“I didn’t expect to run into one of my kind here, even more so, someone such as yourself”, the woman called Alwyna said with a smile.

His kind?

Ah.

That cleared up a lot of things for Beowulf.

She was a wendigo.

Now, it all made sense.

“A pleasure to meet you”, he gave a formal greeting.

“Master Rufous! There is a slight problem in the main building, the predecessor is calling for you”, a guard came inside asking for the chief, Azlan noticed it was the same person who had been guarding the entrance.

“Can’t it be taken care of by others? As you can see I’m quite busy”, Rufous answered.

“He insists that it has to be you”, the guard was between a rock and a hard place, he was just a messenger but he had to deal with pressure from both sides.

“Alright..” Rufous sighed. “I’m afraid you’ll have to excuse me, Beowulf”.

“It’s fine, I was also about to leave”, Beowulf said getting up from the chair.

“Oh, leaving so soon?” Rufous asked.

“I have some matters to attend to”, he replied.

He wasn’t lying, he had to take care of the repairs and one other particular item. Although, they were scheduled for tomorrow morning.

“Alright, but on one condition. Come tomorrow night as well, we didn’t get much time to talk tonight”, he said as he was wearing his wool coat.

“I’ll try..” Azlan replied.

“See you tomorrow then”, Rufous turned his head towards the woman. “Lady Alwyna”, he gave a nod and parted alongside the guard.

There was nothing for Beowulf to do here anymore, he also followed suit and promptly left the building.

“Wait”, he had just entered the courtyard when he heard a voice come from behind.

It was Alwyna.

“Yes?” he inquired.

“You’ve been awfully wary of me all day”, her tone was firm but polite. “Will you stop running away? I’m not going to eat you up, you know”.

It seemed she was aware of the encounters they’ve had all day.

In fact, any normal person would be.

It was Beowulf who was quite inept at socializing, and had presumed she hadn’t taken much notice of him.

“It’s.. not that I’m wary of you”, he said, unsure of himself.

He was indeed on his guard near her, but there was something else about her. It seemed the snow leopard had sensed it to some degree as well. His behavior turned absent-minded when he was near her.

“Then, what is it?” she asked.

“I’m not sure”, he replied truthfully. “I become inattentive when I’m near you, for a lack of better words”.

“You could have come up to me and said ‘Hello’”, she said in a care-free manner.

“Wouldn’t it be unpleasant if a stranger came up and initiated a conversation?” he questioned rhetorically.

“Depends on how you go about it. What I do know is that it’s definitely better than simply staring”, she joked.

That made sense.

“I suppose that’s true”, he faintly smiled.

The moonlight was shining in the courtyard through the veil of a cloudy Mountalian sky.

“I am Alwyna”, she held her hand out for a greeting.

“Azlan”, he gripped her hand, and went for an informal handshake.

And as soon as he did a wave of pleasant warmth surged through his body, alongside a tad bit of melting sweetness.

“I thought we were already introduced”, he said in a hypothetical tone, as they let go of each other’s hands.

“Please, that kind of formal introduction is the same as being not introduced at all”, She replied.

“Why do you think that?” he asked with a tinge of curiosity in his tone.

“You didn’t get to know me at all back then did you? Sometimes we have an opinion of other’s personalities in our own minds, usually wrong. Greetings should be for the purpose of knowing someone. Look at it yourself, in the brief time we have talked; your opinion of me has already begun to deviate from your mental image, hasn’t it?” she gave an explanation.

It was true, he hadn’t initially pegged her for a person with a relatively easy-going personality.

Coming out of his absent-minded state, he realized it was getting late.

Beowulf had talked to her enough already.

His mind wanted him to leave... but somehow he couldn’t bring himself to.

Someway along this brief conversation, he had begun to appreciate it.

He remembered they were staying at the same inn.

“Are you alright? You’ve been lost in thoughts for a while”, she brought her face closer to his as if she was trying to see what was going on inside his head.

“Would you like to walk back together to the inn?” he proposed.

“Hmm”, she appeared to think for a while. “I have some work here tonight, so I can’t go back to the inn now”, she answered. “But since you’ve been meaning to leave for a while now, I think our conversation should be postponed to tomorrow. Meet me at the inn in the morning”.

“Ah, alright”, he had said it on a whim so he wasn’t really disappointed.

“Later then”, she gave a wave and walked back into the hall.

It was unlike him to engage in casual conversations. He hadn’t talked this much even with the leopard and that guy was really talkative.

Realizing that there was no point in thinking about it, he headed towards the inn.

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