Every time Eleanor raised her lips and bristled her fur, Despoina mimicked the threat, just to assure he that every challenge or defense was always to be met equally. It was a very real probability there would be no peace between the two until or unless they came to a true understanding. Or, Despoina just liked to growl.

But it was Eleanor’s answer that really made Despoina calm her anger, sheath her fangs, and wipe the hostility from her otherwise naturally angry face. Steal eyes stared at the other woman, narrowed. Not in disgust, nor displeasure. Her scrutiny was honest and innocent. Her mind pieced things together, at least things that had to do with her encounter with Eleanor. If what was said was true, it explained all of the tug and attraction towards her. The corner of her lip twitched in the feisty side the woman showed towards the cruelty of fate. Eyes still narrowed, she lowered herself to lay down on the cave floor. There was a long, curious silence between them while Despoina regarded and studied Eleanor. There was no judgement in her face, no pity. More grudging curiosity.

“Obviously I can’t choose to like women. I just do.” She growled in disdain at herself. But her mind poked back to all the other things she felt the need and the urge to do. Blood run through her fangs, a deep desire to hear others yelp and cry out under her force, the thrill when she started at someone or something and they jumped away from her in fear. Could she deny those things in favor of what society said she needed to be like? Did she want to?

Shoving those thoughts aside, she returned her attention to Eleanor. “Born a female, trapped in a male’s body, changing yourself to be yourself.” Her smile and expression turned taunting, challenging, but oddly non-threatening. This was the only creature in her life to give her a straight answer. “Tell me, who do you like?” Her smirk was fixed, her sarcastic drawl in full force and she waited for an answer, forgetting to breath.