Question was etched deep into the girl's eyes as she watched Noel stumble over his own words. There was curiosity and confusion and he wondered why. Was he failing that badly? Was there something he was supposed to say, but didn't? He was beginning to feel extremely foolish, like he wasn't cut out for interacting with another living creature.

Mismatched eyes followed the little girl as she bounced around him, curious as to what she was doing, exactly. As she nipped at his heels, he moved them out of the way, head tilting in confusion. She was far too young to be an Aquila. He didn't understand why she wanted to spar him; it really wouldn't be beneficial to either of them. He was nearly a year older and, at this point in time, there was just too much of a size and development gap. He could probably just roll her over with a single paw and hold her there, actually.

Her question earned her a more pronounced tilt of his head, ears perking forward and brows furrowing. Play? She was trying to play with him? It... sort of made sense. Actually, it made quite a bit of sense and he was beginning to feel utterly stupid.

Growing up essentially alone meant that, when Rhoedias told Noel to run along and play, he found something to do by himself. Roll a rock around, chase a frog, roll in the grass, dig a hole... He had never really considered playing with another puppy. Glorall had very few young wolves. The only one he could remember was Ravenwing, and he had never gotten to really meet him before he passed away. Once he moved to Spirane it had taken a while to hustle up the will just to go out, let alone meet some of the other pups. Cafell was the first he had run into, so... really, bottom line was that it was starting to make some sense.

Cafell's second question made him visibly cringe. Was he really being that unfriendly? That's not how he wanted to seem. Why was this so hard?

"I'm sorry," Noel apologized almost painfully, sincerity in his voice. "I-I'd like to be your friend, I'm just no good at this..." He shrugged helplessly, averting his eyes away from Cafell in his embarrassment.

Noel gave a heavy mental sigh, gritting his teeth under his closed lips. None of this should be so damn difficult and now he was just starting to get angry with himself. This was dumb. He should be able to play just like any pup. Just like Cafell. A soft, frustrated groan escaped the boy and he rubbed his nose roughly on one of his forelegs before turning his attention back to the silvery little girl.

He would try this out, give it some effort. No sense in giving up on something you never even did, right?

Noel lowered his body until his stomach was all but on the ground, matching Cafell's height as best as possible. He fixed the girl with an unsure look for a moment before inching forward and nudging the side of her neck in a quick, rough motion. Retracting quickly, he backed up a step and gave his tail a couple of tentative wags, a pre-apology written all over his face just in case he had done something wrong.

But at least he was trying, right?

soul and sky are magnetizing