The Heartwood eye for an eye, heart for a heart

He had saw her! She pooled to the forest floor and he emerged closer through the foliage—eyes warm—the rumble of his voice almost as pleasing as the sight he presented.

Righting herself—belly pressed to the snow-kissed ground—she studied him now, the hint of a smile tracing along her lips at the mention of disturbing her. She could have agreed—perhaps, she should have—a strange man, in a strange forest…

Instead, she pushed herself to her paws deftly, ears tracing back to her skull in quiet consideration as her eyes traced over his features. “Not at all,” she murmured, a paw lifting to tentatively reach out to graze the man’s own knuckles, softly, before retreating. “I find myself feeling very awake.”

Slowly, she relented—ivory haunches meeting to the ground as she kept her gaze trained upon the man. It would have been wise to resist the seasons call—but instead, she found her eyes coursing once more along the hide that draped over him. “Are you from one of the nearby clans?”