Lost Creek Hollow were you there to bedevil and beguile?

the success of achieving his aim, to be promoted into the adult ranks before the natural time, sat well with merrick, and lent a new jauntiness to his step. his pride was well-placed; he had earned his place in the hollow and nunataq still held the restricted amount of love merrick had to give.
wending between the trees, the boy's jaws parted to let his tongue loll as he watched with some curiosity a new recruit to the creek. she was taller than he, with a bulk that outweighed his own, but the lacerations that littered her body, the struggling gait — these things appealed to his predator's eye far more than his neighborly sense. 
making himself known with a gentle step, merrick delved into his introductions with anything but decorum: "the person who did this to you didn't follow you, did they?"