Beltane had been focused. Beltane had been oblivious. Or rather, Beltane had been busy in her mind, busy elsewhere. The world around her was less important than the world she had been trekking towards, and so, Moonshade simply had not existed to her. Even if she had encountered his scent, or recognized it for what it was, Beltane likely would not have paused. Wraith had to be taken home, after all. He had others to watch over, as he had always done. Once, she had watched over the dead of Asteraia, but she had taken to Iromar instead, their dead having needed more ears than those of the plains. Taviora's dead were not hers, but they had been Wraith's. Beltane couldn't help but feel it within her bones: the flood, the silence of Taviora, had all been caused by her having kept Wraith to herself. Without their watcher, it only made sense that they had become restless, and that their deaths themselves had attempted to spread...to find Wraith, to find somebody to watch them. Had Beltane known that Moonshade had come to do so, perhaps then she might have paused...but he had been outside of her world as she crept across the territory and into the old den.

"Nakki, Iblis...Rhae...Natu... Mmmm, Fenrir, yes..." She muttered quietly to herself, between the effort of her paws meeting soil and debris. They weren't her names, no, but she thought...If she spoke them, perhaps they'd call back to her. Perhaps they'd come and see, and perhaps they'd see Wraith back in his rightful place. At least, a part of him. His dead were in Iromar too. He had to stay there too. He'd given her the names though, and that meant he had intended for her to use them some day. It made her quiver, made her ear jerk back...

Something had moved. Something had changed. Immediately, she stopped. Her very breath came to a halt as she peeled away from her task. Eyes wide and searching, the fur along her spine bristling. Skin twitched, so too did her nose when she found the bloodied rabbit and heard the call. For a moment, Beltane had become like a stone, petrified into stillness by her own uncertainty. Beneath her breath, she hummed, weighing up her options as her eyes searched to find the stranger. Instinctively, Beltane moved slowly but surely to stand between Moonshade and the place she had laid the bone down to rest. Her head dropped slightly, then jerked to an inquisitive tilt.

"Mmm...You. You came with this?" She motioned towards the rabbit, then swayed forward several small paces. "For us?" Her deaf ear flicked back towards where Wraith lay - or rather, a piece of him - though she made it known that it was no invitation to get closer to him, at least. Closer to her, she did not mind, but not him, no. After all, the stranger seemed to indicate a certain level of...friendliness, but he was still a stranger in a strange place for Beltane. Part of him remained a threat, a thought that made Beltane snort inwardly with a small, amused sound. A threat! In such a dead place...In such a quiet place. Oh, how alone she thought she and Wraith had been, yet Taviora had a watcher of sorts it seemed.