indignation filled the girl at the woman’s response. despite her initial outrage, she found her anger dissipating as the blue eyed woman’s maw curled into a smile. whatever fuzzy edges had formed by that smile disappeared when the other spoke again. ”Judging by your paws and your ears, I’ve got at least two years on you.” aurelia’s two-toned eyes narrowed and she released a soft growl from within her throat as the other’s white tail raised. aurelia was a little insulted and a lot self-concious - she hadn’t thought anything was wrong with her paws or her ears. now though, her slightly too big ears flattened as she lowered her haunches. she knew she was growing - she wasn’t too much smaller than her mother, but she was concerned now that her brothers (even if berwyn was only slightly bigger than her) were growing bigger, or better, than she was.the other began to circle her and aurelia suddenly felt tremulous. she wasn’t sure why, wasn’t sure why the approval of this shadow and snow woman was so important to her, but it seemed very important that the other was satisfied by whatever it was that she was looking for. it took much of her willpower to resist the urge to turn around to keep an eye on the other, but she held fast, eyes locked ahead of her.

”Despoina.” aurelia’s lowered ears snapped up at that and she didn’t hesitate to snap her eyes towards the other woman, intrigued and feeling the fuzzy edges again.

”i’m aurelia,” she responded, her voice slow and sweet, as if all snap had been melted out of her. ”What calls you to the forests of Encora?” aurelia’s attention was focused solely on despoina now, her frame leaning forward on its own accord, lured by the drawl of the other’s voice. ”Surely you have already been there, explored its secrets. Why not come to a place you have not been?” even more intrigued, the masked girl rose to take a hesitant step forward. ”I could show you the waters of Iromar.” aurelia was silent, hesitant. ”i haven’t - been to encora before, that is…” the masked girl tilted her head up to meet the other’s eye. ”we could always have more than one adventure though, couldn’t we? i’ll take you to encora and you can take me to iromar, and maybe some other time i could take you to my favorite places on the mountain!” aurelia’s silky tail wagged softly behind her and she offered despoina a brilliant smile, as if to persuade her that this was the best idea. as if the future was a set thing, and that she and this stranger were already friends who would see each other more regularly. how lovely childhood innocence was.