Adina? What's Adina doing here? *checks notes* This isn't in the script! How did she even get here?

None of those questions are important. She was simply placed in this area in this moment in time by a god-like power.

She is here now.

And for the past 10 or so minutes, she has been watching a meat monster and a big dragon talk to each other. She hadn't seen either before, so her eyes were fixed on them and her jaw was hanging.

What particularly peaked her interest was how the meat monster became fuzzy as if by magic. She decided to go up and talk to it and the dragon, too. They seemed nice.

She walked up to the booth and piped her question-statement in her usual loud tone.

"You were meaty before. Now you're fuzzy!" But this wasn't enough to start a real conversation, no. Adina looked around and remembered something very important about herself. In her excitement, she tried to stand up on her back legs. This would be helpful in trying to get closer to the meat creatures face as well.

Instead, Adina got a little too much momentum and not enough balance. This sent her tumbling backwards rather far. In fact, she tumbled into some lesser rodents, flattening them immediately, and was only stopped by a pile of freezing snow. She waddled back to the two big creatures covered in rat guts and frost. None of this phased her.

"I'm fuzzy, too!" There! A connection had been made... With the fuzzy meat monster. The dragon looked a little angry. She'd try and talk to them a little later, when they might be feeling better.

@Effluvium

Effluvium didn't react to the pat. Mostly because it couldn't feel it. It was a dull sensation that wasn't aggressive, so it didn't care. It did, however, care about the bit of rind Carja tossed towards it. Effluvium snapped up the bit of rind in a second.

It adjusted it in its mouth, having trouble chewing the small bit. "Angry." It thought. It chewed with its mouth open, drool and pumpin bits dripping, because it was a nasty monster without manners. "Maybe? White bird mean." Effluvium didn't elaborate more on it. Mostly because it'd forgotten the specifics already.

Effluvium didn't react to Adina's exclamation that it was fuzzy. "Effluvium fuzzy." It said. It's eyes briefly flicked down to its legs, then back up to Adina. It watched, vacant. The bear made some strange motion Effluvium couldn't understand, and fell onto its back. She came back, covered in snow, and something red. Effluvium's eyes lit up. It'd realized she was covered in rat guts. Whilst any normal creature would think it disgusting or messy, Effluvium had willingly jumped into a river of blood and dead creatures.

"Food!" It barked. Effluvium launched itself at Adina. Its jaws would close over her head. Oddly gently. It licked the rat guts it could reach, and pulled back. Adina would be unharmed, if covered in slobber. Then, it gave an assessment. "Okay. Fuzzy give good food."


"When I speak."

When I think.

@Carja @Adina

Carja would say that she trusted Effluvium. Carja would also say that even though she did, she'd been so terribly frightened for that creature that she very nearly tried to tackle her friend, but something held her back.

She watched Effluvium grab Adina and... lick her. Her eyes widened and a grin spread across her face, big and wide and nearly touching where her ears were.

"An Effluvium kiss!!", she squealed, clapping her hands together as she walked forward, using her wings rather than her hands, "Can I have one? Pretty please?"

She sniffed along the ground for any remaining pieces of pumpkin, finding one behind a rock and promptly slathering herself in it. She pranced forward, body wiggling happily, her tail slapping against the ground in excitement.

@Adina

The meaty-fuzzy creature that called itself Effluvium opened its mouth wide.

To speak?
No.

Adina was immediately surrounded by tongues and teeth and dead meat smell. She had no coherent thoughts in the moment. And the moment was so quick. All that had gone through her mind was AAAAAAAAAAA!!! .

And then it was over. And she was alive. But for the first time in her small, young life, Adina thought she almost died.

She was silent in this contemplation. And quickly, like most children who have been recently traumatized, she began to cry. And she cried cry loudly. She wailed and moaned and mumbled gibberish.

She wasn't angry. There were few things that could make Adina feel such a thing. No, she was just scared out of her wits.

The scene didn't help the booth's popularity at all. A drenched, crying child in front of a meat monster who ate the rat meat off her pelt? Definitely not good for business.

But the only thing that Adina cared about was...

