Here there be thorns. [Spiiiicinator!]

[Rhindeer]

Finally! They were free! As soon as Namia cut away the brambles and stood clear of the pathway, Rowan charged out of the briar patch and reared triumphantly in freedom, fists in the air.

"Yes! Gods, you have no idea how good this feels!" he said as he let his hooves slam back down onto the earth with an audible thump that made the ground tremble. Then he trotted around in a small circle, stretching his legs and swishing his tail. He'd been stuck in the thorns for longer than he'd like to admit. "Goodness, I've no idea what I would've done if you hadn't been near! Well, actually, I would have just had to rip myself free, but that would've been unpleasant...anyway!"

Beaming a smile her way, he pranced in a happy circle around Namia, tail held high. "That dip in the stream idea sounds wonderful! So let's be off!"

And without another word, he reached down abruptly and scooped the girl up into his arms, carrying her princess style, before he wheeled around and made a dash for the stream. His legs and belly felt horribly itchy, and the fur on both was tinted red in places, the skin beneath angry and inflamed. Little sounded better than letting the cool water run over them.

And so it was that Rowan charged headlong toward the stream, and didn't even pause before he plunged into it with Namia still in his arms.

[visualspice]

Namia watched, a bit stunned, as the centaur pranced about in his freed excitement. She couldn't help but gawk and smile crookedly, though had to flinch a few times as his powerful hooves came thundering onto the ground. Well, she guessed SOMEONE was excited. And as he spun around and galloped back towards her, she found herself, mouth still ajar, blinking up at him and barely having a chance to catch her own breath as she was drawn up into his arms.
"H-hey!" though her meak protest would have been lost, she found herself suddenly clinging onto him for dear life as he dashed away, heading straight for...

Her eyes popped open wide.
"Oh Gods, the river...."

SPLAAAAAAAAAAAASH.

And soon she found herself completely and utterly submerged in it, while completely and utterly still dressed; and completely and utterly still CLINGING onto Rowan for dear life as she held onto her breath until her lungs felt they might pop. Clawing at him, she was desperately to climb higher within his arms as she threw her face clean out of hte water and gasped for air.
"Oh my Gods, what are you doing!?" she shouted, her eyes wide as she began to cough and sputter out water, while of course, still desperately clinging to the horse man, lest she drown.

[Rhindeer]

Namia's shouting jarred Rowan out of his happy oblivion and he blinked down at her as she clawed her way higher and coughed and sputtered. Tilting his head in confusion, he lifted her a little higher to help her out.

"Ah...I...thought we were taking a dip in the stream?" he said, ears back. "Were we not?"

It was the deepest part of the stream here, coming well up to his human chest, but he could still touch the bottom easily as he stood there frozen and perplexed.

[visualspice]

Namia clung onto Rowan, her teeth chattering.
"Y-yes, but th-this area it's.." she shivered some more. "It's too deep! Can't you like.. put me closer towards the river bank or something? I'd rather not drown today after I avoided a bigger scrape in that bramble bush!"

[Rhindeer]

Realization clicked, and Rowan let out a laugh. "Oh! Oh. Oh, you're fine, miss. I wouldn't let you go! And see? I can touch the bottom, here!"

Still holding onto her, Rowan turned around in a circle just to show off the fact that he could, indeed, touch bottom.

"I can swim, too! Don't worry, you won't drown." Then he blinked down at her. "Wait. Can't you swim?"

[visualspice]

"What?" her face went beet red. "Of course I can swim! I just- I... well, it's a lot easier to bath if I can stand. I just.." and oi! What a question. Her mind was racing as the man still held her- did he... did he honestly expect her to just cling onto him while they bathed? Though she supposed she could bath with her clothing on... being as she was completely soaked by now and sighed.

