Though it'd been a long while since Kai had ventured south from the far more familiar north, he felt a trip closer toward the central area of Boreas was long overdo. At least until winter came back in full-force; then, heading further north was a given for him. He'd been to this place once before, and so returning felt only natural, climbing the verdant rolling hills with ease. By the time he navigated to the peak of one of the taller hills, he felt a pleasant ache in his limbs that left him feeling invigorated.

It was a beautiful day, thus far, and Kai was grateful. The sun stood at its peak overhead, casting pleasant rays of warmth down on the earth. In the distance he spotted a herd of buffalo grazing, a thing that seemed like commonplace here. As much as he enjoyed the thought of hunting one of them down, he knew he'd be hard-pressed to find enough wolves to help him. So for now he'd enjoy the sight, eventually moving to recline to his stomach for a brief rest before he decided where to go next.

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Now that Daelos had the chance to take stock of what herbs she had after the incident with saving the man when they first arrived to Mount Vulcan, she quickly realized she had pretty much nothing helpful left. There were a few more obscure herbs left over and of course the motherwort was left over, but that was really only needed every once in a while. She would hate to run into another dire situation and not be prepared for it so she set out to find some. She had a place in mind, but she wasn't sure how it would be in autumn. She had only been there during the warmer months so she had to hope that it was still a good source of herbs. She walked through the knolls at a fairly leisurely pace, keeping her nose to the ground and eyes keen for anything of use. Of course she gave the herd of buffalo plenty of space as she passed them. The last thing she wanted was to get caught in a stampede! While she was trying to find scents of lavender and marigold, she ended up catching the scent of a male on the breeze instead. She paused her steps for a moment and lifted her head to look around for the source. She couldn't see anyone from where she was in the valley between two of the larger hills, but she knew someone must either be near here or had at least been very recently. She started up one of the more steep hills purely out of curiosity. It was a lovely day out and she had to imagine that being out in the soft grasses again after being in the mountains for a few days was doing wonders for her mood. She eventually reached the top and easily spotted the gray-hued man in question that seemed to be relaxing in the sun. Daelos happened to come up the side of the hill that he was facing so when she crested the top she looking right at his red-marked face only a few feet away. "Oh! Hello there," she said with a bit of surprise. "Talk" "You" Think

Kai was content to simply rest there for a long while, atop the small hill he'd found himself on. He had nothing pressing to do today, nor in the near future, though if he was being honest with himself he was finding himself missing his family as of late. Not that he was used to spending much time with them, not really, but the brief encounter he'd had with Kanja had been enjoyable and he did miss his father's company quite a bit. Not spending much time around kindred spirits was slightly disheartening, but Kai wouldn't dwell on it for too long.

Especially not when he caught sight of a stranger approaching, either, which was a welcome distraction. Briefly he'd laid his head on his paws, but his eyes only fluttered closed for a few moments before he looked up to see a disturbance up ahead, a sliver of grey fur briefly appearing somewhere near the base of the hill before disappearing - apparently climbing the hill, too. Steadily he heard the pawsteps increase in volume before she appeared nearly right in front of him. Instead of looking surprised, he merely grinned at her, tail slapping against the ground.

"Well hello there to you, too," the oversized male's voice boomed - his voice deep, and only faintly tinged with that northern accent passed on to him by his father. Lack of use of his family's native tongue had dulled the accent slightly, but a hint of it remained even still out of habit.  "What brings you up here, beautiful? Hoping to find a good spot to sunbathe too?" Kai asked conversationally, finally lifting himself to sit on his hindquarters and look at her properly.

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She was happy to see that the stranger seemed to be a friendly face. It wasn't like she was a fantastic fighter so if she had happened to pop in on someone less welcoming it could have ended badly. It was a note that she had to take for herself to be more careful about these kinds of things. In the mean time, it was nice to have someone to chat with since she hadn't let herself get out and socialize in what felt like a very long time. She smiled and made her way up to the crest of he hill where he was sitting, her ears perking forward to listen. His voice seemed so deep, but warm at the same time. His subtle compliment made her smile widen a bit and she had to force herself not to grow shy at the sentiment. "Well, sunbathing does sound nice," she agreed as she settled down on her haunches across from him and her tail brushed gently agains the ground behind her. She realized from this angle just how much taller than her he was and it made her wonder if most men around here were giants. Her brothers and father were both on the larger side as well. She wouldn't consider herself tiny by any means, but it felt like it next to him. "Actually, I was out looking for herbs to restock my collection with... But now is as good a time as any to take a break." She didn't want it to sound like he was interrupting anything important since she could look for herbs any time. "I'm Daelos, it's nice to meet you." "Talk" "You" Think

What a nice surprise! His own smile was mirrored by the stranger, and Kai felt his spirits lift at the sudden positive company. At least if he had nothing else to do, chatting with a friendly face wouldn't at all be unwelcome. As Kai pulled himself upright, he stretched his forelimbs and held back a short yawn. It truly was a beautiful day, and already he had begun to relax as he lay there basking in the sunlight - so it wasn't all that surprising that he'd started to get a bit sleepy in the process. The arrival of a stranger, though, was enough to perk him up slightly.

"Doesn't it?" He shot a rhetorical question back at her comment about sunbathing sounded nice, his already-wide grin broadening. Might as well enjoy the sunshine while it was still here - winter was surprisingly close already, and soon the sun would be concealed more often than not.  "Collecting herbs, eh?" It was a craft he knew almost nothing about, though both Asgeira and Jouko had seemed quite fond of it.. so he supposed it had its uses, even if he wasn't aware of most of them.  "If you'd like, I'd be happy to help you. Or, uh, attempt to help?" He corrected himself quickly, shrugging his shoulders after a moment with a sheepish laugh. "I'd probably just get in your way, but it might be fun to watch me try." Kai chuckled, amused at the thought. There were a pawful of things he could say he was good at, but identifying and collecting plants was quite easily not in that group of things.  "It's a pleasure, Daelos. My name's Kai Jarvela." His ears twitched, the pleasure obvious in his red stare.

