[Lenka's hands remain steady on the shovel, even if the rest of him isn't. A part of him remains hypervigilant, even if the rest of him wants to simply back out of the orchard, out into the street and the rest of the way home. Crabwalking if necessary.

The presence of Nakigitsune at his back, though silent, means that he has nowhere to back away to -- but it's also something nice and solid even if he's oddly armed. What that means is that when their lurking stalker finally reveals themselves (itself?), Lenka's first instinct isn't to freeze up but to point his shovel straight at it. Again, he's moved before he could think. That seems to be becoming a theme.

... He doesn't continue the forward motion, though the same part of him that keeps the shovel steady whispers Protect, because that sure is a lot of teeth aimed straight at him. The shadow pauses a little ways from the shovel at its prey's initial movements, seeming a little put off, but now that both of them are frozen--

CLANGTHUNKRSSHH.

That particular odd, disgusting noise results from Lenka's shovel outright colliding with Naki's chicken (again) in a reflex when the shadow comes for them. On the bright side, somehow they've managed to fend the shadow off by bouncing it off their collective weapons.

On the less-so-bright side, now there's shadow gunk all over the place. And that's probably not going to work twice.]