Simon turned back around toward Naoki. "I promise...I didn't fake it." he said with the rare sense of honesty he had in him.

"Ok then..", said Naoki, smiling softly and then following Simon. "Nice to know that you're not always plotting some mischieve.."

Simon chuckled a little as he continued walking and Itzel soon began following as well out of the cave and back to town. Simon once again cloaked his appearance and his scent before they were in view of anyone.

When both males got before him he tilted his head, observing them both but then something drew his attention. He got into the forest on the left side of the road. His ears twitched and his eyes searched for the thing that he thought he saw. Getting deeper into the forest he didn't even notice that he left Itzel and Simon behind.

Itzel and Simon noticed just after Naoki had went closer into the town that Naoki was missing and instantly began retracing their steps to try and see where the neko had gone.

"How could we lose him?!" Itzel said, clearly in a panic.

"Don't worry...he probably got distracted by an animal or something, probably a rabbit." Simon said casually, though he himself was worried.

At the same time both males were looking for him Naoki was having a lot of fun discovering just how interesting was the forest he was in. Remembering that a lot of things could him kill here he didn't touch anything with his own hands but with some branch he picked up ealier. The neko was a lot more like a boy than young adult, not really worried that he could die or hurt himself. Though he always was way too curious for his own good.

Simon caught up to Naoki far from the trail they were on earlier and he quickly wrapped his arms playfully around Naoki from behind. "There's our sweet kitty~."

Naoki flinched and then scratched Simon's hand before he was able to stop himself. Then he blinked few times and realised what had happened. Looking up he smiled a bit.
"Simon... what is that thing?", he asked, showing a big flower few steps further in the woods, much bigger than them both actually. "It moved a bit before... is it alive?"

"That's a big ol' Venus Flytrap. They are technically alive, but they don't count as animals. They're still plants. They mostly eat bugs, but won't hesitate to eat your arm." Simon replied, still holding the neko as he looked at the large plant.

Naoki looked at the plant as well and lowered his ears a bit. So he could loose his arm if he would get closer to it? That was scary thing to realise.
"Yet.. it's quite pretty, ain't it?", he whispered and then looked around. "Uhm.. Where are we anyway?"