He softens so slightly, though he does not warm, and she wonders why he insists on staying so far away, silently wishes he would come close. She hides her fear of isolation in her desire to rescue him, but her facade is slipping, her gaze growing dim, and the fear of the night gnaws corners of her mind, smoky fingers of black reaching into her heart. Alone, she thinks, we are always alone; and a small part of her shudders and cracks, though she does not look closely enough to allow it to break.

Mournful, hopeful, falling into herself, the girl's reprieve is suddenly shattered as pain arcs graceless in the nerves of her hock. Onyx eyes blink, meet golden gaze; the kitsune moves like a shadow on the wind, pressing dark slight body against her bright foreleg, the heat of his affection dancing between trio tails. Never alone, he tells her again, licking the spot where his teeth found her flesh. His voice is gentle but firm in her mind, bright and uplifting, a light in the dark, and she feels a smile return to her lips, feels the fear ebb slightly from her throat. Never alone, she agrees, lowering her head to caress his large ears, blowing in them softly and making him squeal. You'll always be my brother. We're always stuck together.

Caneo's words break the space between them, catching the copper child and taking her by surprise. She looks up at him through lashes of coal, tilting her head without raising her neck. His offer of help is unexpected and sweet; she knows not what to make of it, or how to react. A soft bemused smile creeps onto her face. She nods, silent, white dipped forelock splaying across confused black eyes. "I'm afraid of the dark," she confesses, and suddenly her mind feels light, relieved. Have I told no one that? No one but me. The kitsune licks the rim of her nose before bounding away to sit at Caneo's feet. The girl does not rise, but her voice escapes, tentative and midnight and suddenly shy. "But I feel braver here, next to a friend." She wonders if this is what he needs to hear, if this will bring her closer to unlocking his trust. Will it make him open, to hear her say friend? Will he then understand he need not be alone?

She does not admit that this is what she needs, that her heart is in her throat and her head is ablaze as she wonders and waits for him to respond, to confirm or deny that she has not made a mistake.

Sloping bronze shoulders straighten at last, fiery chestnut coat dancing as musculature shifts and she raises to his height, a smile returned to the moon-shattered face. Her brother sits happy at silver cloven hooves; he has none of her fear, no doubt in his mind, and his relaxed face is mildly smug, as though to confirm that yes, the boy belongs to them now. "I... don't really know," her low alto confesses in response to his frown. She has never been sure how she did gain Natraj; he is her brother, and there is really nothing more. But her fateful night in Ampere's company shed some light onto the many ways in which one might bond, and the Earth God's many words ring strong in her ears. "They can be earned, I think, from the Gods." She fades off, thoughtful, wondering gaze shifting to the sky. She thinks of the Gods, for she's met all but one... and she thinks of the Moon, of her mother, and suddenly aches to know where she is, yearns for the answers to an existence unexplained.

@[Caneo]