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It had been quite awhile since Iro had been in this part of the world. Through the desert he had persevered, and his journey had been rewarded. He slithered along on his belly, ears listening but inattentive. He had no fear of the land, nor of its inhabitants. All he needed was water. Throat-quenching, body cooling water. In his adventure across the desert the comet serpent had been forced to do without - mercifully he exited the desert quickly, or else he might not've left at all.

Slipping through the undergrowth, he had little care for where he was going, until he nearly fell into a spring. For a moment he eyed it - was it clean? Yes. Disease-free? Likely. He stuffed his entire face into the water, gulping at it desperately.

He didn't even notice the little fox sitting on the other side of the pond.

The serpent's head snapped up, eyes locked onto the Starfox as she stepped on a leaf. Aw, it was a cute little bab~ wait, where was it going? Iro called out to her as she dashed away, "Wait! I won't hurt you!" But she was out of sight and likely out of hearing by now. For a moment he considered resuming his gulping, but...there were dangers in this place, and he felt rather bad for scaring the poor thing. He didn't want her to develop Generalized Anxiety Disorder because of him.

He flapped his wings and cruised across the pond, following the wreckage of grass that signified the child's path. He would catch up, with time.

Iro paused in his chase - wait, now this was confusing. He couldn't smell very well at all, but she'd apparently changed paths, and several times. Giving a soft, irritable hiss, he simply turned and went back the way he came. It was a terrible thing he'd not be able to catch up to the frightened little fox, but he'd never been much of a tracker, and his head was beginning to spin a bit. It would take awhile for the effects of dehydration to wear away. in the meantime, a bath didn't sound too bad...

Slithering back towards the spring, he arrived to see that it was uninhabited. The fox must've gone on. The serpent slid into the water, using his wings to hold his head above the surface. Ah, it felt so nice, after that hot desert. A few clumps of sand fell from his scales to the clear spring floor, and his mane clung to the sides of his neck like vines on a tree.

His head snapped up at the yelp - there was someone here. It sounded quite...foxish. Perhaps the little one had returned? He couldn't see anything among the leaves of the tree, and he didn't particularly feel like leaving the water, so Iro simply called out a greeting: "Who goes there?"

Iro watched as the lone feather flitted down and alighted on the water silently. He peered up at the source - he could clearly hear the crackling of bark and soft cries of pain, but to fly up to the fox would only scare her more. Instead he waited, neon eyes narrowed in worry for the child. It certainly sounded as though she was injured, and in a considerable amount of pain. Injuries, out here in the wild...He shuddered at the horrific diseases that could come down upon her.

He couldn't help but give a soft cry as he saw the little bundle of fur tumble from the tree. The serpent darted forward to try and catch her, but - too late. She smacked into the ground with an eerie boom, and upon standing he could see that she had injured herself. Quickly the physician inside the serpent took over. That leg was very likely broken, and without proper supervision, it could heal in such a way that it would be unusable for...well, life. Thankfully it wasn't a compound fracture - that minimized risk of infection and bleeding.

But that leg would have to be set and bound. Iro could see the fox was terrified, and would likely try to tear him to bits if he got close. Plus, out here in the oasis, what could he use to bind her wounds? Damn humans, with their leaving the children of the stars here to die, without so much as a major back-up of supplies.

"Is something wrong?" He feigned innocence - he could clearly tell she was in pain, but if he could get the foxling to talk, perhaps he could get close enough to help.

Iro eyed her. Hm. She seemed to recognize that he was speaking, but...it was almost as though she couldn't understand English. That was a bit of a problem. He could remember back to when he was a younger serpent, back to when his human was still around - she'd spoken a lot of languages. It had been a hobby of hers. But in his age, he couldn't remember much of them. Awkwardly, and likely incorrectly, he began: "Me llamo Iro. ¿Cómo te llamas?"

Racking his brains, he could only think of a few other languages off the top of his head. Hopefully the weird one with the y sounding lls would be it.

That language. It was familiar. He didn't know what she was saying, unfortunately, but...he did know some of the language. It was the one from far away, with the funny letters that looked more like drawings. Thinking back to all those years ago, he asked his question again: "Hajimemashite, Iro desu. Onamae oshiete itadake masu ka?"

The serpent pondered for a moment. She was happy about...something. And her name was Kayou. That was all he could glean from the brief conversation between them. But where had the little fox learned such a strange language? Had she had a human too? It hadn't been that long ago that they had left, after all. More importantly, how did he ask what hurt? Iro thought, but he could only remember this: "Itai?" He knew it wasn't exactly a question, but with his limited knowledge, it was all he had.

Seeing her relax, he slid forward a little bit, watching her closely to make sure she didn't try to bolt again.