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At first, Yitzah had thought nothing of the strange white crust on the ground. She had gone out to play as usual, clad as usual, with her bow. She played at hunting, as she had done since Dyakida had abandoned her with her bow, just before the battle. She'd never actually brought home anything, but still, she was a kid, and with enough imagination – which she just had enough of – even old trees could become fearsome foes to stick with arrows.

She usually ventured out far, and she did so today, but as the day went on, the strange sharp-toothed n** in the air chilled her skin and leeched through to her bones. Soon, it was time to go home, but she found she didn't have the energy to go. It was too chilly, it was too mucky, and most of all, she was too hungry.

This left her in a perplexing situation – she had never been cold before. Following instinct, the young Alkidike curled up under a fallen tree and hugged her knees to her chest, trying to hold in some of her warmth.

”I don't like this.” she complained petulantly to no one as she wondered how – and if – she was going to get home in the frosted jungle...

Reillan scurried after his brother, clutching the fine pelt he had bought, it would make a very fine..something. He wasn't sure yet, some kind of clothing he hoped. He almost bustled right past where his brother was but paused just as his eyes registered who it was near the edge of town...with a little girl? He approached slowly.

"Hello there, is a bit cold isn't it, we prefer baking hot to mildly cold." Reillan glanced around alertly, also looking for a likely alkidike patroness. What to do about a lone youngling. He scratched his head. Well they could feed her and house her but he wanted to find her family so they didn't look so suspicious. Two Obans and a little alkidike, these people had imaginations, they had no urge for a slave. He shook his head.

Keelthy's face scrunched up in a grimace. "Where were you before now, you don't happen to have a guardian or anything do you?" Well from the looks of things they would have to take her home for a while, they couldn't let the poor thing sit out here and freeze. It was cold out, he would admit, and she was half their size so she probably got cold twice as fast. He briefly wondered if Xarthin would consent to be a blanket..hmm. Worth a shot.

"We have a warm place if you would like to visit for a while, we also have a janarim friend you might get along with, would you like to meet him?" He wasn't sure if this youngling was the type to freak out, (and if you were to freak out because of a familiar a janarim must be in the top two), but he couldn't stand to see anyone shiver like that. He punched Reil lightly on the arm, so his brother would add his own input.

If she had no parent, and he was sure most of these alkidikes did have parents born of a tree or no, then she should have a guardian and if she didn't have a guardian well that would be an awful way to grow up.

Well sure, she had guardians. She was sort of under the care of the tribe, but they weren't here now, were they? Did these people not have eyes? Well, they did. Red ones. So maybe they were just stupid.

Her antennae – numb by now – perked up. ”You've got a janarim?” she asked. She had heard them talked about, vaguely, among the Sisters on Chibale. Big, toothy, and mean. Which meant that they'd be interesting to see – a good huntress had to know about the big scary and mean things.

The offer of warmth, though, sealed the deal. She shivered, wishing that she had proper clothing, instead of the loincloth she wore now.

”I'm hungry.” she commented, indicating that their offer of tea and fruit and stew would be very, very welcome. She attempted to cross her arms, though manly managed another series of shivering. She wasn't talking more until they followed through, because she was cold and that took energy. She stood up, looking throughly miserable, waiting for them to lead the way.

Reill grinned at his brother as after they had said the same thing. He loved when that happened, it served to remind him how close he was to his brother, that was something he cherished dearly. He made no move to stop his brother as he pulled the pelt away, she really needed it more at the moment, who knew how long she had been over there shivering and cold. The thought made his blood run cold at what might have happened had not someone taken her to warmth and food. No one should have to go through that.

"Yes he is a rather large, red and black beast with great fangs, I don't know how they fit in his big mouth really. He is recalcitrant at worst and mischeivous at best, I expect he will be pleased to meet someone new." He thought that like Keel the janarim was getting a bit bored here with not much to do. Well once Reill and Keel knew what they were doing with him he would at least have training to occupy him. Right now he was a disturbingly fangy spectator for the most part at Reill's sword matches, he wondered if the janarim would ever get so attatched that he would intervene if Reill got himself in trouble, right now the big brat seemed content to watch. And at this time he was at his best behaved.

They reached camp and Reill immediately set up the stew. Xarthin stuck his head out of the tent expecting that his meal would be forthcoming as well, the walking stomach wasn't wrong either. Reill fed him before he made tea for the rest of them.

"Well recalcitrant is a mean kind of stubborn I would say. Kind of like if you've ever tried to steal an egg from a mother bird. Its defensive but not deadly." He couldn't exactly remember the proper definition of recalcitrant, leave Reillan to dig up impossible big words. It was interesting having someone so young around, he supposed that adults forgot how many questions they used to have. Of course he often questioned his brother but that was mostly because it drove Reillan batty and he found that funny.

"He has all of those teeth because of what he eats, we call meat eaters like him carnivores, plant eaters herbivores and so on, really I think all the big words are just to give the people who have to listen to them headaches, they certainly did that to me in school."

He walked over and scratched Xarthin on the head, "I think he will let you approach if you want to."

'Recalcitrant' could probably be used to describe the angry young Alkidike herself, but she did not register the irony.

”I know what a carnivore is. And an Herbivore. I'm not stupid.” she sassed, glowering sourly, though her bitter young features seemed to relent at the offer. Cautiously, she moved forward to get a better look.

The janarim was indeed toothy and it was enormous besides, but Yitzah was unimpressed... she had seen scarier. She daringly offered her hand for the beast to sniff.

She found Reillan's question to be bizzare. ”I like hot food.” she said cautiously, staring at the board with a creased little frown. Her small antennae twitched as he explained his game. It was a strange game, one that she had never thought about before. In fact, it sounded pretty dumb... but it was just dumb enough to make her curious.

”All right.” she said, looking up at Reillan, ”I'll play with you.” The little girl knew she would regret it, but... somehow... it seemed intriguing. ”What sort of questions?”

"Ohh a six! So the only way we have a chance of beating Sir Luck is to tie with him. Hmm." Keel picked up the dice aware he was being scrutinized by the oddly playful..."pet" who could just as easily pounce him as the dice he held. He stared Xarthin down until the janarim looked away like it was no big deal.

Keel held his breath and tossed the dice, sadly for him it skittered under the frame of their shanty.. well swell. He crawled underneath as far as he could go and reached out careful not to tilt the dice.

Covered in soot he tilted it to catch the light. Not even a dice roll could be simple, luckily for him he didn't have Reill's giant shoulders.