Big Salmon Lake Turn at last to home afar

Again Mal just stared.  He couldn't really comprehend why it was all of these wolves were just out to kill each other.  Why did it keep happening to him? How did he keep being in the middle of it?  He just was minding his own business and then the murders began or something.  He didn't leave that hellhole just to end up in someone else's troubles.  He just wanted a home for himself and his sister and this was not how you got one.  He needed to be alive to go back.  He wasn't abandoning Brillo, even if right now he was far away on his quest.

His brain finally finished processing, and his gawking, empty eyes finally found their focus.  His jaw snapped shut (it had been hanging open quite daftly), and Mal skittered to his feet, away from Tegan, away from the shore.  Distrustful and sharp, his every action and posture incredibly defensive now, as if expecting Tegan to turn on him instead.  Honestly, he hadn't even looked back at the messed up dude again.  Everyone just wants to murder each other -- what's wrong with all of you.  Apparently he hadn't lost the horror and disgust about it all, of everything that had happened to him, even though it wasn't like he was really saying anything.  They were all abso-friggin'-lutely insane.  Was he somehow causing this?  He seemed to have a 50/50 chance of just making people suddenly go all murderous and stuff.  He started slowly backing away, keeping Tegan in his sight.

Mal was not going to play.