when your whole life has gone to hell.
[/html]
She took his hand in her own and returned a polite shake, "Nice to meet you, Akello." She watched as his gaze traveled to Valkyrie, and so her own did; checking to make sure her daughter was still intact and no one had snatched her up in the moment of Ryan’s lapse in supervision. It always warmed Ryan to watch her little girl play with such curious eyes. There was a sense of innocence that Valkyrie had in being a child, and Ryan was afraid of the day when she would come to lose that. Everyone in their lives came to that point. She wished somehow she could freeze her child like this and protect her from all of the malevolence in the world.
"Thank you," Ryan responded, turning back to Akello with a smile. She of course felt the same, and this had been one of the few times that anyone else had expressed it. The rusty colored pelt was almost a mirror of Ryan’s own, yet the dark black stripe running down the girl’s back originated from something cruel. Ryan didn’t want to think about Hybrid at all. She only hoped that Valkyrie wouldn’t grow to look anything more like that bastard.
"Mind if I join you?" She asked as she moved to settle beside him on the log. She glanced towards Val again to affirm that she was alright, before turning back to Akello. "Where are you from originally?" Having never had a place to call home before Inferni, she wondered if others shared a similar past. She knew there were plenty of places beyond this where she had yet the opportunity to travel. And if those such opportunities arose, she wasn’t sure if she’d take them anyhow. "If you don’t mind me asking," she added.