Jade Fern Grove along the path we lost our way

Sorry for the wait!

Merrit squints into the forest, but is met with nothing but inky darkness. The moon does little to help him see, but his eyes are strong enough to separate the shadows from the night, and his ears are keen enough to discern the noises that surround him. There is motion all around - subtle, and an annoyance; the slight stirring of leaves, moved by creatures or the wind, a familiar hum. Yet there is something unusual in the distant woods...

... his ears pitch forward, but he turns around instead, distracted by a closer movement, and his heart skips in his chest. "Keen?" his breath slips as a cloud of fog in the cold night air, hopeful, in its own quiet and unobtrusive way - but the moonlight reveals a stranger. The emerald gaze that meets him is amicable and warm, but completely foreign to him.

Disappointment fills the boy, and he feels frustration sink against his heart, yet he holds himself as formal as ever, firm in his posture and stoic.

"Mother told us about you," is all he says at first. He is curious to probe further, but his thoughts remain fixed on his missing sister. Nikai - brother though he may be - is of secondary importance to Keen. "I'm looking for my sister. Her fur is brown, and she stands tall, and delicate." His had always been different - fragile, almost as if the wind could blow the very fabric of her away. "Her eyes are blue." Sharp, intelligent. "Have you seen her?"