Welcome to Gaia! ::

They trekked. It took a few hours of seemingly aimless walking. They had to leave behind the lush forest first and make it out to the Savannah, and there was no way around putting in a good long march. That suited Oduin just fine. He used it as an opportunity for idle chatter, jokes, stories, and was in the middle of telling a tale about how his younger brother Toskr lost a fight against a tree, when he noticed the first promising prints.

"So, Toskr is temporarily blinded at this point from the branches, and he just turns and runs full-speed into the very same tree. And then he-" Oduin stopped, distracted by the shape of a sizable clawed foot in the soft ground. This close to the forests, the ground wasn't quite the pillowy goodness of the actual Savannah, but it was nicer than anything they had in Sauti. That was for sure.

He pointed, lowering his voice, lest they scare any of the birds. "I think those are Kinfa tracks."

"I think they're pretty fresh?" Oduin ventured, although if Ejskoia was to ask how he knew, he wouldn't have been able to tell. There was nothing covering them, though, and he couldn't imagine they moved very far very fast. They didn't need to run from anything.

He switched over to a more controlled, slower walker in an attempt to minimize the amount of sound he made as they followed the tracks. They were still at the fringes of a forest, and there were still trees to hide behind - conveniently so, because not long after they first spotted those tracks, Oduin thought he spotted something better.

"Hey, look over there," he said quietly, pointing to a flash of color. "I think that might be them!"

This bird was a lovely gradient of blue and teal. Somehow, it was exactly what they had been hoping to find. Oduin beamed at Ejskoia with an big, frantic nod. "I can't believe we actually found one!" he said, trying his best to keep his enthusiasm at a minimum as he grabbed her free hand and shook it with excitement.

"Okay, well, uh..." he squinted up at the bird again. It was big. That wasn't an exaggeration in the slightest. "I... guess we can tail it for a big and look for feathers. It must drop them all the time. But I wouldn't want to get kicked to pecked by that thing."

Best not to wander too close then. He dropped into a bit of a crouch, hoping that might help them stay quiet and make them less easily visible to the Kinfa. "Just follow its tracks a bit?" he suggested.

The better part of an hour went by with them tailing the Kinfa before Oduin noticed something. He pointed at something on the ground, a ways ahead of them. "That's got to be a feather!" he said, his words coming out half hiss, half breathy excitement. "Come on!"

Temporarily forgetting the need to be discreet, he darted forward, hand on Ejskoia's arm. If he had to, he would haul her over to the feather just to make sure they got it before someone else showed up out of nowhere and snatched it from them.

By the time they were right in front of it, it was obvious that it was a lovely blue that looked like a shade of the sky, streaked with white. Oduin grabbed it as gently as he could and hoisted it up in a sign of victory. "Our first Kinfa feather!" he crowed. "Now we just need to get yours!"

"Yea but," he began to protest, watching the Kinfa out of the corner of his eye. What if they left? What if they lost track, or something scared them off? He knew, on some level, that it was unlikely. Kinfa had few natural predators, and even the presence of humans was unlikely to startle them. But they were so close, he couldn't help but worry that somehow their mission would be foiled. Still, when he returned his gaze to Ejskoia and saw her expectant hand, he chuckled and handed the feather over.

"You better be prepared to haul a** after these birds when you're done," he joked, good-naturedly inclining his head so she could reach him with ease.

Oduin waited with just enough patience as Ejskoia wound the feather into his hair. He wasn't the best judge of fashion or looks, so he'd have to take her on her word when she said it looked good. He was more than willing to do it, though.

Straightening back up, Oduin grinned and made a show of flipping his hair back out of his eyes. "Looks good, eh?" he joked. "Okay, okay, if we spot a third one, we can snatch it, but for now, we gotta go!! You still need one!!" His urgency could not be overstated.

He held out his hand expectantly, waiting for her to grab it so that he could take off and once again tow her along behind him. "Time waits for no man, Ejskoia, and neither does the Kinfa!"