First step forward

"A wolverine," she blurted out. "I mean, if you can get one. You can't get just any animal, can you?" She was still trying to wrap her head around the custom, but if she could really get anything she wanted.... "There was one that was nosing around our dens last spring, trying to pick at our caches. She was feisty." She'd giggled when the warriors had come back again and again, exhausted and bleeding and nothing to show for their efforts. The animal had left several calling cards before she eventually moved on.

Across the border, the scent of coyote drifted towards her, and she whipped her head around to see three figures slinking across the flatland, half-hidden in the underbrush, their own noses lifted to the air. Guard hairs began to prickle all up her back, and her gaze swiveled back to Sirius, who no doubt had sensed their presence at this point. "Well, there's something smaller."