Mudminnow River rock my world

“Big leaf and food! Okay!”

She made a comment about having good lungs, but it didn’t quite click with Cassian. What did she mean by that? Was she going to go swimming again in order to send this thing off? If it was him…well, actually, maybe it was GOOD that it wasn’t him. Cassian would’ve just jumped right back in even after such a harrowing, near death experience! There wasn’t much that actually shook this man to his core. It was as if fear didn’t really exist within the sun-kissed wolf’s body, at least in the conventional way that it did for most others.

To be quite honest, Cassian wasn’t even sure why he bothered saving her in the first place. His body had simply taken over and the man’s mind went completely, utterly blank save for the sole objective of getting this child out of the gushing waters and out back onto the warm, firm ground she belonged on.

Their conversation continued while Cassian’s gaze lifted up to a tree. There, a branch lay. It was on its last hinges and there was also a squirrel on it, too. An oblivious, fat one without so much as a second thought going through its head. Taking a step back, Cassian ran headfirst to the tree's center and then…

THUMP

Down came the branch and before the pain could settle in Cassian’s maw snapped to the right, catching the squirrel mere seconds after it hit the ground and turning it from a loafer into lunch!

“A clump of nettles? What’s a nettle?”

He spoke with the squirrel in his mouth before setting it down, picking up the branch full of leaves, and then carrying both back in his maw. When he returned to Leifa’s side, Cassian plopped both things down onto the ground and listened to her words. Siblings were annoying, worse than him apparently. The horror! Nazair, what an odd name. Then, she asked about him.

“What you see with me is what you get! My folks, huh? I don’t really have any. None that I can remember, anyways, haha! Hey, here’s the branch and a dead, fat, plump squirrel ripe for the picking. Why don’t you go on ahead and eat and tell me if the leaves are big enough?”