Lion Head Mesa Disinterested eyes

merrick's prowling rewarded him with the sight and voice of another. she was rangy and aged, and ferocious as a badger in her set along the dark red earth. the man's nostrils flared as she approached. 
the scent of her fear intoxicated the bearwitch. "not medicine."
merrick wondered how her blood might taste, and advanced a step. she did not carry the scent of the mesa-dwellers, and she was not one of ursus' own.
merrick hoped to terrify her, and laughed softly. "perhaps you might tell me why you are here. alone." his voice was light, frothy, conversational.
but the remaining eye did not blink.