Great Bear Wilderness I made it all look painless,

Needle tensed as he approached, her pelt rippling in alarm. Involuntarily, she took a single step backwards, then steeled herself into this back-footed posture as the stonewolf hovered over her with a patronizing lean.

The grate of his voice set her teeth on edge and her spine aquiver. The implication of his words stoked further defiance within her, which rose up to spray like venom as she growled back at him. I can bite just as hard as you can. She was quieter this time but just as steady, hissing through grit teeth and continuing to glare up at him recklessly.

Be brave. Don’t make your move until they lunge.

She knew what the rogues had taught her, but the rules of engagement were harder to recall in the heat of the moment, something she had not anticipated.

The one rule she could think of repeated in her thoughts as the ravaged wolf talked down to her; she prepared for the lunge, her eyes flickering wildly across his face to take in every twitch of muscle of whisker. Ay dios mío! She couldn’t remember exactly where to steady-train her eyes…

But, fortunately, no lunge came.

He simply turned to leave.

Needle snorted, a sound as contemptuous as it was relieved. His parting advice, his dismissiveness, left a bad taste in her mouth. Yeah, well, maybe you oughta learn not to underestimate an opponent because they’re small, she shouted after him. Maybe then you will keep your last eye!

She huffed, expelling what remained of her anxiety from the encounter. A part of her wanted to follow – the part of her that had bidden her to speak to him in the first place; the part of her that didn’t want to be alone again – but (whether he’d meant to or not) he had frightened her.

And though she may not have known well enough to mind her tongue or to back down, it was instinct that told her not to pursue after him.

At least not too closely.