nuzzle. "You just have to keep trying, Ny. It took a few tries before I did it right, too. It's just part of learning that you tend to figure out what doesn't work before you figure out what does."

Nyhali pouted a moment more, but finally turned a determined look back to the water. "Y'hear that? You're not gonna beat me!"

Rikki moved back out of the stream, and none to soon as the rain started in earnest. Nyhali remained in the water and tried several more times to grab a fish. Just as Rikki decided the water was rising more than he felt comfortable with from the additional precipitation she dunked her head one more time, coming up with a rather small fish. She jerked her head toward the shore and threw it more out of surprise than any thought of what to do with it next, but after a moment pranced out of the stream with a large smile on her face. "I did it!"

"Well... if you'd like it, Lady Sauda, you can have it." He wondered why she'd want it after the face she made earlier, but really if she wanted it he was all for it. She'd proved a far more pleasant companion than first impressions had implied, and had stuffed a bit of wisdom into his thick skull besides. He felt like she deserved something. "Ny has her fish, and I'm not particularly hungry right now. I'm generally just as happy to munch leaves as not, honestly. Go right ahead."

The dim sky overhead began to darken further, the rain growing heavier with it. Glancing up Rikki saw lightning flash in the distance and frowned as thunder rolled back down in their direction. Nyhali scooted over to cower beneath him, dropping her fish to speak. "Um, Daddy? Would it be ok if we went home now?"

Rikki gave her an awkward nuzzle of affection with the side of his face. "It would probably be best. I do beg your pardon, Lady Sauda, but I'd like to get Nyhali home before this storm really turns sour on us."

"And to you, Lady Sauda. Take care of yourself." Something bid Rikki to wait until Sauda had at least found the safety of the thicker tree cover before turning to lead Nyhali home.

"I like her." Nyhali was still trying to peek over to where Sauda had disappeared, and was distracted enough to squeek in surprise when Rikki gave her a gentle bump with his nose.

"I think you forgot something."

Nyhali furrowed her brow for a moment before it dawned on her, and she darted back to grab her fish before just as quickly darting back underneath her father's legs. The rain was starting to grow heavy and fall quite hard. She butted the back of his head with her own to get him moving, since speaking again would mean dropping the fish. He obliged and headed home as rapidly as his daughter would allow, hiding from the rain as she was beneath him.