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In the greens and browns that made up the forest's color pallet, a shock of golden yellow and amber set quite a contrast. As well as the fact that squirrels and deer normally made up the animal life in a forest, and that a lion-bodied, serpent-tailed, eagle-winged girl was quite out of the ordinary. But said girl didn't really notice -- and if she had, she certainly didn't care -- for she was quite submersed in watching what-ever-it-was on the tiny iPod looking device in her hands, while a huge, white, retro pair of headphones sat atop her head and over her ears.

"Was it Mungo Jerrie or a RuuuumpleteazAH?! And most of the tiiiimme, they leave it at that!"

She was indeed absorbed -- if singing out-loud didn't state that clearly enough. She noticed nothing happening about her, nor could she hear a damn thing.

Life was OK for now, and the fact that she had been dragged out into the woods against her will seemed less crappy.

The girl kept on with her singing -- blind, deaf, and stupid to the stranger and his pet so near by. She bobbed her head left and right, and then bent over slightly at the waist as if mimicking whatever was happening on the little screen she held.

"Or down from the library there comes a loud ping! From a vase which was commonly said to be Miiiiinn--AH!!"

The sphinx-child gave a high-pitched yelp as she suddenly came face to face with the lolloping dog. Her hands and arms went rigid as she straightened up in a snap, and her little hand-held device flew up into the air. As it came back down, she smacked her hands to her chest, and the thing fell past until it reached the end of its cord and hung near the ground like a pendulum.

With feral eyes on the dog, she backed up and fanned her wings, and her tail lashed at the dirt nervously. She never did like dogs much. .... she was more of a cat person, really. Was it going to attack her? It didn't look mean... but neither did Anya or Rann, and they were sure mean things at times...

The girl, chest heaving still from the start, pulled up the cord to her swinging electric device and looked up from the dog, only to then startle and drop the iPod again when she saw the man. What in the HELL was going on? Anya said no one else was ever around in the woods! LIAR.

"Who are you!?" she finally demanded. Her eyes flickered from the man to the dog and so on. She didn't even notice the kid he held.

All that the girl had heard, as the man moved his mouth, was the singing still coming from her swinging iPod. Buuut whatever, she didn't really care; the man's name was sort of irrelevant to her interests.

With a wary gaze she watched the dog for a second longer, and then looked upon the thumb-sucking baby the man was trying to show her. Seeing the boy's fuzzy body told her at once that the kid was as 'normal' as she was.

"Patch kid, am I right? Came from a cabbage?" she asked bluntly as she slipped the huge headphones around her neck. She pulled her little device up by the cord again and pressed a button. The music stopped, and the girl took a few careful steps forward to get a better look at the kid.

The girl raised a dark brow as he started on about a deer, and then it went higher -- if that were at all possible -- at the word 'Critter.'

Critter? Who was he calling a 'Critter'? She pursed her lips for a moment and crossed her arms over her chest. With a tilt of her head she looked slightly up at the man and stated, "I'm not a 'Critter,' I'm a 'Greek Sphinx.' Or at least that's what I've been told. And my name is Keres."

Keres glanced down at the sniffing dog and shied away slightly, and then she looked at Roland as he flexed his fuzzy hand out to her. She uncrossed her arms and poked his hand lightly with a finger. "And yeah, I'm a Patch kid, and there are LOADS of us...." She gave a glance back up at Lar. "I think. I haven't met many, though."

A gun-shot soon echoed somewhere off in the distance, and Keres looked sharply over her shoulder, though the rest of her body showed little alarm. She paused for a moment and listened, and then her shoulders drooped when she heard her name being called.

"KERES! KEERRREEEES!"

The girl looked back at Lar and Roland. "That's Anya, my guardian... person. You wanna go meet them -- Anya, Rann, and Isaac? They got long rabbit ears. I guess they're interesting enough. They're doing target shooting or something like that."

Keres reared a little when Tam yelped and raced off, and she followed him with her eyes and a turn of her head. "Nah," she said after she came back to the ground, "there isn't much that scares them. Though Rann said Anya screamed like a banshee when she first found me." Keres cracked a smirk and gave a small chuckle.

Without looking back at Lar or Roland, she gave a wave of her hand and started walking off. "C'mon."

Another gun-shot echoed through the trees somewhere ahead.

Keres folded her wings over her back as she walked. She paid little attention to where she went, but she seemed to know just where she was going. A dog barked up ahead.

"Cans and paper targets. ...I only saw the cans, though, but Isaac said that there were paper ones a long way out because he was going to practice with his sniper thing or something like that." As she spoke, the whole topic of 'sniper shooting' didn't seem at all strange to her. It was completely normal for somebody to do that, right? OF COURSE.

She looked up at Lar. "Hunting? Cool. Dunno know anybody who does that."

"Yup, now I do," Keres replied. She looked ahead again just in time to see Tam rush back to them.

Despite the wagging tail and obvious joy of the hound, Keres stopped and went a little rigid as he knocked slightly into her. She raised her hands up near her shoulders, but a call from the side of a small slope ahead made her look up and forget about the dog momentarily.

"Keres, that better not be a new pet!" The tall woman's words weren't of a real accusation, and her loud laugh could be heard.

"He's not mine!" Keres called back a second later in retaliation. She moved forward again and motioned to Lar to follow. As they drew close, another tall woman, and a taller man got up from their seats on a log and come over.

"G'day!" they both welcomed. All three of them has tall lapin ears, furry lapin feet, and what looked like deer antlers atop their heads.

Keres gave a half trot to finish the small gap between her and 'The Rabbits' and then looked back as Lar and co. came up and the introductions started.

"It's a pleasure yo meet you three," Anya said. She looked at each one in turn with her single, bright cyan eye. "I'm Anya. I'd offer to shake your hand, but it looks like they're a bit full at the moment," she commented, and then she turned to her right where the two other adults stood.

"This is Rann, my sister," Anya indicated to the shortest of the three -- the only one with black ears and feet.

"I'd 'lso shake, bu' as Anyeh said," Rann commented as she smiled and nodded her head. She looked back to Anya.

"And this is our some-what of a brother --"

"Isaac," said Isaac. He looked nothing like Rann or Anya, with his pure white hair, darker skin, and amber eyes. "I see ya 'lso gotta Patch kid, huh? Hope it's all goin' smoothly -- Keres waz a li'ul buggah most of the time." He laughed and gave a playful smirk over at Keres, who in response stuck out her tongue. She laughed, though, when he got elbowed by Anya.

"You said you liked guns, Lar?" Anya asked. "You're welcome to join us -- you don't just have to watch."