Rising Sun Valley and the profit will outweigh the cost

Mordecai followed the other easily, giving him enough space not to crowd him but also not lose him through the tangle of greenery. They made good time as far as he was concerned, and the arrival near the last known location of the foxes was really about the only time Mordecai broke to head a little further ahead.

"Might've been from the storm that came through," he said quietly, eyes scanning their immediate surroundings. "It tore up a lot of things. Started some fires, too." Or so he had been picking up from the chatter around them. Where all those fires and damages were, he couldn't have said. But the pockets of charred earth and forestry told volumes.

Testing the air, he tried to pluck a fresher tendril from the amalgamation therein. "How would you like to do this? I could call for my companions if you want." Letting this stranger take the lead in the hunt was probably the best offering of trust Mordecai could give him, though he would not have been spurned if his present company wanted to go it without additional aid.