Hushed Willows east of the sun

Valiant's ears flicked toward the sound of another's approach. Somehow, he hadn't expected to run into anyone during his little trip down memory lane. The willows were a sacred place within his memories, but the presence of an interloper quickly began to erode this concept. That was disheartening — but at least there might soon be good company.

His nose twitched inquisitively as the other emerged from the brambles. He noticed first that this was not one of the wolves that now frequented his birthplace, and second that the wolf was very pretty. Which would have been fine, except the other's scent was distinctly male.

What? Valiant thought to himself, wondering if he'd been transported to another realm when utter nonsense came out of the stranger's mouth. Perhaps he'd followed the trail of a predatory fae Sunspot liked to warn them about, and was now about to be eaten. This doubt followed him even as the stranger offered a more conventional greeting, and showed on Valiant's face as he began to suspect that the "wolf" before him was the one that'd lured him into this trap. It would explain his confusing allure, at least.

"Yes, lovely," said Valiant, struggling to recall how one was supposed to tell a fae in disguise from a real wolf. The problem was that there were so very many different kinds of faeries; black dogs and banshees, boggarts and ghouls, the selk and the dryads. Which ones were dangerous? Even if he could remember this, he couldn't recall which ones were supposed to be beautiful.

He'd always thought the really pretty ones were supposed to look like girls.

And, well — maybe it was a very confused fae? Maybe it didn't quite know how wolves worked, and so it had a female body and a male scent, and so it was really just fine that Valiant thought he — she — was beautiful.

All this was getting him nowhere.

"Are you hungry?" he asked, thinking that a gift of food might help him escape this encounter unscathed. If the fae was looking for a meal, he hoped he could provide one that was not himself.

please forgive him for being so dumb