Lost Creek Hollow lions in winter

Her fear is palpable - scented. Grayday's nostrils flare and so does something in his heart, but he squashes all that down for her benefit. If she wanted to be fussed over, she'd say something.

More alarm bells ring when his humor falls a little flat. Well, that's not such an unusual thing, but the brittleness of her laughter is. Something tells him she's not enjoying this as much as he'd thought, as much as he'd hoped. "We can go back," he opens his mouth to say, but she beats him to it, and his jaw snaps shut to hold in his immediate urge to acquiesce.

"Yeah," he says after a moment, deciding that it's a doable thing, what she's asking. "We'll need to wait until springtime. Maybe longer, if you don't want to bring Sunny and Dawn along with us. Or - maybe Valette could take you, if you wanted to go right away," he hurried to say, though he was at loathe to send her out there with anyone else. He'd let her go once, and it'd left him a little wary of doing so again.