Haunted Wood nor the spear for its swiftness

dispersal. many of the nightwalkers were gone, off to find a new home. to look for their missing children. (was the girl with the cougar one of them?)

but he remained. he and some others. he was far too weak to travel, and he still owed them a debt. he would heal and then hunt. and then he would go home. 

surya was slumped on his side near the den in which he'd occupied for many days now. his verdant gaze idly wandered, expecting to see little. maybe vanity with herbs. nothing beyond that. 

but the silver woman that emerged down a nearby forest path was not vanity, nor any nightwalker he knew. he lurched to his paws, swaying, nauseous. he was a sorry sight, scarred and skinny, but he did his best to fix the stranger with an interrogative (though not yet hostile) stare. 

a fight here and now would kill him. 

you know you're trespassing, right? surya asked, for in his mind these woods were still claimed, if only in some measure, by his saviors. these wolves don't like trespassers.