[ P ] Chance Encounter

Luneth had traveled far since her encounter with the beautiful banduri, Yvaine. She wanted to see more of the land, wanted to encounter more wolves. So far, she had, with little encounters here and there, some friendly, some not so much. But, that was the way of life, the way of socializing. Some were better at it than others. Luneth didn’t consider herself a great socializer, but she knew she was kind and gentle, and for most that was enough to prompt a decent interaction. Not with all, however. Luneth paused in her steps, shaking the thoughts away as she turned her gaze up.

Pines and conifers stood towering over her, the branches reaching out towards each other, instead of towards the sky like the limbs of mighty oaks and other trees. She tilted her head slightly to the side, studying them for a moment. ‘How I wish that trees could talk to me,’ she thought to herself. ‘Then I would truly know all that there is to know about this land.’ But that wasn’t how things worked — trees and wolves could not speak, although feeling the breezes gently twist through the trunks of the trees, she felt almost as if they were trying to.

What were they trying to tell her, she wondered.

Luneth sighed, lowering her onyx gaze to the path that she walked, slowly starting forward again. She couldn’t help, however, the small smile that touched her charcoal lips — this place seemed peaceful, serene, even. It was quiet, but not devoid of the scents of others. Countless unidentifiable scents crossed her path, each distinct in its own way, each denoting a different individual. This forest, it would seem, was alive with wolves. As she had passed some of the strange ruins that dotted the kingdom some ways back, she had almost thought that she’d seen the movement of pelts within, but she couldn’t quite be sure. It wouldn’t surprise her at this point — the wolves here made use of the standing structures, and while they made little sense to a girl who had never seen such things before, she found beauty in them, and more so, saw resilience in the wolves who utilized them.

The petite woman continued forward on her path, observing the environment around her with wide-eyed curiosity. She lowered her eyes to the path ahead and spotted an earthen pelt crossing her path. She paused, before cautiously calling out a greeting, to both alert herself to the stranger and to get a gauge on how they would react to her presence. If their reaction was bad, rather than standing and fighting, Luneth knew she would break farther into the trees, using her small size and speed to escape and hide from any hostile encounters — but if the other was friendly enough, she might just get to ask some questions about the part of Rionnach that she found herself in now.

“Hello there!” Luneth said, lifting her stump of a tail in greeting.

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