Tl'iish was woven into the desert. There were snakes there. Scorpions, too, and birds, and toads, and all manner of creatures. But when Tl'iish had woken up, there had been a snake basking in front of his face. It had flicked his nose with its tongue, then, without invitation, stuck its jaw into a cool spot on his forehead, and slurped something into its mouth. Then, with another flick of the tongue, as if to thank him, it had slithered away. Water, as it had turned out; B'alam carried water on their foreheads. The clever little snake had known that and sought him out, or perhaps it had known he'd be friendly by the snake-marks on his belly and tail. But since then, he had offered a drink to any snake he saw. Most of them, sadly, slithered away. But some of them drank. He'd been almost out of water by the end of the desert.But now Tl'iish was in a place with lots more water, water all around. Not so many snakes, though. He'd seen a few, some even slithering on the water, all muscle and grace. But mostly all he'd seen were birds, and rodents, and rabbits, and other B'alam. Sometimes something like a lizard, which ran away too fast and weren't much like snakes at all. And at night, there were weirder things, like night-butterflies, and hooting owls, and bats. Lots of bats. Mostly they were small things that fluttered around and snatched bugs from the air like acrobats. This one was obviously an exception, though, and not just because it was big. It also had a long tail and a big pair of web-less arms underneath its body. In fact, it looked rather like a B'alam with bat ears and bat wings and without orbs on its body.
It did have snakes, though. In the falling twilight, Tl'iish watched the bat, his eyes never leaving the bright markings on its body. There were some...um, some swirly bits? Probably? And maybe a skull. He wasn't really looking at its face. He was too captivated by the snake marking that curled around its neck like a beloved friend. So pretty!
Conrad The Mighty
His first encounter with someone outside of Water Tribe. I'd say he isn't normally this innocent, but at this point, he is.
