Blacktail Deer Plateau somewhere i have never travelled, gladly beyond

It would have been obvious to an onlooker that Umi knew very little about wolves and their everyday lives. Her mother had taught her only that they should generally be avoided, particularly when in numbers. They lived among one another in small groups, and they howled whenever they felt like it. The cat had never thought about what they ate, how they hunted, or why they should be avoided.

The wolf before her of course had eaten deer before, at which Umi nodded quickly, as though she of course knew that. The next statement, however, gave her pause.

To the young lionness, hunting was always a solo venture. Even when her mother had brought her brothers and her along to watch, they had always been instructed never under any circumstances to intervene. Sometimes, that had proven quite difficult, as animals under distress made her want to give chase more than anything in the entire world, but in the end staying silent and hidden had always paid off.

Really? It's not too hard once you get used to it, she said, as though talking to a cub. Umi had no concept of what wolf hunting techniques looked like, and thus assumed that Eleuthera had only eaten deer that had been caught by others. It's all about getting your ambush set up correctly, and from there it's merely patience, she explained.