Redtail Rise and in the gunslinger's mind, those words echoed: you dare not

it was actually shocking that he had been able to convince her in his ability to carry on a conversation. now, it wasn’t that illidan was particularly bad at chatting it up with strangers, but that he ran out of friendly and bubbly things to say rather quickly. it was almost as though his mind naturally devolved into the darker portions of what it had gathered. he couldn’t stay peppy for very long, no matter the company.
 
when the stranger mentioned that she came from a place called lost creek hollow, he nodded his dark head and then – almost foolishly – searched the distant stretch of trees, wondering if he might have been able to see it from where they stood. the girl returned his question and he pulled his hawkish gaze away from the woods that stretched outward. “me? i live right by the ocean, actually,” illidan answered with a shriveled smile. it was there that he motioned toward where the sound was, or where he remembered it to be.
 
“have you run into anything interesting on your trek this far?” he thought to ask. it would accomplish two tasks, he hoped. first, he might get an idea just how far she had traveled before running into him, and if the young ghost was going to be wandering out and about, it would be worth it to find something cool to retell to raleska or wyatt when he got back.