Training in a new place

[Leo]

"I thought those were props..." He said honestly of her ears and tail. There's too many people in his walk of life that prefers to wear strange garments, especially travelers. Especially women. Leo didn't seemed that struck after hearing that those are actually natural. He believes he should broaden up his view more, that's why.

Almost as if in instinct, Leo immediately pulls off a small object from the inside of his jacket, which then turns out to be a tiny notebook, with a special-made pencil actually embedded on the cover of the book. The artist swiftly pulled the pencil off, flips it open and scribbled down something as soon as Keiko started talking of her background, all while his eyes are still fixed on her without a blink.

He has a habit to keep a record of the people that he bumps into. Most of them didn't even realized his hands are moving by how seemingly focused he is to hear of their story.

His scribbling stops as Keiko mentioned of meeting someone. Only then, Leo blinks. The first thought that come into his mind is probably a pet...or something totally unworldly. "..Y-yes, of course. I don't really mind.."

Leo's definitely curious.

[Keiko]

Keiko smiled brightly, excited about summoning Ryoshin for the first time today. "Okay!!!" She said excitedly and jumped up, standing on the tree branch to prepare her summon. She held her palms forward at a low triangle from her body then moved her hands together, touching together the golden orbs on either wrist. As she lifted her arms joined at the wrist high in the air, she called out "Ryoshin!!"

As she moved her arms apart, an arch of light above her could be seen and while she continued to move her arms down, the figure of a tiger began to emerge from her person light a wisp of light. Ryoshin flowed out from her body and began to descend to the ground as it took a physical form. With a burst of light around each paw, Ryoshin bounded back up so that he was level with Keiko's height.

Keiko smiled brightly and called out "Royshin" as she jumped from the tree branch onto his back, wrapping her arms around him to keep from falling off on the other side and to hug him. She sat up and smiled at Leo happily. "This is Ryoshin!! Ryoshin, this is my new friend Leo!" She exclaimed.

Ryoshin was used to being called out for pointless reasons such as these. He merely gave a look to Keiko then turned to face Leo and gave a small bow of his head in greeting. Ryoshin did not bother to attempt speaking to Leo for if he did all Leo would hear were the sounds of a tiger. Only the Meinake attached to the animal spirit could understand them.

[Leo]

Leo just sat there baffled as this girl started to do strange motions with her hands. His eyes started to widened when he felt a strange breeze and there's lights all over her. He expected something odd, but he would've never guessed the light is starting to form into a sort of animal shape.

And a tiger materialized out of it too.

"Gya!" The artist almost fell off from the tree branch he's sitting on at the sight of a very large tiger on that same branch he's sitting on. It took him quite a while to swallow all that out, and to calm that shock he got.

"H...hello..." was all he could say when Keiko introduced him to it. His eyes are still wide, but now more out of amazement than shock. "..Extraordinary...." he whispered to himself, eying the tiger in astonishment, then turned to Keiko for a question, "Can all of your people summon tigers..?"

[Keiko]

Keiko smiled brightly at Leo's surprised reactions. She then giggled at his question. "Of course not!" She said, smiling quite happily, "There's only one tiger spirit. They have other animal spirits that they summon."

Without prompting, Keiko went on with her explanation. "When we're newly born, we're taken to a shrine in the forest where our Meinake spirits are joined together by an animal spirit guide. There are only a few animal spirits that are singular and there are some animal spirits that have a few of that animal. The tiger is only one and he is like royalty among the Meinake." She smiled at him as she finished her explanation.

"Keiko, you're not supposed to tell just any outsider about the tribe's secrets." Ryoshin said to her in a plain tone as he had told her this many times during their travel.

Keiko just grinned a bit sheepishly as she heard him and looked over at him with a smile. "He doesn't look like he'd do anything wrong with that information." She said in a sheepish attempt to defend her recurring error. She then smiled back at Leo. "Right?"

[Leo]

"..Ah.." That was the only response he managed to give after taking the whole thing in. It surprises him he haven't heard of the species before, so it must be an extremely rare one. "So then, you... you're the only one who has this...tiger..?"

Ryoshin's voice did genuinely startled Leo, and it seems as if he wasn't supposed to even know of this secret. At Keiko's smile, Leo shrugged his shoulders, wondering if there's a point at all if he uses the information to go against the race, "Right. Plus, I'm honestly frightened of your tiger."

