Emberwood Only good things avoided me

just fyi: never feel the need to match post length. i don't do it, so you shouldn't have to.

The woman’s name was Kaori. Grezig filed the name away into her brain, though she wasn’t sure they’d ever meet again, She’d probably forget it in time. She dipped her head in a formal greeting to the woman. 

’Your tribe has an interesting name,’ Kaori commented.

Grezig let out a short puff of air from her nose—a small laugh—and smiled. “Yes,” she agreed. “One I am probably butchering.”

’Do your members come from faraway lands?’

Grezig looked around, thinking. “I am… not sure,” she admitted. “I only recently joined and don’t know much about my fellow packmates.” It was something embarrassing to admit to a stranger, but she certainly wasn’t going to lie. “That first name you used,” she continued, looking back at Kaori. “Rjūjin. That’s odd, too. Does it mean something?” 

There had been a time in Grezig’s life in which strange names would have agitated her and she would not have wanted to know more about such things. But that kind of prejudice happened less and less with her these days. The reason was probably a mix of things: more life experience; having a daughter who was extremely interested in religion and culture; living in a pack now with a strange name and strange ranks. Grezig had to admit that having more of an open mind had only been a good thing, though she occasionally strayed back into her old ways of thinking, and usually didn’t notice she had done so until afterwards.