She had flinched and raised her wing, green eyes peering worriedly, warily over the soft lip of pale feathers. Ohh, but the face looking back at her was almost a familiar one; older now, bigger now, but just the same sculpted edge to his handsome cheekbones and that gleaming light in his eyes. That was familiar, yes. The enchanting smile greeting her was entirely disarming, and before she realized it, her wing had slowly drifted down and away from her face, back to her side to hang limp and revealing a helpless, soft smile.
”Hi,” she breathed.
Wow, it really was him, wasn't it? She didn't think she'd ever cross paths with him again. Not when she typically stayed here in the Taiga, didn't often wander far. But there he was, right before her. The very same face and eyes, the same splashy pattern, and -- "Oh." His hair was not dry and soft, but wet and dripping silently. In fact, his whole body was sleek with a moist sheen beneath the moonlight glinting off his back.
Her eyes traveled back to his face, a gently puzzled frown tugging her brows. ”You swam all the way here?” she asked quietly, careful not to draw attention to them. It was late, Daddy probably wouldn’t like to find her meeting a boy at this hour. Or any hour, really.
Her face flushed at her own question. Swam? Well, of course he hadn’t swam all the way here. How ridiculous. The forest she met him in was clear the other direction anyway. What a fool she must look to him, and her blush deepened with embarrassment. Although… Hadn’t he said once something about not being a wolf but rather something like a fish? It was something like that… Maybe. She wasn’t sure. Didn’t tend to hold on to such tenuous details.
A hesitant smile chased the frown away as she took a step forward - just the one. Well, okay, one more, but that was all. She could smell him just fine from here. ”You’re so much bigger now,” she commented. Oops, another dumb thing to say. Of course he was bigger. She was too, probably. Still willowy and slender, but not quite lanky like the child she’d been when they first met. ”Do you remember me?” That might be important to know, wouldn’t it?
<3