Kintla Flatlands now I'm chained

That made sense to Catamaran, too. Females got to stay with their family. Males had to leave when they got to a certain age. She didn't smell like she had a family taking care of her, but he felt no need to call her on her bluff. He knew he oughtn't be menacing the first wolf he came across, anyway.

"I'm alone," he replied, thinking that this should be obvious. Perhaps she meant it as a dig. "Where's your family?" he asked her. Her lack of their scent on her did not meant they weren't around. Somewhere. "Are they looking for joiners?"

He stretched, showing off the sinew beneath his coat.

"I'm a little banged up, but that'll heal quick," he reported, uncomfortable with advertising the state he was in, but resigned to the fact that it was rather obvious even without him telling her.