Blackfoot Forest bones

Ah, so that's why, said her mind. Clever Clarice, obedient Clarice. So she had left Bon Dye for the very same reason Jinx had gone: the Dark Father called to her, and she heeded Him. This was excusable, then. She could not fault somebody for following their faith, particularly when it was the correct faith, for Sos and Atka were the only Gods. Atka was largely ignored in this country, but Sos got plenty of worship. Most of it, unfortunately, was perverted by heathen attempts at understanding something far beyond their comprehension... But with Clarice returned, it would not take long to correct those wrongs.

"I myself was called," she explained, in the event she had been the one to leave first and not the daughter of the Loa. "I went down the river with poppy to pay tribute and hear His decree. He told me Bon Dye would thrive!" She bit down a growl when she was reminded of how it could have been. "I returned to find all my wolves had up and left. Do you remember Hawkeye? She stole my pack and led them to the plateau on the mountains, that way." Her head twisted back to indicate the direction, and then she was distracted by the cut of Clarice's eyes toward her injuries.

Having attention brought to them made her remember them, and she winced when the throbbing pain returned with her attention. "Hawkeye's dog bit me," she said, when asked what had happened. Clarice's strange way of speaking had never bothered Jinx; what bothered her most was harming the other girl, as she had learned long ago when they were scarcely old enough to communicate, and she had headbutt her and felt immense guilt for it. "We had a truce, you seeee. My pack and hers. We were meant to be unharmed on one another's borders, so I bit back when he jumped me, but... Hawkeye forgot her promise, and sent her hellhound to kill me. I was too fast for him."

There was no point lying to Clarice to make herself seem more grand. She wouldn't tell her that Peregrine had suffered similar injury, because he simply had not. He was some sort of demigod, risen from the bowels of Sos' lair, but not blessed by Him. Clarice would only hear the lie in the voices of the Loa, and would see it for what it was: an untruth.