Hyacinth was truly flummoxed here, he had the very good sense not to enter the bubbling, sticky pit. No, he was an idiot, but not that much of an idiot. But he was hungry and there was a fresh deer just out of his reach and he'd just gotten out of the desert so his energy was pretty sapped and he was nothing if not stubborn and he'd gotten it into his brain that this was a golden opportunity... even if realistically it wasn't. He was layed out on his stomach in front of the pit, his nose almost hanging off the edge but he was a little too worried he might somehow fall in face first and then suffocate to death, his butt in the air. "Talk" "Listen" Think

The tar pits weren't somewhere that Viviane would have ventured for pleasure, but she had volunteered to fetch a supply of tar - good for sealing a lot of things - and had made her way there burdened with clay jars to fill with the gooey stuff. It would undoubtedly make an awful mess with her fur, but better her than someone else in the pack. She'd have to be as careful as possible to avoid getting any on her, that was all.

She slowed from her trot before she got too close to the tar pits, not wanting to risk coming up on one unexpectedly. And then, as she passed her eyes over the pits to choose one that would be easiest to gather from, her gaze brushed over a dark form next to one of the pits, then snapped back to it in surprise. A startled gasp rose in her throat, thinking the wolf had gotten himself stuck, but he seemed all right - and there was something remarkably familiar about him. Her face and ears heated, remembering the wolf she'd met that this one so reminded her of. Even his posture reminded her of the flame-colored wolf on the beach, though instead of a boyish interest in a beached shark this darker, purple-tinged male seemed to be yearning intently for a deer in the tar pit in front of him.

"Please be careful," she couldn't help but speak up in concern, moving closer and biting her lower lip worriedly. He was really close to that tar.

So maybe he was a little too focused on his hunger because he didn't really notice the woman's approach until she spoke, and he had to suppress his body's natural desire to jump, that surely wouldn't have ended well, instead, he tipped his head to the side to take her in, not noticing the tip of his right ear dipping into the tar, at least not yet. He blinked at her for a moment, his mind starting to catch up from his hunger distraction. "Oh- uh, thanks." He said, rising to sitting, his now lightly tar dipped ear flicking and a frown creased his brow as he felt something wrong, but obviously couldn't see it. "I was a little distracted by my hunger." He said, though it was clear from his tone he was now distracted by the feeling on his ear. "Talk" "Listen" Think

She accidentally startled the male with her words, and her heart gave a painful thud of anxiety before he controlled his reaction and didn't jump from the fright she gave him. Oh goodness, she'd never have forgiven herself if she'd caused him to fall in. He tilted his head to look at her, and she managed a faintly sickly smile for him. When he sat up, away from the tar pit, she barely suppressed a sigh of relief, one that quickly turned to a giggle she had to swallow hard to keep down when she saw that his ear had dipped into the tar. The faintly silly air this lent the handsome male made her relax a little, though her ears still quivered shyly. "If you're hungry, maybe we can find a safer way to get you fed," she suggested unsteadily. "I wouldn't want to see you trapped with the deer!" Her wide eyes went back to that tar-dipped ear, and she gestured towards it with one snowy paw. "It almost had you, after all. Can I help you clean that off in apology for startling you?" Her head tilted for her to finally meet his eyes, her own gaze quite apologetic.

Okay, so he wasn't quite so distracted that he couldn't tell the woman was reacting to something. Though her offer to help was not something he was going to turn his nose up at. "I'd very much appreciate any help in that regard." And then, well she addressed the elephant in the room, her paw lifting to gesture towards him, in a rather endearing way, and his eyes grew wide. "Did it?" And his ear flicked again and he felt the weird weight and he realized what must have happened. "Oh! Yes, that would be much appreciated." He shuffled his position, turning to face her head-on and lowering himself so she could easily reach his ear... he could tell even from this distance that he was quite a bit taller than she was. "Talk" "Listen" Think

He accepted her offer for help, even helpfully lowered himself to where she'd be able to reach, so Viviane wasted no time wiggling out from under the slip-on harness that kept the travois with it's burden of jars attached to her. She'd come prepared for the possibility of getting tar on her, so she dug out the jar of water, the bar of soap, and a cloth rag, and carried them together over to the male. "I am really sorry," she apologized again, even as she dipped the rag into the water - warm, luckily, from the desert sun - and rubbed the bar of soap on it until it lathered. Then, being careful not to lean on the male (though the thought was a nice one) she sat up on her hindquarters and used her paws to fold the sudsy cloth over his sticky ear, rubbing briskly. The slippery soap and warmth of the water should get the tar out of his fur well enough, and then she could rinse it.

While she worked at it, she glanced over at him. "My name's Viviane," she said, too polite to let this odd shyness keep her from properly introducing herself. "Viviane Adravendi."

There was something endearing about her, the way she continued to apologize and Hyacinth chuckled, resisting the urge to shake his head as she gingerly cleaned his ear for him. "Don't be. I was the one who put himself right on the edge of... well a death trap." He said, watching her out of the corner of his eye. She was very prepared, and he took a moment to observe the contraption she'd dragged behind her... well that was new. She offered him her name and he smiled. "A pleasure to meet you Viviane, I'm Hyacinth Aracari." Normally he might have offered her a theatrical flourish or some sort of cheeky comment but it felt somehow wrong in this moment. "Talk" "Listen" Think