Rising Sun Valley A Stray Ember

Loner wasn't quite the word she would've used, but it was hard to be offended by someone who so clearly wanted to be thought well of — or who, at least, wanted badly not to be reviled.

"Of a kind," she replied in tepid agreement, a faint smile curving her lips as the young man talked circles around himself. She wanted to stop him with a paw over his dark muzzle — there was a reason her son had grown into a powerful orator! — but she kindly refrained.

He was sweet, she thought. And there was nothing wrong with that.

"Then call me Easy, Mac," she said, speaking up before he could overthink his offer. "That's what my family calls me. That or Mama, but let's not go quite there, yes?"

Whether or not the joke landed, there was a squinty-eyed smile in the offering before Easy cast a glance over her shoulder, searching the direction that Sumac had been heading.

"Are you heading anywhere in particular?" she asked him, dark head and bright eyes swinging back in his direction. And then, more pointedly, "Where did you come from?"