spotted the man while was collecting some mood flowers in full bloom. He decided to trail after him out of curiosity.

pretty terribly sensitive to every little sound in his minor terror, getting goosebumps when he feels like he's being followed, and looking around quickly.

paused and pressed against a tree, he wasn't using any magic right now to follow him. He was just interested really.

looks around a moment, shaking it off and continuing on his path through the woods. It was rumours and missing people's reports he was working on, so he wasn't 100% on if he was going ot find anything.

slipped through the plants silently as he watched. Humans could be so odd. He decided to have some fun with this one though as he moved closer and reached for a vine. He poured his magic into it, telling it to

wrap around the man's ankle

pretty on edge, watching his own footsteps to avoid stepping on anything noisy, and so he doesn't notice the vine slithering towards him at first. He can't help but yelp as it winds

around his leg though, trying to kick it off in a panic and falling over as he does so.

snickered a bit at that before he changed form. He looked like a small child as he moved closer still keeping quiet

.

doesn't notice him sneaking up,focused on pushing off the vine from his ankle and taking a deep sigh of relief, hoping whatever he had been hunting hadn't heard him...

moved ahead of him a bit watching still before he started making noise, stepping on a twig and letting it crack.

can feel an icy jolt run through his spine and he freezes momentarily at the sound, before scrambling to his feet and pulling his pistol from his belt. "Who's there??"

smiled to himself briefly as he took a few more steps and worked up tears, he fully intended to play the part of a lost child. It happened often enough in these woods.

gets himself oriented the right way, pistol pointed... until he notices this small, crying child. He lowers his gun carefully, still cautious but also not wanting to scare him. "...are you alright..?"

pretends not to notice him right away as he sniffled and rubbed at his eyes, trying to hide his tears. He looked up and blinked a few times shaking his head quickly.

hesitantly tucks his gun back in it's holster, stepping forward and kneeling in front of him. "Are you hurt? Lost?" he asks, glancing around to check if anything was spying on them.

nods at his second question as he got the tears under control. "I was just playing... then it got dark."

reaches out to pat his shoulder sympathetically. "I can help you then," he offers, standing again and offering his hand. "If you would like, I can take you home to your parents?"

hesitated as he looked at his hand then back up at him. He slowly reached out and took it, pulling himself up as he nodded. "What are those?" he pointed at his goggles, looking confused.

smiles reassuringly as the kid takes his hand, blinking before realizing what he was talking about. "Ah..? These help me to see at night," he answers, free hand coming up to touch

them. "I know they look a little scary, but they make it safer!"

stares but nods a bit, he let him lead the way as he used his magic to coax the forest to change, plants springing up where they hadn't been and completely hiding the whole trail.

leads him back through the way he came, though he gets more and more hesitant as the trail starts to disappear. He looks around in confusion, swearing this had been the way that he had come...

kept hold of his hand as he continued to pour enough magic into the forest so it would change on it's own, trees filling in gaps and so on.

doesn't want to appear stupid when he's trying to lead a kid home, so he just changes routes when the forest looks too thick ahead to have ever been a path. He's getting rather creeped

out and confused though, constantly thinking he sees movement out the corner of his eye even though nothing's moving when he looks.

glanced up at him curiously looking a bit amused for a moment. "Are you sure you know where you're going?"

frowns a little at that, looking around as he walks. "...of course I am. It's just a bit up this way..." he insists, missing the kid's amusement in his determination to get out.

smiled a bit at that as he nodded, "the forest doesn't like you."

blinks, looking down at the kid. "...now why would you say a thing like that?"

looked up at him as he still held his hand. "Because you're lost."

hums at that. "That doesn't mean the forest doesn't like me, it simply means the path was a little less clear than I expected..."

shakes his head as he stared up at him, he was openly smiling now. "What were you looking for?"

getting a little creeped out by this kid, though he refused to let it show. "I was just hunting, that's all."

watched him closely, "hunting what?"

furrows his brow slightly. "Deer," he lies.

looks skeptical or much as a little kid can. "At night?"

hesitates a little but nods. "...of course."

raised a brow as he watched him, "why?"

hums. "...they're sleeping now, it's easier to catch them unaware." It was probably obvious to Arthur that Kiku knew nothing of regular hunting.

stared at him, "you're lying." He tugged on his hand a bit, "what are you really hunting?"

furrows his brow a little, looking down at him. "....why do you think I'm lying?"

watched him curiously as he let go of his hand. "Cause I know you're not hunting deer. Just like you know I'm not a normal kid."