She follows slowly, making sure her proximity is welcome before drawing too close.

She doesn't object, at least.

She leads Emi to her wagon, gently pats the side of it, and then ducks underneath.

She peers under the wagon.

It's dark, and she wishes she hadn't blown her single-use-per-day of magical illumination just a minute ago, but she can make out the gist of what's going on down there.

"That's pretty clever." She crawls under the wagon on hands and knees. "Can't imagine it's as comfortable as a proper bedroll laid out on stable ground though?"

There's a noncommittal chirp from the deeper shadow of the hammock.

"There'd be room in my wagon for you, if you'd like that. Nice solid door between me and the outside." She pauses awkwardly, then giggles and adds in an unconvincing attempt at mirth: "being royalty has its privileges, I guess?"

This time, the response is a frustrated huff.

"Okay. It was just an offer. You can stay here if you prefer. I can't--I'm not..." Not your parent. Emi feels so out of her depth right now. "It's your decision to make. Thank you for trusting me."

Yeah, okay.

She crawls back out of the hammock and gives Emi a careful hug.

Emi tries not to get freaked out by this diminuative act of physical contact, but fails to.

She jerks back, hitting her head on the underside of the wagon as she does so.

"Oh." Shit. What is wrong with her? "Sorry!"

Oops. "Sorry," she repeats back.

"You didn't do anything wrong. I just, uh... I don't like being touched?"

"Mmm," she acknowledges.

"Okay, so, please come to me if you need anything." She backs the rest of the way out from under the wagon and sits up. "And please let me know if anything changes? Or if anyone does something, or says something, that worries you? Do you think you could do that?"

She emerges from under the wagon too, looking more than a little worried about the woman. She nods, though, when she finishes speaking.

"Thank you."

Emi tries to think if there's anything else she can do, here.

"Would you like to meet someone else I trust, here? So that you don't have to rely on just me? I won't always be around, and..."

She glances out into the darkness beyond the campground, where Kosh is currently out patrolling the perimeter with his dwarf friend, and shivers.

Yeah, okay. She nods.

Early the next afternoon, the caravan stops early at the edge of the arid expanse. A stream runs alongside the area where they strike camp: its waters are a little dire, full of jagged rocks and frothing rapids, but they're a welcome change of pace after all the endless dry that came before.

Emi stops by the wagon where the girl's set up her daytime hiding place, and waits a polite distance away.

She doesn't immediately conclude that they've stopped for the day, and when she does, she exits from the side of the wagon that doesn't have an unidentified person watching it. But she turns up pretty quickly after that, looking around curiously.

She's staring out over the roaring stream when the girl comes upon her.

Perhaps sizing up the woodlands on the far side of it? Considering what new animal subjects she might find surrounding her, there?

Maybe.

She chirps a greeting before getting too close.

"Oh. G'morning?" She isn't sure whether to say that, or good afternoon, given the girl likely just woke up. Also, she isn't sure if her tiny and resourceful companion stashes rations away to eat during the daytime so it's possible she hasn't eaten since the wagons set off twelve hours ago. "Would you like something to eat, before we go meet my friend?"

She nods.

(She doesn't; she has trouble eating neatly enough to not end up with a crumb- and subsequently pest-filled bed even when she's not trying to do it in a swaying hammock.)

Well Emi can supply food, then!

(It's the same variety of dry scraps the nomads have been eating for most of the past week, but while not especially tasty it's adequately nourishing)

It's food that she doesn't have to steal; she's not picky.

Soon enough, she's ready to go.

Emi leads the way back to the front of the caravan where she last saw her other friend.