Phantom Hollow lovesong is playing

Ibis would've started to panic if not for her mantra. When she tired of speaking it aloud to herself she thought it instead, and became fixated on the sentiment it carried. Her eyes roamed as she looked for signs of Okeanos; he would be following after her swiftly enough provided he wasn't deeply asleep. Ibis took temporary comfort in the thought of Okeanos slumbering like a giant old bear; hopefully his hibernation wasn't a lasting one or she'd have to double back and find him. Best to stay put, she mused. Stay here and wait, and maybe (hopefully) he would come across her.

There was a voice, though. It sounded unfamiliar but the presence of another person made Ibis feel instantly better. It didn't sound like her brother but Ibis was eager to reunite with him, so she presumed he had found her after all. Something shifted in among the trees, and she paused - stepping like a nervous doe towards the brief rustling - and caught sight of someone's gleaming eyes catching the sunlight. A dapple of shadows cutting jagged leaf-shapes across a face she did not know. They looked young though, which assuaged her initial apprehension.

Hello— Ibis called back to him as she paused, ducking her head beneath a low hanging branch covered in pale bark, —I'm sorry, did I disturb you with my chatter? Her ears spun, settling in to an awkward vee before front-facing again. She couldn't make out much about the stranger besides presuming he was young; he had sounded young, maybe around her own age, but the rest of him was shrouded in shadow.