her mind twirled and danced endlessly; she thought of the rabbit, the brother, her brother, the imagined comfort of a father nearby. it made her skin prickle and itch and yet, she felt fuzzy and warm despite it all; she felt like somebody had actually looked at her. this girl, this taviora girl, had actually looked at her and spoken. she seemed kind. it was alien to eto and yet, it had been what she craved. like flesh, the temptation of acceptance and kindness made her starved and compliant. the rabbit could have slept in her mouth and she would not have even tasted it if her new companion asked it of her, if it meant having somebody smile earnestly at her. her smile had made eto's heart leap, a sickening sensation as it pounded against her chest and throat, desperate to escape. she had to swallow it down; she had to hold herself back, her eyes wide and breath laboured with anticipation. closeness on a silver platter.

when solstice had bridged the space, eto had taken a cautious step back, accustomed to discipline and yet, she hadn't charged forward as her brother had and she had stopped her hunger when asked. she had been good. and so, she practically fell dumbfounded when solstice had risen her paw to her shoulder; where the paw touched, a bruise of warmth seemed to bloom beneath the child's skin. it prickled and ebbed, still warm when the girl had taken it away. "mums, mums," she repeated for a moment, her eyes drifted off in thought before they suddenly flickered back to solstice's own as her head suddenly tilted, "more than one?" there was a lilt in her voice, a curious one that spoke of a deeper, more substantial curiosity. if she had more than one, could eto have more than one? did she need more to feel full? would it satiate her?

she took it upon herself then to copy solstice's prior movement. hesitantly, her paw rose, a pale thing as it reached out towards the girl, taking its place upon her shoulder as eto grinned widely. her demeanour had suddenly become open, eager to absorb and please, her tail in a constant slow wave as she pondered the question. "home," she repeated, the word somehow foreign for a moment for it had never been given a true definition in her life, "we go to the caves a lot. they are dark and when you laugh, they laugh right back." she spoke as if it had been nothing, a simple fact, and yet the caves weren't as such in the world beyond her own. they were ominous and miserable, the bottom of the barrel and where no child ought to live. to her, though, they had given her all she needed. at night, when it was quiet, she could speak into them and they'd speak back. they kept her company.

then, she removed her paw and twirled, a playful action that took her a foot or two back as she fell into a bow of sorts; she watched up with a tilted head, her eyes flickering once more between solstice and her brother. "is this your home?" she queried, her muzzle having swung around in a broad arc to indicate the forest around them, "all of this?"