& all there is to see

otem You'll remember me when the west wind moves upon the fields of barley You can tell the sun in his jealous sky when we walked in fields of gold Otem, while curious in nature, was not particularly observant of her entire surroundings. She found that when she became focused the world around her seemed to dim and fade away, leaving her mind the mental resources it needed to focus on whatever it was which had caught her interest. In this case, it was the decision about whether or not to eat the succulent; thus, Tilney's arrival didn't so much as receive a twitch of her ear. That is, until he spoke. His question caught her off guard, and the young autumn-dappled child felt her body tense all over as she spun around to face the antlered man who had seemingly appeared behind her. "Of course not-" She began to answer, failing to make the connection that the first part of his statement was a warning rather than an actual question. As he concluded, indicating that doing so would be just as foolish as the act she was currently considering, Otem could feel herself wanting to shrink away in embarrassment. But while her inward self might have been introverted and self-conscious, the face she presented to the world was bold and confident. So instead of shirking away from his words, Otem merely nodded. "Oh I know." She began with a smile. "I was just thinking about how the first people here would have found out about it-" Otem paused briefly. All she knew about this plant was that eating it likely did something bad, if this antlered-man's metaphor was apt, so she tried to be as vague as possible as she continued to try and imply that she knew more than she actually did. "-its nasty effects. Someone would have to have tried it, right?" Otem swished her tail, relentlessly trying to appear poised and knowledgable. And so, to try to change the conversation to something she did know about, she pointedly fixed her gaze next to the succulent. "I was trying to see if I could do this-" A small pale shoot began to form next to the mature plant. It poked through the sandy ground, growing a few more pods as it rose a few inches off the ground. It was a rather poor proximity of the actual Malspira plant, but given that she knew nothing about it at all, it was the best that she could do. Smiling and taking a breath, she looked towards Tilney to see if her ploy was working.

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@Tilney I WAS TOTALLY GOING TO SAY YOU SHOULD BE IN THIS THREAD :D :D