It had been a long while since the lone hedgehog had seen his old home. It felt like so long ago since he had seen it, since before he had left on his journey to the woodlands. It all seemed so different now, but the small hedgehog wandered back into the grassy floors of the forest. He had roamed- more limped now with the injury he'd sustained while out on the field- looking for a place to set up his own nest, but everywhere he found didn't seem right for him and the lack of space in the forest seemed to make it impossible to find a good area. That was, until the day the hedgehog stumbled upon a river flowing through the heart of the forest. He had not taken a drink of water since he returned, and waddled off to the shore. The first several sips of water were refreshing to the tongue of the small animal, though when he looked up from where he was crouched at the water's edge, he noticed a face across the expansive water. It watched him for a moment before disappearing into the grass which lined the opposite bank. The hedgehog took no mind of it and continued to drink.

A moment later the hedgehog had the feeling of being observed again and looked up, only to see the dark face was now in the river and swimming towards him. The brave little hedgehog did not try to run from the stranger, but rather watched it come closer until it was out of the river and standing rather close to him. It was a thin, dark brown river otter which strangely enough was wearing a thin strip of dark blue cloth around its neck. It was odd that this sort of animal would take an interest in the hedgehog. The fur on its body looked to be black, though the light brown fur around his face seemed to be paler than the hedgehog had seen on other river otters in this area. The otter took a quick glance over the hedgehog and sniffed it only once before turning away, seeming content on the information it had gathered. The poor little hedgehog had hardly the time to inch towards the otter and quickly sniff it. "Grasslands or woodlands?" inquired the otter before it turned back to the river. The hedgehog stood in shock for a moment, trying to fathom how this stranger could guess where he'd been traveling.

The little, quilled animal tilted it head slightly, narrowing its eyes slightly as it watched the otter carefully."…Sorry?" Was the otter really guessing where he'd been away to? More importantly, how could he know? As far as the hedgehog was concerned, he had never met the creature before, and having been away for so long he doubted he was talked about much.

"Which was it, grasslands or woodlands?" The otter turned its head back to the hedgehog, locking eyes with the smaller animal. The otter's eyes were so strange to the hedgehog and he'd never seen anything like them before. Contradictory to the dark coat of the otter, his eyes were a pale green color with a type of focus in them that the hedgehog found to be odd yet intriguing. One he realized he had lost his focus on the situation, the small tan animal looked away for a moment and tried to figure out how the otter was able to know so much from the little time they had known each other.

"Grasslands. Sorry, how did you…" The hedgehog was cut off from his inquiry of the otter by the sudden presence of a deer. It gave the hedgehog a slight scare, causing him to jump softly, though it resisted the urge to curl up. The doe was a very light brown with slightly darker spots scattered in its fur, and appeared to be small for its species. The deer simply stepped over the tiny animal on the ground and bent down to lay down what looked to be some branches from a bush.

"Ah Molly, thank you." The otter took one of the branches and looked over it for a moment before taking a brief sniff of it much like he had of the hedgehog. The deer nodded softly and gave a slight smile. The otter glanced up at the doe for a moment and tilted his head. "What happened to the flower you had?"

Molly seemed shocked that he'd asked about it, though she managed a smile and spoke in a soft, delicate voice, fitting to her size and appearance. "It wasn't working for me." There was only a slight hesitation in her words. The hedgehog could tell she was nervous around the otter just from the smile, but they seemed to know each other.

The otter simply turned his back to the pair and walked back over to where the water met the grassy shores. "Really? I thought it was a big improvement, you look so… small now." The otter waved his tail, almost like he was passing off any reply from her. He seemed focused directly on the leaf for now, and the others were gone from his little world. The doe let out a soft "okay" in reply before turning back around and wandering back into the forest.

The hedgehog stood in shock for a moment how he could just pass off someone who he took to be a friend. Then again, he supposed this sort of creature must not have many friends. The otter on the other hand, set the leaf down for a moment and turned back to the spiked animal. "How do you feel about the violin?" The otter once again focused his eyes on the hedgehog, seeming to be anxiously waiting his response.

"I'm sorry, what?" The question just seemed so out of the blue, the spiked creature wasn't sure he'd heard him right.

"I play the violin when I'm thinking and sometimes I don't talk for days on end. Would that bother you? Potential flat mates should know the worst about each other." Bloody hell, what on earth was this otter talking about? Everything this otter said seemed to be pulled from nowhere, though he was always spot on.

"Who said anything about flatmates?"

"I did." Everything the otter said came with a tone that made every word he said seem so obvious to anyone but the hedgehog. How on earth could he be so confident about everything he said when they'd never met a moment in their lives?

The hedgehog needed answers from the otter, and not the blatantly obvious kind. "How did you know about the grasslands?"

"I've got my eye on a nice little river flat in the center of the river, together we ought to be able to claim it as our own. We'll meet there tomorrow evening before the sun sets. Sorry, gotta dash." The river otter turned and looked as if he was about to return back to the water and swim back to where he was before. The hedgehog was sorely confused with how the otter could think that he was about to go with an otter he'd just met and knew nothing about.

"Is that it?" the hedgehog said, causing the otter to turn back and look at the quilled animal.

"Is that what?" he retorted.

"We've only just met and we're going to look at a flat?" The otter seemed confused on how this would upset the hedgehog like it had.

"Problem?" This earned a soft chuckle from the hedgehog and a smile as he had finally caused the otter to not see something as obvious.

"We don't know a thing about each other, I don't know where we're meeting, and I don't even know your name." the hedgehog replied. The two animals locked eyes and the otter bowed its head slightly before giving the other his response.

"I know you're an army doctor and you've been invalided home from the grasslands. You've got a brother worried about you but you won't go to him for help because you don't approve of him, likely because he recently walked out on his mate. And I know your limp is psychosomatic. That's good enough to be going on with, don't you think?" the otter smirked at the hedgehog and turned back for the water, taking a dive in and vanishing below the surface, leaving the hedgehog alone. He sat in awe of the creature he'd just met for a moment before realizing that the otter had resurfaced for a moment more. "The name is Sherlock Holmes and the flat is 221B Baker Stream. Afternoon!"

"John Watson-" The hedgehog called out as the otter took off into the lake once again, leaving John on his own once again. The hedgehog sat for a moment and watched the water to see if Sherlock would resurface once again. After a moment the hedgehog turned around and limped off, careful not to stray too far from the river.

They would not see each other again until the following evening.