Blackfeather Woods only a madman likes the pain

Her wariness only made him smile lightly; it was good to be wary, really. In a way, the prospect departure of others made it easier to deal with loss, for one had expected it, but at the same time, trust was an issue too. Ironically, Cicero trusted the more selfish wolves in his life the most, because they were predictable. Damien would always choose for his own gain, as would Potema, if the choice came to that. They were predictable, even if the outcome was not very pretty. Burke had been a much better man, but that made him less predictable.

When she mentioned plants his smile wound up a bit more. She had said she could not find joy even in plants now, but her words indicated she wished to learn about plants now. That was another good sign. He nodded and shared, "It should be easy to combine with finding a victim first." Perhaps asking her to bring him one was a bit much to ask — perhaps they should find one together, and feed it a poisoned piece of meat to combine the lessons.