Fox's Glade that’s just the waves slamming against the topsides’ sound

She'd hoped the woman would go by and leave her be, but instead she paused, a bird in her mouth, staring at her. Maegi shook her head at the gesture; she wouldn't emerge, leaving herself vulnerable to attack. She figured that the stranger was being protective of her dinner--her stomach rumbled at the scent of flesh--otherwise she'd have said something to the girl, right?

"I'm not going to steal your kill, if that's what you're thinking," Maegi responded quietly. She hadn't spoken aloud in some time, and the sound of her own voice unnerved her; it was different, lower, cooler. Foreign. A small shudder went through her, and she slowly emerged from the brush, reaching just her head and shoulders out.

It might have been comical, this bush with a head, had her visage not been so scarred. Dried blood still caked the left corner of her mouth; it kept breaking open, but those instances were growing fewer and farther between. Her face, normally pointed, was gaunt from hunger and fatigue, her eyes deep-set. She peered up at the woman. "Are you from the pack in the valley?"