Restless Stroll

Quote:

mercianne

Walk | Talk | Think

She was so inattentive in her wandering, simply enjoying herself, that at first she nearly missed the presence of the stranger in the wood with her until she was very close near him. Her dark brown eyes panned left through the trees, skipping over their familiar rough trunks and right over the darkly colored wolf in the same moment, and as she recognized a second late the out of place figure she did a quick double take. Her steps, which had been light and carefree, lacking any caution or hesitancy, froze amid the snow, her body instantly following suit. Natural distress and fear roiled through her for a frantic moment, always overly cautious and fearful when meeting strangers, particularly outside of the safe zone that she considered her home to be. Heart racing in her chest, she stared with momentary wide eyed panic at the stranger.

And felt her pulse and nerves calm slowly. He was smiling, gently and without teeth, a friendly look if ever there was one. Whatever his intent here, it was not one of ill will or harm. In fact, as she stilled the overactive imagination that she possessed, she reminded herself that it had been she to sneak up on him and not the other way around. He had merely been somewhere that she was not expecting.

Still, caution seemed to best route to take, and though she smiled gently and timidly back, her tail giving a faint wag behind her, she still averted her eyes from those of the stranger, not wanting to mistakenly set off his anger if he took offense to such a gesture. So as she stared at the spot just before him, down and well away from his gaze, she spotted the way in which he held his paw, and winced as he set it upon the ground. His deep yet gentle greeting sounded between them, and Mercianne hesitated only a moment in answering in kind. "Hello." She stalled a moment longer, warring with herself whether she should say more or not. Thoughts of what the Lead Healer Asheni had told her came back, about healing being an art that took not only skill with plants and herbs but with compassion and patience as well. Should she ask? Should she wait? Should she just ignore the way he had favored his paw? Praying silently that she was not crossing some unknown boundary, the timid wolf ducked her head slightly and asked, her tone as unobtrusive and gentled with concern as she could make it so as to earn as little retribution for it as she could, "Are you okay?"