Sila wasn’t expecting to find herself at the riverside – she was still, after all, trying to accustom herself to the idea of being away from her home in Spirane. Iromar was nearby, she knew, but it was no longer a place as dark as it had once been and so, she sees it as a small test to herself to face its borders without feeling the rise of anxiety in her throat. So, she finds herself not only at the riverside but in the south of all places, sauntering in the badlands of Iromar and the free-lands. Though it is early, she feels that she has been awake for days already as her paws find sand meeting marsh. The sand, at least, puts her at ease. When she is near the sea and the salt, she thinks of her mother and, if only for a minute, she feels braver, more capable, less a scared child and more a woman of her age. It is enough to make her breathe a sigh of relief.
She stands atop a dune, eyes closed and ears back as she breathes in the salt and smell of Iromar to the east. Yet, despite the peace she feels in that moment, she feels the snake of worry coiling up in her stomach, nonetheless. Footsteps. They are quiet at first, but they come nearer and nearer, a wolf plodding through the sands leading to the ocean. Her eyes open suddenly, her breath catching for a moment before she composes herself – she isn’t trespassing, after all, and the other wolf is moving...well, not urgently. Sila rationalizes the best she can, putting her unease to rest for a moment as she turns to seek out whoever she is sharing her little sanctuary with. How, she wonders, did she not realize she wasn’t alone sooner?
When she spots him, she hesitates for a moment before letting out a polite bark of greeting, her tail waving slowly as her lips pull back into a wane smile. It is in the corner of her eyes that her worries linger even as she does her best to appear friendly and...approachable. Does she want him to approach though? She bites down on her teeth for a moment before nodding to herself, a stout nod of self-affirmation. Yes, she thinks, because she was here to fight off her anxieties, not to make them stronger. Besides, he smells like the sea, and she recognizes the way his fur lays – it is the fur of a wolf who has washed themselves in the ocean. It reminds her of her mother and so, even though he is some great stranger to her, there is a familiarity to him that drives her to take cautious steps towards him.