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She was a little surprised when Kai offered to help her in her search - especially once he emphasized how little he knew about the herbs she was looking for. She laughed lightly at the idea of his comical attempt at searching for herbs. Whether he thought he would be in the way or not she certainly appreciated the offer. The times when she had gotten to search for herbs with her mother were always much more enjoyable than when she tried to look for them herself. "Well, Kai, I'll take you up on that offer either way." Now that they were back on a topic that she was familiar with she felt much more at ease. She got to her paws again and turned her gaze down the hillside. "Something that should be pretty plentiful around here is yarrow... It looks like a cluster of little white flowers so it should be pretty easy to spot." She began to make her way down the hill again with the assumption that he would follow her, heading down the oposite side from where she came. "Or another one we can look for is marigold. It's a bright orange and red flower." She mostly relied on smell to find herbs and flowers usually, but colors were much easier to explain that smells. "If nothing else maybe you can help me carry them," she offered with a slightly teasing grin as she glanced back at him over her shoulder for a moment. Her tail wagged gently behind her as she giggled and looked back forward again with her eyes peeled for flowers. "Talk" "You" Think

He was pleased that she looked amused at his offer. Perhaps he wouldn't be such a good herb hunting partner, but it didn't hurt to try, now did it? He beamed wildly at her acceptance, tail waving.  "Perfect! Let's get going then; don't worry about me, I can keep up." His quip was playful, fairly sure she wouldn't be moving quickly enough to leave him behind. He didn't know much about herb searching but figured it was somewhat important to try to be careful and scope out your surroundings - which was exactly what Daelos started to do.

"Okay, little white flowers," he repeated, squinting his eyes and padding after her. Kai appreciated the company, even if he'd rather being just exploring without worrying about the plants around him. Oh well, though; there was a first time for everything, right?  "Little white flowers and orange and red flowers." Yeah, he was going to be absolutely hopeless at this. Carrying would definitely suit his skillset better. Trying not to ruminate too much on his shortcomings, he'd follow her, head swinging from left to right as he searched his surroundings carefully.

Somewhere in the distance he saw a splash of color against the verdant grass, and quickly diverted his path toward what seemed like a cluster of flowers. Maybe those marigolds she'd described? They were definitely not marigolds, but a small patch of tulips of various color - including red and orange, but also yellow and pink - but Kai didn't know the difference. "Daelos! Täällä! I think I found some!" His excitement was genuine, his chest soaring with pride over his discovering - he weirdly hope that he'd impress her with his luck, naive to the fact that he wasn't looking at marigolds at all.

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Daelos was genuinely amused and touched by how Kai seemed to take a real interest in trying to find the flowers she was searching for. She had a small smile permanently on her lips as she continued to walk around the knolls. She tended to search for herbs more by smell than by sight these days. Sometimes the more brightly colored flowers she could spot from farther away, but she knew their smell by heart so she generally used that tool more often than not. Since she had Kai to be her eyes she kept to head down close to the ground while she continued her hunt for the elusive herbs. This late in the season she would he happy if she found anything at all to take back with her, but either way her new hunting partner was making this much more enjoyable than it would have been otherwise. His call over to her made her head pop up and she turned to look over his direction curiously. Well, maybe her luck wasn't so bad after all! "Really?! Let me see!" she called back as she trotted over to where he was standing. She quickly noticed the flowers in question and couldn't help the grin that spread over her face as she giggled in amusement. Obviously she didn't expect him to no any better and to be completely fair these flowers did more or less match the description she had given him. If anything she thought it was simply adorable. "Well, I hate to break it to you, but what you have here are tulips. Very, very pretty, but not really helpful for healing." Her tail still wagged gently behind her all the same. "Marigolds are more... wrinkly. They have waaaaay more petals than tulips do and they're more... fluffy in a way." She laughed at her own descriptions with a shrug. "I don't know! They're hard to describe!" "Talk" "You" Think

As selfish as Kai could be - perhaps more than most wolves, to be honest - he couldn't help but get joy out of seeing Daelos entertained by him. Especially once he was pretty damn sure he'd found the exact flower she was looking for. He was a natural at this, he had to be! While he'd just been ruminating over how terrible of an herbalist he was, he suddenly had a newfound eagerness for the subject, and he waited anxious for Daelos to join him and watch him gloat at his amazing find.

But she didn't respond the way he expected, sounding excited at first, but her joy slowly morphed into amusement as she got closer. Kai furrowed his brows in slight frustration as he realized she was laughing at him. Of course, it was all in good fun, but for a wolf so confident his ego was remarkably fragile, especially when it came to victories achieved for the purpose of impressing pretty women. He visibly deflated, his shoulders sagging and his brows furrowing slightly. "Hey, I tried!" Kai insisted firmly, though his frustration was more playful than anything, and that much was obvious by the mischievous glimmer in his eyes.

She tried to better explain how marigolds were different than these tulips, and he nodded. The petals were more wrinkly, and there were more of them. Got it. He supposed describing flowers wasn't the easiest thing, but it was made easier by comparing it to another different one. He tried to envision the differences, but it was harder than he expected. Yeah, even as he eyed these not-marigolds with that slight frown still tugging at the corners of his mouth. After a moment he was grinning again, chuckling softly at Daelos' distraught explanation. "Alright, let's move along. Perhaps with this newfound information I'll be of more use to you now!"

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