The half-elf's smile earned an easement of the strain in Rilana's face. The iciness in her blue eyes faded and she smiled in return. But nothing was said while Ayla dug out a sheet of parchment and gave it a scribble. The moon fey wasn't sure what to make of this, wondering curiously if there was some strange tradition she hadn't hard of before, or if perhaps the woman was simply a mute.

Taking the paper in her pale hand, she glanced at the words and then back up at Alya. The woman didn't seem to be expecting her to write back, so she took the whole thing in stride. 

[color=00aeef]"The pleasure is mine. I'm Rilana Aurorime' and this is Khona. He's a gryphon, in case you've never seen his ilk before. They usually keep to themselves, which is probably good since they tend to behave like [b]brats[/b]."[/color]

Thinking that his Mistress was adequately distracted, Khona had scooted a little further down the road and heaved himself to his feet. The front two looked like the cruel claws of an eagle, but the back looked like sturdy lion paws. He shook the travel dust from his wings, and one of the incredible long primary feathers fluttered to the ground. He flinched a little when Rilana called him a brat, the tip of his long fluffy tail giving a haughty twitch, and he reached out to bat at the feather almost nonchalantly, tilting his head back over his shoulder to gaze at the moon fey and utter a soft mew, as if to say [i]'You love me anyways.'[/i]

Offering the paper back, Rilana continued, unable to keep a small smile from her lips at Khona's antics. [color=00aeef]"And who is your direwolf friend? I have never seen a red one before. The packs around Frigmount tend to be all silver and grey like wraiths in the trees, with the occasional black."[/color]