She hummed with a horse voice. The previous night's conversations with the vette had born fruits. She awoke in the morning cold, but rested. They sneered and giggled at her from tree tops and behind roots, and led her to the places she needed to go. The Lady wore a faint smile on her mouth as she traversed the landscape, searching with a determined air. Her precious belongings were trussed to her back, old pieces of worn clothing and half-decayed rope holding them in place. She moved with grace, as if dancing, and the tattered remains of her dress complimented her movements. Haugtussa, one of them whispered, and she shot the vette a sharp smile, proud and beaming, before jumping onwards. Over roots, across paths - she did not follow the usual trails left by humans, prey or wolves. She chose the thickest vegetation, and moved through them without a care. They clutched her dress and almost tore it, but she did not notice. Her gray eyes was deep in a different world - a world where the forest was the same thick forest, but where lithe creatures teemed amongst the frozen roots and leaves and marsh-plants. They led her safely; she knew, because she had offered them the last of her spices the night before.

Reaching the clearing again, she entered the more treacherous open spaces, where death could lurk. Somewhere, down there, she was. Mew could be forgiven for her betrayal, but there were conditions. Turning, she faced the thigh-high creature that stood next to her, strange-looking and eerie. Vesle spoke with it in a language she knew, but the words that exited her mouth would not make sense to any other living creature. The string of incomprensible speech was only halted for so and so long, as if a reply was recieved. Satisfied, Vesle continued onwards in a slightly different direction, before halting and repeating the action. The vette gave her directions, Vesle knew this, and saw this. The battered Lady that stood in the snow in a tattered dress and wild hair was a somewhat different picture than what Vesle saw when she looked in the mirror of still or frozen water. A tiny trickle of blood slowly made its way down her fur towards the snow, from a tear in the skin on her shin.

So preoccupied was she, that she had not noticed the stranger's scent, nor heard him approach. Her senses were tuned on to a different focus, searching, moving and speaking softly with her companions who jumped with ease through the brush around her, never even startling a leaf. But her body was not as delicate as theirs, and she made a ruckus moving through her surroundings. She stood there in the clearing oblivious to anything but the low mutterings of the vette, and his indications as to where to go next. He gave a dance in the tall weeds and grass, playfully keeping his secrets from her, and the female mumbled hopeful questions in strange words at him. Soon, Vesle knew she would find her mother's remains; these ones would lead her right, and then she would claim them as her own.

Startled at the sound of a stranger's noise, she twisted in a flash, alert and suspicious. How had he come so close? How had he managed to approach her without her noticing? Nevertheless, her tail was raised in a clear display of dominance, and the confusion she felt upon spotting his companion did not lessen her uncertainty. His intention of not startling her had backfired, and she was all wariness and on edge. The creature at her feet cackled and ran off, further distracting her. She looked at it and shouted a plea for it to stay before it disappeared in the bushes, and she turned her attention back to the male in front of her. "I was fine," she said, narrow-eyed and her voice cold and hostile. He'd just ruined a good thing by scaring the vette off. "What do you want?" Her stance remained alert, ready to attack - or flee - at any moment should he pose a threat. She did not trust males who could move through her forests without a sound and scent.

He reacted to her liking, at least. Once he shrunk and sat, she glanced once more behind her shoulder, to see if she could find out where the vette had leapt, but there was no sign of him. The gray lady muttered cursewords under her breath, and her cold irises returned to the male in front of her as he explained himself. "You did not frighten me," she proclaimed, almost with childish stubbornness. "I was just caught unawares, that's all." It sounded much better the way she said it. Even she had not noticed the scent of blood, and she glanced around her as if checking if there was blood, though she found nothing. Her stance remained the same, and her arms were puffed up, claws on her hands still ready to grab him if she felt there was need. Or, of course, to just leap in another direction and flee. Whichever worked.

She was almost thawing enough to straighten her spine from the battle-ready stance she held when she spotted another of the vette, giggling in a screeching voice as he flew across the ground right in front of her, exiting the clearing to the left of her as soon as he had come. Her head followed him and her eyes widened when she spotted him, but there was no time for reacting properly. Vesle was too distracted by the male's presence. She muttered again in disappointment as the cackle of the creature dissipated. "Whatever you thought— can't you see this lady is busy? Huh?" Really. What was his point anyway? Sneaking up on her like that, and now another vette had just taunted and escaped her. How incredibly annoying.