Bitterroot Valley you played your games

The woman seemed dismissive of her, Angel thought, which was something she wasn't used to after being brought up in such a loving and supportive home. Everyone had been interested in her, and always so pleased with her progress, and happy to indulge in everything she found interesting. The wolves she'd met since leaving home had been largely very similar — but she'd met others with dispositions closer to this woman's.

You work well, she said, instead of an answer. Instead of her name. Angel wondered if she was perhaps a spiritual, ethereal type like moonwoman had been. She spoke like moonwoman might have, like she knew all, like she knew Angel. It chaffed in a way it hadn't with Kukutux, when she'd been very, very young.

But she did work well, and this was a fact, so Angel offered her a small smile in thanks of this quiet acknowledgement.

They walked together, then, and Angel accepted this tacit answer to her question. She was still faintly bemused by this next branch of conversation, but thankfully, she was saved from having to answer right away by the presence of the pelt still clutched in her jaws 

Less thankfully, this gave her time to overthink the question. Had that been a dig? She was already self-conscious about the way that their courtship was going, not at all sure she was going about things correctly. She wished that Elowyn had more advice for her, as much as she valued the other girl's insights —

She cast a curious, speculative look at Ravah. She was older. Surely she knew these things.

"This is for sweet Elowyn," she said, not too terribly long after being asked, when she could set the pelt down beside the river. "I want it to be soft as spider silk for her — I thought to wet it again, and drag it over the granite and slate."

Not as good as salt water, Angel understood, but still something. The rocks she spoke of were large and rounded, perfect for a makeshift sanding board. Perhaps it would do what her teeth could not in smoothing and softening the skin.