Panther Park i.ii : so have a good drown as you go down all alone

The girl turned fully to face her, and Dianne could not catch her shocked expression before it showed itself on her face, brows shooting up in surprise while her mouth hung ajar. Absentmindly, she stopped in her tracks, as well. The grisly tear across the wraith's maw could not be ignored, forcing her to front a snarl towards all she faced. The exposed teeth glistened with spittle in the moonlight, and the girl stared her down with contrasting, mismatched eyes. Dianne now discovered that the foreleg she once thought was broken to instead be horribly disfigured in a way that left only a birth defect as the culprit. Had she been superstitious, Dianne would've thought her a true specter.

"What do you want?" The tone of the question was not aggressive, but the verbiage was not welcoming, either. It was as flat and lifeless as the wolfess appeared. By this point, Dianne's expression had returned to its default, emotionless state.

She was tempted to offer a witty answer like "To get some sleep," but she decided against it because she found it unwise to divulge that to a stranger you don't trust in a dark forest. Being asleep at night in a strange place left you vulnerable, and Dianne was taking no chances. So, she settled on a curt response: Nothing. It was as devoid of emotion as the other wolfess' response had been, but that was typical for Dianne. She knew it sounded suspicious, but that was sort of what she was going for — it was either that or something that'd irk her, so Dianne chose the safer option. If she seemed suspicious, the girl would probably leave her alone and go away... unless she was mad, in which case she may have put herself in further danger; but Dianne was banking on the stranger not being totally homicidal.

Not feeling inclined to stay for chitchat, she picked up her pace again to walk away, hoping that would be the end of that. However, Dianne had learned that things rarely went the way she wanted them to, so her expectations of the wolfess' response were low. She kept a slender ear swiveled in the others' direction just in case she tried anything strange.