I can almost hear her heart against the silence of the woods. I hear her paws move faster and faster; why is it that she runs in such a way? With such haste? It is a concerning thing and yet, it is the lack of otherness to it all that remains the most concerning component of this mystery. She is not chased by a scent and hers is not cloaked with a scent - is she running from a shadow? The way she ducks away as I gain ground seems to confirm this - fear. I can smell it on her. It makes my own skin prickle, my hackles twitching in response to her sudden submissiveness. Still, I must... respect that she is, indeed, a child of my own. Her mother would have preferred that she survived, after all. I ought to respect that and so, I merely ignore the action. I turn my eyes away for a moment, giving her that moment to compose herself as if I did not see her unusual behavior.

As she slows, I continue forward a pace or two before I pivot, turning to face her as her eyes stare back at me with an unusual lustre. Wide, like a doe caught in the sight of one of our kind. Wide like a cougar, hungry and fierce. Which was she? I cannot help but tilt my head slowly, my eyes fixated on her own. I do not even need to speak and she begins to answer. Her question makes me snort inwardly; "Returning home in such a hurry?" My question is dry, my eyes flickering to the darkness behind her with a raised brow. "You are neither chasing nor chased. Are you so desperate to rest that you run?"

I remain silent then, allowing a corner of my lip to twist up in the faintest of grins - amused. I am eager to hear her response, her method of covering up the signs of her fear and her desperation. I do not think my daughter is a fool, no, but she has lived a solitary life - a quiet life - and so, I am curious as to what she has taught herself. Erebos is direct, his brother curious and so, what has become of their sister by blood?