Discoveries and a new friend

*click* she pulled the shoulder straps of her backpack one more time ‘should be good’. Bast was on a ship that would soon arrive at Kiah, she volunteered to help with the surveys currently happening there. Bast was a trained and experienced zoologist, she had a bag full of necessary items to help all the critters on the planet.

5 minutes until arrival at Kiah, please get ready for the landing

A voice could be heard on the ship's intercom, she looked around the room one more time to check if she hadn’t left anything and made her way to the main deck. ‘Sorry’ a tall avian-like alien bumped into her ‘no problem’ she smiles. ‘The name is Birdie', fitting Bast thought by herself and she quickly answered ‘Bast’. Birdie looked at her backpack, ‘so assume you’re here for the surveys as well?’. Bast nodded her head ‘my speciality is zoology, so I’m mainly here to check out the animals and help them where I can’. Birdie made a chirping sound ‘I am a botanist myself, we should team up so we can combine our knowledge!’. Bast pushed her lips together and moved her paw up and down her arm. ‘Aww come on’ Birdie hopped from one leg to the other, ‘I promise it will be fun’. Bast shrugged, she was a bit worried about the high energy of the Avian and that it could scare some animals but some company would be nice, ‘sure’.

After the ship landed everyone got a quick debrief on the current state of Kiah, a small guide book and a digital map of the planet. ‘Good luck everyone’ the speaker said and they all moved into the jungle surrounding them.

‘Look!’ Birdie made a quick movement and pointed her wing at a Teropita, but it quickly flew away. ‘Birdie you spooked it’ Bast said in a disappointed voice, ‘the animals around here aren’t used to us and get spooked easily, you should keep your voice down and don’t make any sudden moves’. Birdie looked down at and made a sad noise, it sounded a bit like a purr combined with a sigh but with a higher pitch, ‘I’m sorry’. Bast explained that it wasn’t her fault and they continued to go deeper into the jungle.

‘Watch out’ Bast filled her tail being grabbed and she stopped in her tracks, ‘Birdie what was that for!’. She didn’t answer and instead ran to a small plant Bast had almost stepped on. ‘This is amazing, we thought the Blight had fully destroyed all of them’ she looked up at bast and asked if she possibly had a pair of tweezers and a sample bag with her. ‘Here you go’ Birdie took the tweezers and carefully grabbed one of the seeds from the plant, ‘now we can use this to grow more of them in a safe environment’. Bast was impressed, just a bit ago Birdie seemed so unattentively and now she was fully focused on the small plant.

They spend the rest of the day walking around the jungle, collecting samples, counting animals and helping fauna and flora wherever it was needed. After they got back to the HQ they sat down at a table to enjoy some cold Ru Berry juice before both going to bed. ‘Let's do this again tomorrow!’ Birdie said, Bast smiled and nodded ‘for sure!’.