”I couldn’t resist,” she jests with a lazy blink of her eyes as she watches him melt away a majority of the chill. Heat sinks back into her bones and into her muscles. The tension that coiled in her body eases as the heat of summer presses back into her flesh. ”You would have loved the Tundra if it still existed,” she says, more thinking aloud than anything. She just barely recalls the bitter winds and freezing snow. It contrasted so heavily with the warm humidity of the Jungle. Her coat has been sleek year-round then and she had been leaner due to the daily obstacles she traipsed to explore her home. Nayl had been different then. She was a child of the Jungle, but with no voice. Her presence was fleeting, inconsistent. That’s why they didn’t trust her in this new world. They wanted the panther to be their Queen, but her reign lasted as long as the seasons.
Nayl finally found her place.
For the first time in her life, a great majority of Beqanna knows her name and knows her feats. She carries her pride which is perhaps why she is wounded at Ruan not knowing even a name. He knows nothing of her, not even from where she lives. Her stomach churns and her blood heats. An offence, she muses, but then she takes pause with a heavy breath. He knows her now, at least, as she hears him taste her name for the first time. A shudder runs down the length of her spine – is it because she enjoys how it rolls off his tongue or because her whiskers and muzzle are still kissed with a layer of frost? A white plume coils from her nostrils, winding until it hits the warm air above them and dissipates. Nayl inches away then, albeit briefly, and rubs her nose against her leg. The moisture trickles down, immediately melting beneath the radiant smile of the sun.
For a long while, she savors the stillness of her own voice to hear the low baritone of his. He offers her a visit – immediately, even – and she struggles to turn away the opportunity. ”Sure,” she replies with a casual roll of her shoulders, subduing the formalities of strangers. ”Be careful with the honest company you want,” her fiery eyes twinkle with mischief, ”because some may be more honest than you want. Like me, I suppose,” a quiet chuckle flutters from her mouth like the whispers of butterfly wings.
”Let’s see this new and improved Taiga,” she adds as she turns toward the distant forest. Her eyes look at Ruan then find their destination in the haze of the distance. ”I have questions that I want to ask at some point. Nothing bad,” and with a tilt of her head, Nayl begins the journey to his home.
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