[Voice/Action]

[flickerflash]

[This is a very comfy forest, really.  The sunlight's warm, and Katie curls up near a fallen branch and near faceplants into a patch of new spring flowers and waits for Snow White to maybe come dancing through her dreams, or Bambi, or maybe a couple rebel fighters on an awesome speeder bike chase that she can help with.  Ewoks, even.  Look, it's her dream, okay.   She'll will one of these things into existence if she can manage it.

It takes her a long while to realise she's not actually sleeping, and that's ... a little concerning.  Because to her knowledge she doesn't make a habit of going to sleep anywhere other than her very cozy bed, and she doesn't remember why she'd be out here. 

Sleepwalking.  All the way out here?  Kidnapped.  Her parents aren't rich.  By aliens.  That's a little better, but still kind of worrying.  There's a distinct level of nervous settling over her now because she's entirely alone in the middle of a place she doesn't recognise, and she's just not adventurous enough to want to be out here without any obvious way of getting home.

It's not her fault, is it?   She can't get into trouble if it's not her fault.  (Is today a school day?)

It's when she staggers upright, still yawning, that her foot catches on the edge of something and she thumps back down to earth with a startled sound, turning to glare at whatever she'd touched (why are her feet bare?), and stares at the journal lying in the grass with her name stencilled on the front.  And Katie reaches for it, because if it has her name maybe it has an explanation, and... the sight of it touches off muzzy memories of its own.  Familiar, somehow.

So she opens it.

Oh.  She knows what this is.]

[Voice]

...hello?

Comments

[flickerflash]

That's right. Like cloud shapes!

[An excellent subject for school.]

[ayu_nee]

That's quite true. And do they teach you about plants at the school? I'm afraid my education was never quite so formal, so I've no idea what your curriculum would be.

[flickerflash]

I don't remember. [She ponders this.] But I think that would be interesting. There's lots of fun plants in the world. Have you ever heard of venus fly traps?

[ayu_nee]

No, I don't believe I have. What are they?

[flickerflash]

They've got these flowers kind of like mouths with little teeth along them, and they're full of stuff flies like to eat! And when a fly comes down to investigate, it gets stuck in there and the mouth snaps shut. [She demonstrates with her fingers and thumb like a puppet.] Om nom nom.

[ayu_nee]

...you aren't just teasing me, are you?

[That does sound quite interesting, but at the same time— odd.]

[flickerflash]

No! [But she gives a wide smile, proud that she surprised someone with creepy plant knowledge.] We learned about it in school! Though it doesn't really grow where I live, but I'd like to go see some some day. I bet they grow really big.

[ayu_nee]

That sounds like a very peculiar sort of plant. Where do they grow?

[flickerflash]

They're--

[...oh. She's not very sure, actually. She was too busy being fascinated by the idea of carnivorous plants. Hmm.]

--um. Anywhere it's not cold enough to snow in winter. They don't like the cold. [She remembers that part, anyway.]

[ayu_nee]

Oh, well. Perhaps that's why I've never seen one, then.

[flickerflash]

Would you like to? I bet I could find a picture of one. ...or I could draw one!

[ayu_nee]

I'd like to see that. It just doesn't seem like the kind of plant that could possibly exist.

[flickerflash]

I want to see one. I bet they're all in the jungle or something. They have piranhas there too, yuo know. [She is drawing a quick sketch of a venus fly trap into her journal. Which would be decent artwork, if she weren't overexaggerating the mouth part and giving it teeth. >.>]

[ayu_nee]

[That really is most peculiar-looking, and it doesn't do much to reassure Ayumu that the girl isn't making it up. Still, she has no reason not to play along, even if it isn't real.]

A pira— what?

[flickerflash]

You don't know about piranhas? [OH MAN LET HER TELL YOU THEY'RE AWESOME Katie is such a well-balanced child. >>] They're fish! And they live in the Amazon, and they can strip a cow with their teeth in seven seconds!

[Memorised fact. Also, they keep turning up in Tarzan.]

[ayu_nee]

[First plants that eat bugs, now fish that eat cows. This is... peculiar.]

Why would the cow be in the... the "Amazon"? Is that a sea?

[flickerflash]

No no, it's a river! In South America. I think.... [Could be South Africa. It's south something!] It's meant to be the mightiest river in the world! And I think they tested it by giving them a cow to eat.

[...]

I think the cow was dead first.

[ayu_nee]

...how very... interesting.

I'm afraid I'd never left Japan until I came here, so I never encountered any of these odd creatures.

[flickerflash]

You should one day. I'm going to see the world when I grow up. Um, after I become a policeman anyway. What kind of animals do you have in Japan? Something has to be odd.

[ayu_nee]

Oh, well— I can't think of anything like that. No plants that eat things or cow-eating fish, or even fish-eating cows.

[flickerflash]

Oh.

You must be very bored.

[ayu_nee]

Not really, no.

And I'm likely safer while walking around the countryside and wading across rivers, as well.

[flickerflash]

Oh. Well, that makes sense. I didn't think about that.

I think I'm pretty safe at home, too. I've never seen any animals that attack people, anyway.

[ayu_nee]

I would say that that isn't a bad thing, myself.