mild cursed warning for cave milk

There were so many animals in Eridanus! So much life in general, actually. And that meant there were plenty of opportunities for friends. Karyo had friends already! Don't get them wrong, they loved ALL their friends. But hey, new ones never hurt! And Researcher-friend had found a little slimebelly to be buddies with, so Karyo didn't see why they shouldn't do something similar.

Babies, Purple-friend had called them. Well, having things in common was a good thing to jumpstart a friendship with! So Karyo would simply have to find a fellow baby, and then when they went back to the group THEY'D have their very own little buddy with them. That was the plan, anyway.

Researcher-friend's buddy had been a lizard-like thing, and while lizards were cute, Karyo decided they wanted to do something different. Not only would it be more unique that way, they had also observed that all of their talking friends had fur. To maximize the things they had in common, and therefore the potential for friendship, Karyo decided to find a fellow furry thing.

(Ahh, the scientific method: observation, then making a hypothesis… now all that was left was to test it.)

They trotted through the forest, pausing occasionally to sniff at a fern or a branch. Where were all the furry babies at...?

It would take a great deal of searching and hunting, stalking and sniffing, to find a Lesser in this thick brush that wouldn't alert and flee before it was spotted in turn. The tangles of ferns and vines limited vision, but good hound's nose might be of use in this.

Eventually, Karyo would stumble across a small group of female Kooru: three of them, one red, one blue, and one green. A small calf tottered along behind the red one in the lead, butting its mother's flank now and then whenever she paused to forage. Forked tails picked at the leaves above as muzzles dipped to the grasses below.

They were a little distant, yet, but if Karyo were cautious, they could observe the Kooru group without being noticed.

@Karyo

Ah! There was a baby! Karyo glanced down at themselves, then back at the kooru calf. Well, they only had four legs, and they were different colors, and their tails were very different, but... Karyo had a feeling that having two traits in common was as good as they were going to get. It had taken them forever just to find these four, at any rate.

"Hiiiii," Karyo bleated in their best imitation of a hooved herbivore's call, scrambling toward the group of kooru. "Let's be friends!" Ferns folded and crunched under their paws. Twigs snapped. Karyo blinked away a droplet of water that fell from above before sinking into their friendliest, most playful bow, tongue lolling out of their mouth. "You're baby! I'm baby! Perfect for friends!"

Then they sprang up again, bounding toward the group of kooru, certain that no one could--or would--possibly refuse them.

Being observed quietly might, perhaps, have been possible; but the sudden bounding approach sent the Kooru bolting off into the brush.

It was a lesson, of sorts: the Lessers here were skittish things, and Karyo was, to them, a threat.

@Karyo

Karyo stared after the Kooru, looking utterly lost. ...huh. They run real fast. Did they not want to be friends, then--? Maybe she'd scared them, though he didn't see what exactly was so scary about him. He certainly wasn't that big. Glancing down at himself, then up at where the kooru had been, Karyo heaved a sigh. It had taken him such a long time to find them! And now they were gone.

The hound sniffed halfheartedly at a trampled fern, then took another look at their surroundings. The thick tangle of vines was absolutely everywhere, and the (arguably over-)abundance of all sorts of plant life was impossible to see through. How much longer would this take? They began to lose patience, as was their wont.

Karyo forged off in a random direction--hopefully one that had friends lying in wait somewhere in the distance. Were all kooru so easily spooked? If only they could be more confident! Outgoing and curious, like Researcher and Assistant. Those traits made it so much easier to befriend people.

Alas, there were no further friends to be found, at least for the moment. Maybe if Karyo persisted--but patience was not one of their virtues. Their stomach growled, and their thoughts quickly turned to food instead. Was it ironic that they were probably going to eat something furry and small? --Probably.

--exit