Now away from the crowd that had gathered almost instantly around Teddy, Akira was walking in the direction she had heard Lalita's voice. The kitsune's ears twitched as she heard her friend slithering up to greet her, and braced herself for impact. The last time when she failed to do so resulted in getting knocked to the ground by accident. Sure enough, Lalita was within sight before long, making a beeline straight for Akira and beaming like the sun.

"Of course I wouldn't forget to visit, Lalita," she said, happily returning the embrace. Akira got on well with the nagini, enjoying her friendly demeanour and their conversations together on what would be otherwise rather lonely treks through the forest. The hugs didn't go unappreciated too.

"Interesting that you should ask what I've been up to," the kitsune continued. "Only just now a certain someone has arrived in the forest. From the humans' side, I might add." Akira briefly looked back in the direction she had come from. She saw Teddy take a couple steps to follow her just before she left, but it would take some doing to slip away from that many people unnoticed. Perhaps if an argument had struck up among them, he might be able to make a break for freedom while they were distracted. "Last I saw, he was rather tied up in a meeting, if you could call it that. Hopefully he'll drop in for a chat later; there are a few things I'd like to discuss with him in private. Besides, the poor thing doesn't seem to like crowds."

The young Draconian turned his head back to Stride as she spoke and showed him the badge. His lip twitched gently as he huffed and turned his head away, acknowledging her authority now, though doing so reluctantly. And it then came to the order of clearing out. He blinked, his predatory eyes glancing over at Stride to see if she was kidding. But alas, he should know better. She wasn't.

"We shall meet again in due time, Monsieur Teddy Bear~" he said, giving an over dramatic bow again before springing himself into the trees and taking off towards his home.

((OOC: Writers block sucks....plus the site isn't telling me when people post even if I'm tagged in it. Strange.))

The nagini beamed happily at the returned hug, finally releasing Akira so she could move about properly. The kitsune's voice sounded as lovely and amiable as ever- her smile further encouraging Lalita that the friendship was mutual and both parties were enjoying the company. Lalita even flushed momentarily in delight upon hearing the kitsune assure that she hadn't forgotten about her.

The serpentine woman perked up even more if possible, a look of amazement in her eyes and manifesting in her voice. "A human!? Really?" exclaimed the nagini, slithering back and forth in excitement. She'd never seen a regular human before! Well, at least not as far as she was aware. Fascination bubbling inside, Lalita began to badger her friend with questions, her words coming out quickly in her excitement.

"What did he look like? Was he nice? Did he smell interesting? Where'd he come from? Is it just one human? Is he scary? What was he like?" she asked, practically bouncing around as her curiosity was piqued. Her tail twitched and even her hood flared automatically- eyes dancing with wonder as she awaited every word with rapt attention.

It was only after she stopped speaking that she started noticing the other scents of not-too-far-off living beings. She recognized at least two, but the others she wasn't familiar with.