When I found her, I did not speak. Her eyes are open already, illuminated by the moon. Had she been waiting? I did not speak but I stood aside, peering into her home and beckoning her forward with a lazy, slow wave of my tail. I cannot help but wonder if Diveen will send an army for her, though I cannot find it within me to care. This is how the world works, after all. I have taken her away, perhaps, as we disperse from her home and towards Taviora, but it was consensual. She did not scream. She did not bite. She followed as quietly as ever, and it gladdens me. It is nice to bask in such a silence. Nice, perhaps, and yet I know the feeling of winter all too well. I am quiet if only to keep my thoughts focused.

She speaks then as we push through the forest and I remain silent for some moments, glancing up at the darkening canopy. Here, the light is snuffed out, leaving only the faintest sliver of silver to trace around her form. It leaves only the sound of breathing, of our blood and hearts. It is then that I choose to speak, turning and moving towards her so that I might face into the paleness of her face, inspecting her, my head tilting slowly from left to right.

"Does when matter?"

I ask her simply, eyeing her curiously before taking once more to the darkness around us. It would be a shame, truly, if another was interrupt us here. I am not one for sharing, no, and many of the wolves of Taviora are not worthy of sharing with. If they come now, they will ask questions and they will pry. Still, it seems as if the forest around us lays dormant. It is but only the wind drawling through the leaves with slow, exasperated gusts.

"I needed time. I could not fail."

There is her answer, the words merely a shrug. I could have come sooner, perhaps, but fall was a tense month for many. Females and males alike flocked to one another in displays of affection, often place taking to the borders and free lands for privacy. They would have seen us, surely, and they would have not understood. Now was the right for he she should across from me. I cannot help but move another step forward, drawing closer to the warmth she radiates in the darkness.

"Are you unhappy that I did?"

I pause but inches from her, the warmth radiating from myself mingling with her own in the space between us. I look down on her inquisitively, my brows furrowed ever so slightly. Had I been wrong? Perhaps I truly was a thief, after all.