Herbalists' Cache Sore Paws, weary body

The boy was frightened; a soft little weakling, Goldfinch saw now, and felt less frightened herself for the realization. Here she had been worried he might not like her! Now the boy trembled and begged that she spare him, and she wondered what horrors he had seen.

She wouldn't ask him now. Instead she crept from the shadows. The gilded bird she called her familiar flew down from the trees to join her, settling not far from the boy with a chirp; it remained just beyond easy reach of the stranger wolf's teeth, however, having long since learned that lesson.

Goldfinch, meanwhile, crept ever closer. She moved slowly so as not to startle the boy, ears folded softly against her head to show that she meant no threat. Her tail swished across the ground, tossing up debris from the forest floor as it moved. Then she stopped, still low against the ground, and watched to see if he would welcome her.