Sunbeam Lair iii. protect yourself for none else shall

a single eye peers back at her, and she is reminded suddenly of her father, having seen no other with his injuries. unconsciously, the similarity has her somewhat more trusting of the stranger already, and her own tail wafts at her hocks. "I'm Dawn," she offers easily in return, taking a step nearer the woman to a more comfortable distance. 

they seem almost opposites - she, pale and heavy with pups, and Rhaella, sylph-like and wrapped around in jeweled night. something about her seemed foreign, ethereal, her scent one of a wanderer and so, "are you new to the wilds?" what she really wanted to know was what she was doing here, how such a sylph-like woman had attained such a terrible wound, and just where she came from. but she was not tactless, nor nosey, and so settled on the simple question for the time being.