Blacktail Deer Plateau there is only plan a

"Walk with me," he invited, and Shar-Kali did as she was bid, unfurling herself elegantly and standing to follow. She was in. Her success did not surprise her - the formidable matriarch was not a woman accustomed to failure. When she put her mind to something, it would come to pass - in one way or another. A wolf did not survive for near upon seven years without an iron will, a dragon's hide, and the tongue of a snake.

"I would wish to hear of your year alone," he said, "Of what spirits blessed you with life outside the protection of a pack." His voice was a song, and it soothing quality did much hinder Shar-Kali's flinch from surfacing when her least favourite word made an appearance. "If there were spirits involved, they certainly did not contribute much to my labours," she answered smoothly, flashing the side of Lasher's face a rueful smile. If his brain was addled by mystical beliefs, so be it - she was out of choices. "I tracked my daughter to this place. Her scent died away a number of sunsets ago, but she was here once. Between your wilds and the North, where I came from.. there is not much but devils and the country they have forged."

They moved at a leisurely pace through the thick greenery of the plateau. Shar-Kali navigated the roots and crevices on deft paws, floating among the trees like a ghost. "I endured what any wolf endures when they travel. Food was scarce, of course, and the bandits many. On one occasion, a fellow traveller attempted to poison me, if you would believe it. I made short work of him, of course," she chuckled. That feat had been achieved with the stuffed corpse of a freshly caught rabbit - a necessary sacrifice to escape, and it had worked. She had amassed a thousand stories over the course of that single year, and no doubt Lasher would hear many more in the days to come. "And you, Taltos?" the regal spirit returned, slowing their pace so that she might look upon him. "How did you end up in these woods?"