Snippet #2666837

Now away from the crowd that had gathered almost instantly around Teddy, Akira was walking in the direction she had heard Lalita's voice. The kitsune's ears twitched as she heard her friend slithering up to greet her, and braced herself for impact. The last time when she failed to do so resulted in getting knocked to the ground by accident. Sure enough, Lalita was within sight before long, making a beeline straight for Akira and beaming like the sun.

"Of course I wouldn't forget to visit, Lalita," she said, happily returning the embrace. Akira got on well with the nagini, enjoying her friendly demeanour and their conversations together on what would be otherwise rather lonely treks through the forest. The hugs didn't go unappreciated too.

"Interesting that you should ask what I've been up to," the kitsune continued. "Only just now a certain someone has arrived in the forest. From the humans' side, I might add." Akira briefly looked back in the direction she had come from. She saw Teddy take a couple steps to follow her just before she left, but it would take some doing to slip away from that many people unnoticed. Perhaps if an argument had struck up among them, he might be able to make a break for freedom while they were distracted. "Last I saw, he was rather tied up in a meeting, if you could call it that. Hopefully he'll drop in for a chat later; there are a few things I'd like to discuss with him in private. Besides, the poor thing doesn't seem to like crowds."