"Fine, whatever, here is good enough!" So long as he didn't trample over top of her, or you know, drop her into the deep end. She could swim, though, you know, was hardly graceful at it,a nd tended to avoid that all together unless cooling off in the summer. Even then, she had just a slight fear of deeper water, if only because a close friend of hers had died when she was little. It was an awful thign ot die, to be pulled under the current of a raging river after a rain.
So yeah, she had a slight fear. No biggie. You know, so long as there was no freak storms or...
Rowan let go.

"Yeah so like.." she began to say, tucking her dark hair away from her face. "Just don't drop me, alright?"

[Rhindeer]

Oh, this human was turning out to be very confusing! She could swim, but she didn't want him to drop her, and she wanted to be by the shore, but here was also fine! Also, they were apparently bathing? When she mentioned a "dip", he thought she meant a swim to cool off, wash away the blood, and soothe their irritated skin--which was also about as far as bathing went for the people of his tribe. That, or rolling around in dust and mud to ward off biting insects.

He tilted his head. She was saying an awful lot of conflicting things all at once.

"Ah...hm. Well, if you would be more comfortable by the shore, I can just..."

Turning in a circle, he waded his way toward the shoreline until the water was only up to his knees--which was still a lot higher up than her knees, but she'd at least be able to wade around there. He lowered her carefully and then gave himself a shake, spraying water everywhere as his tail and dreadlocks whipped around.

Then he beamed down at her. "Is this better?"

[visualspice]

Having her feet down in the mud of the river was definitely better (in her opinion) than being held over the waters by the really tall, kind of cute, horse-man. Either way, she simply nodded, tucking back her hair and gave him a quirky grin to reassure him, it was.

Being as she was more in control of herself in the waters, she bent over and finally began to work at rinsing off all fo the brambles stuck inside her hair and clothes. There was quite a lot of them, but as she began to pluck them out of her skirts, and hair, she peered over at Rowan witha bit of a frown.

"Do you need any help getting those thorns out of your tail? you've got an awful lot of them coating it. And they look to be stuck in there pretty good."

[Rhindeer]

At her question, Rowan flicked his tail around and twisted his body so that he could get a good look at it. After all, it was a little difficult for him to reach it on his own; back in his tribe, they all groomed each other. But it had been a long time since he'd been among other centaur, and in addition to being full of brambles now, his tail had been overall neglected.

He frowned at the sight, but then looked back at Namia and smiled brightly. "You wouldn't mind?" he asked, and let out a relieved sigh, pawing at the muddy river floor with a hoof. "Because that would be amazing. I'm afraid it's gotten terribly knotted and, well, I don't normally look like this!"

[visualspice]

Namia blinked at his enthusiasm, and gave him an awkward grin.
"Of course I wouldn't mind. I did offer, didn't I?" she reminded him as she tucked her long, dark blue hair back behind her ears. Then moving to her pouch strapped to the sideo f her belt, she took out a long brush and moved forward, hesitant at first as she plucked out a few large brambles, and gav a single, slow stroke through his tail.

"Man, there are a lot of knots in here. I might have to cut some of them out," she admitted, moving her hair back from her face, for it had fallen infront of her eyes again.

[Rhindeer]

Rowan sighed with enjoyment as she stroked his tail and let his eyes flutter closed. The sensation was not unlike when someone played with the hair on his head or scratched him behind the ears--wonderful, likely to make him melt into a puddle, and something that happened far too little since he'd been away from his herd.

"Hmm...? Oh! Oh, that's fine," he said, cracking an eye open and focusing back on what she was saying. It would be rude to get lost in the sensation and fall asleep! "I suspect my tail's not in very good shape. I've had no one to groom it since I've been away from my herd, and there's only so much I can do myself!"

He could keep it clean and fairly groomed, but braids and brushing? That was trickier. But perhaps the real reason was it just wasn't the same, doing it yourself...or the more honest answer, which was that he had gotten a little lazy on his adventure.

Glancing back at her to watch her work, he smiled. "So, miss Namia, do you live out here?"

[visualspice]

Namia looked up at him after she did another set of strokes.
"What? In the brambles, no!" she said, then paused to consider, "Why, do you?" Ok, so it was a bit selfish, but she sort of heard his question wrong anyway!