He's on top of a tree, on the same branch with a tiger, and there's a girl riding the said tiger. Of course Leo got used to all the weirdness. "..Wait. That also means you're...royalty..?" It took a longer time for the information to be completely processed inside his mind, that's why the questions came later.

[Keiko]

Keiko smiled brightly "Yep! To my tribe I'm kind of like their princess." She said with a sort of sheepish grin as it might now seem odd that their princess has left the village for some seemingly unknown reason.

"Oh, but please don't think too much of it." She said, not wanting this person to treat her any different because of her status in her tribe. She smiled again at him and held out her hand. "Do you want to get down from there now or would you rather stay for a while?" She asked him, offering to help him down by way of Ryoshin despite his probable annoyance at the fact that Keiko always seems to just do and say whatever she pleases without always considering him or others.

[Leo]

So she IS royalty. He wondered for a moment if he's supposed to act differently when knowing about this, but then again, he knows zip of how a person was supposed to behave in front of a noble. "...Wait. What's a princess doing out traveling anyway?" It surprises Leo actually that his mind thought of an entirely different thing yet his tongue managed to ask out something so obvious.

The artist perked up at her offer, "Oh, that would be lovel--" He was cut in mid-sentence, seemingly just happened to realize 'getting down' might involve getting onto that...tiger. "Uh...may I ask, how do you plan on helping me that if I agree?" Because his answer to her offer depends on it, and also because Ryoshin does not look too happy.

[Keiko]

Hearing his first question, Keiko's smile fell and her hand lowered a little as she thought of her reason for leaving. She quickly forced the smile back on her face to reply with a fake "that's not really important" and held her hand out to him again.

Keiko smiled brightly again when he was about to accept her offer. She looked at him a bit surprised when he hesitated and asked her how she'd help. She smiled brightly again to answer his question. "With Ryoshin, of course." She replied happily. Although Ryoshin did not agree with being called out for such things, he was already used to Keiko doing whatever she wanted and intended to reprimand her later. "Don't worry, he won't bite." She said with a giggle.

[Leo]

'Leo, you MUST stop poking around people's personal affairs one of these days...as of now,' he reminded himself with a wince. He was about to say it out to Keiko that she doesn't need to tell him anything, but then the girl cut him off by telling him that it's not important. So Leo simply dropped the topic off as to not annoy her.

"..Geh?" A part of his hat tilted off to the side a bit as he stared in utter disbelief of what Keiko just suggested. "W-with...him? ..What?" He seriously hope she would perked up and piped in a cheerful 'Just kidding~' statement.

"Well, you said that, but he seemed like he really wanted to," about the fact that he won't bite. "A-and wasn't he supposed to be with you, and only you?"

[Keiko]

Keiko smiled and giggled slightly at Leo's hesitation. "He really won't bite. Ryoshin is very kind and gentle. Just join me here on his back and we'll take you down." She said happily, with a bright smile.

Ryoshin did not like being called out for such minor things as this, but he was already used to the way Keiko acted despite his reprimandings that he would not fight or fuss about simply helping another person down. He looked straight towards the man on the branch, examining him to see if there was any reason to fear or distrust this man but could not see any signs that he was dangerous.

Kyori held her hand out expectantly as she waited for Leo to join her to bring him to the ground.

[Leo]

Even with her assurance, Leo has the hardest time to believe her statement that her giant tiger spirit won't bite his head off. Then again, they could be circling of this same topic on and on for hours until the tiger gets pissed and really bite his head off.

"Alright, alright," Leo slapped a palm on his face. Fact number one, he can't get down. Fact number two, he can't ever get down if he didn't accept the offer. Fact number three, if her were destined to die being attacked by a tiger, he does not want it to happen on top of a tree, for falling down a tree after being attacked is more painful.

Accepting Keiko's waiting hand, Leo could only hold his breath for whatever that might happen, from the worst possible things to being safely on the ground like he initially wanted.

[Keiko]

When Leo accepted her hand, Keiko smile brightly then wrapped her little hand around his and pulled him onto Ryoshin behind her. "Here we go!" She souted excitedly, cueing Ryoshin to head to the ground now.

