Alone

[Saiki]

Devedin shook his head. "Not really. I usually stay around this river or a pond that isn't too far away. But I normally don't come this far in this direction. I like watching fish, and I see more back there."

His parents might prefer open air, but he loved water. And, of course, the kinds of things that lived in it, like fish and frogs.

"That pond is really nice, though. If I can find it. I usually get myself lost. But there are all of these fish, birds, and fr--"

He cut himself off.

"Sorry, I'm getting a little off-topic, aren't I? You probably don't want me to ramble about stuff like that. I do that a lot, or so I'm told."

In fact, Darkpaw had given him the nickname "Fishboy". Of course, it didn't bother him. But one day Darkpaw would be called "Bugface" by someone, and then who'd be getting the last laugh? Deve, of course.

[PandaLover]

Tsuki began thinking of where she'd been walking threw the last few days. She seemed to recall a pond... but... where was it? She closed her eyes, trying to retrace her steps. "The big tree, then take a le...right..." she mumbled to herself, then recalled the stream, which they were at, which led up to a pond. She opened her eyes, wondering if it would be the right pond that she remembered.

"There's a big pond if you follow the river," she said to Devedin. "I don't know if it's the right one, but maybe it is! You could try it," she said with a smile.

"There's nothing wrong with talking about the water and stuff!" Tsuki said immediatly. "You're not rambling; I don't mind," she said. "It's actually interesting to hear you talking about it," she said with a nod, showing that she meant it.

Most of her family, she believed, liked air. The things in the sky, the things in space. But for some reason, Tsuki liked to watch the water flow, instead. It was a steady movement; it didn't really change. That was the way she liked things. Unchanging. Staying the same. She wasn't ready for change. She liked things the way they had been back at her old home, and if she had to stay here, that was fine with her. But she didn't want anything to change.

[Saiki]

Deve tilted ihs head to one side as he listened to Tsuki's description of the location of the pond. His tial began to twitch excitedly, and after a thoughtful pause, he said, "That sounds right. But let's go see if it is!"

Then he amended hastily, "Of course, if you want to go. We don't have to go anywhere."

Deve really didn't want to seem rude or pushy. Tsuki was really his first friend, and he didn't want to alienate her. But he did want to see that pond. Even if it wasn't the pond, it was still a pond. And it was sure ot have many interesting things in it, like plants, fish, and frogs. And maybe this one had a turtle... He smiled slightly. He had only seen a turtle once before, and it was a tiny thing. He wanted to see one of those huge turtles one day.

[PandaLover]

Tsuki looked at Deve, grinning for the first time since she'd left her old home. "Of course I want to go!" She said, her heart beating with excitment she assumed had to be able to be heard.

'Fish and frogs', the words kept echoeing in her head as she wondered what the things were. If they lived in the water, though, they had to be cool, right? After all, water was a lovely thing, so beautiful and calm and serene. Anything that lived in it had to be lovely too, right?

"If you want to go," Tsuki began, her smile not fading as she looked into Deve's eyes, "then can we go right now?" She asked, not really wanting to wait any longer than she absolutely had to.

[Saiki]

Deve wagged his tail happily like a little puppy when she said that she wanted to go. He'd get to go exploring with his new friend! He could show her all of the fish and frogs... And other stuff. Yes, today was turning out to be an exciting day.

Devedin nodded. "Of course we can go now!" He exclaimed.

He dashed off, but he only went a couple of feet before skidding to a halt. He realized that he should really wait for Tsuki. So he stood patiently, tail swishing back and forth. He was ready to either lead or follow. It didn't matter to him either way.

[PandaLover]

Tsuki flicked her tails back and forth, and her ears kept popping up and down as she ran ahead to catch up with Deve. "C'mon!" She said, literally jumping up and down, waiting to go to the water.

The water, she thought with an excited grin on her face. There had been water at her old home, of course, but not as much as here. Here there was water, water, and more of the liquid! How exciting! And whatever lived in the water, to top it off.

"Can you teach me what lives in the water, too?" Tsuki asked, slowely, not really thinking about it, circling around Devedin with all of her bouncing.

[Saiki]

"As much as I know," promised Deve. Though it wasn't much. He hoped she wouldn't be disappointed.

Deve stood still for a moment, looking around with one paw slightly raised, before calling out, "This way!"

He turned and bounded downstream. The stream fed into the little pond not too far downstream. It looked like the stream wound in and out of the trees for a little bit before reaching the pond, so they'd have to slow down. But for now, they could run as fast as they pleased and they didn't have ot worry about crashing into any trees. They did have ot worry about tripping, though. The ground was becoming more uneven and rocky as they neared the trees.

[PandaLover]

Tsuki ran after Deve joyfully, keeping up with him well, but only just. Learning about the water... she thought happily. Nothing better! Well, she took that back. Having a friend was better, but water definetly came next!

