animal smells and porcupine quills

Sitri's statement brought an interesting point to Mordecai, who considered it for a few moments. It was possible that bad things were apt to follow a period of silence, but he had never had that fortune. “It may not,” he suggested. “Maybe things are on the up and up. Not all silence has to be followed by something bad.” To think that their lives would possibly be ruled by constant turmoil did not sound all that appealing to Mordecai, who had for the longest time resided in leisure.

He would have had more to add to that, but the same rustling of the terrain up ahead captured his attention quickly. His gold eyes watched the foliage with rapt attention, and all things around them may as well have ceased to exist. A quiet, but low growl rumbled in his throat, and Mordecai took the lead this time. Creeping quietly, he was trying to gain a better vantage point of what it was that had raised the alarm. Like Sitri, he felt it was something large, and the first thing the tawny Ostrega desired to do was make sure it was no threat. Though he had yet to see a live one, he knew that bears did reside within the confines of the Wilds, a herald back to the cavern he and Dante had explored months earlier.

With a loose gesture for Sitri to follow him, Mordecai slipped forward towards the source.