Welcome to Gaia! ::

Around them so many of his brethren had begun to converse with their welcoming party, yet so far he had held back with Firefly, listening and feeling to all that was occurring. He was a naturally quiet creature, preferring to spend a good deal of time thinking before he made a move towards action.

He lifted his head he caught a familiar sound over the chattering of voices. A beating of wings that soon drowned out everything else as a bat reached the Zikwa pair circled around, brushing air across Buried’s body.

Buried lifted his head in welcome as the bat dropped onto his back and used little claws to clamber forward, trying to figure out the best way to feed the fruit he had collected to his Zikwa friend from this position.

Emboldened by the arrival of My Heart he gently nudged Firefly, “Shall we go introduce ourselves now?”

A harsh cry from nearby caught his attention and he sought out the speaker, feeling his presence nearby and answering with a calmly utter, ‘We are Zikwa.”

As the strange new brethren emerged from the earth, Meets-the-Sea took a very crane-like step forward, stretching her neck to see the newcomers better. "Why, they cannot see, Slide," she murmured to her as-yet silent mate in a breathy undertone. She was somewhat shocked. She had met blind kin before, of course, but a whole race without the power of sight? Her own eyes flicked back and forth from zikwa to zikwa, taking them all in. Their lack of sight seemed to be made up for by their other senses, and each and every one of them had glowing markings -- the better to distinguish each other in the dark, she assumed. This was all very fascinating -- there was so much she could learn from these kin about sense and movement! Meets was about to head into the clearing to speak with one of the zikwa when a tangle of brown hair caught her eye.

"Wood Spider!" she called happily to the smaller mare, her eyes alight with an almost childish excitement that was rather uncharacteristic of the usually staid, in-control Meets-the-Sea.

Meets-the-Sea almost bursts into breathless laughter at the happy enthusiasm with which Spider greets her -- the younger mare was never sure how much of an impression she made on Wood Spider's memory, although Spider certainly made a huge impression on hers, back when she was a shy, anxious little doe. It is a little strange now to be taller than the mare she viewed for so long almost as a role model, but Meets can't stop the smile that Spider's infectious happiness spreads across her face.

Following Wood Spider's eyes, Meets looks over her shoulder at Slide and beckons him forward with a flick of her finned tail. "This is my mate, Walks Without Rhythm," she replies, turning back to Spider, beaming. "Slide, this is Wood Spider. She helped me once, when I was much younger." Her dark eyes flick back and forth between the two kin, her eagerness for them to like each other strangely visible in her face.

Slide blinks at her -- and then smiles. The look is still a bit stiff, and Wood Spider can tell he is not used to such overt displays of emotion. But then he inclines his head in a nod, which would be a full bow from another kimeti: "I have heard good things about you." He pauses, thinking, and then his deep-set blue on blue eyes hold the petite mare, "Whatever you did, I must thank you for."

Spider smiles -- an echo of the same one Meets gets sometimes, "Oh, it was nothing. I help where I can. I'm so glad to find you again; how have you been?"
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"Here," says the buck. "Put these in your hair." His tone is laughing, because it usually always is -- those who don't know him well enough would think he mocks his companion. And he is, in his way, but only because it is born out of a strange kind of friendship.

Hear Me Roar leans over and sticks the pink poppies behind Beauty's ear, and then steps back to survey his handiwork. The lean blonde kimeti tosses his head, looking her over with his green eyes, and then turns back towards the path they walk on: towards the mound. "I think that will be a fine thing for you to wear in front of all of these people."

They have come from -- well, Roar can't really remember. Somewhere, of course; they are always wandering somewhere. He has learned how to stretch his legs to meet Beauty's long stride. He pauses at the edge of the clearing, long tail lashing against his legs, and blinks: there are quite a few people gathered at the mound.

There are what he can only imagine are the legendary kin (he has heard the stories, of course); then there are .. wrinkly, tiny little things. He glances to Beauty Beneath. "Friends of yours?"

Talon looked at the creature that called out to him. "Zikwa? You all have such amazing colors. And...you glow!" Owl was so amazed by these colorful and glowing zikwa that he didn't even notice the winged creature sitting atop this one's head. It was interesting. Just as fleshy as the zikwa but covered in a bit of fur as well. "So what's that on your head?"

The Zikwa smiled patiently. “A bat.” He answered, presuming the Kimeti must have seen one at some point or another; he just hadn’t made the connection yet. “He is My Heart.” At his name, the bat shuffled slightly to the side to peer at Owl and then went back to try to feed Buried, pressing his nose into the others neck.

Smouldering Reverie’s watchful presence was not unnoticed and despite his obvious blindness, his head turned unerringly in her direction. “Will you come closer?” he asked, clearly hoping that she would.

Take Root was encouraging some of her fellow zikwa when Hero heard a startled doe behind him. The buck turned his head and flashed her a charming smile as well (though the zikwa seemed to not notice) - "I believe the zikwa are making their official arrival. This here is Take Root, and I am Hero. I have lost count of the numbers so far."

His gaze browsed the crowd. Some kimeti seemed to greeting each other as well as the zikwa, but it seemed that the "lost" kin were being graciously hosted on Ghost Thistle's mound. In the back of his mind, he registered some of the Legendary in the back of his mind. He would need to find out more. He was surprised to see Lull in Sunlight - for the last time he saw her, she was most definitely not quite so...magical. The buck wondered what had happened, and maybe he would ask her some time.

Bringing his thoughts back to the here-and-now, he turned back to the doe, "They don't seem to bite," he joked, trying to lighten the mood a bit.