She continued to run, hoping that soon they'd arrive at the pond. When they did arrive, she decided, she'd run into the water first thing.

The water... so cool and smooth and silky. That, on top of having a friend, may bring her thoughts totally away from her family. Just the thought of the water began to null the thoughts of they Pykiin she lived with, and how she didn't seem to fit in with them. Maybe she did, though, and she just didn't realize it? No, impossible. She was happy being with Devedin right now, though, so all these thoughts had been pushed out of her mind.

[Saiki]

Devedin laughed as Tsuki leaped into the water. He approached the edge more calmly and looked into the water. Along the far side, opposite from where they were, there were glints of silver, gold, and white. He was pretty sure that those were fish over there, but he wasn't certain.

He started to head around the pond. So intent on the water was he that he didn't notice the frog until he had nearly stepped on it. With a loud croak, the green animal jumped into the pond.

Devedin was so startled by the frog's sudden noise that he stumbled and fell with a loud splash into the pond.

[PandaLover]

Tsuki swam quickly over to Devedin when he fell into the water. "Are you ok?" She asked, holding him up with one of her tails. "What happened?"

Looking over close to the spot he'd fallen in, she saw a couple of beady little eyes, then they disappeared into the water's surface. She looked at the ripples the eyes had left in the water when they disappeared.

"Deve..." she began, watching the water for more eyes, "what was that?" She asked in amazement, continueing to gaze at the water. "That was... interesting," concluded Tsuki. "Is that why you fell in? It was... scaley. Were those the thing's markings? And he was a small Pykiin, too," she said, not ever having seen anything living except for regular Pykiin.

[Saiki]

"I'm okay. I just was startled," replied Devedin, looking embarrassed, He really should of been more careful. It wasn't like the frog had been hiding.

Looking over to where Tsuki was looking, he explained, "That was a frog. Or maybe a toad. I don't know if there's a difference."

Tilting his head to get the water out of his ear, he continued, "I think their whole body is really scaly. They're not furry like us, since they're not a Pykiin."

That had slightly confused him at first. He had once thought that everything was either a Pykiin, a Bonded or a plant. Of course, that meant fish, bugs, and frogs were Bondeds or something. It had taken the more knowledgeable adults in his pounce awhile to convince him that there were other things that didn't fall into those three categories.

[PandaLover]

"Not Pykiin?" Tsuki asked, wondering what else it could be. If this 'frog' wasn't a Pykiin, then what was it? Something of it's own? How... intriguing? "It's not harmful, is it?" She asked her friend, keeping an eye on the surface of the water, wanting to see one of the greenish-brownish creatures again.

Scaly? That had to be uncomfortable, walking around in a hard little skin all day. Tsuki's fur was soft, she found out by poking herself lightly, curious of what her fur felt like. She couldn't imagine anything other than her fur. Granit, this was the fur she'd had all her life, but still! And he'd mentioned something about fish, too. Did those have scales, or were they furry? Or were they still something else, too?

[Saiki]

Deve shook his head. "No, there are none of the... the... poy-zun-us... ones in the valley. At least, none that I've seen," he said, having trouble with the word 'poisonous'. "Those ones are really, really bright and pretty, but they have stuff in their skin which can make you sick."

He frowned. "Well, that's what my guardian said. She might be wrong."

It seemed to him that if a frog had poisonous stuff in its skin, then it would poison itself since skin was part of the body. So how could those frogs live? Did someone give them magic so that their poison didn't hurt them? But who could do that? The Dryad never did anything for frogs; she did things for the Pykiin. Who else could have such powerful magic?

[PandaLover]

"That's good. I guess it wouldn't be a good idea to go swimming if there were dangerous ones here," Tsuki said with a smile, beginning to swim around the pond again in large circles. "What else lives in ponds?" She asked, poking her head under the water to look around for a minute, then coming back up, smiling at Deve.

Either the water was murky, or her eyes just couldn't adjust to the world of the water. Sure, she was able to see a couple black and grey splotches, but nothing more. It annoyed her, a little, that all she could see was haze. She got over it, though. Maybe she just wasn't meant to see the underwater world.

[Saiki]

Deve also ducked underwater. While he didn't have amazing underwater vision either, he wasn't quite as blind underwater as some other Pykiin were. Moving his paw along the bottom of the pond, it finally brushed something feathery. Finding what he had been searching for, he broke a little piece off of the feathery plant.

He came back up with the piece of plant still held in his paw. He took a few deep breaths of air before swimming back over to Tsuki and showing her the feathery piece of plant. It looked rather limp out of the water, but it's vibrant green color showed that it had been healthy and alive before the piece had been broken off.

"I don't know its name," said Deve. "But there's a lot of it down at the bottom. There are some other plants, too. I also saw a few fish earlier... But I don't know where they went since they swim really fast."