The length of his ears swiveled atop his crown, and the crow turned his slender muzzle in the direction of her call. The voice was familiar and caused his quivering limbs to ease their shaking. His mouth parted, and he responded with a few yips that echoed across the terrain, seemingly carried by the wind. Tadec began to trek toward her with a spry step, covering much of the land with the length of his legs. When he caught sight of the fiery hues of her pelt, a smile curled his pointed features and the moonlighter closed the distance between them with light steps. “Indra,” he breathed a greeting, dipping his head low to her and tucking his twitching tail near to his hocks. Then, with a wiggling body, he moved to nudge beneath her chin to show that he was pleased to see her.

She regarded him with a worrisome expression and he recoiled in fear that he had done something wrong. Tail held close to his rear, the coywolf watched her for a reaction. It was a question that fell and he peered upon her features with an intense and questioning expression. The inquiry was one that he had felt as obvious and so his head canted to the left and he frowned in a way to show how perplexed he was. 

”Tadec walked,” he murmured with a voice laced in uncertainty. 

The moonlighter followed her features as she caught his response. There was a moment of silence, in which he found himself with a tight-lipped smile awkwardly lining his sharp features. Of course, he would never have realized that his response was too literal to be offered. 

Then, she quipped another question that left him standing baffled. The long-limbed beast canted his head to the right - a complete toss from one end to the other - and turned to examine himself. There was nothing he possessed that would allow such a capability. Turning back to her after a few half circles, Tadec shook his head. “No, Indra... Tadec cannot fly,” he whispered. Then, glancing at her with wide eyes. “Indra can fly?”

Before he even had the chance to comprehend what she had said, Tadec watched Indra rip from her place and dart toward the wood. His limbs reacted without his permission and he lunged after her. The thief’s heart beat wildly in his chest and his tongue lolled from his gaping jaw. His speed caused the coywolf to grunt softly with each stretch of his legs. The adrenaline of his pursuit caused him to lose footing and before he was able to find it, he tumbled into thin snow and frigid earth. His legs were tossed upward crookedly and he wheezed through weary lungs. 

The red woman turned and trotted toward him with a smirk that curled her features. The sly little thief peered up at her through pools of bronze before he rolled himself into an upright position and shook his pelt free of hanging fragments. The snow had sloshed against his dark coat, causing it to stand in strange places. A smile still adorned his thin features, and Tadec lowered his torso to the earth with a stretching yawn. “Walk much, yes,” he informed her. “Indra is fast,” the wiry hound then added in an earnest tone.

The aphotic beast had found that his collection of fleeting moments of happiness were those that lasted the longest. It was rare that he would stumble into a lengthy time where he felt true elation; his short jaunts with Indra had been some of those few. Fearful to let them slip, the thief was eager to provide her a form of companionship that did not wane in toilsome times. Tadec believed that she was worth a great deal more than she seemed to have, but he lacked what was required to provide such things. Equipped only with his keen sense of survival and his belief, the crow had painted a wistful appearance for himself, and it was all for her.
 
Rearing back so that he stood on his rear legs, the half-blooded thing lifted his front paws into the air and capered toward her a few feet. Lacking balance, he dropped back down to find a steady foot and spun swiftly on his stilted limbs before he moved toward her and stretched out to touch his nose against the red-cream pelt of her chest.

The touch of her against him brought chills to his flesh, and the half-blood yipped softly against it, turning his skull and reaching to lick beneath her chin. Before he could move, she had turned from him and darted away. The length of her limbs carried her like a bullet. Tadec breathed a short sigh and followed her movements for a moment before releasing himself and sprinting in pursuit. His eyes bobbed and danced like floating lanterns against the white of the snow and the dark smoke of his pelt. The wind buffeted his figure in his flight, but he did not slow his chase this time around.

The crow’s pursuit was strong willed; he was carried with nimble legs and a runner’s physique. It granted him speed where those bulkier would struggle. Still, she ripped across the land as if the Black Coyote was hot on her heels. Tadec was a blur of fire and smoke after her. He thought himself spry enough to catch her. Then, as though the force of the frigid winter air blew her back, she spun on quick feet and the fire of his gaze met the gold in her own for a moment before she charged. Tadec could scarcely stop himself from colliding with her, and he kicked snow into the air with his sudden halt. Breath rose from his mouth in plumes and his gaze was wide on her.
 
Indra leapt to him with her paws. The nimble coywolf reared back and fell against his shoulder, stretching his own limbs out toward her with a wild-eyed and playful expression stretched across his face. He encouraged her play with a few light yips and a shimmy of his thin figure against the earth.