AAH this feels like being strapped to a rocket going straight down this is quite a new and scary an unwanted feeling and... she's landed and is looking around. The edible things look tempting... and things look very wild still?

They do! There are a number of birds that startle out of the nearby plantlife at her arrival. They are mostly small and nondescript.

Hmm. That plant there - it has the remains of a wooden cane that it's twined around, that looks deliberately placed to support its early growth. So not totally wild, then.

Birds look cool and tasty! Do they look like they can fly and look pretty?

The little brown birds are mostly nondescript, although some have a few colourful and iridescent patches. They are also very fast.

There is a distinct rustling in the bushes, as of a larger creature approaching, somewhat clumsily.

Cynthia tries to find somewhere to hide. A fast-moving creature is running to her or from something else, and being seen could be dangerous.

The bushes are a little scratchy when pressed into, but a dense bush is probably the best available hiding place. The leaves are soft and there are no thorns, but the branches are sturdy and the bark rough.

Or there's a hazel tree which looks like it could bear weight, but the foliage isn't as dense as the bushes, if whatever it is decides to look up.

It'll be easier to climb up after than to stealthily go down from the trees to hiding near the ground. Bushes it is!

"I swear it was over here!" yells a spectacularly odd creature, crashing through the undergrowth. "The birds all went up, all of a sudden!"

It looks a bit like a bird, and a bit like a lizard, and has a light but strongly woven fabric harness with various fabric pouches and a plastic-ish drinking flask attached. It is also holding a small wood and metal garden hand trowel in its wing-claws.

The voice sounds oddly like bird-song, but resolves into comprehensible words.

It speaks! It's probably not evil! She thinks to herself how she'd want to announce her presence, waiting and observing in the bushes for a while more.

As the first bird creature flails around in circles, a more colourful second one joins them, moving more carefully.

It has a long gardening fork attached shoulder and belt to itself, which it is trying to get in 'hand' but isn't quite dextrous enough to do this and make progress at the same time. 

"Fuck's sake, Talaskai, don't run off! Could be a boar, will eat you, if you corner it!"

This bird creature's voice is harsher and seems to be coming in bursts - maybe it's out of breath?

"I'm not a boar!" Cynthia says, staying hidden. The language is weird and she feel like she probably isn't actually saying things right.

"See! There must be, like, a lost chick in the bush! Don't worry, we're here now!"

"Don't stumble over there, you'll frighten kem off," insists the second. There's something funky about the pronoun - it seems like this language has a person / nonperson distinction rather than a gender one?

The more colourful bird attempts to get the other side of the talking bush, possibly to cut off an escape.

Cynthia slowly pokes her head through the bushes. "I'm too old for that" she says.

Talaskai falls over. It's like ke just stopped paying enough attention to kis body to remain upright. Ke has then totally forgotten what ke was doing other than scrambling upright and trying to rearrange ruffled feathers. The trowel has rolled off into the undergrowth somewhere.

"...we come in peace?" attempts the other one, tentatively. "No, wait, this is our planet, do you come in peace?"

Ke does not finish unhooking the gardening fork but is definitely positioning to do so quickly if needed.

"I come in peace! That's such a funny line."

"I'm sorry, I really haven't read much first contact research! At least we've got the language. I don't think I'd be any good at the language bit. Actually that is kind of weird, you're not making normal sounds.

Uh. Do you have a soul. Was that a weird question? I just was thinking of language and how to refer to you..."

"Nobody has a soul!"

"Okay, I guess that's animal pronouns then?

I think we're meant to exchange names or something. If you have names? I'm Jeeee.

I'm sorry that I'm talking so much, I do that when I'm nervous. What do you need? It can't be comfortable for you in that bush? Not that we've got much out here, we're a little way off from camp, never mind the boat."

Jeeee has stood down from readiness to draw a garden fork and is now twining kis wing claws awkwardly in front of kim.

"I'm Cynthia! And the only things I'll need will be food, water and somewhere to sleep, and even then not for a bit. The bush is not disastrously annoying, really."

Having recovered kis dignity a little, Talaskai pipes up. 

"Where did you come from? Are there others? Do you know what you can eat?"

"This is Talaskai, we're adventuring here to fix up the planting for this season. We have a third, Junilla, back at camp. And three more back on the boat."

"Don't just tell them! What if they're dangerous?"

"I'm from a place called Parent City Corner 6AC2, but I haven't lived there for a few years. There were billions of us, at least there. I can eat... well just about anything any animal can eat I think? I can eat things that look like most of the things growing here."