Big Salmon Lake cover the face, blanket the body

Hydra listened, though her understanding was limited in that she could never know in full what Ying had gone through. She understood the gist of it; Ying's life was unpleasant and unfortunate both, as her expressions and tone both revealed openly. Were she an empath she might be inclined to feel something such as sadness, but as it was Hydra could only feel a strange sort of anger simmering beneath the surface. 

This man. Hydra hoped Ying killed him, at least, before running. 

Taking it all in, Hydra looked away from Ying for but a moment, surveying the woods that surrounded them. Hydra could not fathom being betrayed in such a way by her family, but she also was not one to run away either. Perhaps Ying's sister knew this about her, or perhaps it was all some sort of misunderstanding. Whatever it was, Hydra need not get to the root of it; it took no wisdom to understand Ying did not want to get deeper than she had.

Hydra had no clue of the language barrier between them. The truth of it was that Hydra thought Ying's strange dialect something like her sister-in-arms, @Towhee, and for it Ying earned some modicum of self-restraint for all the rage that stewed within. Now, it had nothing to do with Ying. Hydra swallowed the fire, ice again as she looked to the stranger that had opened herself to her. 

We are protectors. There is but one wolf capable of protecting wolves like you and I, I suppose: ourselves. Steel your heart, stranger, and yourself. Let this betrayal make you wiser, she advised. For that is what her own history had done for her. Hydra had been shaped by many things, betrayal one of them. Do not forget this anger, but do not act on it so thoughtlessly. I would have killed you had you hurt my ward, she informed plainly—not as a threat, but so that Ying could understand there was more for her than death by the fangs of any at this point. Hydra felt she understood the other better now, though still would warn her away from harming her own.

And then: Who was it, this pack? Hydra drawled with interest. Whose own pack would betray them? Hydra did not think of The Nightwalkers in not knowing of any dissent or turmoil within their own ranks. So, who could it be? I am Queen of this Wilderness; I do not take kindly to betrayers, she comforted with a lash of her plume. And should one cross her, Hydra would know them for what—who—they were. 

Ying was exactly who she appeared to be; it did not seem that she carried the trait of a liar. Time would tell, though—it always did.