Neverwinter Forest Don't tell me this is all for nothing.

Tag can be for ref!

After the Nightwalker weirdos showed up, Mal did some housekeeping -- he condensed what few things were left in the scattered small caches to a couple at the very heart of the territory near some of his favored sleeping spots.  They weren't as good for long term storage, but it was much more defensible, and then @Cèilidhh wouldn't have to spend forever figuring out all his hiding spots yet either.  If someone really wanted to try?  Well, not only were the older caches easier to find (and probably still nice and smelly), but it'd be a much higher chance they'd get found out before finding the "good" ones.  Doing that had made him a bit farther behind in border-keeping than he'd wanted to be, so as he was patching up the no trespassing signs, it was easy for him to spot the chick who was standing and staring at the forest.  See, if he'd gone and been here yesterday she probably would have just buggered off.  Well, maybe.  He kinda thought the worst of people at this point, and recent events gave him less of a reason to trust than usual.

It wasn't like he was going to give her the benefit of the doubt or anything, but he saw her as practice.  Not for anything bad (as far as he knew) but if he didn't have to outright chase her off right now, no point.  That'd just waste energy.  So, Mal plotted as he moved closer through the trees, then prowled out of the branches' reach in her direction, master of this domain.  Mal was aiming for something confident (easily enough), reasonably cool (?), with a slight imposing edge.  Basically, this dude has a clue, a plan, and if you want in on it, you better impress him or you're not getting into the club tonight.  Look, those trees aren't gonna read your mind no matter how much you stare at them, so do you want to tell me what you want?  Ehh.  Saying it out loud sounded weird to him.  Note it down, pick a different version next time.  He wanted something a little bit better than just "Can I help you?" because that was boring as hell.