her ears turned forward at his chuckle, her own lips pulled back in a momentary, twisted grin of her own amusement; the validation felt good. she craved that kind of thing - to be needed, to be amusing, to be something to somebody or something. the chuckle meant she had done at least some small thing to be accepted though she hungered for more and more, an insatiable thing that crawled into her belly and stayed like a thorn.

he seemed to lower himself then and she could hear his paws shuffling forward; she stared ahead into the darkness. ever so faintly, she had been able to make out the hard contour of a face and yet, its true features had become lost in the abyss of the night. she reveled in the company nonetheless; a shadow was better than nothing. he was tangible in some sense. it made her tail sway with subdued happiness as he spoke, her own throat reverberating with a gentle, chime-like giggle. she quickly followed suit, her head ducking down in a coy boy of greeting. "eto," she chortled back with a swing of her tail, proud of such a simple moniker but a name nonetheless. she paused for a moment with a tilted head, now standing tall once more as she examined the shadow shrouded face in front of her. "what is a goddess?" her question was as innocent as ever, her brow furrowed so very slightly as she oozed with a childish inquisitiveness. she had never heard such a word and yet, it sounded alluring. it rolled off her tongue with a sense of power.

she reached out tentatively as he spoke, curious about his scent; he smelt of places far away, of dirt and trees she had not smelt before. he seemed unreal in that sense and it made her fur bristle slightly with uncertainty. he quickly replaced the silence though and she danced back several graceful steps, her back paws toying with the edge of the stone she had climbed.

"i want to understand out here," she motioned to the world around them with a wide sweeping motion of her muzzle, her lips pulled back in a toothy, sharp grin; "all the darkness out here, i mean."

she had a peculiar feeling about her shadowed friend; she had a feeling he might be the one to show her something new; something exciting. she had felt loss for her father, the man who had been the first to show her such strange things, and yet she had found somebody new perhaps.