If she notices his flicker of displeasure at the sight of her, she either ignores it or simply doesn’t care. There wasn’t much that offended her. When she was younger, she had simply been too outgoing and friendly to be put off by the iciness of others. Despite being born into flames and chaos she had still harbored a youthful naivety, though reality had since ripped the remainder of that away. Now, slightly older and a little more jaded, she hears his irritated sigh and steps closer anyway. There is almost a dare glinting in her brightly colored eyes – wondering if he will just bluntly tell her to leave, and wondering if she would even listen. She’s never been a very good listener.
Instead he laughs, and inwardly her guard relaxes even if her face remains impassive. “Don’t worry, I’m not,” she jests in that dry way of hers, though there is almost a warmth to the smile that graces her lips now. “I don’t know you well enough to be concerned.” The upward tilt of her mouth implies she is still teasing, though there is an inkling of truth to it. She is not sure when she became so detached and separated from everyone else, but learning – or at least pretending – to not care seemed safer. She isn’t sure if she will ever be able to undo it.
“Aislyn,” she tells him in response to his own introduction. She angles her antlered head — she no longer notices the foreign weight of them, and she hardly remembers what it felt like to be without them — to observe him a little more closely, noticing his own horns, though she does not comment on them. “Where were going that was so important?” Or what were you running from? she thinks, but does not ask. She knows what it means to run. She has been running for a long time now, and doubts she will ever stop.
Aislyn
she set fire to all the things that held her back
and from the ashes she stepped into who she always was
@[Warden]