Ouroboros Spine Send up my heart to you

Valiant was distracted by his new task of sniffing around, but still found a response for the boy. He was feeling conversational, now, and did not craft this response so carefully:

"Ah, well — pheasants ain't the best for sharin',  anyway," he said, his tone musing. "Whether she was good at it or not, it was probably smarter to feed you varmints or pieces off a bigger kill. But we'll be gettin' into turkey season soon and that's good eatin'. I bet your momma could hunt a turkey good as anyone — and after we get you some practice with these pheasants, so will you."

He flashed the boy another little smile.

"Alright, here," he announced, triumphant. He tapped the ground with his paw to beckon the boy closer. "Get a good whiff. This is pheasant, alright?"