Starglow Basin deioces

she spoke in monosyllables; the man, not at all. primal folk, these.

a tribe of. . .our kind? he asked, bending his pointed chin toward his sternum in illustration.

for he'd found wolf-scents in this land, and he knew coyotes ran with them on occasion. he didn't trust the bigger, brutish creatures; they lacked finesse and imagination.

but maybe his sample size had been too small.