You could go with me, if you wanted to.
For a moment Encelia was certain she had misheard him. Her eyes shot up to his pretty, pale face and latched onto his gaze, searching it briefly. The confusion was clear-as-day across hers, but possibly misinterpreted as her being uncomfortable. The thought of him wanting her to come along with him as he traveled away from Salem seemed… strange.
Yet exciting.
A smile slowly started to tug at the edges of Encelia’s brown lips and then, as it grew, it spread wider and wider as though she was unaware of how to contain pure excitement.
“I could?” She asked, and she sounded almost breathless, even taking a small step forward with her slender fore-leg closer to his body, eyes widening in something like awe. “I- I would like that very much, Canis,” she admitted, even nodding a little as she said it, and felt silly and stupid for the way she was behaving. Her cheeks heated and she ducked her chin back, but she was still smiling at him. As much as Encelia wanted to stop beaming like a fool, she found she couldn’t keep the grin away.
“I will try not to embarrass you, whenever we come across others,” she said, thinking it was best to get that out of the way now. Encelia was not very good at social politics of the herd; a strong personality would have no problem pushing her down beneath their rank. But she hoped she wouldn’t embarrass Canis; that he wouldn’t regret inviting her along with him.
She took one last glance out toward the ocean and thought of her mother and father and how angry they’d be with her for leaving without saying goodbye. Guilt made her feel briefly sick, and the smile did fall off her lips, but she drew a breath and felt herself renewed with a strange sort of control on her life she’d never felt before. Encelia looked back at Canis. “Do you know where you want to go first?”
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