'cause I'm a hopeless wanderer

@knox!

Leticia had told herself that the first step to recovery was going outside and facing the forest. She chickened out on the forest bit early on, though, and was more or less content to just sit outside on the vast lawns, getting acclimated to nature once more. Perhaps one day if she was feeling bold enough, she wouldn't mind taking another adventure through the forest. This time though, it would be the less scary forest, and she would beg Hayate to come along with her. He was a nice man, she thought. A bit taciturn, but she thought she could see the good in him.

Settling herself on one such lawn, Letty pulled out a small bag of vegetables. Settling her school bag beside her, she sat cross legged on the cool bench, shivering slightly under her wool sweater. She always preferred wool over anything else — it had always felt more like home to her. Winter wasn't far around the corner, and she could see the dead and decaying leaves cluttering the ground. They weren't as pretty when they were all brown and muddy looking, it only made the world look brown and dismal. Classes had gone well enough, her return hadn't made that big of an impact on the students, but the teachers stared like they had just seen a ghost. And in a way, they probably had. Leticia had heard they had a meeting over her "death", and had discussed similar student murders. It made her feel a little bit better to know that the teachers at least cared about her whereabouts.

Startled by a boy, Letty jumped as he tripped, and fell over himself, landing on his face. Worried now, she rose up onto her knees, hand half-extended. She was afraid to touch him in case he had been hurt, but he seemed to be okay. He stared a little curiously, and Leticia pulled a face at being stared at. He must be awfully creepy just to stare and not say anything. Pulling back a little, her own gaze was locked on the pair of impressive antlers that rested atop his head, a beautiful feather tied onto one prong.

Before she knew it, Letty was staring as well, captivated by cute boy's horns. In a minute, she was brought back, struggling to keep up, her face a mixture of confusion and happiness. It was pretty rare to find people with antlers, and his were very beautiful. "Oh-- No, please, it's my fault, don't be sorry!" Waving a hand, Leticia wrinkled up her nose, brushing the hair away from her forehead. "You have really nice antlers ... I like your feather, too. You're welcome to sit with me, if you like! It would be nice to have company, if you're not busy, of course."

The boy's ears flatlined, and Leticia had to giggle a bit. "I don't blame you. The ripped shirts and messy hair gets old after a while, doesn't it?" Her own hair was a cloud of curled, white hair, and after a few days of not washing, she really did look like a sheep.
She had never heard of snow buntings, but whatever they are, they had pretty tail feathers. "Oh!" The feather in question was dropped into her lap, and she admired it, turning it over and over in her fingers. Slowly, a light flush crept across her cheeks, and her eyes grew bright with excitement. Pouncing for a moment, Leticia flung her arms around his neck, squishing him into a brief hug before pulling back away. "Thank you! It's very pretty I — I don't think I've got anything to give you, though..."

Patting her sweater, she affirmed that she didn't have anything interesting to give back as a present, and frowned for a moment. "I'll find you something, soon, though! What do you like?" Pausing for a moment to tie the little feather into her own horns, Letty shook her head a little, merging the feather into her thick hair. "Oh! I'm Leticia. I'm a sheep, I guess. Or that's what I've managed to gather, from the horns." None of her family had been sheep-like, and really, she could only guess at what she was supposed to be by the colour and style of her hair and the curl of her horns.

Leticia returned Evan's sigh with a faint smile. She knew the feeling all too well, and often wondered if sawing her own horns off would hurt too badly. She barely noticed Evan squirming away from her embrace, a little too eager to get close to a boy. Her eyes closed a brief moment, and she exhaled quietly. She needed to be less overwhelming.

"I like books too. I like ones with pictures." She had a weak attention span enough, it didn't help when books had long, unbroken paragraphs. At least the pictures broke up the monotony a little bit. Staring back up at Evan, she shrugged, another smile playing about her lips. At least deer get to be majestic. Sheep are just sort of stinky. And dirty." In all the pictures she had seen of the creatures, they all had straw and twigs stuck in their matted, wooly hair. "Why are you out here, anyway? It's very cold, everyone seems to have gone back inside." That was the one thing she never understood about this place — a tropical island with snow.