Alienore was up early that morning. The early morning sunlight dappling through the leaves warmed her dark coat, and a gentle breeze ruffled her feathers. She sighed, accepting it for what it was. She had come back to the herd after collecting some spare Angeni Charms. The vague idea in mind had been to have some around, perhaps try Charming other Shifters, see if it offered other Shifters the same opportunities afforded by Perdita.
The Wind mare was aware that the Shifter was still hanging around; it seemed like she wasn't ready to leave yet, for one reason or another. It didn't really bother Alienore, particularly since the Shifter had come with the Wind and her bear to collect more Charms, and seemed happy to carry any they'd collected.
Today, Alienore didn't have anything planned. Well, that wasn't strictly correct; sleeping in had seemed a viable option. Except that it hadn't wound up happening. Not that she particularly minded, Alienore enjoyed a good morning, but it would have been nice to just relax. At least it was still doable, and more sleep could always happen later. Summer afternoons like the ones that had descended upon the Kawani lands were always viable options for naps.
In the meantime, she made her way down to the nearby river. Rinsing off the dirt of the road sounded really appealing; the Wind had been too tired to do so last night. Seren was still sleeping, albeit lightly; the bear would come quickly if there was trouble, but if there wasn't, Seren would be happy to stay asleep. It would be a different conversation during salmon spawning season, but not at this time. A nice, relaxing swim, followed by breakfast, and then perhaps some more sleep.
Unfortunately, that was not a plan that was going to come to fruition, although for very good reasons.
Ailbhe was still napping, however, enjoying the early summer weather. Even so long after making it home, finally having two beautiful little fillies with her beloved, and settling into the new life Karloff had built, Ailbhe preferred to stay nestled in their hollow for as long as she could, particularly if Karloff was there. On some level, the Cheshire still needed the comfort of her beloved mate to feel like she was home, after the adventures she'd had away from home.
Besides, getting up meant possibly interacting with the Shifter who'd inadvertently sent her on that adventure to begin with. The Shifter was Charmed now, and extremely apologetic for what happened, even seemed terrified of making Ailbhe in any way uncomfortable. It was...honestly a bit unsettling, seeing her attacker around, and unsettling to know that said attacker was more scared of upsetting the Cheshire than the Cheshire was at all scared of the Shifter.
Hence why Ailbhe preferred to spend more time asleep or gathering resources for the herd. Less complicated that way. But, even as she dozed, Ailbhe kept an ear open on the off-chance any help was needed at this early hour.
Kendra, unlike her mother, was up rather earlier. She had wanted to get some exercise, and mornings always felt good for exercising and perhaps some practice sparring. Twitching her tail, she prepared to start a little agility course she'd set for herself. She was decent at defending herself, but not as good at running or quickly getting over or around obstacles, and it bothered the young Cheshire a bit. Fallen logs had been hauled into convenient positions around the territory, among other bric-a-brac that did passable work for giving Kendra an adequate challenge. She smiled, pure red eyes almost glowing as she took a deep breath.
Sometime soon, she'd have to adjust the course, start making it more difficult, less predictable. Predictability was probably obscuring the advantages of practice at this point. Probably not today, though. The plan was to do one or two laps, bathe in the river, and then go on a more stately patrol. A patrol wasn't all that scintillating an activity, but, in the face of not very much action on a daily basis, patrol, sparring, and her obstacle course were what she generally had in terms of excitement.
Fortunately, or unfortunately, for her, excitement was coming her way, about midway through her morning run. She skidded to a halt, blinking in surprise. Strangers. At least one of them a Shifter. And it sounded like unhappiness was involved.
She should probably get help, and not try to fix this on her own. What she wouldn't give for a familiar right now, like her father's raccoon, or her mother's bunny, or Alienore's bear. Send the familiar for help while she tried to figure out what was going on. Probably best to try to find out what was going on, then run for help.
"Halt! What's going on?" she called out firmly, hoping they'd listen. If it was safe to. Though, admittedly, Kendra was honestly not entirely certain what to do under the circumstances.
Perdita probably should have left the herd ages ago. It wasn't like her to stick around. Well. Probably wasn't like her. Life without the creature was still a learning experience. At any rate, the Shifter had stayed to find a way to repay the debt she owed Alienore, the kind Wind who'd changed her life. Even if Alienore really hadn't been thinking that far ahead when she'd helped Perdita. It still meant more to Perdita than she could articulate to have received such a powerful gift.
Dead fish hadn't been on the table, but offering to help the Wind on her journeys beyond the herd seemed to be some small use. Or would, until Alienore decided to gently persuade Perdita to try moving on with the rest of her life. It hadn't happened yet, and, in the meantime, Perdita was shadowing her savior as much as she felt she could get away with.
This morning, however, Perdita was reasonably certain that Alienore had no real need of the Shifter's assistance, and, thus, Perdita was doing some fishing. She had long since co-opted a large basket to collect fish for the rest of the herd. Alienore and some of the other members might be purely herbivorous, but others liked fish just fine, and Perdita was making an effort to try to figure out if she could excuse her prolonged presence in the herd by offering to catch and preserve fish for both herd members, and any visiting Shifters, since the herd seemed open to helping other Shifters as Alienore had helped Perdita. The next trick would be figuring out how best to preserve fish without a method of creating fire, or having a massive collection of salt that she could use to salt the fish. Drying in the sun while aggressively chasing off all other hungry wildlife was probably her best bet, though it'd be easier if she had some kind of rack to dry them on that random wildlife couldn't get at.
In the meantime, though, she needed to be able to catch enough fish to be able to properly worry about preservation methodologies. While she was good at fishing, what Perdita wanted to do was going to mean catching more fish than she usually did. And making it clear to Karloff's mate Ailbhe that Perdita was incredibly sorry for the trouble she'd caused when she first ran across Ailbhe. The Shifter knew she made the "Cheshire" nervous, but she had no idea how to make it stop.
Nyx Queen of Darkness
Surprising suggestion here: I'm cool with Kendra having received her facial scars during this incident, if it does happen. Otherwise, I can play it off as something that happens before or after this RP. Wanting to make clear that I'm good with a little accidental facial scarring on a pony that already has facial scarring (but no record of how it happened!)!
