Kestrel had been busy gathering up food for the Mireh Outpost all day. She had prepared for this well in advance, making sure she knew which food would be safe to harvest and which wasn't. The foothills were full of all sorts of fruits and berries, which Kestrel was more than happy to snatch up and put in her bags as she explored around. She was aware that there was supposed to be colonies and tribes nearby, but so far she hadn't really found anywhere besides the occasional native stumbling around on the horizon. She had been surprised about the peacefulness, but that was quickly interrupted when a red Tark'ee whelp popped out of the grasses besides her. "Hello! My name is Cranberry, who are you?" Kestrel hesitantly took a step back. Surely the whelp wasn't a threat, but that didn't mean she would be excited about interacting with the kid either. "Me and my friends Alcyone and Cinnamon are out foraging." Cranberry said, as if that clarified why the whelp has stalked up on Kestrel. ((She searched trough the grass, trying to find the two others mentioned, and eventually spotted two reef belemoid whelps hiding in the grass behind

Cranberry.)) "Ah well- I've been foraging here, too, so I already took most of the stuff around here- sorry kids." The whelp looked completely flabbergasted at this. "That's no fair!" One of the belemoid whelps, likely the one named Cinnamon, chimed up from where she was hidden in the grasses. "You'll have to help us find stuff now! It's no fair if you take all the things home!" Kestrel raised an eyebrow, briefly wondering whether or not she had been mistaken thinking she had been far away enough from other Xunari to have to worry about the land, and plants on it, being spoken for. "Yea!" said the other reef belemoid, who could only be Alcyone. "We walked real far to get here!" Kestrel frowned. Not their territory then, most likely. In that case the kids had no stake over the things she had found. "Sorry kids- I can't help you. There's people back home waiting for me to return." Kestrel said, picking up her baskets and bags that she had set down before. "Maybe ask your adults if they can help teach you." she said, and started to walk back to the Outpost. The three whelps didn't think that

was the last of it, though, and quickly charged after her. Alcyone especially sounded disappointed. "C'mon! You shouldn't be mean, we promised we'd find some ah- Ginkgo?" Kestrel briefly considered giving the whelps some of the leaves that she had found before, but she had worked hard for those. She sighed. She really didn't want to deal with the whelps any longer. "There's still some on the tree I found earlier." She gestured vaguely to a hill on the horizon. "Just over there- I'm sure you can find it once you're over the hill." She tried her best to sound encouraging. "All the way over the hill?!" Cranberry exclaimed. Kestrel hummed affirmatively. "But once you get there it'll be hard to miss, I promise!" she honestly hadn't even been sure where the tree had been herself anymore. "Can you come with us, please?" asked Cinnamon Kestrel shook her head. "I promise you'll be alright on your own." The whelps didn't seem convinced, and looked at her with large pleading eyes. "Ugh, fine." Kestrel eventually said. "But after that you need to leave me alone and head back home, promise?" Excitedly, the whelps agreed, and instantly started running away from Kestrel,

over the hill she had pointed out earlier. "I wanna get there first!" an excited Cranberry called out as he dashed ahead of Alcyone and Cinnamon. Kestrel slowly treaded after them, briefly wondering if she could just sneak away from the three now that they were distracted. Unfortunately for her, the three seemed to still be paying attention, occasionally looking back to check if she was still following. She was sure that if she tried to walk away, the three would notice and would come after her again. She sighed. Surely showing some kids a tree couldn't take that long, right?