Sleepy Fox Hollow Pirates are landlocked

New scents roved the forest. Anselm recognized their author as the wet-faced newcomer. He came across these scents often - along the border, in the restocked caches. It awoke in Anselm an irritated sense of competition; his efforts along the borders redoubled and he often drew Emmerich along for company.

Today he found Etienne’s scent snaking through the pinestraw. Ahead of him he could see the boy’s figure. While they were very close to the same age, Anselm perceived him as a baby — mostly because whenever he came across the boy, his features were streaked with old tears and a cloud of misery hung his shoulders.

Anselm did not have the benefit of growing among his peers; his parents had been the sole producers of his pack, and he lacked the communal empathy that told him sticking his finger in Étienne’s soft spots was undesirable. He rounded the boy, already annoyed. Vhy do you cry all the time? His gruff words were posed in his father’s unkind accent — and none too kind themselves.