in truth, she does not know how to address him… already, in such short a time, he has become many things, all things to her. he is not only the guardian to her health and safety, but to her very life and future. any name that could express this would be far too intimate for all but a stranger… for now, abhibhaavak feels appropriately reverent though entirely too impersonal for a being as wholly vital as he has become to her…

her smile flickers back to life easily at his reply as she focuses on purposefully pushing the past from her mind and solely his presence. she is pleased that she would have some more time to acclimate to her new circumstances with his steady pleasant guidance. a shiver quivers over her scarlet hide at feeling his warmth beside her, that unusual fluttering feeling at the sound of his tenor voice causing her to turn her face away with a momentary flush.

her future had been nonexistent past the point of yesterday… there was never any inkling of a pairing or partnership that she could have dreamed of or envisioned, so destined as she had been for the devaaeton and so it was foreign to her to even have the option of such considerations now. she was a bleak prospect, having little wordly experience in addition to her disability…. but could she have imagined herself in any future pairings, there was no doubt that it would take such steady and gentle characteristics as the ones her current companion displayed to make such a thing possible.

her fine head tilts considerately as she listens to the options he presents, with pale lips drawn in modest smile and her curled ears fully engaged in the tenor of his voice. truthfully, she’d be happy to dine with him anywhere he wished, with the promise of their continued privacy of course, but she senses the desire in him to treat her to the most fine meal he can provide within the confines of their hiding space. ”a meal and a chance, perhaps, to rid the salt from my skin, sounds very pleasing to me… it will do me well to travel some within this place to expand my knowledge of it.”

it feels almost uncomfortable to voice her own preferences, having lived so long without any use for them. she had been dictated to her entire life and had learned to find small happinesses in what little choice was afforded. until yesterday, she had made herself believe that to be agreeable, to believe that living such a life of servitude, she would please Kali when the offering time came and bring the greatest gifts to the raajy. her people deserved her obedience, she had thought... but with the future looming ahead of her, full of its choices and possibilities, she found herself overwhelmed.