Nadeem Tarak & Abhay

"...never seen anything like it, Nadeem. And by the way, Harth is a total ass." Carrying on a solo conversation, as if the human stride his back could actually understand what he was saying, the marwari horse continued to chatter on, "Talk about a real stick in the mud! And that creepy fellow Ethan? If you invite him over again, I swear Nadeem, I will bite that stupid Harth next time, or give him a swift kick in the shin. Or both, you just wait and see."

Completely oblivious that his horse was 'talking' to him, the young Indian man continued to scout the landscape around him as he rode further into the heated region of the Valley. His line of thoughts were on thicker things that his ego-centric stallion and his jealousy over Harthrou - Nadeem was trying to figure out just what was going on with the animals in this region, and why they were behaving in ways that he'd never heard of before. More than that, he was both worried and intrigued by the coexistence of so many different, exotic species, and how their interactions with one another were becoming so complex. "Woah, Abay. Komal." Stopping his horse, Nadeem picked out a suitable area to stop and get out his notebooks for study.

"Really, right here?" Abhay bobbed his head and flicked an ear in the man's direction, "You could have at least picked a spot that has some vegetation...." The mumbling went on under his breath as he nosed about at a few sulfur-smelling rocks, mildly interested in the rotten egg odor they carried, but more interested if there were any hidden blades of grass somewhere amongst them.

Vera & Natasha Volkova; Colt; Soltse

Vera was really getting better, with the help of her family. It had gotten to the point where she could take care of herself. She always seemed younger than she really was, though. She was a genius when it came to animals, but there were so many things that she just didn't get. Math was one of them. She never understood math, but science was easier for her than it was for most people.

Vera rode upon Tide, a black mare. Vera's three-year-old daughter sat in front of her. Natalya wasn't as socially and developmentally challenged as her autistic mother, though she had a dangerous anger problem, like her father.

Soltse, a lean, sleek Tazi trotted beside the horse and riders. She stopped the moments she sensed that they weren't alone. Looking around, she spotted Nadeem and Abhay. She barked defensively.

"Nyet, Soltse! Plokhaia sobaka!" 'No, Soltse! Bad dog!' Natasha shouted, waving her hand at the dog. "Uspokoysia, Natasha." 'Calm down, Natasha.' Vera said calmly, jumping down from the horse and lifting Natasha down. She knelt down, watching Nadeem carefully.

Natasha, however, tilted her head and spoke to the man. "What are you doing?" The girl asked with such a thick Russian accent that her speech was often hard for a foreigner to understand.

Nadeem Tarak & Abhay

The black stallion turned his inwardly curved ears towards Soltse's barking, his nares flaring ever so slightly. Dogs were one of the many things that tended to make him nervous and flighty, and it was a great wonder why Nadeem hadn't gotten himself a second horse for taking out into the fields. As it was, Abhay's attention drifted to Tide soon enough, and that was enough to keep him in place. "Hey there, what's your name?"

Nadeem was quick to set his backpack down and stand up, turning dark almond eyes towards Natasha. The young man paused for a beat or two, having a hard time initially hearing what she said in her thickly decorated accent, "Field research." His own accent was a very light one, for he'd grown up around both Hindi and English, and learned to speak both quite fluently. "I'm heading a project to study the behavior of wildlife in this valley." The man put on a friendly facade, but he had to admit that he was just a little bit nervous - he'd learned fairly quick that there were some shady characters living in Atroe, and they could be just as dangerous as the wildlife.