"Sure."

Opal leads the party out pf Spooky Woods. 

When they're not stopping to explore, the way back to the stream is much, much faster. Kenet spends the first little while jumping at every rustle, and freezes when a small furry creature springs across their path at one point, but does slowly unwind.

"What do you do for meat around here?"

"Meat? What's that?"

"The flesh of the slain."

"...Why."

"So you get strong so you don't get eaten."

"Getting eaten's not a problem here?"

"And where would you get the flesh? It all crumbles when something dies."

"Really? Huh. Does everything do that? Like, plants, fish, birds?"

"...Don't know, actually. Just seen Mal do it."

"Bina and Laashya might know? If they've managed to catch any minnows by now."

"We should tell them about land-minnows!"

"Yeah. And warn any other kids we meet. Those don't look as bad as they are..."

"So, you just walked up to one?"

"I ran past it while following some voices, and then it looked interesting."

"...It's a snake."

"It was shiny! I'd never seen one before! It looked a lot like a minnow, too, those're harmless."

"Do ya stick your head in the fire, too?"

"...What's a fire?"

Hazel blinks, then looks back at Kenet. "They got it easy here!"

"Sophia said it doesn't stay easy, though. We don't know how hard it gets eventually. But it's nice for now."

"Less pain spiders, I'm happy."

"Hopefully things don't develop in that direction."