His presence certainly had not gone unnoticed. In everything that I had done over the past week he lingered on the fringe of my location. The first few times I had spotted him, I thought it must have just been a coincidence. But the last couple of days I had noticed him more and more often, stalking me like father had shown me he would stalk a rabbit. Did Leonidas view me as some sort of prey? He had not yet attacked, and I became more and more confused with each passing day.

Even now, as I simply moved across the crunching, melting snow at a floating jog I spotted his dark form following me through the trees. Spring was but a breath away but my own exhalations still misted the air in front of me. Out of the corner of my eye I noticed Leonidas suddenly turn away and it peaked my interest. I paused mid stride and turned to watch him as he retreated a few feet from the trees and then begin tracing a line in the snow. My brows furrowed and I started forward once more, closing the gap between us with my growing legs. They were long and would someday be considered graceful, but at the moment I just thought they made me look a bit ungainly.

Despite that, I stopped at the treeline where he had originally followed me from. Now it was my turn to watch him, and I remained silent as I did so. My silvery pelt glistened against the snow, dark paws flexing and grasping the ground beneath me. Dark ears swiveled casually, listening to the forest around us as my mahogany eyes followed the white fringed boy in his ceaseless motion. But still, I said nothing. I wanted to question his motives for stalking me the way he had, but instead I decided to let him make the first move – if there was one to make.