Silence stretched onward, but eventually his voice echoed throughout the forest - but unlike the first time she heard it, when his tone had been dark and nearly alluring, this was with a childlike wonder.

"You came back."

Yellow eyes glowed from one tree, but he stayed in the shadows, claws digging into the trunk. Sure, he had threatened her, but a large part of him believed she would never return, or she'd bring those friends of hers to try and defeat him, or... a million other scenarios. Keeping her word hadn't been one of them.