Otatso Wetlands early drinkin' [m]

lonesome made good points. colt finished his frog before he answered, and smacked his lips with gusto.
"all right, all right. we was in the taiga, see," briggs began, eyes moving toward the healer's face. "the whole gang. had a place fer ourselves, was gonna set the winter out."
he lay back down with a grunt, pain sizzling all of his nerves. "wouldn't yew know it, two wretches come along, all sick wid hydrophobia. rabies. so we hightail it outta there and regroup at a creek."
"turns out, place is being claimed. that's all right, we jest wanted t'stay long enough t"make certain we wasn't followed." colt spread his forepaws in an of course gesture. "now, admittedly, sadey'n i were ready t'scrap. always are, aint we?" he did not jostle his gangmate with a nudge, not yet. "coupla men came down t'greet us. i weren't the kindest but i asked them if this was their turf. was willin' t'strike a compromise for a couple days. but then one of em got real rude, so i went t'handle it, an' here we are. now i don't know that they'll come after us. but they got one of ours. an' what's more, they disrespected the gang. aint gotta choice but t'go back."