He had been so quiet that it had taken her an embarrassingly long time to realize he was there at all. She'd been preoccupied watching the water and examining her Tavioran stick, lost in her own thoughts that seemed to flow just as fast as the river itself. Ontari thought of her mother, her brothers, her father...She didn't want to, but being alone often made her thoughts rush towards those topics.

As the thoughts swirled around her head, her eyes followed the water down. When they landed on Eztli, she couldn't help but flinch. Her entire body jerked up in surprise, but she bit down to stop herself from making any ruckus at least.

Her eyes quickly narrowed at him as she tried to compose herself. Ontari cleared her throat and straightened her posture, though she felt the uncomfortable sensation of her heart pounding against her chest. It was an awful feeling...but most of all, she hated it because it always reminded her about how young she still was. It made her all too aware that she'd not experienced enough to have the same cool, controlled nature of a wolf like, say, her own mother. For that, she couldn't help but hold it against the stranger immediately. How dare he make her feel like that, right?

"Were you...ever going to say something?" She jabbed the words at him, her brows lifting up expectantly. In reality, she was just insecure. How long had he been there? In a way, being surprised was her fault for not being more alert, especially in a situation like a flood! That was the kind of time when somebody should have really been on their guard, but no...Ontari had been too distracted. Oh, how it frustrated her!

She slowly started to stand up, her eyes not moving off of him while she did so. Ontari lightly shook her pelt out and then stood up straight, trying her hardest to look the part of a princess. It was her eyes though, that gave away her more suspicious, cautious nature.

"A simple "hello" would work in the future," she said with a flick of her ears. It felt like such a waste to have to focus on something like formalities! No, she wanted to focus on the flood itself. Like, what did he know about it that she didn't? What else was in the water? But until she sorted him out, she was too cautious to go near the water again, let alone follow it up or downstream.