ORIGIN - To Worlds More Beautiful

Thalia pushed her way carefully through the thick of the jungle. It was slower going than usual; she was shifting her weight so as not to drop the young opossum in her arms each time she had to duck beneath a branch, or extend an arm out to nudge foliage away.

"So we'll get you food, and some, well. A bath," she murmured, again; she'd chatted a little along the way. Spoken absently about how the camp was fairly safe, and how the child should really avoid the creepier carvings, and how the tents were good protection against the rainstorms of Eridanus. She doubted that the opossum understood everything--she didn't even know her name, yet; the little one's speech so far had mostly consisted of cheerful, completely nonsensical yelling (which Thalia found endearing as hell).

At last, she pushed into the Elenya camp. A few tents here and there, a hut made out of sticks; the detritus of humanoid living. Logs around a dead campfire, sharpened sticks leaned against a pole, a pile of skins and furs, a crude basket full of fruits and gourds, a thatch of grass gathered and bound... And the tools, jars and weapons, left around here and there. Even a few musical instruments, simply- and unadornedly-shaped, sat beside a few of the tents.

Thalia spotted and approached one of the ceramic containers full of water. It wasn't a bathtub; more a simple well, or a cauldron even. It was a tad misshapen and wasn't, by far, the only water source here, but it was clean and relatively fresh. "Okay, kiddo--just sit here a sec," Thalia said gently, moving to set the opossum down on one of the thick furs near the water jar. It occurred to her that if the little one knew it to be furs, she might get scared; but there wasn't a lot she could do about that. Instead she picked up a bit of food--some berries, a tiny pumpkin, a mango--and carried them back over. She nicked the berries with a fingernail to bring out the scent, and then laid them there, assuming the opossum hadn't scurried off already. "There--you hungry?" she asked, smiling.

She could broach the topic, as best she could, of a bath next; the stink of Cetus's muck was strong, but the baby would probably want to eat, first, she figured.

@Liliana

On the way to the new cave, Lily's new friend chatted here and there, making conversational noises that she wasn't really getting. She caught a word or two that she recognized and catalogued the many different sounds she was making, occasionally parroting them back in a mess of joyful babble to confirm she was listening...even if the meaning behind the words was mostly lost.

But she was intrigued, enough, by Eridanus to pass the time and fill in those gaps when Thalia stopped talking. There was certainly a lot to see in every direction. She thought that the swamp cave had been filled with life - and it had - but this one just felt more alive. Cetus had almost felt like it was perpetually trapped in a state of grim decay while Eridanus seemed to thrive and sing around her, greenery almost gleaming with health in every direction. She could see trails on the ground through the undergrowth, telling the story of the many creatures that had run through this way, large and small.

That made her a little nervous. So far, everyone she'd met had been nice to her, but instincts told her that it was still a dangerous world and if this room was heavily populated, then there was more of a chance that one of the creatures would be interested in hunting or hurting her. She couldn't drop her guard.

She noticed the change as they entered the camp immediately. The things here didn't look as if they'd formed naturally and she could only guess that Thalia herself had made all of this stuff. Wonder sparkled in her eyes as they passed by a tent and her eyes quickly darted from that to the objects scattered over the ground. It didn't register to her what the pile of furs was, for now, too overwhelmed with all this new stuff to really realize what she was looking at.

Even when she was set down on top of one, it didn't quite click in her brain. There was already too much there for this new information to weasel itself in. She just sat herself down, grateful to be in a warmer cave and on a comfortable, warm surface, and tilted her head up to watch her friend, wondering what would happen next. Her stomach gave a loud grumble - hopefully that's what would be next. She'd have to go out and find something to eat soon. Hopefully Thalia wouldn't mind.

But the satyr was already returning, hands full of things that she didn't recognize, but as soon as the skin of the berry was ruptured, she could smell the sweetness. She glanced up, surprised that she was being kind enough to share both her home and her food with who was, essentially, a complete stranger, but she wasn't going to complain. She was hungry.

She leaned forward and quickly snapped up one of the berries, lips smacking loudly as she happily chewed on the little fruit, a bit of its juice escaping and dribbling down her jaws, but she didn't seem to notice as she moved onto the next one, humming with satisfaction as she ate.

@Thalia

Thalia smiled as the kid started munching away on fruit. She was so damn cute, with the muddy fluff and the big ears and eyes. If she hadn't known better, she'd have thought this was some wacky Echoing Gray parroting back random words--hell, maybe it still was.

The faun shrugged internally. If it was, it was still cute.

She found a bit of leather--the soft kind, and absorbent, rather than the thick and shiny waterproofed stuff. This was dipped into the water, Thalia talking as she worked. "You like those-? Those are berries! And, uh, a fruit! And a--whatever that other thing is. The family kinda collects them as we go, you know? So we have food for when we don't feel like searching." Food stores were useful, though in fairness, Eridanus was generous with its bounty.

She paced back over, hooves sinking slightly into the soft earth, and lifted the wet leather scrap. "I'm gonna try and wash some of that muck off you, okay? It stinks. No offense," she added, with a smirk.

