Emberflame Ridge in your most frail gesture are things which enclose me

She did not cower before him while he loomed there. She stood tensely at first, but there was not a flash of teeth, and nobody came out of the forest around them to defend her. Her presence here wasn't some kind of trick to lure him in close before an attack. Her eyes were wide, glossy, and a startling shade of violet; 'violent violet', he thought.

A part of him wanted her to shrink down and be afraid — that's what he was used to. That, or attitude. A volley of words he didn't care to parry, an insult. Something like that was common for Revui. But she was quiet, watching him as intensely as he watched her. It would be so easy to gather her up against him. Pin her to the ferns. Stain the blushing coat of her's with yellow. Maybe he would come away from this with a belly covered in rusty brown.

It doesn't matter — She breathes an answer to a question he's forgotten about. He remembers in the next moment, wishing he had said something clever, that he could be clever, sharp thinking and quick like Merrick, or Toad, or any number of people he's met of late. Oh, he murmurs, —me too. That doesn't make sense, you idiot sandwich.

Words. What good were words.

I'm... I was, on my way home. He knew she hadn't asked. There was no point in offering this information, what did she care? Maybe she would come home with him. That was a stretch — if she did, Ikkalrok might emerge from her den, and then what? Chaos? The girl would be annihilated by the bear-woman. No, she couldn't come home with him. But if there were cougars here, she couldn't stay either - right?

Do you really think cats are here? I could walk with you. Scare them away. Maybe if he was lucky a giant cat would show up and Revui could prove just how effective he was in battle, that would appeal to her right? Girls liked that, right? He raises his eyes to the tree line, finally looking around at the muddy shadows surrounding them with a more serious expression; his jaw sets firmly and his face slides in to a stone-faced caricature of his default expression. He's trying too hard to be his normal self, hoping what worked for Ikkalrok would work here too.

Otherwise he might just give in to that fantasy playing in his head.