Hideaway Strath One in the chamber, blood in the water, my love

"These parts" happened to be vast and sprawling, so if Elfie was alive and running with a pack, there was no guarantee that Wraen would ever find him. Absently, Ephraim wondered if the missing boy was better off that way. There were days he would claim that he'd been better off found by Drageda than dying on his own... and there were other days he believed the exact opposite. If not for Drageda, might his family have found him instead? Might he have run with them instead of their enemies, thus branded as one himself?

It wasn't worth dwelling on, and luckily, Wraen broke him out of his thoughts before he could dive too deep into them. He licked his lips and appeared pensive for a beat, but ultimately, said, nope. Just walkin'. It wasn't completely true and if Wraen wanted to question him, she would find it easy. Hideaway Strath had exactly one way in and out, not counting the hidden tunnel that the missing boy had slipped away through, so it wasn't like he'd wandered through from another direction. But even if questioned, he wouldn't supply a true answer.

Up came his head and tall ears alike when a second wolf, black as pitch with rusted sides and a bright white belly, called out in a voice that was just... off. Ephraim couldn't describe it if he tried. It was like feeding a computerized robot voice through mud so that it was intelligible, but stilted and garbled all at once. It immediately put his back up (was she sick?) and he glanced at Wraen with a clipped, we done here?