Night falls across the valley, and with it goes the consciousness of sleeping souls, waning in the loss of sunlight. Lakota is not part of this group, and instead her eyes open to the darkening of the sky around her. This is the time where she thrives, while others are drowsy and sleeping with loved ones. At night she watches over these innocent sleeping kin of hers, walks the line of power and keeps them safe from harm. It keeps her from being subjected to their passing gazes, the invisible form she obtains when she walks about in daylight. She is unknown, unwanted, and she is more than aware of this fact. Until her magic is needed, her name is never spoken, never whispered in the minds of those around her.

She is an evanescent being.

As she walks, Aodaun separates from her side, exploring what she cannot. It is silent aside from the rattling of the dwindling leaves against the bare limbs that hold them captive, the breath she exhales in a timely rhythm, and the distant whisper of the waterfall somewhere in the bowels of the land. Concentration is broken by the flash of another's viewpoint in her mind. Focusing on the connection that thrives like a silver strand between herself and her companion, she delves into his mind, sees through his eyes. Locket appears in her vision, wounded but seemingly content. Lakota sighs, her thoughts actualized, and with a quiet whisper to Aodaun of her impending arrival she withdraws.

It doesn't take long to find him, he is a magnetic pull on her, a constant reminder that they are connected. Locket hasn't moved much, Aodaun staring at him, not out of sight but not moving closer to reveal himself. Lakota slips from the cover of the shadow of the trees beside him, face to face with Locket, and steps towards him. "Be still, friend. I must heal you." She pauses before touching him, brow raised towards him to make sure he will not be taken by surprise. It is an easy process, eyes slipping closed in an almost intimate gesture, feeling the power of the earth surge through her from below, traveling through her body as if it's a conductor, and pouring into his wounds with the magical influence of healing. When she is done she is mildly out of breath and considerably more tired than before, but she gives a wisp of a smile. "Care to tell me why you didn't seek me out earlier? Or why you're awake at such an hour?"

Aodaun does not understand the inflections of his words, and merely gives a soft huff of a noise, awaiting the moment when his bonded reveals herself in the moonlight. It seems to calm Locket, so the bear is content, at least. Lakota on the other hand is proud of his reaction, and gives a comforting smile when she steps out of the shadows, not wanting to excite him any further by not announcing her presence. He remains still when she asks him to, and she can't help but idly notice that he smells pleasant when she presses her muzzle to his shoulder tentatively. It's like...pine and cinnamon. Calming. It makes concentrating on the targets she sees in her mind, his injuries, much easier. When she steps away, wounds knitted and blood replenished, bruises unwound and skin patched over, she realizes he is that little bit taller than her and smiles up at him hesitantly. Smiling isn't something she's used to, that's for sure.

He thanks her and she ducks her head shyly, for it's said so sincerely, she doesn't know how to react. "Don't be silly, you don't need to thank me," she said softly, lamely, not knowing what else to say. Usually she was thanked and then brushed aside, the concentrated gratitude was too much for her to handle, when she was so used to being ignored. She gave a soft, bitter laugh at his compliment. "Gift? Locket, you surely jest. I wasn't...this is the Earth Lord, not me." She bites her cheek and cuts off her previous sentence, voice gentle, not wanting to chide him when he had just given her a very rare compliment.

Looking back up into his emeralds, just as vibrant as her own violets, she rolls her eyes playfully at him. "Locket, you would have interrupted my patrol, if anything. I do nothing but bustle around waiting for someone to get injured, do I really seem so scary?" And she gives a nervous giggle, not sure if that was an appropriate joke to make, since she could at times be terrifying and she knew it. Brushing her gaze over his body, she admires the way he glows like nutmeg in the silverlight of the moon shining through the dying leaves above. She jolts when he answers her, cheeks suddenly hot for staring like a starstruck filly, and blinks owlishly at him as if not hearing his reply.

"Must I force you down to get you to sleep? Honestly, and everyone wonders why they need so much patching up," she chides playfully, though her voice is rushed and nervous, trying to cover up her mistake of staring at him so strangely. Aodaun gives a chirping bark when Locket deigns to look at him, standing and striding on powerful paws to sit closer to them, watching them with intelligent eyes. Lakota's gaze, taken by Aodaun when he moved, jumps back to Locket when he begins to move.

He circles her like a cougar, eyeing her, but his smile is teasing. Regardless it makes her duck her head shyly, unused to the attention. This was why she moved about at night like an owl! But it was just her luck to get caught in the claws of a nocturnal cat when she did. "I-I..." Oh hell, why was her voice going against her now too?! Flicking her tail to curl around her ankles, her ears twitched and turned, one ear constantly moving to mirror where he walked. "Patrol?" It's a meek, squeaky answer, and her unsure tone shifts it into a question instead of a statement.

Meanwhile Aodaun watched them with thick amusement in his lime eyes, and if one were to know him well, they'd almost say he had a sly, wicked look about him.

Lakota doesn't know why he insists, all it serves to do is fluster her further. She was a creature of the shadows, secrecy and stealth. Pinned beneath his gaze, she felt bare and weak, not something she was used to feeling. It was odd, foreign, and Lakota knew she was waltzing through unknown territory here. Guilt gnawed at her, Ktulu's ruby eyes in her mind, but then a flash of gold appeared and she remembered Midas. What was a little bit of flirting, even if she could hardly return it, when Ktulu had been with Midas while proclaiming love for her? The guilt didn't recede much, remembering also how Ktulu had chided her so fiercely for claiming the cherry mare still loved the golden man. She was conflicted, but Locket's eyes were calm and charming, and his smile made her turn warm with happiness. Maybe it was okay to just relax and not think about all that stuff. She thought about it enough as it was.

"Thank you," she manages to say softly, raising her head to smile at him. Even if it still made her insides squirm to receive such compliments, she wouldn't rudely turn them away in silence either. He looks at her like he isn't sure how to respond to her questioning, and she laughs after he replies, with sureness but a flutter of hesitation, barely discernible. "I'm sorry, that's probably a hard question to answer. If you say no, it might make me seem weak, but if yes, it might be an insult. I didn't mean to put you in a hard place," she laughed softly, such a rare sound, but like little bells clinging together cheerily. Hardly having thought of the question when it had playfully slipped her lips, she was both amused and feeling a little guilty for making him answer.

A little smirk colors her features and she tilts her head at him. This is fun, she thinks to herself. She could learn to enjoy this. "Are you quite sure? And here I was trying to hide my desire to see you every night in a question," she sighed, faking a wistful expression sorrowfully. Laughing it off, she pricked her ears as he began speaking again, and her brow arched humorously as he mentioned forcing her down to get her to sleep. "Is that a challenge? I may be little, but the bigger they are the harder they fall, sweetie. Maybe later we can figure out if you really can?" She laughed and her eyes glinted with challenge, already envisioning a spar between the two of them. It would certainly be...interesting.

Of course then Locket had to go and say something so sudden that her proudly held crown dropped, veiling her face with her onyx tresses, so flustered she felt like exploding at the seams. That, or running away. Both seemed like pretty viable options. Of course she manages to somehow come up with a coherent answer, though her mind is in shambles and she's stuttering like a fool. Locket takes mercy on her, though, and soon she is breathing a shaky exhale. Lakota was horrendous at accepting compliments it was almost hilarious.

Trotting up to his side, she cast a shy glance at him from the corner of her eye. Then she looked away just as quickly, not sure what to say.