Ryoshin, feeling that these kinds of acts were rather pointless for him to come out for, let out a small huff of air in respond to Keiko. He then swiftly moved, in a running form, towards the ground a little away from the tree. "You shouldn't be calling me out for such simple matters, Keiko. I'm going back now." He said to Keiko, it would have sounded like a bit of growling only to to Leo. Immediately after, Ryoshin disappeared in a small poof.

Keiko pouted at the slight scolding. "I know..." She said back to the tiger guardian in the tone of a child responding to a parent telling them they need to do better. As Ryoshin disappeared right from under them, Keiko easily landed with her feet perfectly on the ground after Ryoshin disappeared. After this, she smiled brightly again and turned around to beam her bright smile at Leo.

[Leo]

Leo let out a surprised breath of air once he was suddenly pulled up on the creature she's on. He was quite astounded by the strength she had shown, but her shout quickly startled him into holding whatever's on sight, and that happens to be Keiko's shoulder.

Ryoshin was so swift, Leo didn't even have time to squint his eyes close when they had already reached down on the ground. "Oh.." He uttered out, before hearing the tiger growling lowly. "Um...thank you.." He nodded to replace a bow to Ryoshin.

Once the tiger disappeared from right under them, it caught Leo by surprise that he stumbled on his feet but lost his balance anyway and fell backwards. "Oof.." Upon impact with the ground, Leo actually felt grateful that he's back on the earth's surface now.

Pushing himself up on his feet, Leo busied himself by getting rid of the dirt on his pants. "Keiko, I must thank you for your help," he nodded at her thankfully with a very small smile. His damaged muscle tissues around his cheeks hinders him from smiling too widely, this is why he could only a tiny grin on his lips.

He was stuck on top of that tree for hours, so Leo is truly grateful of her help. "Here, you can have this." Pulling something out of his pocket, Leo uncovers a small device that looks like a small wafer bar.

"It can detect the temperature of the atmosphere around you, effectively notifying you when the weather would turn bad an hour before it happens." He handed the item to Keiko with a nod. "The weather nowadays is unpredictable.. It can range from a thunderstorm to a dangerous windstorm of tornados." Explaining that with a serious face, Leo looked back at Keiko from staring his device. "It's quite dangerous to travel alone without some kind of scientific help, so I hope this would prove to be useful to you."

[Keiko]

As Keiko turned around to smile at Leo, she was a bit surprised that he had fallen on the ground and her smile fell somewhat. "Are you okay?" She asked, hoping he didn't get hurt when he fell. She was about to try helping him up but he was already standing up by himself.

Keiko smiled very enthusiastically in response to Leo's thanks. "It's no problem at all! Ryoshin gets cranky when I call him out for little things like that sometimes but it's okay." She said happily with a smile. "I'm just glad I could help!"

"Eh?" Keiko questioned as Leo pulled something out of his pocket he said she could have. Keiko looked at the device with a slightly confused look. She was about to ask what it was, but he beat her question by explaining it right away. As Leo explained, Keiko's eyes widened in intrigue and surprise as she stared at the device then up at Leo.

"Really?! That small thing can actually tell me when the weather is about to turn bad?!" She asked with an excited smile, not knowing very much about technology due to the more primitive state her village was in. Keiko gladly took the item in her hands as Leo handed it to her and pulled it up to her eyes to inspect the little thing as he went on.

At his last statement, Keiko lowered the device and smiled brightly at Leo. "Thanks! This thing sounds like it's amazing!" She said excitedly, then looked down at it in her lifted hands once more. "But um... how does it work? Like, how does it tell me when bad weather is coming?" She asked, being rather scientifically ignorant.

[Leo]

Leo is glad that Keiko seemed to have interest in his invention, he takes great pleasure from seeing how excited she looks. Once the girl had taken the device, Leo watched in amusement as she inspected it so closely to her eyes.

As he expected, she asks how does it work. Leo chuckled a bit since he had anticipated her question and then slowly explains, "This device was actually made for people who aren't fortunate enough to be granted the sense of sight. They cannot see if it's daylight or night time, much less knowing when the weather is turning bad."

Leo's eyes dropped a bit, wondering if the final product is of use to the blind person he had met. The one he gave to Keiko is simply a prototype of the final product, so Leo has no use to it now. "Thus, it will tell you the state of the weather by voice. The only disadvantage of this is you can't shut it off, so if you find it annoying after some time, just throw it away."

He said with a light smile to her, genuinely hoping it would be advantageous to her at some point.