Welcome to Gaia! ::

It was at least as bad as he expected. Lerin's gaze followed the trail of her fingers, watching intently as Ziari unwrapped, cleaned, and re-bandaged her wounds. He should've offered his assistance with that, as well. Doing so on her own, with the injury in such an unhelpful place, probably wasn't the easiest. Lerin tucked his arms behind himself. But to be frank, he didn't care much for the sight or smell of blood. Dealing with it through fur or clothing was one thing, but he had no desire to be any closer than that.

His eyes found the forest floor as soon as she was done.

Maybe her journey was ill-planned, but at the same time, "It is very brave of you to travel alone. I can't imagine I would have the courage to leave my home if all that fueled me was a desire to explore." Lerin glanced back to his own bird. He had no proof of who or what had harmed Tandoori as a young chick, but 'poachers' had always seemed as an acceptable answer as any. Apparently, any wishing to take part in the black-market dealing of animals could find refuge in the thick forests of Jauhar. It certainly wasn't the first he'd heard of it. And the girl- Ziari's story seemed reliable enough.

He still couldn't say with any certainty if she'd necessarily be welcomed by the rest of his village. But it felt as though it were his duty to try. "Your mammu my find it difficult to ascend toward the canopy where my people make their homes and businesses, but if you don't mind leaving her on the ground, for as briefly as possible, I will take you to my village."

Lerin's expression pinched, heat rising to his cheeks as he considered the thought that he might have offended Ziari's reasoning. 'Just' a desire to explore. "I didn't mean it like that," he amended quickly. "It's good, I think, that you can strike off on your own like that. Maybe this isn't the best of places, and maybe the timing wasn't so great, and maybe there could've been a little more preparation, but all in all, you haven't suffered anything fatal-" 'Yet.' "-and you did achieve what you set out to do. A 'change,' as you said. So if you aren't distinctly unhappy, and things aren't as bad as they could be, perhaps it wasn't so poorly planned, after all." Or maybe her gods favored her decision. It hardly seemed his place to say.

He gave a cluck of his tongue to summon his kinfa back to him. Tandoori chirped in what could only be described as annoyance before scurrying on ahead, off in front of them through the darkness, down the path that would lead them to the mechanism for a quick ascension.

Lerin tossed his companion a brief glance over his shoulder as he followed after the bird a bit more slowly. "You must know I wouldn't expect you to climb..?" He asked hopefully. Think of the amount of time any such thing would take. Particularly if people ever came back wounded, as was not particularly uncommon. "There's a tall kapok tree near the center of my village adorned with a series of pulleys that we can use to lift ourselves up." He glanced to her shoulder quickly, before looking away. "Perhaps..." There was another flare of heat to his cheeks. "We should go together? At the same time? I don't want to put undue stress on you..."