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The trick was, you had to hold the stick carefully in one's mouth. A move too fast or the wrong direction would give you splinters, and lips full of splinters were so very not in fashion right now. Or hopefully ever. The only stick she'd found that was long enough to allow her this was also rather unwieldy, almost as big around as her tail. Shiver knew her neck would have some strain once done.

The tip moved along a flat patch of damp earth leaving etchings in it's wake. Slowly emerging was a diagram known well to most young kimeti -- Hop-Hop. You started out on one side of the thing and jumped from mark to mark, then back. Each time you jumped, it got harder, since you weren't allowed to step on certain marks the longer you played. There were about 10 marks in all, and only a very good kimeti could win the game.

Shiver didn't think she'd win, but when you're playing with yourself, well... You never really lose.

"... There!" She stood back to admire her work. It was a little longer than what she'd played on as a foal, but she was a little longer too. All marks were clear and easy to see. Well, they would be if a pesky lizard would only stop running over them.

"Augh! Not again! Get off my game, you little whippersnapper," Shiver cried and tried to pounce after the reptile. "You're gonna ruin my gaaaame!"

"Stupid son-of-a..." Shiver had all but forgotten her game, childish as it was. Her only intent now was to catch that pesky lizard. Besides, it was almost lunch time, and she could do with a snack. The thing made another pass over her game area, smudging a few in the process, before scabbling into a bush. "Get back here!"

Caress-of-Breeze dived after, managing to grab the lizard by the tail. Her attempted a-ha! came out a lot more muffled than she intended, but at that point she was more concerned with food than with enunciation. The lizard was still wriggling, though that was easily solved with a twist of her head. Lunch was now still and limp, having been knocked out against the ground.

Her game forgotten, Shiver slipped through the trees, looking for a place to lay and eat. That was when she nearly stumbled over a buck. Lunch dropped, and she ducked her head. Goodness, but she must look a mess. Splattered with mud, small scratches from her dive into the shrubbery, and a lizard in her mouth. "H-hello," she murmured. "I didn't realise someone was already here."

Shiver's eyebrow raised while a smile tugged at the corners of her mouth. She parted her lips to speak and the lizard fell to the ground. "I can think of many ways how," she replied with a faint laugh. "But this one's not dead. Stunned, yes. but not dead." Ducking her head, she peered at the body, just to be sure. "Yeah, see. It's chest is moving. Breathing. Alive." She looked up at him with a smile.

"I'd intended him to be lunch, but... You seem oddly put off by dead lizards." A wrinkle appeared between her eye as she thought. "I'm... sorry?"

Shiver chuckled. "Caress-of-Breeze, but you may call me Shiver. It's less likely to tangle your tongue." Her eyes slid back to the lizard, beginning to show more signs of life. A soft sigh escaped her companion to the thought of, Well, there goes Lunch.

"Bizarre as you think you may be, Eternal Scale, there's someone out there who's weirder than you," Shiver quipped, sitting down in a most undignified fashion, legs askew and askance. "I like lizards for lunch. It's the alliteration, really." And she smiled, revealing one of her own weird quirks.

"So if you don't eat lizards, what do you do with them? Please tell me you do eat meals every so often, also?"

Regrettably, the reptiles she was interested in were featured mainly as meals.

"I'm sorry to hear about your collection," she replied, frowning for a moment. It was obvious this was not an emotion she was used to, and the muscles pulled at her skin in weird ways. Generally, Shiver preferred smiling. "But," she said, her expression moving back to a more neutral phase, "I should think you could find a snake familiar fairly easily? Never heard of a gecko as more than a snack, though. ... Sorry."

Shiver rose and began moving around him, hopping from hoof to hoof in no apparent rhythm. "You're very pretty. ... Beautiful? Handsome? ... Attractive. Your colouring, anyways," she quipped, coming round to face him once more. "Vibrant." She smiled. Caress-of-Breeze had always thought herself rather plain and boring, and liked to ogle others when she had the chance. "You look almost as if you'd walked through a pool of berry juice. It's fitting. I think i saw some back this way, if you're hungry? If you're not, you could be polite and join me, since I'm now going to feel bad about eating that lizard, and that's your fault. Berries for brunch. Anyways..."

She rambled. Too much, as if her words bubbled out of her like a babbling brook. She'd hoped he'd join her, at any rate. It was always awkward eating alone. With her hopes and head held high, she made her way back to the remembered berry bush, this time opting to go around the obstacles in her way rather than through them.

Ah-ha! Lots of berries! Bunches of beautiful berries briefly borne by berry-brambles. She smiled. Shiver had no familiar to help her here, but she'd had lots of practice. She made short work of gathering the fruit, dropping it to land on a near-by rock. "Thank you, " she muttered absentmindedly, not really having heard what Eternal Scale had said, only that it needed a reply.

She'd enough for two piles in just a few moments, one slightly larger than the other, which she allowed for him in deference. Oh, sweet, sweet berries, very juicy, the proof dribbling down her muzzle, leaving dark stains. "Mmmm."

Wait, what? Had he just called her beautiful? She stared at him, her mouth a mess. "Mph--" Swallow. "Thank you, but I'm not. Eat with me? I'm plain and boring and... Messy."

"Simplicity..." her voice trailed off, eyes gazing at some point just under the berry bush, thinking. Well, she'd certainly never thought of it that way before. Certainly her favourite flower was nothing too amazing, plain and simple and... Still beautiful. Maybe he was right.

Shiver's eyes refocused and fixed on him. Her voice this time was a little softer. "You're right. Thank you then. Truly. Never been called that before." Goodness, she felt awkward at this, now. How was one supposed to react to being called beautiful? Certainly her age mates, when they were younger and still all growing up, would fawn and flutter over the bucks-to-be, trying to get them to say it again. But Shiver? She wasn't really like that.

Her gaze dropped. Was that a... "I think I may have spurted you with a berry. I'm sorry." That softness and awkwardness was gone. Stepping closer, she snaked her head out and licked a drop of juice off his cheek. "Now you won't stain, hopefully. There's no hope for me, but we should keep you handsome to appease all your lady-does." Shiver winked, and wondered for a moment just how many ladies followed Eternal Scale around. Hussies.