[open quest] round one (of two)

[avocet]

Where Avocet had fallen asleep, he couldn't quite recall. Manikin's brother could remember lying in the meadow grass down but beyond that, the rest evaded him. Lurching himself up and forward, the bay colt looked around trying to see where he was. Glancing up, the realization comes when he sees the dormant volcano: Tephra. Avocet grumbled - childishly wanting the familiarity of flowered Pampas - but started to walk down a hoof path that he thought might lead him home.

But there it was.

Right in the middle of the trail - glaring at him with knowing red eyes and smoldering, smoking skin - was the elusive Tephran Lava Frog.

"Huglavalava," it croaked and Avocet's brown eyes rounded; his nostrils flared wildly at the fabled creature. Taking a cautious step forward, the frog warned him again: "Huglavava." Stepping back, he knew that he needed to take a different course of action. Peering around, he tried to discover what was making the amphibian so hostile (according to ancient Beqanna myth, the Lava Frogs were peaceful creatures that loved to linger near the warmth from the magma flows). Off a little to the side and below him, the reason revealed itself. Crunched below his hoof was the writhing half of a centipede (a favorite meal), a tittynope from its late lunch.

Upon raising the offending hoof, Avocet said to the frog: "My apologies." Quivering on the ground was the insect and the Lava Frog hopped forward, warning Avocet again, "Huglavava." Not wanting to waste his chance, Avo backed up again beneath a large Tephran fern until it covered his face and when the amphibian was no longer her visible, he sighed. Frowning once again and breathing a sigh of relief from his odd encounter, he finally moved off towards home (and his darling sister) and muttered: "Well that was ribbeting."