Swiftcurrent Creek I am not a legend, I'm a fraud

A third shrug; what else could she do? Til they come back, Mae confirmed after a moment, almost an afterthought. Or til someone does. I'm gonna find out what happened to them.

Not much else for me to be tired over, anyway, she grinned slightly as she said it; life was nothing but a series of reasons to be tired, to varying satisfaction, by her estimate. This was as good a reason as any. Mae stopped to mark again, lifting her nose to test the wind first. If another predator moved in, they would learn quickly that she was not so formidable by herself — but so far they had stayed away out of habit, it seemed. She had that to her advantage for now.

Kaiaka herself was a source of interest too, but in this Mae was less obvious with her inspection. The woman wasn't nearly as dull as some of the other wolves Mae had met; perhaps the wilds had a way of weeding out the weak among lone wolves, more than for those in the safety of a pack. Mae had met enough stupid pack wolves to believe it, at least. She'd met fewer wanderers, though.