with her comes the scent of earth and herbs; the smell mingles with the tang of salty brine.  she arrives after many long weeks of traveling, her feet numbed by their soreness.  naturally, natshana ignores their warnings.  she is searching for someone and, until she finds them, she must keep moving.  fate would not have the apothecary reuniting with her cousin today, it seems.  instead, she's might with an unfamiliar face.  this stops her advance.  she cannot scent much about them from this distance.  they appear within their first year, teetering on the edge of adulthood.  she supposes she can handle a yearling -- if that's, indeed, what they are.

"drop yu bilaik of*?" she calls out casually to the other wolf, keeping her distance until she's certain he won't be any trouble.  natshana has no way of knowing that he doesn't speak the language.  after all, she has just come from a location that strictly speaks her mother tongue. 

his initial response doesn't surprise her.  though she understands what he says, she doesn't intend to make this fully known.  warriors of her pack are the ones who typically learn common so that they may know the language of enemies.  healers (or, in natshana's case, those who train under them) aren't bilingual as often.  while she's in this new land, she wants to keep her familiarity with the common tongue as furtive as she can.  wolves may have looser lips if they believe a companion cannot understand the words they speak.  so, she furrows her brow at his reply, followed shortly thereafter by a tilt of her head.

"ai nou get in chon emo sleng yu so laik chicha*," despite the language barrier, her tone of voice indicates her confusion.  with the change in her tone, too, comes the continued furrowing of her brow.  natshana knows that she will have to soften her personality considerably if she is to play the part of a nonnative wolf.  she cannot risk both lacking knowledge and being rude. "ah..." she pretends to think over her words carefully, as though she's searching for something to bridge the gap between them. "chit ste yu... tagon**?" very quickly her face dissolves into a realization that this follow-up question is just as useless.  her ears topple in a silent apology.

her eyes watch as he rises to his full height.  it is not difficult for any wolf to tower over natshana, but she does not appear to flinch at the minor display of power.  instead, she continues to observe him in silence, a quiet ferocity in her pale eyes.  he offers his name, and she is quite surprised (though she does not show it).  whether by sheer luck or the other wolf's knowledge of social graces, he seems to have ascertained what she had asked for.  she feigns confusion briefly, before invoking an expression of clarity and understanding on her face once he speaks his name for a second time.

"kna-ven," she says it back to him, seeming to try the sounds out for herself.  her muzzle, too, indicates her companion to show that she appears to have understood the association. "natshana," her name is then given as she mirrors his previous gesture to himself now to indicate herself.  she tilts her head in the same way he had before pausing to think. "kna-ven... pack?" it's the most common word she believes she can get away with knowing without arising suspicion.  packs are a staple of wolf life everywhere, after all.

for a moment, she considers shattering the mirage she's spun.  there is little harm in an interaction with a lone wolf.  the ones belonging to packs provide the most risk.  then again, she would be a fool to think packs do not have their paws in many interests.  natshana watches knaven with a weighted gaze; it hangs on him heavily, encroaching on him as moonlight does in the absence of day.  she won't be able to get much out of him with this tactic.  her mask falls like porcelain to the floor, shattering into many, violent pieces.

"i suppose the charade gets old quickly," she offers out of the blue, decidedly ending her ruse prematurely. "in these lands, i am a wolf without a banner, but that does not mean that there are not those i pledge allegiance to." her tail sways once, and she reclines to a sitting position. "what is your trade?  perhaps we can help one another.  i seek to understand more of these wilds."