[Rhindeer]

Rowan looked at her from over his shoulder and gave a startled laugh. "What? Me? No! Do I look like I could survive a day in them? I was fit to become raven food before you found me!"

...Oh. Wow. That wasn't a very heroic thing to say. His face flushed abruptly and he snapped his eyes away. "Er. Not that I wold have died out here. I would have torn my way free like the valiant warrior I am! That was just an exaggeration! Just, uh, a way to show how much your kind act means to me! But no, no, I don't live out here. I'm from the foothills of the Terrin mountains."

[visualspice]

"Raven food?" Her eyes went wide as she thought to the dream she had had the night before she had met Rowan and found herself so fixated on that detail that she heard nothing else from his lips.
"Ravens? Have you seen them here?" she pressed, placing a hand to his back leg as she paused in her brushing. Maybe there was some sort of connection with this man,er.. horse man, and her dreams!

[Rhindeer]

"Hmm?" Blinking at her question, Rowan tossed her another curious look. "Ravens? Oh, yes. I've seen lots of ravens. There were some a ways back in a field, pestering wolves for whatever it was they'd caught. So I'd be careful if you're planning on heading west, if the wolves are still around."

[visualspice]

Namia set her jaw and kept her lips flat.
So he had seen ravens- though was it a sign or coincidence? Though he said it might be dangerous, she still might have to check it out.

"So you said they were heading west?" Blinkingly, she turned from him and brushed her dark hair from her face and let her eyes scout in that direction. Wolves.. she really didn't want to have to deal with wolves, but her quest left her following whatever the dreams dictated as she sighed.
"Guess I'm heading west.." she muttered.

[Rhindeer]

"What? No! Why would you want to do that?" Rowan blurted, twisting his human body at the waist to get a better look at her. Her! The young, tiny human! She would be nothing to a pack, and not the least bit intimidating.

"Didn't you hear the part where I mentioned wolves? Are you hunting wolves or something? That sounds like a terrible idea! They'll eat you!"

And he especially didn't like wolves. They hunted horses sometimes--and a centaur wasn't much different, especially children, who were easy targets.

[visualspice]

"Hunting wolves? Do I look like a wolf hunter?" she said with a smirk and snort. She shook her head. "Hardly. I'm after the ravens." And with that, she rolled her eyes and went back to brushing his tail, going a bit more quickly this time since she realized that finding those ravens again will be harder and harder the longer she waited. SO she half assed the rest of his tail grooming. That was good enough.
Sighing, she blew back some of her hair before putting her brush away.

"There, your tail is fine and I think we got most of the brambles out- though,"s he added with another, more playful smirk. "You might want to avoid that field of thorns in the future. You know.. just sayin'."

And dusting herself off, she began to collect her things.

[Rhindeer]

"The ravens?" Rowan repeated with raised eyebrows. Somehow, that seemed more bizarre. Wolves, you could at least do something with them--use their fur for clothing and blankets and such, eat their meat, even if it wasn't tasty. But ravens? What good were they but dirty carrion feeders and--ow!

He twitched and stared back at her. She was sure in a hurry now! And that grooming wasn't feeling half so good anymore. Frowning at her, he turned back around and endured it, hiding his flinches whenever her brush snagged a knot aaand...then she was done.

He flicked his tail to get a look at it. There were still some tangles! But before he could mention anything, she was collecting her things.

"What? You're leaving already?" he said, and turned his body, mindful of his hooves, so he could face her. "For the ravens? What do you want with them? They're just rats on wings!"

[visualspice]

Namia peered up at Rowan from where she was bent over her things.
"Yep, I'm chasing after rats with wings,"s he said, looking down to her things once again with a roll of her eyes. It didn't take long to get her stuff in order as she threw her pack over her shoulder then glanced over at him.
"Why do you care anyway?" she asked curiously, while slicking back some of her dark blue hair. "Not a fan of ravens?"