"You scary! You fuzzy and scare me! Whyyyyyyy?" Through muffled words and a runny snout, it was clear; Adina was utterly inconsolable.

@Effluvium

Effluvium had quickly forgotten about Adina. It didn't notice her going through the stages of shock. Instead, its attention was grabbed by Carja again. Who was covered in pumpkin. A New Food Effluvium liked. Effluvium's eyes sparkled, and a string of drool dripped. It charged back towards Carja, and did the same to Carja as it had to Adina, cleaning her of pumpkin.

"Carja better than fuzzy. Good." It was probably mostly tasting the pumpkin. And it was already looking for another piece. It sniffed the ground for more. A sharp sound had its' head shooting up. Back at attention. It pieced Effluvium's ears. The fuzzy black thing was...making sounds. And fluid was leaking from its face. But it wasn't blood. Or anything that smelled good.

Effluvium was, for lack of a better word, uncomfortable. It was confused by these noises. It didn't know what they meant. It wasn't similar enough for Effluvium to connect it to the noises Lessers in pain made. All it knew was just that Adina was yelling at it, and calling it scary. And fuzzy.

Effluvium took a few steps back. It didn't know why those things were bad! Fuzzy had been good, a moment ago! Effluvium curled its tentacles close, intimidated by the small yelling bear. With no other idea what to do, Effluvium's jaws unfurled. And then it began to yell back. At the same pitch and volume.

It began with a legible "HYYYYY!" in return, then devolved into nonsensical yelling. It was clear that Effluvium was doing absolutely nothing to help either its', or its' booth's reputation. And most likely going to make the Adina situation worse. Then, it raised its' pitch in an effort to out-loud Adina.

"When I speak."

When I think.

@Carja @Adina

CARJA

The water hears and understands
The ice does not forgive

Carja was delighted at the sudden Effluvium kiss, and clapped her hands, covered in drool, "Yay!! Kiss!"

She finally turned to face Adina and whipped her head back to look at Efflu when they started crying, and her first though was, 'Oh! A game!'
So she started to scream too, unable to keep it up without bursting into giggles, though. Her tail was thrashing back and forth furiously, and she was utterly delighted at this new game.

Until the thought hit her that Adina could be crying.

She snapped her mouth shut and approached her, head low, "Are you crying, or screaming?"

She had to make sure.

@Adina

The baby, being yelled at, only made it cry more furiously, of course. And then the dragon started yelling, too. But then it started giggling?

What's so funny, huh?

Adina was confused. Then the dragon asked her if she was crying or screaming. Technically, she was doing both. She didn't really know how to answer the question anyway. She was just happy that she was finally being noticed.

"It- The monster- It hurt me! But it's so fuzzy! Why would something fuzzy hurt me?"

That was pretty much the gist of it. At least, that's what had happened in Adina's mind. The fuzzy monster put her in danger and it hurt her feelings. And then it yelled at her. Which hurt her feelings more.

Adina started to calm down a little, now that she was talking to Carja. She knew that this dragon was nice!

@Effluvium @Carja

Effluvium only stopped screaming once Carja and Adina had. It was confused by the encounter. It picked up on the words, but did not understand what 'fuzzy' had to do with 'hurt'. Effluvium tilted its head. It listened for another moment. It gurgled. Then, it spoke.

"Scream," it said. A single word. An explanation? Perhaps. A repetition of recently spoken words? Also possible. It stared at them a moment longer. Carja had approached the bear, so Effluvium slunk up next to her. It stretched its short neck to sniff at the bear. Yet it found no lingering rat guts. Disappointing.


"When I speak."

When I think.

@Carja

CARJA

The water hears and understands
The ice does not forgive

Carja perked up, "Oh! Effluvium was just kissing you! They don't have lips, you see."

She draped a wing over them and preened, chest puffing out, "They're my friend!! And they won't eat you, promise! You also had tasty stuff on your face and they wanted to eat it. I guess they cleaned your face off for you!!"

She sure was good at seeing the silver lining, that was for sure.

"My name is Carja," the dragon said, "What's your name? Oh! And this is Effluvium, say hi, Efflu!"

She was very proud to have a friend like Effluvium.

@Adina