It had been a few weeks since Kestrel's foraging trip that ended in helping three whelps harvest some of the Ginkgo in the area. Life had been quiet since then, and Kestrel considered herself lucky that the whelps didn't seem to have remembered her, or where she lived. That was, until she was out foraging with Peridot one day. The two had been searching for some moss near the rivers on request of Koi, and had been having a nice time just wandering around, occasionally scooping some of the moss up, when Kestrel noticed a small reef belemoid in the deeper parts of the river. She sighed, knowing that the whelp would have already noticed her. She nudged Peridot, who seemed confused at first. "Hmm? The moss won't grow there, the river's too deep. Unless you wanted to get some of those plants?" he said, clearly not sure what Kestrel was aiming for. Kestrel rolled her eyes. "Remember those little friends I talked about?" she said, gesturing at the river again. "Oh, Cinnamon and Alcyone? Those reef belemoid whelps, right?" Kestrel nodded, but Periot still seemed confused. "Are you really not seeing that?" Kestrel questioned, frowning. She heard soft giggles

coming from the river, and eventually two small heads poked out of the river. "We've been watching you!" Alcyone said, sounding rather proud of herself. "You've been near the rivers all day, and haven't noticed!" Kestrel raised an eyebrow. The kid had no reasons- but it hurt her pride a bit to admit that she hadn't noticed they were being follow by not one, but two Xunari. Peridot, though, seemed more excited seeing the kids. "Whoa!" he said, faking being impressed, "You two did so well! Your adults must be proud of you!" Both whelps giggled again, and Cinnamon moved closer to where the two Tark'ee were standing. "Did you really not see us?" Peridot smiled, shaking his head. "You must've been practising!" The whelps seemed quite proud of themself. Kestrel wasn't entirely sure how to react, or where Peridot was going with this, and reluctantly stood around, watching the three interact. "Can we help you two with anything?" Peridot said, smiling warmly at the whelps. "Nuh-uh!" Alcyone said, excitedly. "We wanna help you today, since Kestrel was nice to us last time we met!" Kestrel noticed the surprise on peridot's face, although he tried to hide it. "Really now?"

Peridot grabbed some of the mosses out of his bag. "We've been looking for this, do you guys know where we can find more of it?" The whelps seemed excited at this, and climbed out of the river. "There's some just up the hill over there!" Cinnamon said, and had already ran off before Peridot or Kestrel could really say anything, disappearing in a patch of tall grass. Kestrel followed behind, opting to route around the taller grasses, instead walking where past Xunari had already made a path. The area there was much easier to walk trough, and Kestrel wouldn't have to deal with the grass getting in her face as much. Over the hill, Cinnamon had found some sort of cave that the river branched into. She dived in, followed closely by Alcyone. The river entered the cave trough a small waterfall, and zig-zagged trough the cave, with moss-covered stones that could easily be used as stepping stones throughout. Peridot made an impressed noise as the two entered, and Kestrel couldn't help but agree with his amazement as she entered the cave last. It was beautiful, with light shining trough cracks on the ceiling illuminating the place. "See?" an

excited Cinnamon said, proudly. "There's lots of moss here! Alcyone showed me a while ago!" Kestrel was impressed. The cave was not only beautiful, but also would be a good source of the different mosses that Koi had asked for. "Did we do good?" Alcyone pressed, as the two Tark'ee stood there, too stunned to speak for a while as they took in the scenery in front of them. Peridot was the first to speak up. "Yea kid, you did great! Thank you for showing us." The whelps seemed even more excited- which Kestrel hadn't known was possible- and began to help gather the mosses off of the stones, careful to leave some to regrow after Peridot gave them those instructions.