The Wall -- echoes of thundering hooves

Pity, he decided, the corners of his mouth turning down as he observed the tender way in which the shewolf moved. It seemed like he wasn't the only one around having trouble with climbing, these days. But she insisted she was alright - Grayday uttered a skeptical uh-huh - and had the gall to ask if she'd disturbed him, which quickly turned the male's frown in the other direction.

"Yeah," he replied. Clearly. Why else would he be here. You're scaring the kids, he wanted to say, but he didn't want to reveal that he'd been dumb enough to keep them here - not the safest place, he was realizing. Maybe they'd need to mark further up in the mountains, or maybe they'd just need to move the rendezvous. It wasn't like they had pregnant women or newborns. "It generally disturbs me when strangers move toward my borders," he explained, sitting down on a relatively flat rock and watching the woman flounder. "I try to keep tabs on anyone nearby."