Katherine continued to watch Imamu, finding herself quickly becoming fascinated with the other woman, just the same as her brother had been in those first few brief encounters. Imamu's nature was so foreign, odd even in contrast to the locals of the village. Even in trying to be more social and human with the locals, her movements remained largely animalistic, yet she moved with such fluidity--not quite grace, but rather... prowess?
Even as she stared, Katherine remained mostly unaware of herself doing so, until at long last Imamu's head turned in her direction and the other woman's dark, wild eyes lit on her own pale green ones. She felt a strange icy shock course through her veins, trapped in the larger woman's curious stare. In that moment she felt like a smaller, weaker animal caught in the gaze of something much larger and one hundred times more ferocious. In a way, she was.
Katherine followed Imamu's gaze, stubbornly not turning away even as the other woman moved to her side and continued to look her over from a closer perspective, as if taking stock of her health. She could read the other's intentions quite clearly in the idle wandering of her gaze; Katherine knew that look, because she herself was also a keen observer--the mark of an army nurse. She could sense herself being read, but Imamu's judgments were much less clear.
The tenseness in her shoulders didn't first start to lessen until Imamu's eyes finally flicked up from scanning over her profile back to her face. Direct eye contact seemed difficult to maintain--not in general, but specifically because Imamu's gaze remained so intense. Those eyes... they really weren't natural. Nothing about her was. The words from the other woman's mouth came flat and abrupt, almost startling Katherine right into submission. She merely nodded, remembering the nagapie back in her tent, likely still fast asleep in the makeshift nest she'd fashioned out of old shirts and scraps of cloth from Kenneth's chest.
When Imamu spoke the second time, Katherine sensed the change in her tone of voice, however slight it was. She relaxed a little, giving another small nod before rising stiffly to her feet. Without another word, she began to lead the way through the village back to the tent she had come to occupy over the last several days.
Walking ahead of Imamu, she wasn't aware of the other woman's familiarity in that she didn't necessarily need to be shown the way, but once they came to the flap, she did recognize Imamu's hesitation then. She wondered briefly at the reasoning, but not long enough to form any sort of concrete opinion on the why. Even if she had wanted to give it more thought, she didn't have much time. In the next moment, Imamu had swept ahead, pulling back the flap and entering into the small space. She quickly located the nagapie's nest, again without having to be shown.
When Imamu crouched down to study the small creature and take stock of its injuries, making only the vaguest remark at its age, Katherine crouched down as well. Her posture was almost defensive in the closeness she kept to the other woman, her gaze intense as she followed Imamu's every movement and interaction with the small animal. She watched as the nagapie's eyes slid open within those first few seconds, its small form hunkering low into the nest of blankets, however its posture remained remarkably calm at the same time. After the past couple of days settling into a kept livelihood, the nagapie seemed to have already begun to adjust, even now with two large humans looming very closely overhead.
Katherine knew she couldn't deny the truth in Imamu's words, no matter how badly she wanted to. The baby nagapie, now alone in the wild without a mother to care for it, and especially considering how docile it had already become, would not survive on its own. With Imamu's expert judgment, Katherine caught herself becoming surprisingly emotional. The brunette leaned forward, the scent of sweat, foreign spices, and mild soap wafting through the stale too-still air of the tent as she moved. She bent down and gently scooped the nagapie into her palm.
The creature chittered quietly, but did not shy away from her touch. Instead it scrambled up her forearm, bushy tail tickling her skin as it moved, its injured forepaw pulled in close so as to keep from putting any pressure on it as it moved. The nagapie scampered up her arm and nestled into the same crook of her neck that it had the night before, its tiny furry body tucked in close beneath the heavy curtain of her hair and the collar of her shirt. Only its small face peeked out, a large pair of eyes underneath an even larger pair of ears.
It was likely the first time Katherine had smiled since arriving in this village; even being a small smile, it changed the shape of her face entirely. Once the nagapie had swept into her hair and was all but completely out of sight, she looked back to Imamu, expression shifting to something more serious when she caught the woman once again observing her. Her guard went back up, like a brick wall erected in a single instant.
"I will care for it," she said almost immediately, though she couldn't deny she might be moving a bit too quickly in accepting such a huge responsibility before she was even certain how long she planned on staying in this village. There was another problem as well: while she could tend to human wounds with ease, she had little knowledge on how to care for animal wounds.
"You can show me how to care for it," the brunette added a moment later, then immediately regretted the brusqueness of her tone, the nearly authoritative fashion in which she had spoken to the other woman--a deity, in the local's eyes, at that. Was she even ready for the type of regular interaction that type of relationship with Imamu would entail? She supposed she would have to be, if she wanted this nagapie to stay alive. And if she wanted to know more of Kenneth's last few years on earth.
She backtracked, tried to rephrase her words as more of a request instead-- "You can show me?" A small bit of color swept across her pale face, tinging the tips of her ears bright pink. Katherine could sense her face growing warm, but waved it off, attributing the growing heat creeping up her neck to the fact she now had a small creature tucked in against her collar bone.