Blacktail Deer Plateau A Stranger to This World

He seemed genuinely perplexed, perhaps even hurt, by her defensiveness. The tone of his voice softened her even more and she let her rigid tail fall a few notches. She felt particularly protective of the plateau because of its recent establishment and her own promotion to a sub-leader position. She intuited that Kisu was of no threat, though; his blunder was that he was oblivious.

When he voiced a question, Pied blinked and stiffened all over again. "Excuse me?" she questioned softly, feeling both mildly offended and strangely awkward about the personal nature of the question. Yet, seeing the flinch and the shame in his eyes, she relaxed again and added, "Talk about a non sequitur, Kisu. Why do you ask?"