Illion, ever the open book, froze in place with his mouth hanging open. The prospect of more humans was terrifying, yet he very much wanted to be brave. Humans were appealing to him that way a good girl was drawn to the bad boy. He liked this little feeling of defiance. 
Plus, what if they’d been wrong about humans all along? Maybe there was a chance humans and elves could coexist close to one another, not this whole separation and avoidance. Which was something he’d never understood, but he didn’t really question his elders.
He never felt he had reason to doubt them, until now that was. Nikita didn’t have fangs, or claws that he could see, and she certainly didn’t look primitive or scary. 
It never occurred to him to wonder why the elves told him such stories if they weren’t true. The truth was fairly simple as it was. The elves just preferred their way of life, and didn’t want it getting mixed with the ways of humans. Over time the hate that separated them grew, but at it’s core the reasoning was stretched thin. 
Illion remained clueless of this. As he was with basically everything else. He had no idea what the future had in store for him, and if he had any inkling about it he would have thought to make friends with this human and never return to his village. 
What if they could be friends? What if he could introduce humans and elves to each other? That thought was hastily replaced with a new one as she spoke again, her compromise as much of a threat as anything else. 
But he understood where she was coming from, better to ere on the side of caution.
He half expected her to pull out her machete when she moved, yet she offered him her hand...This was confusing more than anything else. What was he supposed to do with it? Was he supposed to respond to it with? He raised his own hand looking back and forth, almost as if he were going to take hers, but then he dropped it and stepped back. But he nodded in agreement, that could at least be understood. 
“Uh, okay.” He said, quickly changing the subject. “What’s your name?” Humans had names, right? “My name’s Illion.” And with that he was back to his bouncy self, asking every question that popped into his head. “Do you live really far? Are the other humans like you? Why do you have such a big blade for berry picking? Why…” He began to trail off, his questions growing to numerous to keep up with.
She could probably ask most of those in return and he might answer without thinking it through. He knew in the back of his head he should keep quiet, that he was putting the entire village in danger just continuing to stand there. The balance of the elven way was at risk of being tainted by foul human influence.
Just how the two worlds managed to isolate themselves for this long was a mystery to him, but most of life was a mystery to him so really what was the difference? The more time he spent just staring at this human the more he began to question everything he’d been told.