Stone Circle you know i'll take my heart clean apart if it helps yours beat

Clary listened, but even with the sound logic of her mother's words, her heart still ruled her mind. Maybe there wouldn't be enough food - but maybe there would be, and how could her mother really know? All she could think of were the stranger's hungry bellies, and the children. She could only think of her desperate need to fill them.

She hadn't been around for the last bison hunt - she'd been on the road with Red. And for some reason, that unsettled her. "But what if we all ate just a little less? Or maybe hunted two bison instead of one? That could still feed us all - wouldn't it? Or, what if we made the borders reach even farther than they do right now? There's practically no one else living from Stone Circle to a huge glacier two day's run from here, so we wouldn't face opposition, and we wouldn't be stealing anyone's prey. And if we had twenty-eight wolves in total, then wouldn't we have more than enough help to keep the borders marked and fresh?"

Her ears slicked with clear upset, and she wondered if her words could even win. Clary was no leader; she was no mother, but in her world, there was a way that one had to suffer - not Easthollow, and not the family they'd turned away. She just didn't understand why her mother didn't seem to think that, too.