Big Salmon Lake Pandora's Box

Hydra thought on that. Perhaps she had been, but even so Hydra's final point remained the same—if they had wanted to kill Sarah, they would not have stopped once she had been beaten. They would have finished her. Hydra had been mistaken—she blurred Valour's face with that of Tzila, and thus confused their ages... all possible in the midst of the chaos, and as Hydra thought on that longer she realized she had been mistaken in who attacked her other than that man. But it did not warrant correction; what had happened, happened. And Sarah still lived, a little worse for wear for her own participation.

With a shift of her weight, Hydra addressed her first point. I would not be surprised if it were the latter; we are all hungry here, and may be too eager to protect what we might find in these wilds. You were caught in the crossfire. and Hydra could not feel bad for that; had Hydra been in her shoes, even she would have fled in the name of self-preservation if she had gotten to eat as she had seen Sarah scarf the food down. It did not look like she was pulling for more for her own pack, but acting in a selfishly motivated way—for her own survival. No harm in that, until you got in her way. Sarah had seemed keen on doing that rather than fleeing.

The Queen nearly snickered as she spoke of gods. If there are such thing as gods, she drawled, they had nothing to do with your survival. If you were wanted dead, you saw how many wolves there were for yourself. I tell you, killing you was not our concern; we are a faithless lot. We fight to survive; killing you would have done nothing for any of us unless you were intent on killing one of our own. In which case, they were both fighting for their lives—and could Sarah blame either of the duo for doing as she did? She finished the thought with an impassive, it was not personal. It seemed as though the other thought there had been a vendetta against her; it was not so. And if it was, before Sarah could even consider that Hydra herself would have gone for her throat the moment she observed her.  

Hydra blinked again as the other spoke on, surprised to hear Sarah relent at all but pleased for it nonetheless. But as she spoke on, Hydra was given pause. In the throes of all the chaos, Hydra had only been able to smell Easthollow—and the dark, agouti Easthollow wolf had done nothing to defend her. I had thought you to be a lone wolf, she admitted, frowning some now. Each from a pack had sought more for their own; you were the only one there to feed yourself. Why have you not returned, if you have a pack? To which do you belong to? She asked for confirmation sake; she would not put words in the others mouth should the silver she-wolf be fabricating anything.