Welcome to Gaia! ::

Sandy had sunscreen slathered all over their bared skin including their tentacles even if Delta kept trying to wipe the stuff off on the green eyed child's shorts. A floppy sort of safari hat had been on Sandy's head but Alpha and Omega kept knocking it off so now the head covering hung on the child's back by a thin tan cord. Perhaps if the smaller golden tentacles calmed down later Sandy could put it back on.

For now the young one focused on the the checklist in their hand. It was a large paper printout with a a bunch of pictures of birds and bugs flowers on it. Next to each picture was a box to check if you saw it. Epsilon currently had the marker used for checking and seemed to have no intention of letting it go as though it had decided to take on the task of official list checker.

Tybalt stood not too far away from his child, talking with the guide in charge of this nature hike. Apparently they'd all start off together while learning the rules, becuase children listened better when not milling about bored, then they'd branch off down different paths in pairs to look for the rest of the stuff on their list. When they heard a loud whistle it was time to turn back and compare lists when they met up back here again. It sounded simple enough as far as the redhead was concerned.

Omega had spotted someone looking at them and prodded Sandy until the spawn turned their head to see. Green eyes narrowed a little as they tried to figure out what was so important. Only as they stepped closer to the girl in question did Sandy figure it out. The markings on her skin were similar to ones the spawn had seen before at the facility, that meant the girl had to be like them.. sort of.

Comfortable enough at the moment to wander away from their father Sandy carefully approached the winged girl smiling in a friendly manner. " Hi I'm Sandy, are you excited about the hike?" Time had taught the child that other kids didn't always want to go to things their parents dragged them too.

Delta stopped attempting to wipe sunscreen of itself and and pointed it's tip at Sandy as if to demand why it wasn't getting an introduction.

Sandy laughed a little and reached out pat Delta's middle " This is Delta, he likes attention a lot." Sandy had determined that the rowdy tentacle was male and thus far it hadn't objected. " The ones up in my hair are Alpha, who steals stuff sometimes," the spawn warned " and Omega on the left who's mostly nice." Omega was almost most prone to hiding in Sandy's haired if upset. The shaggy haired kid then pointed to the one tentacled left, the golden limb that's tip was still wrapped around the marker. "This is Epsilon, they're normally friendly and sometimes really silly." Sandy still didn't know why the tentacle went all wriggly sometimes.

Important explanations over Sandy finally answered Melody's question. "I want to see everything but I mostly want to see families, you know a mother bird with her chicks or a bunch or rabbits nibbling on the same flower." Sandy's own family was small and well animal ones interested the Spawn greatly.

The young spawn nodded and rolled their eyes a little " Yeah sometimes they take my stuff or grab things they aren't supposed to or help went I don't want them too but" Sandy shrugged " most of the time we get along."

A peppy looking woman with sun bleached hair blew a small metal whistle to get everyone's attention. " Okay People I'm Mandy and I need you find your families again and then follow me into the woods. Please listen carefully as I'm going to explain the most important rules as we go." With that the woman turned on her heel and headed at a leisurely pace towards the path that entered the nearby wooded area.

Sandy frowned a little and reluctantly moved to go fetch their father. Perhaps they could walk and talk with Mel again when the explanations were over.

Mandy marched the group along the path into the woods explaining that they could look at plants but not touch them and the same went for animals. Your could hurt them, get hurt or pick up diseases from touching and no one would want that. It was each child's parents choice if they allowed children to pick up any interesting fallen leaves, rocks, tufts of fur or feathers they saw though the guide suggested placing such finds in a bag and not over handling them tell they could be cleaned.

Sandy listened carefully to the instructions and could only hope their tentacles were paying attention, getting hurt or diseased did not sound fun. Still the spawn was excited and their green eyes darted around to try and be the first to spot something on the list. There was a kind of white fluttery thing in the distance that might be a moth or butterfly but it was too far away from the path to tell.

Tybalt was for the most part just hoping that Sandy would have fun. With little risk of accidental poison ivy or oak and it being too early in the day for bats or anything else fast but dangerous the man figured this should be a fairly safe outdoor activity. It'd be up to Sandy to fill the list though, the young man felt it was sort of cheating when parents helped and he intended mainly to supervise.

It didn't take very long for the group to make it to the point where the path branched off in different directions. They'd spotted a few Orioles and Jays but that was it, the rest of the wildlife seemingly in hiding for now and none of the listed plants grew along the path.

" Okay I want you to get into groups of two or three and pick a path to head down for the rest of the hike. " Mandy smiled reassuringly " Don't worry they're all clearly marked and very safe. Now when you hear my whistle it's time head back to the clearing okay?" The instructions were fairly simple. " Also I need one adult in each group to grab a flare gun from me to signal with in case of emergency."

When it was obvious that Mandy was done speaking Sandy made their way through the throng of other children over to Melody. " Do you wanna go together?" There was hopefulness evident in the spawn's voice, Sandy really wanted to get to know Melody more.

Sandy shrugged "He's weird but grown up?" The spawn really had no better answer for the question then that. Describing their father was hard becuase he seemed to change all the time, the greatest consistency being that he loved Sandy and for them that was enough.

Tybalt had an advantage in finding his child, for one the man was rather tall and for two it was hard to miss the two golden tentacles that peaked out of Sandy's sun-bleached hair. and looked around like sentinels. With a soft chuckle to himself he wound his way through the crowd towards them. Briefly he wondered if it meant anything that Sandy had picked a girl as a partner.

Tybalt pushed the though away for the moment and instead extended his hand to the rather interesting looking winged girl.
"Hey there, looks like you and Sandy are going to be partners can I get your name?"

Tybalt nodded to the woman who'd just joined them " seems so" he agreed. That said he directed his attention back to the clawed girl for a moment "It's nice to meet you as well Melody, I'm just Tybalt, no sir required. It makes me feel old and weird." Sir was for stuffy people who had titles and were formal all the time. Still the artist appreciated the respect the little girl offered.

Sandy smiled at Melody's mother and waved to her with a hand, several tentacles following suit. " I'm Sandy" they introduced them self cheerily " and someone still needs to get the flare gun." Sandy didn't want them to run out of time to look at stuff and didn't think Mandy wanted to wait forever with the guns although only a few pairs had gotten theirs and left already.