He puts her down and takes a step back, looking only mildly alarmed by the iron knife but still mostly exhilarated, and then he takes another step back to grab the egg—which is now about half the size of a watermelon—oh, they're handspan-sized again, when did that happen—" I told you you were one of the fun ones!" he says, brightly.

She snorts and delicately puts her knife back in its place, then slides down to the ground to giggle with her rapidly fading adrenaline.

"I guess you did, yeah! Oh, oh those poor ants, now I feel bad, I hope their queen's okay from the cave in. That I. Caused."

He shrugs and flops down to the ground, too. "They're just ants. And I," he says, holding the egg high, "got treasure."

"Excuse me, we got treasure, because I covered your escape, half of that egg is mine." Pause. "I have no idea what to do with an ant egg."

"I'm sure we can make it magical somehow. It would not be a proper fairy adventure if we couldn't make our first bit of treasure magical."

Snort. "Okay. Makes about as much sense as anything else here." She flops down on her back to attempt to catch her breath and try to... absorb... all of that. Now that she's not in the middle of a crisis.

"Are you going to do that every time I get distracted asking questions?" she wonders, after some reflection.

"I don't think we are going to visit any more anthills tonight," he replies speculatively. "We still have some rabbits to dance with."

"I meant more in a general sense, instead of specifically stealing from ants. It wouldn't be as fun the second time around anyway, you'd know what I'd do."

"It would probably not work a second time anyway." He peers at her. "I should have something to call you. I think I'll call you Herb."

"No, pick something more interesting, 'herb' is a general blanket description, not a referral to something specific."

He pauses to ponder it for a while longer, then goes for "Knife."

"Pass, makes me sound like a murderer, no thank you."

"Hmm." He pauses, realises this is going to be his third suggestion, so it has to be right. He chews on his bottom lip, folds his arms, and tilts his head, looking around... and then his eyes stop on a flower, its golden-orange petals above them. Then his eyes are drawn to Evette herself again and he smiles. "Calendula," he says.

It's right.

"... The marigold?" she says, placing the name after a pause. "Good for infections, swelling, preventing muscle spasms, also bright orange and pretty..." Her mouth twitches. "All right, I'll take it."

"And I think I know how to make this ant egg magical," he adds, walking over to the marigold he saw. He starts climbing it one-handed, the other hand holding the egg.

She sits up, tilting her head and watching.

... Partially out of curiosity, but partially because he. Is certainly still just in a leaf loincloth, isn't he.

He certainly is! And she certainly has a view from where she is.

He quickly reaches the top and just places the egg there, in the center of the flower, then unceremoniously hops back down to the ground. "We'll pick it back up in the morning," he declares.

"Okay. So you just kind of play it by ear, or did you learn all of this apprenticed to an elder fairy, who told you the ancient fae secrets of ant eggs and marigolds..?" she teases.

"Yes. Now let's go find some rabbits."

She giggles, then offers her hand so he can help her get up. She's too damn tired to bother attempting to stand on her own, since he's gone to all of the trouble of already doing it.

He pulls her up to her feet easily—and maybe she's a bit too close for comfort, or maybe she's just close enough, as he lingers there, holding her hand and looking into her eyes with an intense look—then lets go, picks a random direction, and saunters off in it.

Adventures are fun.

She chuckles softly to herself, then follows after him.

Every now and then the fairy climbs more flowers to try to look for rabbit burrows. Starlight and moonlight continue to behave weirdly, and she can see more than she by rights should, but this is nothing if not convenient for rabbit-hunting.

Evette isn't particularly skilled at rabbit hunting, so instead she just follows along after her fairy adventure buddy, and enjoys the strange unearthly beauty of the giant moonlit world around her. Being this small is interesting.

"There!" her fairy adventure buddy eventually exclaims from atop a flower, before he drops back down and darts away.