[IC] =Nel's Teepee=

[JadeEye]

She smiled, flicking her ears cheerfully, and also settled down in the space next to him. Olathe hadn't though of Mai coming out so soon, as she wasn't certain how the relationship between familiar and soquili worked, but her eyes were drawn to the little creature when she appeared. She eyed the familiar curiously until the wolf disappeared neatly into the shadows. So that was their look out.

"Hopefully your mystery two-legger won't decide to not come by today," she said wryly, though she didn't care too much if it did or did not. She was still quite flattered by the little gift of flowers, yet the telltale pink of a blush hadn't touched the fair white of her cheeks yet. "But the day wouldn't be a complete loss, if that did happen. After all, I do have your company."  

[Excited Apathy]

Helaku gave a sheepish grin. She liked his company? It had been a while since he'd last been pleasant company. Then again, Olathe seemed able to get around the barriers he'd erected with hardly a thought, as if they weren't even there. "That's true." Pricking his ears, he peered through the bushes. So far, there wasn't much going on out there...but he was certain there'd be something.  

[JadeEye]

She also turned to peer out of the bushes, feeling a little silly, but it was a good sort of silly. Like the kind of silly one feels when playing a rousing game of tag that involves acting like a very young foal.

"So," she whispered, assuming the 'stalking' mode that they had set up with hiding in the brush. "What will you do when your mystery is solved? Will you go out and meet it? Or will you just be satisfied that you know what's happening?" Her inquiry was laced with curiousity. She, afterall, hadn't though he'd honestly want to stalk the potential two-leg...so surely he had a motive for doing so.  

[Excited Apathy]

Helaku blinked. "I...don't know..." he said, as if the idea hadn't occured to him until then. He smiled embarrassedly. "I guess I'll figure it out if we see it, and if it doesn't show up, no harm done." He tossed his head, flipping a long lock of hair out of his face.  

[JadeEye]

She was vaguely surprised that he hadn't figured that part of the plan out yet considering he had done so well with having things in order thus far. She shrugged though; it wasn't that big of a deal afterall. It just made it more interesting to be done on the fly like that.

"Fair enough. It's not too important anyway...I was just curious," she said cheerfully, giving him a benign smile before turning to look out of the foliage again.  

[Excited Apathy]

Helaku's ears suddenly flickered, and his amber gaze focused sharply outside the bushes as his nostrils flared. What was that...a bit of movement? A moment later, Mai ghosted into their hiding place, visibly nervous. Tense, Helaku strained to see what was approaching the teepee.

Tiana was equally tense approaching the teepee. There was always an element of risk in approaching the home turf of a stallion, though from what she'd seen of him as a foal he didn't seem to be violent. Looking down at the doorway she saw fresh tracks, as well as some that seemed to belong to mare, or at least to a slightly smaller Soquili. She went about her normal business of tidying the place, placing food, and then moved to leave the teepee...and crouched down silently. Did she see a Soquili, or maybe two? A bit of blue, of white, of gray, showing through the bushes.  

[JadeEye]

Olathe too tensed a little, mostly in response to Helaku's sudden turn and focus on the teepee, and her gaze lifted to the figure that was moving carefully about the dwelling. She had to supress a neigh of glee; she had been right!

However, then the stranger came back out of the teepee and suddenly seemed to focus in their direction, she frowned. Had they been spotted?  

[Excited Apathy]

Tiana watched the spot for a long moment, but as nothing moved from the bushes she decided to leave well enough alone for now. Pressing too close into a stallion's personal space was not wise...not in his territory. And she'd done what she'd come to do. Quietly, she ghosted off, back to the village.

Helaku only relaxed long after the human was well out of sight, and gave a small snort. "Well...seems like there was one. Makes sense out of things, it would be pretty weird if food showed up by magic or something." He chuckled at that and smiled.  

[JadeEye]

Olathe remained still as stone while the two leg continued to peer. She even though that the woman might even come closer, but thankfully it didn't happen. She was comfortable with the old woman by the river, but this one looked a little younger...who knew what she was capable of?

When the two-legger was gone, she relaxed and let her neck regain it's gentle arch instead of it's stiff, lowered position and gave the stallion a wry grin. "I thought as much...I do believe a little bit in magic, but not of the sort that brings food into a teepee," she said cheefully as she flipped a braid from in front of her eyes. "How nice, though, to have food delivered like that. At least you can have a snack on days where you don't quite feel like going out at that moment."  

[Excited Apathy]

Helaku grinned and nibbled at one of the braids. "True, though gifts like that are tastiest shared, wouldn't you think?" He quirked a brow, eyes warm. "I suppose she hopes to gain trust or something like that, though she seems to be quite cautious."  

[JadeEye]

"Well," Olathe drawled thoughtfully, a slight grin tugging at the corner of her mouth as he messed with the tip of one braid. "I suppose maybe she's just nervous. After all, two-legs -are- pretty small in comparison to soquili. Fragile too, I would imagine." The mare wondered if the two leg had a negative experience with a soquili before. That would possibly account for some caution on the human's part.

"Perhaps it will be a little more friendly another day. It can't avoid you forever, unless you encourage it to avoid you."  

[Excited Apathy]

Helaku gave her an astonished look. "Why would I do that? I mean, I've not messed with two-leggers much since I was a foal, but I certainly wouldn't try to frighten or harm one. Then again, maybe she ran into a Kalona or something. Those could be enough to frighten a two-leg away from other soquili, perhaps."  

[JadeEye]

She chuckled softly at his look of utter surprise and nosed his shoulder.

"-I- know you wouldn't hurt a two leg and we just met recently," she said as she nodded, then turned to look in the direction the two-leg went, still looking thoughtful. "But perhaps it doesn't know that. It is better to side with caution than to be brazen and find yourself in a difficult situation. With time, I'm sure it will be more apt to visit when you are around."  

[Excited Apathy]

He nodded slightly, conceding to the wisdom of that statement. "Yeah, and being male doesn't help...two-leggers seem to be more wary of us for some reason." He shrugged, dismissing the strangenesses of humans.  

[JadeEye]

She gave him a teasing grin as she turned back and addressed him, head tilted in saucily to the side. "It's because males can be a little more brash than mares. Some think more with their muscles than their brains." Her eyes glittered impishly at that; she didn't mean he was one of them, she just wanted to tease him a bit.