no sh#@, sherlock!

A faint grin tugged at the woman’s lips, the first actual sign of mirth since they’d encountered each other. “At the very least, consider it a thank you for any help you might bring in feeding my people. Whether you decide to stay in the end is up to you, but I am willing to allow you a place to sleep where you won’t have to watch your back in the coming months—winter may well be harsh to loners who don’t offer their services as freely as you have, and they may be unwilling to allow another wolf to wander in peace. Either way, none are forced to stay in my pack.”

Her eyes shifted away to the shadowy forms of the nervous beasts, made skittish by the occasional tremor the infuriated volcano sent their way.

“As for the hunt, I’d love your assistance. I stand out, where you do not, and we can use that to our advantage. They’ll be focused on me, with luck, and not so aware of a stripy beast sneaking up upon them from behind. Again, with luck. That one there—do you see the limp?”

‘That one there’ was the shadowy form of a young deer. By its size, it was late or malnourished during the early seasons of its life. Something might have tried for it during the confusion wrought by the initial shock of the eruption, but whatever predator, if indeed any, assuming the young animal hadn’t been trampled by its own kin, was nowhere in scent.

“Should we bring that down, you will have a share of the kill, and I will tell you a little about Valhalla. Deal?”

Her teeth glinted in the distant red glow, eyes back on the man’s face as one pale brow point lifted.

Walk ---- "Speak" ---- "Hear" ---- Think