it's afternoon when dauntless wraps up his patrol on the southern border. it took him longer — he spent a good bit of time focusing on strengthening the borders ( not that they weren't strong enough on their own ); and he was late when he started because he spent time with his baby siblings to give @Spiritwalker a break to stretch her legs or whatever she wanted to use her small break for. dauntless still struggles to wrap his mind around them — how tiny and delicate they are and that despite their stature they have the lungs of fucking pterodactyls. still, dauntless has to begrudgingly admit that they are cute.

dauntless gets caught up in thoughts of tiny trio and lets out a start when he realizes — as his steps bring him nearer and nearer — that he's on a collision course with someone else. mirza stops himself abruptly, hazel eyes that always are more green then they are brown focus upon her where she lounges in the sun. the sun's positioned in his eyes so he can't make out any actual details about her, only her silhouette. dauntless contemplates for a moment if he should apologize and go about his way or stay. he's not sure whose path he's managed to unintentionally cross — she smells familiar but in an extremely vague way and the aspiring guardian can't let it stand to not know every pack member. that was just poor form and lazy guardian-ing. "hey." the hunter greets her casually with a friendly wag of his tail and an effortless grin tugging at the edges of his lips.

the girl, whose name he didn't know — and immediately felt bad about as she greeted him by name in a squeak — appeared to be fully of pep as she sprung to her paws and dipped fluidly into a playful bow in front of him. there was an immediate — if not a bit strange — resolution that he liked her. if he had to personify the saying 'personal ball of sunshine' he would say it was her ...and that was simply upon first impression alone. it's a bit strange to the aspiring guardian whom is accustomed to greeting strangers ( and near strangers ) with a tentative weariness but far from off-putting.

for some odd reason all dauntless can find himself doing is grinning like some sort of idiot as she amends herself and offers her own name in return. skraeling. dauntless repeats it to himself in his mind, finding the name foreign and a bit complicated sounding. then again, he's spoiled because his siblings all have relatively simple names ( though not if they were counting middle names which he wasn't ). "i am dauntless, yes." he responds with a nod of his head and a soft, genuine bubble of laughter that rises within his throat and passes unexpectedly from betwixt his lips. "i don't mean to be rude but ...d'you mind if i call you rae? i'm afraid i might butcher your name if i try to pronounce it." he asks abruptly as contemplates whether or not attempting to repeat her name back to her in a returned greeting.

dauntless watches as she prances forward in a submissive posture and does not move away upon her approach. "unless you don't like rae in which i'll call you by your full name." dauntless adds, a bit late with a clear of his throat. his detailed look at her was brief but she was cute ( from personality alone ) and her snout was buried in the fur of his nape; and he was trying to come off as cool.