Simurgh had never really been fond of the loudness of birds, but in this land there seemed to be their main base. There were so many birds that their noise hurt her ears! The chimeric child wrinkled her nose as she stepped closer into the nest of these beasts. The ground was wet, so much so in places it made her paws sink into the mud. All Simurgh could think about was how much El would refuse to come here. Even Simurgh was starting to second guess exploration here the more her legs started to sink into the mud. A growl of frustration left her lips. She was not going to be held back! Bounding forward, Simurgh sent sprays of mud with each lunge. But she was making headway into the wetlands, heading for a big tree that many of the birds were nesting in.

Chimera had been doing a patrol of the Estuary when his pale pink eye spied Simurgh thumping angrily through the mud. It was rather amusing to see the trouble that the pup was having. If she had just stopped to take a breath, maybe she would have had better luck of staying clean. Well, that's what her father was for.

Long legs brought the big brute up beside the girl and he reached down, plucking her off of the muddy ground carefully. Adjusting his path slightly, Chimera deposited the girl on much drier land. Leaning down so that he was closer to her level, Chi used one big, black-toed paw to indicate a raised path in the swampy landscape. "If you stick to higher ground, you'll be able to travel more easily and conserve your energy for the hunt ahead."

The black and white behemoth hunkered down in the long grass, his gaze reaching out towards the massive tree at the center of the land, around which many birds congregated. "What do you see, Sim? Tell me about our prey and how you think we should catch it." He wasn't the type to simply do. Chimera wanted his children to learn. He wanted them to be intelligent and capable. He didn't want to worry when they were out of his line of sight.

"Chimera Klein"

While Simurgh didn’t mind getting dirty, the task of getting through the mud was more effort than she had anticipated. Still, the chimeric child would not allow that setback to hold her back! She drew in a breath, preparing for another lunge, when noise approaching her caused her ears to swivel. Head turned to find her father approaching and Simurgh beamed, tail wagging in greeting. She was scooped up, and moved to drier land that she had admittedly overlooked. Well, that was good! She looked down at the earth, realizing that she had missed the path, not that she was bothered by this fact. Her daddy had come to help her realize it, after all! Her head would lift back to the man, her grin widening as he leaned down closer to her level.

Motioning with one of his paws, he pointed out the raised path throughout the territory they were in. Sim followed his motion with her eyes, bi-colored eyes lighting up at seeing that the path of dryness continued. “Ohh~” The girl was pleased by this. This would make it much easier to not only get to the birds but attempt to get one! Her father knew her desires all too well, and mischief glinted in her eyes as she looked back at him. She wanted one of those birds, and her daddy would teach her how she could get one!

Simurgh would look back out toward the tree, ears pricked forward as she observed what lay before her. “I see lots of birds, a number of them with long legs to help them walk through the swamp and not get their feathers dirty.” She tilted her head to the side, continuing to read the land. “There are some adults that are in the water. The big white ones with the black just above their beaks can be mean and aggressive, so they would be bad targets for a hunt right now.” She didn’t have experience catching birds yet or dealing with prey that could fight back yet. Plus the birds were pretty big and she was only half a year old.

Simurgh wrinkled her nose, continuing to observe and think.

“There are some smaller, young birds though. I’d want to avoid the ones near the aggressive-y birds, but those yellow and black ones-” She motioned with a paw. “I think those would be good! They’re not quite babies, but kind of in between that and being an adult. Still getting all their adult feathers. Plus the adults are not that big, so I don’t think I’d have trouble fighting them off if I had to.” She had picked out some juvenile ducks. But now more about the prey itself.

“Birds can fly, so I need to be careful not to startle them… and um… maybe lure them into pouncing range? When I was observing fish, Auntie Venom told me about how using their favorite food can make them come out.” And that was where the problem lay. “...but what is a bird’s favorite food, dad?” And was she even on the right track with how to hunt them?

"Speech," 'Thought.'