[open] isn't that real enough?

[kildare]

He shouldn't smile as broadly at her as he does. It shows his youth, if not his full enthusiasm, for meeting Oriash. Kildare is normally better at keeping these emotions in check, in keeping himself in check but Ori simply brings out the colt in him. She goes from a filly (a pretty one, he has noticed) and she shifts, changes into something entirely. That golden skin of hers morphs as he watches stunned, going from that gleaming hide of hers and it becomes.. wooden. She stretches and reaches, rises and rises and rises until..

She is a tree?

Kildare stands, mute and stunned. The midnight colt has been humbled into silence.

He waits for her to shift back, to become a girl again. He waits for only a moment (though it feels like lifetimes to him) and Kildare takes one hesitant step, followed by another and then another. Slowly - very slowly - he comes closer. Closer and closer still, almost ready to reach out and touch when the tree dissolves before his green eyes. Well, he thinks, this is definitely one way to start a morning.

"You were a tree," he adds. Realizing how obvious (and moronic) his statement sounds, he amends to it, "You were a very intriguing tree. But I think I prefer you this way." Regaining his composure, he grins at her. "Ori," he tries out her name, "Kildare. I wish I had a nickname to offer you but I'm afraid that's as good as it gets."

Teasing her still and emerald eyes flashing mischievously, he tilts his head. "Do you do that often? Hang out in forests as a tree?"

@[Oriash]

i am SO SO SORRY that it took this long to reply to you.