Her paws had come to know the grounds of the crags and grotto more than any other. It even felt strange - at times - to walk upon the grass, or to explore the fallen logs and leaf litter of the forests. Even when she chose to travel to Glorall, she preferred to stay close to the watercourse, navigating flood and stone alike with surprising ease. In a sense, the labyrinths had become her own territory, a small part of the world that she could come close to calling her own...And it was for that reason that she grew curious, unsettled even, when she came upon the unfamiliar scent of another.

Esther followed the scent closely, carefully. She thought that she might have encountered the scent in the past, but she had never met the wolf it belonged to. Yet, their path seemed deliberate, unlike the loners who moved through the grotto with little sense of just where they were going. Had another made their home in the rocks? How long had they been there, and did they know passages and paths that she did not? Despite her confidence, Esther was still only a child, and a child's curiosity could often be stronger than their pride. At least, such a thing was true when it came to Esther.

It did not take her long to find Anatola, though she slowed her pace and grew more cautious as the stranger-woman came into view. Esther kept herself low to the rocks, and she watched keenly for some time in an attempt to discern just what had brought Anatola to the grotto.

Even after watching for some time, Esther could not completely understand the why of Anatola's arrival. She huffed, and then she rose to her paws again. Slowly, she poured herself down the rocks and towards Anatola, silent as she did so though her eyes were intense with curiosity and probing. On closer examination, Esther could smell unusual herbs and scents intermingled with Anatola's own. Then, what Esther had assumed had been an optical illusion of some kind - the result of the woman's patchwork colouration, perhaps - came into focus. Shoulder become forearm, but forearm became nothing. Such a thing made the young girl's ears stand tall, and she found herself leaning in closer despite her distance, her interest all too obvious.

Esther had intended to move closer and re-conceal herself, but she had put an end to such a plan after having become aware of Anatola's peculiarities. Instead, she came to a stop some distance away, her posture that of a wolf unsure whether or not she ought to be on-guard. Curious, but guarded. "What makes you so curious about what's there?" Esther called out, and then eyed the crevices beneath Anatola with wide eyes, as if she might see what it was that Anatola had grown so interested in. Abrupt, and hardly polite, but Esther had - for the most part - been raised to know few wolves, and those she did know had never been all so good at small-talk. As far as Esther was concerned, her direct approach did, in fact, make her polite. It cut out the guesswork, and it made her intentions - her curiosity - all that much clearer, didn't it?