Big Salmon Lake hateraid

The base flutters of anxiety still quivered in his chest, rattling his heart, and causing his shoulders an unusual amount of tension. She was a stranger—this entire situation was new to him and, coupled with the fact that she seemed as nervous about it as he was, he was slowly warming to the idea of potentially making a new ally. Friendship was something almost foreign to him now. The tumultuous occurances of his later puppyhood abolished the fanciful ideals he'd once cherished, and he struggled to retain the barest shred of hope that one day things might be ok.

Maybe this was his chance to rediscover it.

She averted his eyes and he tensed, worried she might flee. But she held her ground, and even spoke, her young voice a compliment to his own dull tenor. "I..." he started, only to swallow around the sudden lump in his throat. It felt parched. He licked his lips to wet them, tasting only the snow that had kissed his fur during his brief sprint. Moonspear. He blinked. "You're from Moonspear?" He repeated, stating the obvious (she'd just said so, after all).

Snow tumbled from a distant bough and he looked past her to watch as it cascaded through the air. The birdsong slowly returned as the predators were far enough from their nests. He returned his attention to her, the staccato motion awkward, like everything he'd done the last few moments. "I'm Rian, from Neverwinter." He replied with a tenative wave of his tail. He took another step forward and stretched his nose out to her, though the distance was far too vast to make any sort of contact. "I, uh... I used to think dragons lived up there." He admitted suddenly only to flush and look away, embarassed at the childish fantasy.