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The seasons had changed since their first, auspicious meeting up in that tree, and Oduin's family was back in town to take advantage of the harvests and the work opportunities that afforded them.

This time, however, Oduin had better ideas. In the year since, he'd made some good money hauling lumber up in Mez. He'd grown out his hair. He'd finally picked a profession and undergone training and gotten some jobs. With some money saved up, there wasn't as much need to spend the entire harvest season working.

So instead, he'd hatched a plot, and his eagerness to share said plot was evident in the way he'd rushed on over to Ejskoia's place and was now pounding on the door with alarming enthusiasm. She probably wasn't expecting him, probably didn't even know he was back in town. But that was all irrelevant. Right now he had a plan.

In hindsight, maybe he should have hollered at her to give her a little bit for forewarning. He always forgot that the hair and the beard could throw people off, but he only had a split second of hesitation before Ejskoia recognized him and threw herself into a hug. Oduin beamed and wrapped his arms around her.

"So, I'm back!" he said declared as he straightened up. He had a sword strapped to his back as well, and he gestured to it along with his face. "New year, new me, I guess. My mother tells me I look the part of a homeless vagrant. But in the best possible way"

He threw his head back in laughter. How that could be positive, he wasn't sure, but his mother managed to turn an insult into a compliment, and he loved the woman for it.

"How are you? What are you up?" His eyes twinkled as he all but rushed through the catching-up part. He had better news and he was doing a poor job of hiding the fact that he wanted to blurt it out.

Hopefully both she and her brothers would be on board.

"Thanks!" he said, thumbing the beard. "I like it. Helps keep me warm in the wind, too." It had come in nice and thick, for which Oduin was terribly grateful.

He nodded along, sympathetically. "Looks like you're getting there, though," he said. Her brothers seemed rather protective, which might be the one hitch in Oduin's plan... But they'd cross that bridge when they got there. He still needed to convince Ejskoia.

"Okay, well, I have an idea. And hear me out," he said, raising his brow excitedly. "What do you think about going to Tale... and finding some Kinfa feathers?" A lot of the logistics, he had thought through already - how to afford it, how they would get there. There were some commonly-used routes between settlements in Sauti, and then getting into Tale was a simple caravan ride away. It wouldn't be hard. All he needed was a yes.

"We'll put you on a weight-training regimen," he said, only half joking. Oduin himself had (obviously) a fondness for lifting heavy things, and would readily preach the virtues of lifting to anyone who would listen.

"Oh, that was easier than I thought it might be," he said with a relieved laugh. Part of him had expected more hesitation and more resistance. But this made things easy. "We could leave tomorrow, if you wanted to. I've got a lot of the logistics figured out. Basically all you need to do is... pack." He tilted his gaze upward in thought for a moment. "Yep. Just need clothes."

Although he didn't have any sort of map, he could remember the rough landmarks off the top of his head. "If we hitch a ride out west toward Tind, we can then switch into a caravan to Vers, where we can find Kinfa breeders. Or ask for pointers on where to spot them in the wild."

The next morning, bright and early, he met Ejskoia back at her place. He'd brought his usual travel pack, loaded with clothes and emergency food supplies. It was just in case they had to stop somewhere and couldn't find any merchants to barter with.

"You ready?" he said, grinning. "It'll take us maybe three or four days to get there, I think, but not a hard trek or anything."

Plus, it'd all be worth it for those feathers.

The journey proved to be fairly uneventful, which was about as much as Oduin could have asked for. They managed to find caravans and rides to minimize the amount of walking, and by the time they made it to Vers, the hype was terribly high.

As the last caravan trundled into the little settlement, Oduin grabbed his pack and vaulted off the cart before it had even come to a stop. He shouldered the pack, turning to the cart to make sure Ejskoia was also up and at 'em.

"We're here!" he said with almost giddy excitement, pulling out a piece of paper from his pocket and peering at it. On it were directions to the nearest Kinfa breeder, which was located not far from the settlement center. "Are you ready to find these feathers?"

He looked up from the directions, pursing his lips a little in thought. "Do we want to use the breeder as a backup, in case we can't find any on our own? We might be able to track some if we head north a bit toward the Savannah."

He folded the paper back up and stuck it into his pocket, squinting in a roughly northerly direction. It could be worth it, and probably wasn't dangerous. Kinfa were huge, but that meant they were eminently easy to spot.

"Blue would do nicely, I think," he said, beaming. "What about you? We could try to find a deep, saturated pink for you. With some white, maybe." And perhaps just cross their fingers that they'd come across the right ones.