Blackfeather Woods fight fire with fire

He was amused by the way this creature moved, the tone of his voice, his clearly defensive posturing and all of that. He was mighty in some ways - Tulimaq could work with that, he thinks - and then the conversation turns and he hears daggers in the boy's words. He doesn't know why the creature is so antagonistic (he is but one wolf, more likely a lost rogue) but the words sink in and Tulimaq thinks back to his last encounter, the freshest scent upon his body.

Nobody sent me, boy. Tulimaq responded hastily, a sour note to his words. An eastward traveler told me about this forest. They said there were warriors here — so I came looking. But it didn't seem like the pack was all that mighty after all. Your own markings are the strongest, so I assume this is your pack - yours, or the dying woman's. The other scent, the one that layered with this youth, was something musty and sweet, something he could identify as female as well as notice the off-note of weakness, illness. Besides these, Tulimaq had not found anything of note. If there were other wolves here they kept themselves well hidden.

Still, he did not like the way the boy looked at him. He wasn't afraid of the darkness of the forest, nor of the pugnacious warrior.