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"Oh yes, miss," he nodded at the grassy doe, "we know how offputting fresh, slimy salamander can be - but our preservation process gives it a most tender crunch, you'd be surprised! Drop by anytime, and we'll give you a free taste of all our products, there're lots more besides!" What the 'lots more' were, he didn't quite like to say here...customers tended to be a lot more amenable when they were actually in front of the meats - the piquant wafting fragrances were fine persuaders - but away from the actual wares, you never knew how kimeti would react to pickled foxbuns and salted mongeese.

...Not the other doe though, he didn't think, darting almost-glances over, not quite daring to look right at her. He had a feeling that she wouldn't bat an eyelash even if he'd told her their best-selling item was salt-preserved kimeti...

The doe had wandered over to the starting point of the race, not because she had any intention to run herself, in hopes of finding something of interest. All in all this gathering seemed much more for her son's liking than to hers. She gave a sigh and then looked down at her hound, determined to leave.

In fact, she had moved on and started to leave when a rather bright patch of red caught her attention. She narrowed her eyes and frowned -- no, it wasn't Travels since she could see him wandering in the center something clutched in his mouth (had he seriously gone flower picking during a race -- oh honestly, she was going to have to start pretending not to know him).

Snapping her attention away from him, she realized it was a doe. One that seemed quite pre-occupied given that she didn't seem to notice her tail was caught between the jaws of a hound. She looked around, hoping someone else had noticed this and sighed. Fine. She'd have to do something herself.

There wasn't any time to formulate a real plan and Lull found herself charging forward, head bent and aimed to knock into the doe with as much force as she could muster. She felt the collision and heard the yip of her hound as it helped. She really rather hoped all of them -- or at least herself -- was knocked back to avoid the oncoming stampede of hooves.

The impact caught Re-wind entirely by surprise. For a moment, she saw only stars - and then she saw the stampede of many, many hooves. "Oh!" she said, rather uselessly. Stealjaw, standing over her, barked at their saviours in gratitude and relief - what he'd meant to convey, possibly, might have been transcribed in kimeti speech as 'oh, thank goodness, she's such an idiot', which would not have been in any way far from the truth.

Shaking out her mane and tail, she clambered back onto her hooves, nosing apologetically at the black-striped doe. "You saved me!" she said brightly, "how can I ever thank you? I was studying the cypress roots - they're fascinating! Did you know? A mangrove's tubes help it to breathe, and for ages, kimeti researchers thought a cypress' knees did too - but some experiments were run, and apparently they don't. What are they for, then, I wonder? We can only guess they help to buttress the tree...but they didn't do this poor old thing much good."

Catching her breath, the doe's heart hammered wildly in her chest and she didn't find the idea of staying in this spot pleasing. She gave a look around, trying to determine the best place to relocate to, as the other doe climbed to her feet.

"How about we move this to a more sedate spot?" Lull suggested with a sweet voice. She wasn't sure she cared to know about cypress roots but if it would get the doe to move -- "And then you can tell me all about the cypress roots!" she added as an enticement for the apparently focused chatterbox of a female.

She moved forward, beckoning with her head to the other doe, and was quite sure she would shortly regret that. "Come on, then."

Snow-Blind had lived a quiet, peaceful existence. He woke up when he felt like it, slept when he wanted, and spent most days playing with his moth. He hadn't run more than a few feet in his entire life.

Yet here he was, pushing his aching legs beneath him as fast as they could go. His lungs burned, his vision blurred, and he'd only made it five feet.

"We're" he gasped "going" he wheezed "to die!" He could feel his legs already threatening to give way.

"You've got" he panted "to help me" he coughed "..keep going."

Still running as fast as his poor legs could carry him, he tried leaning against the buck for strength, hoping he could be strong enough for the both of them.

Whistles twice was a little taken aback when the little filly pointed out the two does she was with. "Oh I'm so sorry for intruding, I didn't realize you were with her! I'm glad you weren't wandering a busy place like this all on your own though, little one. It's a pleasure to meet you all. My name is Whistles Twice." He smiled at Silent Burning and bowed his head politely to Tomo and the other doe. "I hope I haven't intruded on your outing, ladies." The buck stretched his neck to see where the strange little orange creature was sitting with her leaves full of color. "Would you still like to go see what the painting is? And perhaps learn more about these new creatures?"

"Painting sounds like fun," Tomorrow agreed cheerfully, angling toward Ochre with a smile. "Whistle, come with us!" The more, the merrier, after all, especially when keeping Silent safe from the crush of creatures around them. She paused and looked back at Lightfall; when the blue doe simply smiled and nodded them on, Tomo nosed at Silent's flank before trotting cheerfully forward.