Up and down the beach the maiden prances with abandon, her pale curls streaming behind her as she canters, trots, waltzes and pivots, leaving a wild arrangement of divots in the sand. From her lips bubbles a song, without words, the melody slow and cadent, and her hooves keep time beneath her; occasionally, with a wild leap, the thundering wallop of her body reuniting with the earth becomes the rumbling, bass undertones of her imagined sonata, and her humming reaches crescendos with the thrum of her cloven toes below. With cymbal crashes of water splashes and the occasional chime of a seashell being kicked out to sea, the girl is so thoroughly swept away in the creation of her song, that she does not notice Kiada until she is almost upon her, and Khairi’s loud, haunting cry ruptures the perfection of her arranged notes.

Stopping suddenly in a flourish of seafoam and green cloth and the voluminous amounts of hair which the growing doe sports, the innocent one looks upon the burning princess with a smile of recognition, which sweeps away the traces of worry that had struck there most immediately at the sound of the bird of prey’s shriek, and prances towards her. The sea breeze flutters her cloak about her ankles, and as she comes to a stop before the appaloosa girl, her eyes flutter down to the pretty rocks she’s picking up.

"Hey Kiada! You’re getting pretty rocks for the Goddess, too?" she asks, because that was why she’d come to the beach, after all, even though she’d quickly become distracted by the romance of it all; her pouches, none the less, had numerous pretty rocks in them, some blue, others red, but most orange and gray, like normal rocks. She would take those home to put in the garden. The Goddess could have the pretty ones. "I’ve got some already. Wanna see one?"

She asks, with a hopeful giggle, already turning back to fetch the pretty, polished bits of sea glass from her endless pockets. Dropping one on the sand between them, its bright, ruby red color gleaming in the sun, Maude motions over towards where she’d found it with a pearl draped antler.

"I found this one between those big rocks, where the ocean wood is collecting," she says, meaning the places where the sand had been swept away by the sea, and been unable to be replaced, due to the barricades of boulders and logs which kept the beach from refilling these small, rocky deposits with grit, "there’s lots more! I, well, I got a little distracted by the sea, is all."

She smiles, wistfully looking out over it.

"It’s just so beautiful!" proclaims the darling, looking back to the princess with a grin, "don’t you think so, too?"

[ OOC: SUNSHINE CHILD HAS ARRIVED TO CHATTER AT YE ]

For some reason, Maude had the strangest feeling that Kiada did not like her as much as most others seemed to. Perhaps the fact that almost everyone else was kind to her made the aloofness with which the princess greets her more obvious; even Kiada’s half brother, Zubari, who was tempestuous by nature, was someone the tree-girl could rely on for a smile and warm hello. It had taken time, of course, to become close to the boy who had made her pretty leg armor pieces, which she kept safe at home, until her legs were of a proper size to wear them, but it had happened.

Maybe she just needed to spend more time with Kiada, then!

Smiling as the other girl looks at the rock she procures, and agrees, the ginger kissed filly happily moves alongside the fire-backed princess with a happy tune humming from her lips, chirruping "Okay!" a split second before she is in motion. As they arrive upon the pile of driftwood and debris, however, her song is cut short by surprise, as a furry fellow dives into the hunt with them; giggling happily at the sight, she looks up at the sound of an adult’s voice.

What an impressive woman! She promptly thinks to herself, taking in the sight of the strong demi-Goddess, who, though short, was stout as a tree trunk. While she’s certainly imposing, strapped down with sheathed weapons and marked with battle scars, she’s also not entirely frightening either. With youthful awe, then, Maude smiles at the stranger, as the princess answers her question with even more brittleness to her tone than she had greeted the tree-marked maiden with. Glancing over at Kiada with a soft, curious expression that wonders why all of Tembovu’s children are so moody, she nods in agreement.

"Is this your friend? He’s awful cute," she asks, and welcomes Roskuld into their gathering, gesturing back towards where Chico is busy furrowing for stones and polished sea glass, her attentions returning to Kiada when she inquires as to whether or not Maude minds carrying the stones back in her pockets. Bobbing her head quickly with a beaming smile, the girl is glad to be helpful, hoping all the while that, maybe, it might bring them closer together. She doesn’t think at all that, perhaps, she’s simply being used.

"Oh, of course," she agrees, pulling her near cloak-side upwards, to reveal the lined pocket, magically enhanced to have a seemingly endless bottom, "just no sharp ones, okay? They might tear up the lining, and I don’t know anyone who knows how to mend magic pockets."