Welcome to Gaia! ::

"Hm...OH! There it is!" Alex's narrowed eyes widened with excitement as he landed just moments after Raven had done so, touching down with only the slightest difficulty. He folded his wings neatly and trotted over toward Raven, a wide smile on his face.

"Hellooo!" He chirped, "I see Rumkai's with you! Hope he doesn't get lost, or anything, eh?"

"Hn...I remember hearing about a pond in the middle of the forest... It's kind of a ways, but it's not that bad, I swear!" He laughed a little, and turned towards the forest. "We could stop for lunch on the way, too!

Alex eyed Raven's bag, curious. "..what's that for, anyways? Did you bring food, or something?"

"Yeah, makes sense. They're probably be a lot of cool stuff in there, too! Rocks, berries and stuff...little bugs...to look at...to eat maybe..." He wearily eyed her, struggling not to burst out laughing. "Well, we don't have a whole lot of time, anyways! It'll probably be dark before you know it! We've got a big place to explore before the day's through."

He started off in the direction of the brush, then paused, turning around to wait for Raven. "Let's go!"

"Ohh! Thank you!" Alex replied gratiously, taking the package from her and opening it, savouring the general appearance of the cookies before snatching up one and stuffing it down his throat. "You want one?" He held back out the tousled wrapping toward her, a few stray crumbs spewing from his mouth. "I feel kinda bad eating something right in front of you. Uhm...I guess you could pick out the meat chunks, or something?"

Alex chuckled. "I'm guessing...he doesn't like it? Well, HAH then. That's what he gets after not asking if he could have some, first!" He wagged a finger at the butterfly, then wrapped the cookies up once more to the best of his abilities and stuffed the bundle into his pocket.

"Eh, I guess I can save them for later when we get to the pond."

He trudged along the makeshift trail, paying close attention to the constant change of his surroundings. "Ya know...we MIGHT find a few blue jays living around here...It would be interesting to see, don't you think?"

"They are NOT boring! I mean, come on! You're...a blue jay, sorta! And you're anything BUT boring!" A playful grin spread across his features, followed by a small shrug. "I dunno about the falcons, though. Mom told me Aplomados only live in grasslands, and stuff like that. Besides, if we did find one, it'd probably eat all my cookies!

"...maybe like in that place we first flew in with the flutterboos and everything, remember? Maybe we could find some there..."

A strange bubbling sound coming from not too far away caught his attention suddenly, the unmistakable noise of water flowing in a small stream hinting that the pond had to be somewhere close. His pace quickened slightly, even as he noticed the insect population was becoming more and more dense with each step he took.

"Only because I didn't know..." His words ended abruptly as his own feet sank in the same manner, causing him to stare wide-eyed at the ground. "Uh...at least this means we're close, right?"

The falcon-Eden hiked his knees as he continued through the muddy marsh, the substance making an odd sucking sound each time he freed his feet from it. At last, a rather large body of water could be seen looming in the distance, surrounded by tall grasses and a few rocks scattered about here and there. The water looked crystal clear, even from a distance.

"This is it!" Alex chirped, bounding as fast as he possibly could to get to the pond.