Verdigris Ravine the road goes ever on and on

The tension mounted; Balarina's heart was thrumming by the time she caught sight of the little creature. These coyotes especially were so pretty when they felt hunted, helpless. It made the cat's toes curl with want to pounce — but, of course, she could manage those instincts.

"But that is the best way to hear a secret," she said, enunciating each word in her best approximation of the canid tongues; this one understood her, but she wanted to put the strange woman as much at ease as she could. And, for this reason, she did not insist on any whispering.

"But I will tell you from here, if you do not want to feel my breath on those pretty, pretty ears," she said, stalking just a bit closer and then planting herself quite firmly in the sand. "I have come to these lands with my band. Wolves and coyotes and other creeping things. We brings wares, and songs and stories, and we will present these things to all who gather — North of her, in the height of summer."

She peered at the woman, measuring her interest even as her own interest grew. Coyotes, she knew, were pack creatures. Where was this one's band?