King Elk Forest I look around but I can't find you.

Zephrine felt pretty good. Sure, she'd finally reunited with her long lost family and didn't know anyone with any degree of certainty, but even with all of those unknowns floating around in her head, it was progress. She knew from previous experience that things could, and likely would, go downhill in a hurry.

She wondered if it had pained the beautiful woman to accept someone like her. Not the perfect Deorwine specimen by a long shot - but good enough, evidently. What would the King Elk say to that, then?

The girl made one more spritely leap across a gap in the foliage. When she landed this time it was atop a pile of leaf litter; the pile crunched and sagged beneath her weight, comprised of discarded twigs and old pine leanings hidden beneath a blanket of autumn. Zephrine tensed. Her tail puffed as she felt the ground give, expecting to fall, but she didn't.

As she disembarked the pile in favor of the path, a soft bark sounded. She tensed again and felt her tail thwack her hocks. It sickled almost to her belly.

So much for letting old habits die. "What?" There was a person staring at her and they'd said something. Zephrine was so self-involved in that moment that she hadn't caught it, or hadn't thought she'd heard properly. A moment later the subdued question clicked in her head. Her ears twitched.

"Oh, yes. Trying to find a fresh bite to eat, maybe stash some leftovers for winter. Are you... Also, hunting?" There was no mistaking the vaguely hollow quality of her voice, almost metallic, as she tried to sound invested and welcome at the same time. What came out was something closer to prepubescent.