She pauses, stills, settles, and her eyes latch onto his, shadow-ears perking forward with unabashed curiosity. “What could we do Rho-nan?” his name is clumsy on her tongue, and she stumbles over the emphasis, nose curling in distaste as she finally spits it out.
Her muscles twitch as if annoyed at her for staying in one spot for too long, but she does not move—perhaps realizing that it would not matter how quickly she transported around him if he could block her access to the portal. She is not sure just how much control he had over the darkness, but she was not a dull creature. She knew she’d be affected.
Her tongue flicks against her lips again, and she reveals her inky black teeth again in a Jack-o'-lantern smile, eagerness flooding her features. “We could feast?” she looks down at the ground, delighted at the idea although her stomach did not rumble in anticipation. “Yes, Rho-nan, we could.” She moves toward him this time, silent as a ghost, prodding his stomach with her shadow muzzle. “We could eat and eat and eat until your belly popped.”
She laughs, the sound harsh. “Pop! Rho-nan, pop!”
She giggles wildly at the idea, the girlish noise disintegrating into a hoarse cackle that gets cut off as soon as the shadow creatures appear. Both ears swivel forward so close that they almost touch, and she stares down at them in excitement. Sniffing at the air, she moves forward, attempting to nudge any of them that were close enough to her. They were her, she realizes. Her childish excitement dissolves into distrust, and she backs up slowly. “What is Rho-nan asking the shadows now?” She stares at him, face growing hard.
like the moon, we borrow our light
{I am nothing but a shadow in the night}