conduit

Ah, what fun this young female was! Kai was flattered, and made no effort to hide the visible signs that he was pleased with her comment. Had he been here a year ago? He'd been here around then, but it was hard to remember exactly when, and he knew she wasn't looking to fact-check his statements anyway. "I come and go," he admitted, offering her a wink of his own. "But I can guarantee it's far lovelier when I'm around. These trees really compliment my coat quite well." Cocky? Sure, but he was mostly being playful. "And yours, too," he added, almost as if it was simply an afterthought. They'd likely do a much better job at it if they were in full bloom, but maybe the next time he visited the redbud forest he'd be even luckier.

"I suppose," Kai answered, a response to her own statement. "Though I'd argue there's beauty in the destruction of things too. All depends on how you look at it." In a way the volcano's eruption had been quite beautiful, though personally he'd been glad to escape its wrath. "What's your story anyway, Diana?" He squinted at her for a long minute, scrutinizing, as if he could tell anything about her at all from simply staring. Her eyes - sharp and intense - certainly said something about her character, but he wasn't quite sure what. "Let me guess. You're a wanderer, like I am. You've never found a place to call home, but you're not entirely opposed to it either." Almost comically he bit his tongue as he lolled from the side of his mouth, trying to search her blue eyes for answers. "You're spiritual, or maybe you just have strong convictions, but you don't strike me as half as weak-willed as most of the wolves I'd come across. Am I right about any of that?" Maybe he'd missed his target completely but he didn't care, he was just taking a shot in the dark.