Altar of Twilight Eyes that fire and sword have seen

He'd built up a lot of distrust regarding others, particularly adults.  Most frequently it seemed they either demeaned him or were murderers.  Usually with a side of wizardry to try to make everyone like them.  But not Mal.  He was impervious to it, and as soon as they realized it, the creatures left.  So when another adult called to him, he was again wary.

And that in turn made him uncertain and quiet.  Um. Yeah.  Dunno what though.  Look, he still had like a 10% success rate or something abysmal when it came to hunting.  Most of his food on the trip had come from scavenging -- the good thing about winter was stuff that ate plants kind of died sometimes.  Now, though, with the snow melting or melted depending on where you were, it was in this awkward place where he was not finding much.