Itt turned over to his side and pushed his hands into the soft patch of dirt to stand, his head and eyes facing the tigress with his full attention. Even when he finally stood he didn't bother to wipe the clumps of dirt that clung to his skin until she started to hug the tree and climb down. Aaaaaw, she was apologizing! Good, he was glad the two made up. The poor tree had been through a lot over the past ticks. It deserved a hug. He took a step towards her, head cranked upward to see her progress, entirely unaware of the social boundaries that normally would be upheld in such situations. Looking up a woman's skirt at her knickers would cause decent enough punishment for most folk, but Itt was luckily in good enough company that committing a far worse offense wouldn't lead to punishment. At least tradition punishment.
His foot snapped the small branch that had originally caught the woman's attention, Itt peering down, and then towards the limp arm of the tree. He grimaced at the injury, the pale innards of the forest being contrasting heavily with the dark outer skin. He should probably apologize too.
Stepping over the tree, he patted it's wrinkled bark, giving it a moment of gentle embrace. It was a good tree. A good tree with a broken arm but a good tree nonetheless. Continue on growing big guy.
Completing his apology with a squeeze, he let go of the hefty trunk, looking up again to see his assailant's progress. Huh, she hadn't gotten that far, had she? She seemed to be a pretty good climber earlier. Why didn't she just go back to her climbing cat? "Oh, uh," he raised a hand in a gentle point towards a branch she could use as a hand hold and swing down. Though she was distracted and continued to shimmy down the trunk. Itt didn't think the trunk was all that great of a hand hold for climbing, but if that's how she climbed then he guessed he couldn't protest.
Silently pointing to possible branches for support that almost always went ignored, Itt followed her descent until she finally fell the rest of the way down. He visibly winced, his shoulders bunching up at his ears and his face twisting into wrinkles like he ate a lemon. He peeked one eye open. "Ow," he voiced what he empathized inside.
When she stood with energy and ferocity, Itt took a single step back, finally remembering to wipe the dirt off his back and behind.
She was pretty, like a lot of the woman he's seen. She reminded him of this orange bird he had seen once a while back at home. He didn't linger on her nakedness, rather focused on her golden eyes that questioned him without saying a word. Except when she did.
He had been so engrossed in her dominant gaze that he missed the first question, catching the second, which he didn't quite understand. What meant it was a question, but the filler words jumbled the possible interpretation he formulated in his head. Was she asking who he was? That's usually what people asked him when they first met him. But then she said his name right after. Why would she ask him who he was if she already knew his name?
"Yes, What the Petch is That." He smiled a toothy grin, his arms extending some as if presenting himself to her like a parent does to their child's new puppy. "Kelvic, yes, Kelvic, I Kelvic." He nodded. He had been hiding his Kelvic nature from most everyone in the city, due to the warnings from the one who saved him at the lake, but if she was a Kelvic too, and no one was around, then he didn't see any harm in her knowing what he was. Not that it was a hidden secrete at this point. They already knew far more about each other than what most friends know about one another, like how Itt didn't seem to quite stand up straight, and how his hair had green splotches in it, and his teeth were flat and rounded. However she stood tall with a wide, strong stance, and her voice almost boomed, Itt's own cracking and lingering in the air like a stale yawn.
He grinned at her, then at the stain grass and bones behind her that was the little big ear. "What?" He pointed at the remains. What he really meant to say was "How did you come out of know where and kill it so quickly?" but Itt's linguistic skills were limited and very often flat out wrong, so "What" was the closest he could get to what he actually meant.
Before she could open her mouth to speak, there was a rustle in the bushes to their left. Itt turned, brown eyes wide, searching. His frozen body allowed him to quickly be able to spot movement, but there wasn't much moving in the first place. Itt narrowed his eyes, squinting at the bush. With this faux focus, Itt noticed a rather large branch, a bit bigger than his forearm was in the middle of the bush.
The sloth relaxed his shoulder and looked up, finding a splintered stub in the tree above them. He giggled. They were scared of a branch. Heh. Heh. Heh. He turned to beam at the woman, but as stealthily as she had come she was gone.
Itt frowned, glancing around in case there were obvious signs of her. After all, he did still smell her, so she couldn't be that far. Then again, he's never come across an animal quite like her before, so maybe she was already a mile away. Some animals can run pretty fast after all. What type of animal was she, anyway?
Sniffing the air a moment and walking over with heavy feet to where she had stood proud, he looked at the ground and where it had indented when she landed. There were also some clumps of dirt that looked like they had been kicked up that he didn't remember being there before when he was looking at the little big ear. Looked a bit like the ground when he started to run really fast all of a sudden. Maybe she took off the way she had come?
Looking forward for further signs of her presence, he started walking where he assumed she had gone, based on the direction of the muddy clumps and her original hunting position. The scent of her was still strong, and really unique actually, so he continued in as straight of a line as possible until the scent fell short and Itt was left alone. He checked the ground for more mud clumps or footprints, orange hair, or any other signs of her but his eyes couldn't detect such things, and his nose was getting too used to the smell to really pick it up anymore in such small quantities.
Itt frowned once more, rubbing his neck. Maybe she'll come back?
Itt looked up the nearest tree and went over to its burly trunk. Wedging his hand into the crevice of the lowest branch and the trunk, he held on to the tree with his sloth grip, yanking himself up with a quick movement. With the branch now at his hip, he swung his leg to the side, resting it on the branch lengthwise. After that, all he needed to do was roll over, push himself to sit up, and then repeat the process up each branch. He only went a few tiers higher, however, because he wanted to be low enough for her to see him if she came back.
He found a nice sturdy limb to sit on. With his back against the trunk and leaves within his reach to munch on, he waited for her with hope and curiosity.
She never came back.
