Ravensblood Forest the one minute. the soldier's minute

Lotte was pleased — the recognition in his fiery gaze and the charming smile that shaped his roguishly handsome features bade her welcome, and her coal-tipped tail beat a swift tattoo against the mountain rock that surrounded her on all sides. Unfeigned surprise set her argent eyes aglitter when he spoke of his ownership of the forest — and though she watched him appraisingly as he sauntered to the next nearest sequoia, leaving rubbings of his hair and scent upon its trunk, she wondered inwardly what had caused him to leave his seaside home. Her season of awakening had not yet come upon her, and thus she could not regard Arturo with the need understood by more experienced females, but she enjoyed his attention and wished to experience it more fully. Thus, “Every tree, metsä kuningas?” she questioned, dabbling her paws in the air to set a physical motion to her figurative testing of the waters.

“Is it your desire to mark every tree?” she teased him playfully, rising to her full height and stretching her long, graceful legs as she walked parallel to the outcropping’s edge, intent on making her way down to him — eventually. The soot-stockinged hoyden was bold and carefree, but she was not stupid — she enjoyed teasing Arturo, but would not court his ire by testing his claim upon the wood. “I should leave you to your task and not continue to pester you so,” she ventured, letting regret color her tone, though her impish smile and warm eyes implied that she’d like nothing more than to do just that. Lotte was curious about the black-masked coywolf, for his hopeless affection toward Chusi and his suave gentlemanly demeanor had immediately captured her interest. She longed to ask him about his claim, about leaving Doe and the Blackrock warband behind, about his past, present, and future — she wanted his stories as much as she wanted his interest.