There was a moment's hesitation, as she debated how to approach this. So far, Liliana had seemed relatively fearless--but she could imagine that something so comparatively large coming at you with a scrap of leather might seem ominous. Eh, it's been fine so far, she decided, and reached in to try and gently wipe some of the opossum's mud away.

@Liliana

She continued scarfing down the berries until she grew curious about the larger fruit. She wasn't quite sure about the harder looking one, but the yellowish green one smelled tasty, once she got close. It was too big, though, to eat in one bit, so she'd just have to break bits off. She dove in without much hesitation, gnawing at the exterior a bit hopelessly for a second before her teeth managed to catch and scratch a bit off, which really only amounted to the skin and a bit of the fruit beneath. But the instant the taste of the fruit touched her tongue she was addicted. The berries had been sweet but this was absolutely delicious! She pushed forward, gnawing with haste now, desperate to taste more of the fruit, licking at its heavenly juices as she tried to listen to Thalia's voice.

Through the fruit craze, she caught a number of sounds she recognized and wonder if they were referring to the things she was eating. But there were a lot of sounds - they couldn't possibly all refer to her meal? Maybe she was asking her if she liked them? She decided to try her best, since it was nice of her to be giving Lily some of her food. "Like those," she parroted helpfully through a mouthful of mango. "Berries fruit other thing is!"

She continued chowing down on the mango, starting to feel a little full, but she didn't want to stop eating. There was still so much left! She heard Thalia say something, but wasn't sure what any of it meant so she simply returned to her food and focused on getting as much of that mango into her mouth as possible. But then there was suddenly something cold and wet touching her and instincts overrode her enjoyment.

She immediately dropped the mango she'd been eating and scuttled back, flashing her teeth in a wide-mouthed hiss, surprised by the damp cloth that had touched her out of nowhere. What was it, water? Thalia was standing there with a strip of...something in her hand, and it was dripping with moisture. She was confused. The satyr hadn't tried to hurt her so far, offering her a place to stay and food, and it hadn't hurt, of course, it was water, but she was suspicious of this new development.

The hiss died away quickly but she continued to glare at the leather strip. She didn't try to run away anymore, letting Thalia continue if she would continue, but she stayed tense and ready to do...something if anything happened.

@Thalia

Words!

Thalia grinned delightedly, happy that at last some communication was getting through. "I'm glad you like them!" she exclaimed, and then on the tail of that, wondered, Unless she's just repeating what I said? Well--that's how kids learned to talk, anyway, right? And it seemed to make sense.

Oh, but the cloth--the opossum child did not like that, and Thalia at once drew back, blinking down. Damn, those teeth-! she thought, and then hastened to reassure Liliana.

"Oh, no no no! I won't hurt you!" she exclaimed, voice soft. She quickly turned to her own forearm, brushing the (slightly muddied) leather-cloth over her own bare skin. She 'washed' her arm briefly, looking to Liliana--"See? It's okay. It won't hurt you," she explained, but she didn't reapproach her just yet. She didn't wanna force anything, and possibly scare the hell outta the kid even further.

After a moment's thought, she picked up a handful of dirt; she put it on her arm (gross, now it was muddy-) and then washed it back off, demonstrating the essentials of a bath. "See-? It's just to get the mud off," she explained, and then hesitated, leathery 'sponge' lifting to hold tentatively.

Thalia wasn't sure how else to ask, in body language, "can I wash you, tiny opossum?" but she was doing her best.

@Liliana

Lily continue to watch with wide, beady eyes, jaws open defensively. She wasn't running, but she was still unsure about what Thalia was doing with the wet strip. She watched carefully as the satyr began to mime washing, at first confused as to why she was rubbing dirt on her skin, but understanding dawned when the cloth simply wiped it away. Slowly, she untensed, closing her jaws, and looking back at her own fur, curiously. Was she dirty? She hadn't really noticed. Maybe at the beginning, she'd felt wet and heavy, but it had become second nature. After all, she'd never even cleaned off the fluid of the chrysalis. She hadn't, yet, experienced what it was like to be clean and dry.

Thalia was making noises, too. Soft, gentle noises. Reassurance. After a moment of consideration, she scooted forward a bit, sitting down on the ground (although raised, a bit, just in case) and chirped out a response. "Hell yeah." It wasn't an enthusiastic confirmation, like before, but a cautious, quiet yes. As if she were saying "I'm still unsure about this, but you can continue."

Well, that's exactly what she was trying to say.

@Thalia

Thalia smiled, reassuring and gentle rather than a big grin. She was trying not to be too scary, not that her teeth were particularly intimidating, but still... everything was being done in mild measures.

"Hell yeah," she agreed, voice soft, and then stepped forward. She went down into a crouch, this time, so as to be more level with the opossum--and hopefully less intimidating. The leather wasn't exactly soaked, so she was hoping not to drench the poor thing, but some would be needed to work out the mud.

She started with just trying to wipe the worst of it away--then pulled the leather back to show Liliana all the mud that she could clean from her, if the little one allowed.

"See?" she asked, reassuring as she could manage--but there was nothing special about her demeanor, as much as she tried. She was still big, looming, and a near-stranger--but at least her attempt hadn't outright backfired.

@Liliana