Eska fiddled with tufts of hair. She'd been fixated on figuring out how to create thread, or yarn, and shedded fur from various visitors was one of the things available during winter.
Eid nodded. An improvement, honestly. Hopeful, even. Perhaps they'd get to pottery, come spring; Right now there was only two crude bowls, one filled with meltwater, and a naturally-formed piece of stone with a hollow indent in the middle. A gift from an earth spirit.
Eska tilted her head and glanced at the door, her eyes sharp for a moment, until hesitation settled in. As a field mouse ran, touched Eska's foot, and then turned to Eid's floating figure, lifting its upper body with a nervous squeak, Eid's metaphorical heart sunk. She gave a reassuring smile to Eska, and walked through the door.
Eid looked up at the cyclopean moose... or elk, perhaps, staring down at her incorporeal form. She bowed, hovering over the snow in the yard around the strange mushroom-y cottage. "I offer my greetings to the ruler of the forest," she spoke, in a language learned from listening to the villagers. Then she waited.
The moose tilted its antlers, the drooping lichen waving in the crisp winter air.
*"A word passed on to me, of a spirit, audacious enough to tell the wolves not to hunt. That spirit is you."*
The voice was not spoken via mouth, but never-the-less, it was clearly heard. Sovereign.
Yet, Eid sensed hesitation in the words, a glance at the cottage behind her, with a wisp of wood-smoke rising from the chimney. A flicker of an eye... The cottage hid Eska's presence quite well, but a sovereign like the moose was likely picking up on something.
"Only within sight of the cabin," she quietly asserted. "I do not seek to assert rule over them, but those who choose to come, should do so in harmony." Her rebuttal, polite. passive.
*"You know me to be the sovereign, yet you would set law?"* A humph created condensed swirls of foggy breath from the spirit-animal's nostrils.
"Law? No. A boundary. They are free to be here, free to hunt... but they will be thought of less kindly, then." She smiled. Her wording... she could lie, but did not wish to, so her words were... open for interpretation, she supposed. She really should see if Eska was up to doing _some_ little bits of... *cultural arts*.
*"A boundary."* The Sovereign digested the word.
*"Wolves, foxes and bears mark their territory, birds call to set their limits. Spirits of earth, waters and trees have their whims. Beasts and birds protect their cubs and chicks, punishing those who attack them."*
A long pause followed. Eid waited patiently.
*"Yet, **Being thought upon kindly** is enough to keep the fox from devouring the rabbit?"*
Eid gave a small bow. "As you say."
The Sovereign paced, considering. its powerful shoulders shifting with clear muscles, even through the winter coat, the warm body steaming with tempered vitality.
Eid thought of the possible patterns of interaction. Likely, the Sovereign wished to be invited in, but the cottage was too small for it; It was too proud to ask, or to demand that Eska came out. Still...
"Would you like to hear me sing?" Eid interjected.
