The Bracken Woods blood-freezing

Even feeling so disarmed and displaced here in the thickness of the forest, he watched her carefully. She took the first step forward and eventually is the first to speak. His ears twitched thoughtfully and he eyed her with a look of intent consideration all while staying put himself. So far, nothing suggested this encounter would go straight south. "Hello," he returned in mirror-like fashion while he decided how he wanted to approach this exactly. His confidence was still mending from the beating of the last few months and his social skills just as rusted. She'd already provided the subtle indications that she was likely of status, in some place and time. He would err on the side of caution with that in mind for now, especially since he was entirely unfamiliar with the packs and alliances of the region.

There was something vaguely familiar about her that he couldn't place, too. Or, with his senses zeroed into her on overdrive after weeks alone made the illusion of this for him. In either case, she seemed like someone he should know of, at least if he intended to linger here at all.. and maybe he did, or didn't. Dio could not yet say. He yearned for Matteo at his side again, in all the ways that he had been, but this was not possible.

He stayed put, only moving to angle his neck slightly her way. She smelled of many things. Wolves, unknown lands.. he could just begin to name them. "Who are you..?" he asked almost lightly while he slowly worked to unfreeze himself. "Besides the first wolf I have seen in all of these woods," he provided. His tail switched slowly but he still felt.. rooted, and it was beginning to feel unbecoming.